Ionic air purifiers have been hurtled into the spotlight with the advent of the Sharper Image air purifier, called the Ionic Breeze. Despite a round of advertising that has wearied rather than enthused consumers, many other manufacturers have joined the ionic air purifier market. So are ion air purifiers actually any good?

The main selling point of ionic air purifiers is the silence with which they are said to remove particles from the air. This is due to the lack of circulating fan in this type of air cleaner, as the Sharper Image air purifier, the original ionic cleaner, relies on electrostatic plates to circulate the air. Independent tests have shown, however, that this reliance is somewhat misplaced - while a fan-assisted air purifier can process a room's air within one minute, this ionic air purifier has a turnover rate move only an estimated couple of cubic meters per hour.

Some ion air purifiers have added extra features to increase the effectiveness of their cleaning power. Some manufacturers have added negative ion capabilities, which claim to neutralize the potency of airborne particles without actually drawing them into the filter itself. The Sharper Image air purifier now comes with an OzoneGuard, which claims to convert a significant amount of dangerous ozone into oxygen, but this arguably is a relatively useless feature, as much of the dangerous ozone that might be in your home would be generated by a different kind of air purifier.

There is no doubt that ionic air purifiers do have some air cleaning capacity, but this is likely to be insufficient as to make a real difference to the quality of the air in your home, particularly if there is an allergy or asthma sufferer under your roof. While ion air purifiers might be better than nothing, you might be better advised to spend your hard earned money on an air purifier that has been tried and tested, and been proven to reliably remove a significant amount of airborne particles from the atmosphere in your home. The ionic air purifier is not this type of air cleaner.

Ionic air purifiers - are they worth buying or not? Maybe not.