The importance of air quality

In my early twenties, I quickly learned the importance of indoor air quality after being diagnosed with lung disease.

Before working with Austin Air Canada, I was a long-time customer. I needed something that would not only take the particles that irritated my lungs out of the air – I also needed something that would continuously keep my lungs clear.

With no harsh pollen, dander, or other irritants in my house or lungs, life was so much easier, so much more enjoyable. In a nutshell, Austin Air Canada made it easier for me to recover from upper respiratory infections such as pneumonia.

The Austin Air design is a four to five-stage filtration system. The most crucial filtration step during these COVID times is our 60 sq ft of certified medical-grade MERV 17 HEPA. 

For some context, in lay person’s terms, the MERV filtration scale runs from 1 to 20. We have all become aware of how effective N95 masks are at filtrating tiny particles, such as COVID, and N95 masks sit at a MERV 13, so that gives some indication of the effectiveness of our system.

The same HEPA we use is also used in surgical clean rooms. It allows our air cleaners to filter 99.97% of airborne particles down to 0.3 microns and larger, and 95% particles down to .1 microns and larger.

The filter is encased in a 23 gage round steel drum. I’ve learned that it’s designed this way so the HEPA is never exposed when changing the filter. This is extremely important within situations involving COVID or asbestos because we never want to touch or disturb those dangerous particles and risk their re-entry into our air.

On the outside of the drum is our pre-filter – this removes particles easily seen by the eye, such as dust, hair, or pet dander. Then a Medium Particle Pre-filter removes small to medium size particles. Surrounding the HEPA is 15 lbs. of Activated Carbon and Zeolite, which removes chemicals, gases, and odours. Lastly, our medical-grade MERV 17 HEPA. 

If you are still asking why choose Austin Air over one of our competitors?

Over 30 years ago, in Waterloo Region, Richard Taylor invented Austin Air for his wife Joyce, who had breathing issues.

In the 1990s, with a surge of demand coming from the US, Richard moved our manufacturing plant to Buffalo, New York with a 480,000 sq ft plant while our Canada corporation remains in the Region and is still family-run by his nephew, Alex Taylor.

While a pandemic may be new to all of us, mass deployment of units is not. Immediately after 9/11, we deployed over 14,000 units to first responders and medical staff in lower Manhattan. From there we deployed units for the largest natural gas leak in US history, as well as Hurricane Katrina. Events such as this caught the attention of large universities such as Brown University, US military, and Johns Hopkins, to complete case studies on our products and their effects.

These are some of the reasons so many private medical practices, schools, hospitals, restaurants, and private individuals have trusted us to keep their air clean during this pandemic.

And the best news? We are working on bringing manufacturing for our Canadian side back to Ontario!

Stay Safe & Breathe Easy, Jenn Bourbonnais

Supply+Protect is proud to be a distributor of Austin Air.