indoor air purifier?

S

SkinnyJoe

BANNED
Joined
Jun 9, 2007
Messages
7,236
I see those kinds of products on tv from time to time.

What's good and what's gimmicky? How much is really neccessary beyond air conditioning? I live near an Interstate (?1 mile), and I would like to keep as much of the outside crap outside.

P.S. don't care about pet hair, pollen, or anything like that, I'm thinking fine particle pollution, diesel and whatnot.

Thanks.
 
Well, for fine particles you want a filter that's HEPA rated. (Beware -- "HEPA style" in advertising means "not HEPA rated." HEPA is not a style, it's a performance standard.)

Your real problem, though, is gas, not so much fine particles. It's the exhaust gases that you smell, not the carbon particles in the smoke. An activated carbon filter absorbs gases.

Most of the filters on the market are designed to remove both, but the emphasis varies. In your situation you want to look at filters that are designed primarily to deal with tobacco smoke, not pollen, so they'll be heavy on the activated carbon, not so heavy on particle filtration.
 
Sharp Air Purifiers are the only ones approved by the Ashthma Society of Canada.

I had a multistage air purifier in the UK and was amazed at what each filter caught in the space of a week. The first filter was gauze and caught the cat hairs, then next one seemed to catch dust, the carbon one became smelly and the electostatic filter caught fine dust, bacteria and other pollutants. The outgoing air was charged with negative ions from an electrode. All of the filters were washable. In the lounge the air was not really noticable better, but in a closed bedroom the effects were marked in terms of air quality and also sleep quality.
 
I wondered too. My wife and I were having daily headaches and dealing with some mold issues. I was congested a lot too. Late last year we purchased and started using a dehumidifier and ionizer air cleaner (Orek model) and it made a huge difference. We haven't used the dehumidifier since it has gotten cold; but we use the air cleaner daily in our bedroom. We no longer regularly have the headaches or congestion. YMMV and I'd check them all out before buying; but I'm sold.
 
If you get one I'd get a holmes or some locally available, normal hepa filter. Preferably one about twice as large as they recommend for your room. The bigger ones tend to have a more pleasant noise signature, need less frequent filter changes and move much more air. I'd avoid the oreck line of electrostatic filters, they work okay but lots of users have had their motors fail after a year or so (me included) and they don't filter most particles as well as a larger true hepa unit anyways. If you have a good local oreck service center it may be fine, when I lived in another town the guy there was really good about fixing stuff or replacing defective items. That's a few hundred miles away for me now though and we don't have any centers here, so I'm stuck with a bum unit out of warranty.
 
You're looking for a HEPA filter (filters >99.97% of particulates down to 0.3 micron)... preferably with an activated charcoal prefilter (will absorb many reactive gases, as well as organic substances). You know when a charcoal pre-filter is working, when you are toasting almonds, and the smell goes away within 5 minutes of turning off the oven. My Hamilton Beach unit also has a UV lamp for airborne pathogens. To be honest, I use the UV lamp, but if you assume that the HEPA is doing its job, only small viruses would be affected by the UV, because large viruses and bacteria would get stuck in the filter... and for small viruses, the UV is unlikely to do much, given the low power and short duration of exposure.

There are several things to consider when getting a HEPA:
1. Noise. This is the most common complaint. Get a filter that's rated for a larger airspace than you're planning to clean, and run it on minimum. Most nicer HEPA filters will have an "air quality" sensor and could be set to ramp their speed up and down dynamically. My HEPA will spin up when I cook, sensing the smoke in the air.
2. Placement. Consider the air intake on the HEPA, as well as the direction of the flow. If it's just going to be circulating the air in the corner, you won't accomplish anything.
3. Total cost of ownership. Consider not just the up-front cost of the unit, but cost of replacing the disposables. Activated charcoal pre-filters should be changed no less than every two weeks of continuous runtime, and you should aim to replace the main HEPA filter once a year... more if your air is REALLY heavy with particulates. So consider say 5 years worth of ownership, and make sure that the cheaper filter isn't going to cost you more in the long run.
...
99. Never buy electrostatic filters. They won't clean your air, and will add the pleasant-smelling, but oh-so-reactive ozone to your indoor air. Ozone is a pollutant beyond VERY small quantities, and rapidly decomposes into molecular oxygen while generating free radicals. Free radicals love to react with your DNA. Enough said.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top