Buying an air purifier for cat litter smell

Cats are like family. It is estimated that there are approximately 10.8 million cats in the UK, meaning that 24% of adults in the UK are cat owners¹. Many cats spend their lives indoors, especially those living in urban environments. With cat ownership comes litter tray maintenance. Litter trays and litter boxes are often sources of unpleasant odours in the home, and they bring other types of indoor air pollution that may have an effect on health. Can an air purifier for cat litter smell help combat unpleasant odours generated by litter trays? Read on to learn more.

Cat litter tray impact on indoor air quality

Cat litter boxes have an impact on indoor air quality in multiple ways that may have a negative impact on your health and well-being.

Odour emissions

One of the most notable effects of having a cat litter tray in the home is the odours they emit. Litter odours spread quickly throughout the room in which they are located, sometimes throughout other rooms of the home as well. In spaces like smaller flats, litter box smells may entirely take over the space, contributing to poor quality of life, stress, discomfort, and for highly sensitive individuals, nausea and headaches.

Ammonia exposure

As a pet cat owner, ammonia is a part of daily life. Ammonia is found in cat urine, feces, saliva, but also litter trays.  Ammonia may also be found in products used to clean cat litter trays. Exposure to ammonia may have several adverse effects on health including:

• Respiratory issues and allergies (coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing, triggering of asthma attacks and aggravation of COPD symptoms)
• Eye irritation and infection (conjunctivitis; red, itchy eyes; excessive tearing)
• Weakened immune system (as a result of long-term exposure as ammonia damages respiratory system cells)
• Chronic bronchitis, pneumonia (as a result of high-concentration, long-term exposure)²

Signs of excessive ammonia levels in the home may include a strong odour of cat urine or cat litter; irritation of the eyes, nose, and/or throat; coughing or respiratory disturbances; headaches; and/or increased incidence of asthma attacks. The most at-risk groups when it comes to the effects of ammonia exposure include children, pregnant women, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals.

Dust and particles

Another form of indoor air pollution to which litter trays contribute is fine particle pollution, mainly by dispersing cat litter box dust into the air. A dusty environment caused by cat litter trays may cause further respiratory and allergic symptoms like coughing, sneezing, and upper airway irritation. This heavily impacts your level of comfort in the home and may make it difficult to keep your space clean. A high-end air purifier for cat litter smell is fundamental in helping remove airborne particles that may easily be inhaled, wreaking havoc on your respiratory system.

Benefits of an air purifier for cat litter smell

Unpleasant odour reduction

Not all air purifiers are capable of filtering and fighting litter odours. Air purifiers that are designed to eliminate unpleasant smells must be equipped with an activated carbon filter. Activated carbon is tried and true when it comes to removing odours. Be sure to ask the manufacturer of your air purifier for cat litter smell for the weight of its activated carbon filter. The heavier the activated carbon filter, the more air pollutants it can absorb.

Air quality improvement

It is important to note that air purifiers for cat litter smell should be equipped with multiple filtration technologies (Eoleaf devices contain 8!) in order to combat all types of air pollution that may be emitted by your pet cat’s litter box. As mentioned above, activated carbon filters are useful for gaseous air pollutants like volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ammonia, and unpleasant odours, but they will not remove fine particles like hair and dander. The opposite is true for HEPA-certified air purifiers: although effective in removing fine particles, HEPA filters will not eliminate odours. Read more below.

Factors to consider when choosing an air purifier for cat litter smell

Filtration technologies: HEPA + carbon filter

Investing in an air purifier with multiple technologies will ensure the targeting of air pollutants of all types, even those down to the fine and nanoparticle size. The medical-grade High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) H13-certified filters found in all Eoleaf devices remove 99.97% of airborne pollutants down to a size of 0.01 microns. This includes dust and potential dust mites generated by your cat’s litter tray, animal dander, cat hair, and other particles that may impact your indoor air quality (and ease allergy symptoms caused by hair and dander if you are allergic to cats or have visitors who are). If your pet cat is an indoor/outdoor cat,  HEPA filters will also target and filter pollen and other allergens that your cat tracks indoors. HEPA-certified filters also remove particulate matter emitted by tobacco smoke, mould and spores, combustion from wood stoves and gas appliances, and more.

Activated carbon serves as a complementary and essential filtration technology to HEPA filters. It removes a type of air pollution that HEPA filters do not: chemical pollution. Chemical pollution consists of gaseous pollutants like VOCs (including known carcinogens like formaldehyde and benzene), ammonia, ozone, and other harmful airborne gases and toxins. Of course, activated carbon filters are also highly effective at removing unpleasant cat litter box odours.

