TEST PROTOCOL | Westinghouse

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Those are some BOLD claims. Prove it you say?

We are happy to.

We are here to help you understand what the important metrics are, what the terminology really means and what makes a difference in the air your family breathes at home.

As you research the right air purifier
to protect your family you are going to hear a
lot about CADR.

In the GB/T18801-2015 national standards, four key indicators are noted for measuring an air purifier’s long-term performance: Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR), Cumulate clean mass (CCM), Cleaning energy efficiency, and Noise.

CADR is basically just a speed test: it only measures how quickly a purifier moves air through the appliance, it has no basis on how clean the air is coming out of the appliance. An appliance with greater resistance from the cleaning elements will have a lower CADR rating, while being much more effective at removing the indoor pollutants, germs, and viruses you want to protect your family from.

CCM is the most relevant metric that you want to use to compare effective home air purifiers. CCM is tested for particle pollution as follows (per the GB/T18801-2015 standard):

Measure the CADR of the purifier in normal settings to get an initial value.
Light up a cigarette in a three square-meter chamber and blow the smoke around briefly with a fan.
Turn on the fan that’s in the room, too, and seal off the chamber.
Light 50(!) cigarettes one after another (not at the same time!) in the chamber and wait for the purifier to get the particulate concentration below 0.035 milligrams per cubic meter (mg/m3).
Turn off the purifier and let it sit in the chamber for another 30 minutes before taking it out.
Repeat these steps for 100 cigarettes, 150, 200, and beyond until the CADR is less than half of that initial value you got in step 1.

Repeat this same process for other gases, such as formaldehyde, following similar steps for filtration media for gases, such as activated carbon filters.

The final CCM measurement you get indicates the continuing air-cleaning power of a purifier. It’s assessed by measuring the sheer volume of particulate matter and formaldehyde that can be efficiently filtered by the purifier before it starts to lose its overall efficiency over time.

These values are translated into P and F values, the greater your purifier’s long-term performance. The top performance value is a P4 and F4.

How important is CCM?

The higher the CCM, the better the overall performance and stability of the product. CCM is the best indicator of how much your purifier will protect your family from indoor air pollutants. The Household Indoor Eco-Environment Health Report released by Tsinghua University shows that the most hazardous indoor pollutants are; Formaldehyde, PM2.5 and Benzene.

Formaldehyde, an IARC Group 1 carcinogen. It’s widely emitted from adhesives, plates, wall coverings, polyester carpets, paints, and coating. If it’s not properly disposed of, formaldehyde takes three to 15 years to release fully. As a result, the volume of formaldehyde may still be higher than normal even if you ventilate a newly renovated home with open windows for six months or longer, up to two years.

During that time pollutants like formaldehyde stay volatile, with the changes of seasons you may want to close your windows. This is when you need to rely on your air purifier to remove these indoor pollutants. This is also very important when outdoor air quality is worse than that indoors. For example, in the American West, the wild fire seasons can effect large segments of the population. Indoor gases and smoke particulate from fires mix with gases associated with smog, the role of an air purifier becomes even more crucial. A CCM rating will tell you a great deal about the performance and pollution absorbed by a purifier.

How big a difference can an air purifier make?

The bottom line is this: CCM is shorthand for excellent long-term performance. These robust purifiers filter not only particulate matter but also harmful indoor chemicals, odors, and gases like formaldehyde in indoor spaces of any size. These are the most effective purifiers in relation to CCM.

Westinghouse NCCO technology filters out most particulate matter and formaldehyde from your indoor air even after years of use. The efficiency of many purifiers drops by as much as 75 percent in the first few months of use, but Westinghouse CCM remains at a very high and effective level through the life of the appliance.

Now you know what to look for in an air purifier and why many air purifiers don’t last long against even normal levels of indoor pollution. Keep an eye on CCM when you buy an air purifier. This way, you know just how powerful your purifier will be at removing particles and gases and how much your air purifier will truly help clean your home in the long run.

Notes on testing, terms and particulate sizes:

Also, we can say the following from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), the organization that verifies the testing results of home appliances such as refrigerators, room air conditioners, humidifiers and room air cleaners since 1967 using outside labs to test products.

They state that HEPA stands for High Efficiency Particulate Air designed to remove 99.97% of all airborne pollutants 0.3 microns or larger from the air that passes through the filter (these include tobacco smoke, household dust and pollen). The defined particle size ranges are 0.09–1.0 µm for smoke, 0.5–3 µm for dust, and 5–11 µm for pollen. For reference, a micron is 1 millionth of a meter and a human hair may be between 17 and 180 microns in width.

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