Air Purifier value or hoax

G

godot

Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
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Hi-I live in a studio apartment with no cross ventalation-the air has a lot of dust. Are air purifiers like the Shaper Image item really worth the money-do they work? Is there a good cheap item on the market? Is this something I could make myself using old fans and.............? Any consumer website that doesn't sell their own product giving objective reveiws? thanks, cough-cough
 
The Sharper Image air cleaner does indeed work - we have one in our bedroom and I have to clean the metal blades about once a week (it's amazing to see how much crap was pulled out of the air...) - the amount of dust and other particulate matter in the air is reduced significantly. They are a bit pricey but sometimes stores such as Bed Bath & Beyond have them on sale from time to time.

They are completely quiet, with no filters to replace. I would like to get several more.

One negative comment - if you get one get the black-cased model - we have a grey one and the case gets rather dingy over time from all the crap being sucked into the unit (it cleans up, but it's more work...).
 
The electronic ones are pretty good.

I would stay away from the older Sharper Image ones, or any air "purifer" that uses ozone... that stuff is bad juju.

Why not just get a full-on HEPA air filter? We use one, and while it's not too quiet, it has lasted a very long time (2 years now on the same filter) and it does an excellent job of cleaning up the air.

-j
 
Because of an asthma problem, we have a filter on our furnace and air conditioning unit. It really works. You don't see any 'sparkles' in the sunlight like in older homes. Every few months, I take a garden hose and spray it off, let it drip dry and then re-install it.
 
I remember Consumer's Digest doing a comparison on air purifiers, and they got into this whole mess with Sharper Image because in their tests the Sharper Image product didn't do so hot compared to other conventional purifiers. Random thought, but you might want to find that issue of Consumer's Digest.
 
My first cheapy filter attempt was to simply rest a 20x25" filter on the back of the 20" box fan. This did not use the whole filter so I made a box that has one of the filtrete furnace filters on one end and the box fan on the other. The air flow was still a little low and the back pressure on the fan was too high so I remade the box and put 2 filtrete filters side by side. I used the 20x25" filters because of the greater surface for the same price gives the least air resistance. This is still way cheaper than any manufactured air filter, but lacks the activated carbon that some filters have, and is not as efficient as a hepa filter would be. This should still filter out most anything of significance. I am thinking of getting a different type of filter cartridge for one side so that they will each filter out more of what they do better than the other. Each technology does better on something, worse on something else.

It is a little noisy, so I turn it way down or off when we are in the same room much. Another of these filters is in the furnace, but with this old drafty house the dryer is in the same room with the furnace and it seems to be drawing some of the lint into the system, so the additional filtering was needed. The last time I opened a computer there was 1.5 inches of dust in the bottom. (no wonder I have asthma...) This homebrew filter is helping, but I still have to adress the furnace system. There is still a rather considerable amount of visible floating dust and lint in the sunbeams, but it is improved.
 
Consumer's reports seems to hate the Sharper Image one-have located a company called Holmes and am going to library tommorow to check them out.
 
I got a HEPA air filter from a medical supply place many years ago. That is the first air purifier I had that would totally eliminate cigarette smoke in my apartment (damn poor construction with lots of drafts from one apartment unit to the next).

I think Honeywell has since bought them out. It is a large unit that when set on high will put a good ceiling fan to shame.

The Sharper Image runs a good tv commercial hyping their product but, anytime I have seen a product comparison it came out towards the bottom of the ratings, even against much cheaper units.

At that pricepoint, go to medical supply place where they sell wheel chairs, oxygen equipment, etc. and work with them to get a unit that is appropriate for your needs.

The other option is Home Depot. They have some newer units around a $100 that look promising.
 
Originally posted by Bruise Lee
Very interesting! That's for the link! I was considering getting one of these for my mom. Thanks for saving me hundreds of dollars! Let us know what you end up buying, and what you think of it. The CR article made it sound like a Friedrich unit is worth looking into.

Bruise
Click to expand...

Thats my site you guys are linking to... Thanks for asking :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by Techstand
Thats my site you guys are linking to... Thanks for asking :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Sorry, I clicked the link and saw your site for a second. If I knew you didn't want anybody to see it I would never have done it. :o
 
I posted the link to CR and didn't think anything of it at the time. Have sent techstand an apology.
 
It's not a big deal. Dont worry about it. It was just weird tat for some reason, that file got 1000's of hits in a matter of a few days. Thats more than my whole site. While i dont mind being linked to, it is important to note that the file linked to is copyrighted material by CR and only available to members with a subscription to CR.
 
I have asthma too, so doea my grandmother. We both have a Sharper imageair purifier they work great.I carry a small model with me on business trips
I also have one by living air this is the best it does make ozone you have to turn it down. But it will clean my whole 4 bedroom house.:cool:
Peace
 
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