Can air purifier really remove formaldehyde?

Together to create a high quality of life, welcome to watch the "Weekly Quality Report." If you want to select the news hot words so far this year, haze weather and PM2.5 will all be at the top of the list. The heat of the air quality problem is evident. Under such circumstances, sales of air purifiers have been substantially increased in the recent period. Rising, many air purifiers claim that their functions are very powerful, such as "PM2.5 removal rate of 99.99%" and "formaldehyde purification rate of 99%", which can significantly improve indoor air quality. Then, these markets are selling hot air purification. In the end, how can the purification function really achieve the cleansing effect in the publicity?

Reporters in the Beijing, Shanghai and other places in the home appliance market survey found that some large home appliance mall, air purifiers have been placed in the mall a clear position, the price is generally more than 1,000 yuan to nearly ten thousand yuan ranging from sales Staff told reporters that sales of air purifiers have been rising in recent months and have become one of the hottest electrical products.

Reporter: Has it been sold recently?

Beijing home appliance store sales staff: too hot.

Reporter: How many units can I sell for one month?

Beijing home appliance store sales staff: selling 400,000 (small household appliances), then more than 300,000 of which is this thing (air purifier).

The reporter saw in the store, the mainstream brands of air purifiers are Philips, Yadu, Panasonic and other brands, the product is divided into multiple models according to different functions and purification efficiency, the sales staff told reporters that now the best-selling is also purified PM2. 5 and formaldehyde function, many of these products have been sold out of stock. î—š

Beijing home appliance store sales staff: This looks pretty, out of stock.

Reporter: Sold out?

Beijing home appliance store sales staff: did not arrive, said that two days did not come.

The sales staff told the reporter that the reason why the air purifier is hot and has a lot to do with the haze weather that has frequently occurred in recent events, so consumers are now paying close attention to the purification capacity of PM2.5 when they purchase purifiers. After the reporter visited the market, he discovered that almost all purifiers claim to have a good purification effect for PM2.5.

Reporter: What is the PM0.3 problem?

Shanghai home appliance store sales staff: PM0.3 is to filter PM2.5.

Reporter: PM0.3 is smaller than PM2.5?

Shanghai home appliance store sales staff: PM2.5, is a little high PM2.5, is to filter dust.

Reporter: What is 99?

Shanghai home appliance store sales staff: It has a filtering effect of 99%.

In the course of further investigation, the reporter also learned that according to the promotion of the business, the air purifier can effectively remove formaldehyde and other harmful substances in addition to PM2.5, and the removal efficiency is also high, and the efficiency can be as high as 99%. Some merchants also claimed that their purifiers could achieve such a high removal rate in a short time.

Reporter: Is it faster than formaldehyde?

Beijing home appliance store sales staff: fast, milliseconds in addition to formaldehyde, using this technology.

Reporter: What brand is this?

Beijing home appliance store sales staff: Asia's.

Beijing home appliance store sales staff: it is the addition of formaldehyde in milliseconds, the release of the give you decomposition.

Reporter: Can you just remove it?

Beijing home appliance store sales staff: Yes, but it is constantly releasing it constantly purging.

The salesman also told reporters that the purification efficiency of the purifier they sold was tested and tested.

Beijing home appliance store sales staff: (to formaldehyde) are more than 90%.

So, can these hot air purifiers really achieve the declared purification efficiency? In order to verify the efficacy of the purifier, the reporter randomly selected five types of air purifiers with relatively high sales and market share on the market and sent them to Shanghai Environmental Protection Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Station for testing.

Experts tell us that the air purifier we often say, according to the national standard, is an electrical device that removes solid particles, gaseous pollutants, or microorganisms. The most important measure of product quality is the ability to remove harmful substances. Previously, the reporter found during the market investigation that these purifiers claimed that the efficiency of removing harmful substances such as PM2.5 and formaldehyde could be as high as 98% and 99%, but the inspection expert pointed out that the judgment of the purification ability of the air purifier requires It is unscientific to publicize the high efficiency of comprehensive purification of space, purification time, and initial concentration of harmful substances.

After examining the packaging of purifier products, the reporter noticed that the standards implemented by these purifier products are different. The reason for this is that currently there are no mandatory national standards for air purifier products. Some products implement recommended national standards, while others implement their own corporate standards.

Experts further emphasized that different standards for implementation means that the conditions for detection are different. Under different conditions, even if the purification performance of the same air purifier is completely different, it is claimed to have 9 percent More than a dozen purification capabilities, and because of different testing standards and methods, the true purification ability of the product may be different.

