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We may have faced the full gamut of UK weather recently, from glorious sunshine to snow, but that doesn't stop the eventual arrival of the pollen season.

The tree pollen season is the first to arrive, from late March to mid-May, followed by grass pollen (mid-May to July) and weed pollen (June to September).

As many as 49% of people report suffering from hay fever symptoms, according to charity Allergy UK.

And while there are various steps you can take while outdoors (more on those below), a decent air purifier could also help you once you get home.

Keep reading to find out how an air purifier could help and what key features to look out for. Or head straight to our round up of the best air purifiers .

An air purifier works by sucking in air, trapping any floating particles and then circulating the clean air back out.

Our lab testing checks how well machines can do this for dust, smoke and pollen: common household pollutants of different particle sizes.

A good air purifier will be able to filter out these particles, and so may help alleviate symptoms of hay fever and other allergies while you're indoors.

Even if pollen is your main priority, there's no need to buy one that excels at removing pollen from the air but performs poorly in our other tests. There are more than enough that do well in all three categories.

You could buy an air purifier for less than £100 - or you could spend more than £750.

Air purifiers under £100 don't often do well in our tests. That's partly because they tend to be smaller, and therefore don't contain a fan that's big enough to draw much air in.

When you're choosing an air purifier, features to look out for include:

Make your house a home - get our monthly tips for improving the place you live in.

Here are some popular models at different price points. All three have a HEPA filter.

This cylindrical air purifier is designed for small rooms. It's very compact and lightweight - just 2.5kg (almost half the weight of many other air purifiers).

It has three settings: auto, sleep and turbo. And it has an LED indicator that changes colour (blue, blue-purple, purple-red or red) according to the air quality in your room and the fan speed being used.

Read our review of the Philips Series 800 AC0820/30 to find out if performs well in our tests.

This Electriq has five different fan speeds, a night mode and an air quality sensor. It also has a carbon filter for smells and gases.

Of course, extra features really matter if it can't filter particles successfully in the first place.

Read our ElectriQ EAP500HC review to see how it fared in our tests.

The Blueair Classic 605 is one of the pricier air purifiers we've tested.

It has a night mode, which should mean quiet purification, and an automatic mode.

You can also set a schedule for it from your smartphone.

Read our full Blueair Classic 605 review to find out if this pricey model is good at removing pollen particles from the air.

Margaret Kelman, Specialist Allergy Nurse at Allergy UK has the following tips:

It's also a good idea to download the Met Office weather app , so that you can stay up to date on daily pollen levels.

Hay fever: how to treat it and where to get the cheapest hay fever tablets

We measure the clean air delivery rate (CADR) of each machine - how quickly an air purifier can remove polluting particles from the air and deliver clean air to you.

Our testing answers the following key questions:

Best Buy air purifiers will do a great job, while the worst are terrible at removing dust, pollen and/or smoke, are noisy and are difficult to use.

If you're not sure you want an air purifier, discover other ways to improve your indoor air quality at home.