Air Purifiers

I’m moving into my own place soon, and I’d like to get a cat. I do have an allergy to cat dander, and I’ve read that cat dander allergies are worse than dog dander allergies because the allergens tend to stick to clothes and fabrics (like curtains and carpets). I understand ionizers work by sucking in air particles and giving the pollutants a negative charge so they "cling" to surfaces and can be cleaned up when the carpet is vacuumed or the drapes are washed. If this is the case, will an air ionizer really help my cat dander allergy at all, since it seems like the allergenic particles wouldn’t necessarily be airborne?

I’m moving into my own place soon, and I’d like to get a cat. I do have an allergy to cat dander, and I’ve read that cat dander allergies are worse than dog dander allergies because the allergens tend to stick to clothes and fabrics (like curtains and carpets). I understand ionizers work by sucking in air particles and giving the pollutants a negative charge so they "cling" to surfaces and can be cleaned up when the carpet is vacuumed or the drapes are washed. If this is the case, will an air ionizer really help my cat dander allergy at all, since it seems like the allergenic particles wouldn’t necessarily be airborne?

Some details:

I’m a chronic allergy sufferer, in my 20s, and I finally went on Amazon and bought one of Honeywell’s affordable HEPA air filters. It comes with an "Ionizer" feature, which I didn’t know too much about, so I went on Yahoo! answers and the web to research.

Now I know that it ionizes air particles so they a) drop to the ground and/or b) become easier for the air filter to pick up. Seems like a good feature to me. Although, some internet sources suggested that ionizers could be useless and/or potentially harmful.

Either way, if I now want to use my "Ionizer" feature, should I be leaving it on all the time? I already leave the HEPA on all the time, set on the lowest setting (anything louder would be unbearable when I sleep, but the lowest setting is just about right).

Thanks for any information.

-James P.