However, after the experts opened five different brands of air purifiers, the reporter found a strange phenomenon. Although the implementation of the standards are different, in fact, the internal design and working principle of different brands of air purifiers are similar.

Shen Hao, director of the laboratory of the Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Station, said: Now we have to take a look at the machine to see what structure it is. After it was dismantled, it was the first floor. We called it a rough net, which was mainly used to filter those rough layers of hair, such as hair and dust, which could be cleaned after it was dirty. This second layer, which is mainly a catalytic net, is mainly the effect of removing formaldehyde. This third layer, it is also a network of gaseous contaminants, mainly you see, it is some activated carbon, used to adsorb gaseous pollutants such as formaldehyde, toluene. The last layer is an efficient HEPA network. It is formed by filter paper. This is mainly used to remove fine particles such as PM2.5. This is the main working fan, which is used to force the wind through these filters. After the device, purify the air from the back of the air outlet and release the clean air.

Basically the same working principle, coupled with claims that have a high purification capacity, different air purifiers in the end there is no distinction between the advantages and disadvantages, the test personnel first of these five kinds of non-air purifier products to remove the effect of PM2.5 The test was conducted and experts told us that the test was conducted in accordance with the standard uniform test conditions.

Shen Hao, director of the laboratory of Shanghai Environmental Protection Product Quality Inspection Center, says: This method we are referring to is the air purifier standard and the indoor air quality standard. Our main test method is a standard test chamber of 30 cubic meters. The initial concentration is 5 milligrams, plus or minus 0.5 milligrams. The other is that the test time is 20 minutes. The test result is now. There are a total of five units, the first is 87%, the second is 99%, the third is 89%, the fourth is 96%, and the fifth is 93%.

According to the test results, at the time specified by the standard, the PM2.5 removal rate of two purifiers is lower than 90%, which is 87% of the Leica purifier and 89% of the Asiadol purifier, in addition to the PM2.5 removal rate, the formaldehyde The removal rate is another concern in the function evaluation of purifiers. The inspectors also tested the formaldehyde removal capabilities of these five purifiers.

Shen Hao, Director of Shanghai Environmental Protection Product Quality Inspection Station, Shen Hao: We used the national standard for air purifiers, 18801-2008. The main test method is a standard test chamber of 30 cubic meters. The initial concentration of formaldehyde is 8 to 12 times. The range of national standard limits is equivalent to 0.8 to 1.2 milligrams per cubic meter, and the other is that the test time is one hour.

However, the actual inspection situation is that the highest formaldehyde removal rate in the Wutai purifier is only 78%, which is far below the nominal efficiency. The lowest formaldehyde removal rate in the test is only 16%. This result allows the detection expert Also feel unexpected.

Shen Hao, Director of Shanghai Environmental Protection Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Station, said: As a matter of fact, in terms of formaldehyde purification efficiency, the purification capacity of each individual is different. Now we have high, one-hour rates can reach 90%, and low. It is possible that 10%, in general, the natural decay rate (concentration of formaldehyde) in our test is 6%.

At the same time, experts also reminded consumers that when choosing an air purifier, apart from paying attention to the purification effects of PM2.5, formaldehyde, and other harmful substances, they should also focus on a key indicator of the purifier product—clean air. the amount. The inspectors also tested the air quality indicators of the five air purifiers.

Shen Hao, Director of Shanghai Environmental Protection Product Quality Supervision & Inspection Station, Shen Hao: This time we also measured the key indicators of an air purifier specifically for these air purifiers, called clean air volume, mainly for solid particulate matter, in our industry. Inside, the abbreviation is called CADR. This indicator is defined as the total amount of clean air that the air purifier can provide. This is the basic purification performance evaluation parameter of an air purifier.

The test results showed that the difference in clean air volume between the five air purifiers was relatively large, reaching a maximum of 434 m3/h, and the smallest was only 174 m3/h.

Shen Hao, director of the laboratory of Shanghai Environmental Protection Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Station, said: The CADR of the five air purifiers is also a big gap. The larger the value of clean air, the better, and it represents it. In the same application, the shorter the time of its purification in the same environment, it can be calculated as a suitable area, which means that a large amount of clean air can be used to calculate the large applicable area.

Experts believe that the clean air quantity as the most basic indicator reflecting the purification effect of the purifier has a very important reference value for judging the pros and cons of the purifier product. Therefore, the current recommended national standard requires that the air purifier must mark the clean air volume. index.

