--- title: Carrier OptiClean: The 100 Best Inventions of 2020 description: Find out why Carrier OptiClean is one of the best inventions of 2020. canonical: https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911389/carrier-opticlean/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-11-19T13:51:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:46:06.801Z og:title: Carrier OptiClean: The 100 Best Inventions of 2020 og:description: Find out why Carrier OptiClean made this year's list og:url: https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911389/carrier-opticlean/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt601f0d08c2b7f30c/698a1443e76ad23ade6384e1/best-inventions-of-2020-OptiClean-9.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Carrier OptiClean: The 100 Best Inventions of 2020 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Carrier OptiClean: The 100 Best Inventions of 2020 twitter:description: Find out why Carrier OptiClean made this year's list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt601f0d08c2b7f30c/698a1443e76ad23ade6384e1/best-inventions-of-2020-OptiClean-9.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 19, 2020 # The Air Cleanser Carrier OptiClean by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Courtesy “Clean” rooms, in which air remains contained in a closed system for filtering rather than mixing with the rest of the facility, are in high demand at hospitals. Enter the OptiClean ($2,000–$4,000), a mobile air purifier built by [Carrier](https://www.carrier.com/residential/en/us/ "undefined") that has two air-scrubbing functions. It can turn any room into a so-called negative air-­pressure space to prevent potentially contaminated air from flowing out, pushing it instead through a high-­efficiency HEPA filter before releasing it back into the room. Or, it can simply filter out pathogens from a room. So far, the company has 15,000 orders for the units from hospitals as well as schools, universities, offices and other buildings looking to provide safe indoor environments_._ _—Alice Park_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911389/carrier-opticlean/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911389/carrier-opticlean/"},"headline":"The Air Cleanser","datePublished":"2020-11-19T13:51:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:46:06.801Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911389/carrier-opticlean/","keywords":["list","franchise","best inventions","Best Inventions 2020"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt601f0d08c2b7f30c/698a1443e76ad23ade6384e1/best-inventions-of-2020-OptiClean-9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt601f0d08c2b7f30c/698a1443e76ad23ade6384e1/best-inventions-of-2020-OptiClean-9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911389/carrier-opticlean/","name":"The Air Cleanser"}}]}] ```