Noise level

When choosing an air purifier for cat litter smell, you should never choose a device that will disturb you at home or at work. Conversely, efficiency should never be sacrificed for silence in an air purifier! A high-end air purifier should be able to achieve both whisper-quiet functionality and effective air purification. Eoleaf devices, for example, even when running at their fastest fan speed, never exceed a noise level of 60 dB and operate at 35 dB on a daily basis. At their slowest fan speeds, Eoleaf devices are barely noticeable, but the gentle whirring of your air purifier at night may additionally serve as a white noise machine, drowning out other distracting sounds that may impact your sleep quality. Luckily, Eoleaf devices come equipped with 5 different fan speeds, giving you flexibility when it comes to choosing the right speed at any given moment. Our fan speeds and associated noise levels are as follows:

• Fan speed 1: 30 dB (whisper)
• Fan speed 2: 45 dB (average home noise)
• Fan speed 3: 53 dB (faint rain)
• Fan speed 4: 57 dB (normal conversation)
• Fan speed 5: 60 dB (office noise)

Sizing

It is crucial to choose an air purifier for cat litter smell that is properly sized to your space. Ideally, the device should be placed as close to the source of air pollution as possible: in this case, near the litter tray where air pollutants and litter box odours are emitted. When determining whether the device is properly sized to your space, it helps to consider two air purification metrics: CADR and ACH.

Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) is an industry standard that helps consumers compare filtration efficiency between brands. It refers to the volume of filtered air that an air purifier is capable of efficiently producing. The higher the CADR, the more effectively the device cleans the air in your space. It is worth mentioning that some major brands, especially Dyson, do not wish to have their products compared and avoid using CADR, which makes it impossible to compare their devices’ efficiency with other brands.

Air Changes per Hour (ACH) is another industry standard that refers to the amount of times that the air is completely replaced by purified air in one hour. In spaces with high air pollution concentrations – for example, in small flats with at least multiple indoor cats that use a litter tray – it is recommended to seek out a device with an ACH rating of at least 4. This means that the air is replaced and completely filtered four times per hour. Reach out to the air purification experts at Eoleaf to have ACH calculated for you using the specific square footage of the room in which you plan to install an air purifier for cat litter smell and your desired usage of the device.

Eoleaf gives you and your furry friends peace of mind

We love our furry family members. Pet cats bring us companionship and joy. However, sometimes the presence of cat litter boxes may disturb our daily lives, impacting our quality of life. Let Eoleaf help bring you peace of mind by eliminating litter tray odours and other air pollutants that they may emit in the home. Reach out to our team of air pollution experts anytime to discuss your specific needs and find the perfect device for you.

Frequently asked questions

Will an air purifier help with pet urine smell?

An air purifier with odour-fighting technologies will indeed help reduce airborne pet urine smell. Of course, it will not completely mask an unclean litter tray, so it is recommended to clean a cat’s litter tray regularly.

How do I keep my room smelling good with a litter tray?

It is recommended to install an air purifier with odour-fighting technologies like activated carbon filtration (all Eoleaf air purifiers come equipped with powerful activated carbon filters). It is not recommended to use air fresheners or diffusers as these products will only contribute to more chemical pollution in your space.

How do I stop my litter tray from smelling?

It is highly recommended to clean your cat’s litter tray regularly. However, if it still smells even with regular cleaning, an air purifier for litter tray smells like those on offer by Eoleaf can help greatly reduce airborne odours emitted by your cat’s litter tray.

How frequently should I run an air purifier to get rid of the smell from my cat's litter tray?

High-end air purifiers like those offered by Eoleaf are designed to be left running 24/7. Our devices are particularly energy-efficient, meaning that it would only cost around £10-20 per month to leave it running on a near-consistent basis. If you prefer to leave it running for shorter periods, we recommend to leave it running for about four hours per day. You can also use Eoleaf devices’ smart scheduling feature to program it automatically to suit your schedule.

Does the air purifier's placement impact its capacity to get rid of litter tray odours?

Absolutely. An air purifier for litter tray smells should be placed as close to the source of pollution as possible, ideally near your cat’s litter tray. This ensures that it will absorb litter tray odours as they are emitted into your space.

Will my cat's comfort or health be impacted by an air purifier?

No. Air purifiers are completely safe for humans and animals alike. An air purifier simply takes polluted air, pulls it into the device using a powerful fan, treats the air with one or more air filtration technologies, then releases the air back into the space. Do keep in mind that filters must be changed at least once per year.

I have more than one cat – will an air purifier be enough?

It is less so the number of cats that determine whether the air purifier will be enough, but rather the size of the space in which you plan to install your air purifier. Eoleaf air purifiers are sized as follows:

• AEROPRO 40: 0 to 40 m2
• AEROPRO 100: 0 to 80 m2
• AEROPRO 150: 0 to 120 m2

What else can I do to help with litter tray smells?

In addition to installing an air purifier for cat litter smells, it is important to properly maintain your cat’s litter tray. Regular cleaning and ventilation are essential in reducing litter tray smells.

Resources

¹ Pet populations. PDSA. (n.d.). https://www.pdsa.org.uk/what-we-do/pdsa-animal-wellbeing-report/paw-report-2024/pet-populations

² Can cat ammonia make you sick? an investigation into the health risks. The Cat Bandit Blog. (2023, June 17). https://blog.catbandit.com/can-cat-ammonia-make-you-sick-an-investigation-into-the-health-risks/