Moderator: According to the current national recommended standards, after testing by testing organizations, some of the hot-selling purifier products on the market have a partial purification efficiency of PM2.5 and formaldehyde that are not up to the manufacturer’s stated values, especially for formaldehyde. The purification capacity is far from the claimed 98% and 99% purification effects. Experts say that the determination of the purifying capacity of air purifiers is a professional and complicated process. Consumers cannot simply listen to the business side of their purchases. Then, what problems should be paid attention to when purchasing air purifiers? Continue to look at the reporter's investigation.

Experts have repeatedly emphasized that when consumers purchase air purifiers, they cannot simply listen to the so-called purification efficiency that the business claims, because the purifying effect of air purifiers will be affected by the purifying function of the purifiers themselves. The influence of many conditions, such as space, purification time, and purification of the initial environment, does not consider these conditions, but purely speaking, the purification effect is unscientific, and consumers cannot judge the quality of the purifier product simply by virtue of the so-called purification effect.

Shen Hao, director of the laboratory of Shanghai Environmental Protection Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Station, said: I took a look at the current three (air purifiers) publicity materials, and then on this, their initial concentrations and testing time are certainly not the same. , and then the test chamber, we assume that under the conditions of the uniform test conditions, 30 cubic meters of test cabins, depending on the test concentration and test time, there is no way to compare, can not draw them One is better.

In other words, it is also claimed that the formaldehyde purifying effect can reach 98%, and some purifiers only need one or two hours to reach, and some purifiers need 10 hours, if you simply look at the purification effect of two air purification The efficiency of the device seems to be the same, but does not take into account the difference in the running time of the purifier, such a simple judgment may come to a one-sided, or even erroneous conclusion.

The reason why the air purifier market is over-promoted and misunderstood, such as over-promotion and confusion, one important reason is that there is no unified national standard for air purifier products, resulting in different standards for the implementation of different products. The experimental conditions for the detection of purification effects are different, so the so-called purification performance of different purifier products is basically not comparable.

Chairman of the Air Purifier (China) Industry Alliance Hua Yuanqin: (Enterprise) Why the standard formaldehyde (removal rate) is 99.5%, because formaldehyde was the main cause of indoor pollution in the early years, and due to decoration decoration, it first marked formaldehyde, the earliest one. The batch product PM2.5 is not standard, and the PM2.5 may be subject to marking. It is also a matter of nearly one year. Due to PM2.5, hazy weather, and serious pollution, the Ministry of Environmental Protection reported how much PM2.5 it is each day. They feel that it is a Hot spots, they also began to mark the PM2.5, in fact, detection, there is no unified method for the detection of PM2.5, this 2.5 standard, also the enterprise itself, or companies themselves to do this experiment according to their own corporate standards, To do this evaluation, to mark this data out, none of these are caused by a unified specification.

Experts pointed out that due to the lack of a unified mandatory standard, on the one hand, it is inconvenient for consumers to compare and discriminate the quality of air purifier products, and it also causes difficulties for law enforcement agencies to judge the quality of purifier products. Although testing according to the national recommended standards can prove that some of the purifier products do not meet the declared purifying effect, it is difficult to determine the purifier products because the national standards for purifying the main indicators of purifying effect are not uniform and are not mandatory. Failed, so experts called for a more targeted and more operable national standard as soon as possible.

Hua Yuanqin, Chairman of the Air Purifier (China) Industry Alliance: If there is a unified standard, at least it will provide government departments with a technical backing. If the government department supervises random inspections, at least there is a unified ruler to measure you. The performance of this product is not satisfactory, so this is also good for government departments. Well, for companies, there is a standard that comes out. Everyone will work hard on this standard and try to get closer, improve the technical level of the industry, improve its overall capabilities, and the technical capabilities. beneficial.

Moderator: According to the investigation and testing situation, many air purifier products on the market, whether it is formaldehyde removal rate or PM2.5 removal rate can not reach the marked and declared level, and the reason for this will happen Experts believe that the most important reason is that China currently lacks a unified mandatory standard for the purification performance of air purifiers. Therefore, in order to standardize the market of air purifiers, on the one hand related companies must improve product quality, standardize product promotion, and promote fair and orderly competition in the market; at the same time, it is even more important to further improve the national standards and implement them so as to regulate The air purifier market order protects the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. OK, thanks for watching the "Weekly Quality Report". See you at the same time next week.