Gareth Williams - 23 Jan 2025

The ultimate odour eliminator guide

You know that saying about ‘hanging around like a bad smell’? It’s totally true that nothing lingers quite like a nasty odour – and sometimes even good smells can turn into bad ones when they just won’t go away.

There are so many potential culprits.

● Next door’s obsession with cooking curries. 🍛
● Diesel fumes from the road outside. 🚕
● Cigarette smoke left behind by the previous tenant, or drifting up through the ventilation system from the flat below. 🚬
● The list goes on.

Whatever it is, it’s all too often the case that simply throwing open a window isn’t enough to banish it. And lighting a scented candle won’t help either – you just end up with an even grosser combination of smells.

Luckily, there are lots of odor-eliminating devices on the market of varying shapes and sizes, and in this guide we’ll be looking at each of them in turn.

Cooker hoods

Only really effective for hob-based cooking smells

Designed to keep cooking smells contained, as well as dealing with steam from boiling pots, a cooker hood is something many kitchens come with as standard. 🍳

Unfortunately, cooker hoods are limited in effectiveness, as the filters quickly get clogged and become weak at extracting cooking smells.

What’s more, they’ll only really work on the smells that come from pots bubbling away on the hob – so if you’ve got something in the main oven, it’s unlikely to make much difference. ☹️

Extractor fans

Ventilators not odour-eliminators – and usually only in the kitchen

A step up from the bog-standard cooker hood, an extractor fan is generally found in the kitchen, so again, it’s something for tackling cooking smells rather than other pongs around the home.

The key thing to remember is that they’re ventilators, not odour-eliminators, and although they can bring in air from outside the home, they don’t offer much control over air moving around the room.

They’re also expensive, and, let’s face it, a pain to install (and have you seen electrician day rates these days? 💰).

Air fresheners

Won’t mask the smell – they’ll mix with it to create a worse one

Plug-in air fresheners are many people’s first port of call in tackling bad smells. They’re affordable and can be popped into the shopping basket during a regular supermarket shop. They smell nice (well, most of them do anyway 😬), and they’ll fill the room with a soothing scent. 🌺

The downside is, they’re not odour eliminators. In fact, they probably won’t mask the problem smell. They might even make it worse, by mixing together the good and bad smells. They’re also not great for people with sinus problems, and if you have pets, they could irritate them.

Air purifiers

Great for removing allergens, but don’t work on smells

Many people invest in an air purifier in an attempt to tackle problem smells, but end up disappointed when they don’t work. This is because air purifiers work their magic on air quality by removing problem particles, not smells.

So, while they’re effective at plucking out things like pollen, pollution, dust and pathogens – making them great for people with allergies 🤧 – they’re not going to get rid of that gross cigarette smoke or whatever it is you’re trying to banish. Read more about air purifiers.

Charcoal bags

Might make a tiny difference to a wardrobe or other small spaces

There’s no getting away from the fact that charcoal bags feel a bit, well, basic. This cheap, no-frills solution needs no electricity, and can be useful for small spaces – think cupboards, drawers and wardrobes. But they won’t last long, and you’re probably not going to notice a massive difference in odor reduction.

Dehumidifiers

Sucks moisture out the air – not smells

As their name suggests, dehumidifiers are great for removing moisture from the air – but not bad smells. Sure, they’ll help tackle the root cause of a damp smell, but they won’t remove the smell itself. Read more about dehumidifiers versus air purifiers. 💦

Ozone generators

Best avoided

If you really want to go nuclear on a smell problem, an ozone generator could be your absolute last resort. They’re very powerful, but with great power comes great responsibility – they can easily be dangerous, and need to be safely operated by someone who knows what they’re doing. In other words, a trained professional. 🧑‍🚒

But they’re really not a practical solution, as they’re very disruptive and you’d need to leave your house for some time. They’re not available everywhere, either. Probably best to shelve this idea.

The Smell Away® odour neutraliser

Effectively removes smells, as well as dust and other allergens

Finally, a properly effective odour eliminator. The Smell Away® is specially designed to fight stubborn smells, and has numerous points in its favour:

● It’s very versatile, removing a whole range of household smells – from cooking and fridge smells to the stench of cat urine, stinky shoes and dead rodents. It’ll even remove unwanted lingering smells from air fresheners and cleaning products
● It also acts as an air cleaner, as it cleans the air of dust, dirt, pathogens and Volatile Organic Compounds
● It’s portable, so you can move it around the house to where the smell is worst
● It’s cheap to run, with very low energy usage
● It’s easy to install, with no need to drill holes in the wall or alter the house in any way
● It’s safe to use everyday and you can run it for hours at a time

So, while each of the smell eliminators we’ve discussed here has its pros and cons, it’s the mighty Smell Away® that comes out on top as the most versatile, long-lasting and multi-functional solution Find out more about this advanced odour neutraliser.