Cafes

What We Do

A Café Brings People Together — and So Does Every Airborne Pathogen That Enters It

Cafés and food service venues concentrate unmasked customers in enclosed spaces for extended dwell times — often 30 minutes to several hours per visit. Each person present contributes respiratory aerosols to the shared air from the moment they walk in. The queue, the counter, and the seating area are all zones of sustained close-proximity aerosol exposure in the same enclosed environment.

prePaer provides continuous ULPA-grade air filtration at the room level — reducing the airborne pathogen and allergen load for staff who are present all day and for the customers who choose to spend time in the space — and giving café owners a tangible, visible air quality measure to communicate to their community.

The Indoor Dining Air Quality Challenge

Food Service Staff Are Among the Most Consistently Exposed Workers in Any Airborne Transmission Environment

Café and food service staff interact with dozens to hundreds of customers per shift — each interaction a brief but repeated close-proximity aerosol exposure event across a full working day. Unlike customers who visit once and leave, staff accumulate that exposure across every shift, every week. Standard café HVAC provides general air circulation and temperature management but was not designed to address the respiratory aerosol transmission risk generated by continuous high-turnover customer interaction in an enclosed space. prePaer reduces the ambient airborne pathogen load continuously throughout the service period — providing the room-level source-control filtration that ventilation alone cannot deliver.

Consider This: The Airborne Environment of a Busy Café During Service

What Accumulates in Café Air From Opening to Close

Continuous Aerosol Generation From Customers: Every customer who enters a café generates respiratory aerosols through normal talking and breathing — the activities that define the café experience. In an enclosed space, these aerosols accumulate throughout the service period rather than dispersing as they would outdoors.
Pre-Symptomatic Customer Transmission: Customers who visit the café in the 24–48 hours before their respiratory illness becomes apparent are at their most contagious during precisely that window — generating aerosols in the space that staff and other customers share for the duration of their visit.
High Counter Turnover: The counter and ordering area sees the highest density of close-proximity interactions — customer to staff, often at conversational distance for extended ordering and payment transactions — repeated dozens or hundreds of times per shift for front-of-house staff.
Extended Customer Dwell Time: Unlike retail environments where customers move through quickly, café customers often remain seated for 30 minutes to several hours — extending both their personal aerosol exposure and the time during which any single customer contributes to the shared air volume of the space.
Seasonal Peak Periods: Cold and flu season coincides with the periods when outdoor café seating is least available — concentrating customers indoors during the months when respiratory illness prevalence is highest in the community.
Staff Absenteeism Impact: In a small café operation, a single staff illness can create a significant operational problem. Reducing the airborne transmission risk that staff face across hundreds of daily customer interactions directly reduces the frequency of that operational disruption.

Our Solution: The prePaer AER System

prePaer is freestanding and immediately deployable — position it on the service floor, behind the counter, or in the seating area based on where customer density and dwell time are highest. No installation, no HVAC modification, operational the same day it arrives.

The prePaer AER System

Active Air Filtration for the Service Floor, the Counter, and the Seating Area

ULPA Filtration Captures Respiratory Aerosols at 0.12 Microns:

The fine aerosol particles that carry influenza, COVID-19, and RSV range from 0.1 to 1 micron — below the capture threshold of standard café HVAC filters. prePaer’s ULPA filter removes 99.999% of particles at 0.12 microns, continuously reducing the airborne pathogen concentration in the occupied space throughout the entire service period.

Counter Protection for Front-of-House Staff:

Positioning prePaer behind or adjacent to the service counter provides continuous source-control filtration in the zone where staff have the most frequent and sustained close-proximity contact with customers. This is where cumulative daily aerosol exposure is highest for counter staff throughout a full shift.

Seating Area Air Quality for Extended Dwell Customers:

Customers who occupy café tables for extended periods both generate and accumulate aerosol exposure over time. A prePaer unit in the seating area continuously filters the air that seated customers breathe during their visit — reducing the ambient concentration that builds up when multiple customers are present simultaneously in an enclosed space.

No Ozone — Safe for Food Service Environments:

Ozone can interact with food aromas and introduce off-notes into the sensory environment of a café or restaurant. prePaer uses no ozone technology — the filtration is purely mechanical, leaving the coffee aroma, food smells, and café atmosphere entirely unaffected while removing airborne particles from the space.

A Visible Health Commitment That Customers Notice:

Post-pandemic, a meaningful proportion of customers — particularly those with allergies, asthma, or compromised immunity — actively factor indoor air quality into where they choose to spend time. A café with visible, active air filtration signals that it takes the health of its community seriously — a differentiator that builds loyalty among the customers who notice it most.

Community Trust

The Café That Cares About Its Community’s Health Builds the Deepest Loyalty

Cafés are community spaces — not just transaction points. The relationship between a café and its regulars is built on trust, familiarity, and the sense that the space genuinely serves the people who use it. In a post-pandemic environment where many customers remain more aware of indoor air quality than they were before 2020, a café that visibly invests in the health of its space communicates something about its values that straightforward product quality cannot.

For cafés in communities with high proportions of elderly, immunocompromised, or health-conscious customers — or near healthcare facilities, schools, or retirement communities — active air quality measures are not just a nice gesture. They are a meaningful part of what makes the space accessible and welcoming to people who would otherwise stay away.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Will prePaer affect the smell or aroma of the café environment?

No. prePaer captures airborne particles and, through its carbon filter, some volatile compounds — but coffee aromas, baking smells, and the sensory character of a café environment are carried at concentrations that are not eliminated by normal unit operation. The unit removes unwanted particle-borne pathogens and allergens from the air while leaving the intended aroma and atmosphere of the space largely intact.

How many units does a typical café need?

A practical starting configuration for a small to medium café is one unit near the counter area and one unit in the primary seating area. Larger venues with multiple distinct zones benefit from one unit per zone. The unit is portable — it can be moved between areas based on peak occupancy periods throughout the service day.

Can prePaer run continuously throughout the full operating day?

Yes. prePaer is designed for continuous unattended operation. Switch it on at opening and it filters throughout the service day without requiring any staff attention. The only maintenance required is periodic filter replacement — every two weeks under standard café conditions, though high-volume environments may benefit from more frequent change

Is prePaer suitable for outdoor seating areas or covered terraces?

prePaer is designed for enclosed indoor environments. In fully open outdoor areas, natural air movement disperses particles faster than any room-level filtration unit can address. For covered terraces with significant enclosure — those with roll-down screens or glass partitions that create a semi-enclosed environment — prePaer can provide a useful additional layer of protection during periods when the space is essentially enclosed.

How noisy is prePaer in a café setting?

prePaer has three speed settings. Low speed operates at approximately 30 decibels — well within the background noise level of a typical café. Medium speed runs between 45–60 decibels. For continuous use during service, low or medium speed provides effective filtration without adding disruptive background noise. High speed is most useful for rapid air scrubbing before service begins or after close.

The Best Cafés Are Places People Return To — Clean Air Is Part of Why

Customer loyalty in the café industry is built on a combination of product quality, atmosphere, and the intangible feeling of being in a space that feels good. Clean, fresh air — the absence of the staleness that accumulates in high-occupancy enclosed environments — is part of that feeling, even when customers cannot name it specifically.

prePaer provides that quality continuously and invisibly — without changing anything about how the café operates, what it smells like, or how staff interact with customers. It is simply the infrastructure choice that makes the air in the space measurably better, every service, every day.

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