Having a pet in the house livens up the mood. They can become your lifeline. However, the smell of your cat’s litter does the exact opposite. The smell can be persisting for days if you don’t regularly clean the litter. Will an air purifier help with the cat litter smell if you wanted to remove it quickly?
Yes, it most certainly can be a huge help in the hours of absolute chaos before your in-laws arrive. The latest air purifiers come with all guns blazing to keep your home fresh. Credit goes to the multi-layer filtration system. We’ll be talking about that soon.
If you’re a pet owner, give this article a read. You’ll benefit from the suggestions, even if you haven’t faced the smell, yet!
How Will an Air Purifier Help with Cat Litter Smell?
To understand how air purifiers deal with the smell, we need to understand the filtration system. A proper air purifier for the home usually has two layers of filtration. One is the HEPA filter and the other is the Carbon filter. What do they do? Here’s a brief discussion.
HEPA Filter
HEPA, which stands for High Efficiency Particle Arresting, is a technology to deal with the air pollution that is rampant in our cities. The purpose of this filter is to provide healthy breathable air inside the home. It has become a common component of the home, especially if there are children in the house.
It can get rid of 99% of dust and dander from the air. And that is impressive and sounds good for pet owners. You can sleep sound knowing that you won’t be developing a cat hairball inside your stomach.
The filter will take care of the pet hair it sheds every week. It will also take care of all the dust and dirt the air brings in from the outside.
Carbon Filter
The carbon filter is nothing but a bed of powdered charcoal. We know about the absorption property of carbon.
Charcoal has even more of that absorption quality due to having a porous structure. When the charcoal is smashed and turned into powder, it can absorb anything. The powdered charcoal is then made into a bed of carbon and placed alongside the HEPA filter.
5 Tips to Increase the Air Purifier Effectiveness
We always emphasize the importance of a clean home regardless if you’re using an air purifier or not. Your air purifier’s performance will suffer from an unclean home. And since today’s discussion is about your cat’s litter, here are a couple of tips we’ve picked up over the years.
1. Regularly Change the Litter
While we expect our readers to be punctual about the litter change, it doesn’t hurt to give reminders. Changing the litter daily would be the best routine for your and your cat’s health. But if that isn’t possible, do it every 3 days. The smell will increase quickly after a few days.
2. Clay-Based Litter
If you have multiple cats, use the clay-based litter. It’ll handle its excretion better due to its higher absorption property. This is also helpful to control the odor. Your air purifier will have to work less.
3. Choose a Good Spot for the Litter Box
There are two utilities to having the litter box in an open area. Firstly, you’re giving your cat an easy excess to it. Secondly, you’re letting the air take care of some of that odor.
If you place the box in a cramped and small area, the cat will find it hard to go there. But more importantly, the boxed-in air will amplify the nasty smell of cat litter.
4. Change the Diet
This suggestion is only for those pet owners who are dealing with a severely smelling cat. It’s not always the cleaning routine that causes the smell. Sometimes, if the diet isn’t suiting your cat, it can cause the excretion to have a foul smell.
So, change the current diet. Ask a veterinarian to suggest a proper diet for your cat.
5. Box Liners
Remember to use box liners for your cat litter. There are scented box liners that could fight the foul odor. They are known to work well.
We suggest using a carbon box liner as it can add an extra layer of protection from the excretion fluid.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How does a HEPA filter work?
HEPA works simply by blocking the particulates such as dust and dirt particles from going back into the air.
When the air passes through the filters inside the purifier, it lets the air through but the small hole doesn’t let the dust go through.
But, this technique isn’t sufficient for trapping smelly particles, aka odorants, because those particles act like gas molecules and mix with the air. So, it’s not the HEPA filter that deals with the “smell” part. The smell removal is done by the second filter in the system, the activated carbon filter.
2. How does a Carbon filter work?
The carbon bed acts like a magnet for the smell particles. It absorbs them into the surface and traps them in the porous structure. Due to this feature, it can also trap gas molecules. And that makes it a good option for dealing with small amounts of toxic gasses in the air.
3. When should I replace the carbon filter?
While the ability to trap gas molecules is appreciable, it also requires the filter to be replaced. These gas molecules can eventually cause the sour smell the air purifiers are known for.
Remember to replace the filter every 4-6 months depending on the usage frequency. However, you can extend its lifetime by washing it.
Final Words
So, will an air purifier help with cat litter smell? There is no doubt that air purifiers can completely get rid of the smell of cat litter. But it’s the pet owner’s job to keep the cat litter box clean regularly. A combination of an unclean litter box and an air purifier will only make things worse by damaging the filter earlier.
Last Updated on January 22, 2023
