The most wonderful scents can come from the kitchen – but stale kitchen smells, on the other hand, are a pain for the nose. We’ll tell you what you can do about it and how air purifiers can help.
Kitchen smells are not always fragrant
When cooking itself, hardly anyone would complain about the smell of a braised meat or an exotic curry. A few days later things look different in the kitchen – at least if no measures are taken to neutralize the stale smells. Fatty kitchen fumes quickly become penetrating when they get stuck in textiles. It is even more annoying when it enters the living room, where you usually make yourself comfortable.
Even if you have set up a kitchen-diner, you don’t want to sit in the middle of the old cooking scents. In order to counteract the vapors (water vapor that becomes visible through condensation as fog), regular ventilation can be the solution. But there are limits here too. An air cleaner, on the other hand, offers effective results. Professional devices are effective both in private kitchens and in catering kitchens.
How do unpleasant smells develop in the kitchen?
Kitchen smells are a chemical reaction for which bacteria initially collect at the source of the smell, which molecules release. These are distributed via positive ions in the room air and ultimately find their way into our noses where they lead to the sensation that is colloquially known as a stench.
Since the molecules are conducted via positive ions, it is recommended to control odors by adding negatively charged particles, i.e. negative ions, to the room air. These are also called cations. An air purifier with an ionizer or activated carbon filter fulfills the prerequisite for an efficient cleaning effect.
Effective air purifiers against odors in the kitchen and their components
What exactly does an ionizer do? An ionizer creates anions, i.e. oxygen ions with a negative charge. One speaks of an ion in an atom or molecule in which the number of positively charged particles (protons) and negatively charged particles (electrodes) differs from one another. If the number of positive particles is higher, one speaks of a cation.
An ion with an increased number of electrons is an anion.
The anions generated in the air purification device are released into the room air of the kitchen, which flows through the device. Since foreign particles such as dust are positively charged, the negatively charged anions bind to them and either sink to the bottom, where they can be disposed of more easily, or are attracted to an electrically charged metal plate.
Why is activated carbon filter against kitchen odors worthwhile?
Activated carbon filters are filters that – as the name suggests – contain activated carbon. It is a porous carbon that has a large inner surface due to its numerous pores. All surfaces within the pores are common to the inner surface. Due to the large internal surface area, activated carbon can cause adsorption.
That means: The substances from the air responsible for the smells accumulate on this surface. This works well until the surface is full of these substances. Then the filter is saturated and must be replaced. In order to delay this point in time as far as possible, activated carbon filters are often combined with coarse filters. They clear the air of coarse foreign particles that would otherwise adhere to the activated carbon filter and saturate it too quickly.
