A lot of people complain that the air inside a car is not breathable. Things get worse during the cold season when it is nearly impossible to drive with the windows down. The air inside gets cluttered with dust particles, exhaust fumes and a lot of various types of bacteria. In some cases, the air inside can even get a bad smell that can make it quite inconvenient for both the drivers and passengers. This becomes a rather bit problem especially since the space inside is limited. The upside is that a small air purifier can be enough to remove odors and clean the air inside. It can do what an air freshener cannot and that is to remove undesired particles.

Car air purifiers differ in the way they do their job. There are two common technologies that car air purifiers utilize: filtration and ionization. A car air purifier may use one or both of these methods at the same time to cleanse the air. Expensive air purifiers tend to use more technologies and have more features than cheaper ones.

Car air purifiers with a filtration system make use of one or more filters such as a pre-filter, HEPA filter, or carbon filter. They function much like your regular home air purifier but usually aren’t as effective. Basically, they pull in air from within your car, pass it through a filter or series of filters, and release clean air back out.

One the other hand, car air ionizers impart a negative electric charge to airborne particles like pollen, germs, and various other impurities. These negative ions are then attracted to surfaces, so that they are no longer airborne. Some air ionizers include a built-in surface to collect impurities, while others rely on the particles getting stuck to surfaces where they can be wiped up or vacuumed at a later time.