Smoke & Air Quality
Wildfire smoke season now lasts months. Clean indoor air is a health product.
Even hundreds of kilometres from a fire, PM2.5 from wildfire smoke reaches hazardous levels for days or weeks. HEPA air purifiers sized for your rooms, MERV-13 furnace filters, portable air quality monitors and properly fitted respirators make the difference between a sealed house and a smoky one.
Our picks
4 products · price bands $ to $$$$
N95 / P100 Respirators (family pack)
NIOSH-approved N95 or P100 masks for every person in the house, including during evacuation drives through smoke. Fit is everything; a valved P100 half-mask is far more comfortable for extended wear.
HEPA Air Purifier (large room)
A true-HEPA purifier with a high smoke CADR rating, sized to give 4–5 air changes an hour in your bedroom. Run continuously through smoke events and keep spare filters on hand.
Corsi-Rosenthal Box (DIY: box fan + 4 MERV-13 filters)
A box fan taped to a cube of four MERV-13 furnace filters. Peer-reviewed testing shows it rivals commercial purifiers costing several times more. Build one per room.
Indoor/Outdoor PM2.5 Monitor
A laser particle counter that tells you actual PM2.5 in your bedroom, so you can decide when purifiers are winning and when it's safe to ventilate. Outdoor units also contribute to public smoke maps.
Before you buy
- Size purifiers by CADR: you want at least 4–5 air changes per hour in the room where you sleep.
- Upgrade your furnace filter to MERV 13 for smoke season and run the fan continuously.
- A DIY Corsi-Rosenthal box (box fan + four MERV-13 filters) is a proven budget alternative.
- A PM2.5 monitor tells you when to open windows again — outdoor AQI maps lag your neighbourhood.
- N95 fit matters more than brand. Buy a few sizes/styles and test them.