Household air cleaner

[Dave Zellers]

Anyone have experience with air cleaners for the home? Looking to handle 1000sf. Mostly for dust but some smoke and odors as well.

Most of what I'm seeing at first look is in the 2-3 hundred dollar range. Would love to get some trusted feedback from folks here.

[Doug Dawson]

Anyone have experience with air cleaners for the home? Looking to handle 1000sf. Mostly for dust but some smoke and odors as well.

Most of what I'm seeing at first look is in the 2-3 hundred dollar range. Would love to get some trusted feedback from folks here.

We’ve had a Blueair 211+ in the (carpeted) bedroom for six months, and my wife claims that it’s made a major improvement in the dust levels that previously had affected her sleep (nothing to do with woodworking, we live in a very pollen-heavy environment, South Texas.) It was about $300, for a 600sf room. That seems to be about par for these things.

It also depends on how well your home is sealed, and how open is the floor plan etc. In a well-sealed house such as we have, if there were a need for that kind of filtration outside of the sleeping area, we’d just buy another one. The rest of the house has wooden floors.

[David L Morse]

There's an industry standard, ANSI/AHAM AC-1, that specifies testing for home air cleaners. The ratings that come from those tests are Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) and recommended room area in square feet. I've studied the spec and the testing looks pretty good. If I were buying an air purifier I would depend on AHAM certification and the CADR ratings. Noise level and power consumption are other parameters that are tested and may be of interest to you.

Claims of HEPA filtering are mostly a marketing gimmick. CADR is the parameter that determines how clean your air gets.

[Dave Zellers]

Thanks to both of you- very good helpful info. Rather surprised to see a $300 price tag for a 600 sf bedroom but- still learning.

[Bruce King]

I got a Winix from Costco for the bedroom. Don’t have the numbers handy but it has a cleanable prefilter, charcoal filter then the hepa. I just vacuum off all 3 so far but it came with a spare charcoal. I’ll get a new hepa when the light comes on. If you have pets they need attention probably every few weeks. Brand new houses have lots of drywall dust everywhere for the first year.

[Kev Williams]

I started an air cleaner thread last August ('product shout out'), about the Alen we bought in July-
then in mid September this thread was started: https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?285916-Air-Cleaner-for-Smoke-and-Possibly-Covid&highlight=purifier

I quoted part of my post in the new thread, with pics and more explanation. Filter life is talked about, and I mentioned the 'filter life' idiot lights on our unit. I've cleaned the filter several times (needs it again ;) ) , and just wanted to mention that, aside from when cleaning the filter or power outages, since July it's never been shut off, the filter life idiot light is still on "green", and we're still happy :)

[Jim Tobias]

I deal with bad seasonal (all seasons) allergies. We have 6 Alen filtering units in our home. 4 of the square ones and 2 of the towers. I think they do an excellent job. Like Kev, I clean my filters numerous times before replacing them. There are all types of filters for them depending on your need. I bought these gradually over many years. They are simple machines and last forever.
Do they filter out airborne materials? Well, just check(and clean out) the filter to see.

Jim

[Erik Loza]

We have several Whirpool units scattered throughout the house. I can't give you a model number except to say that they probably cost $100-$200, new. They take a rigid panel with pleated HEPA-type filter, then a woven carbon pre-filter sheet. I personally like them. Not sure that they help with odor (we don't smoke) but do have big dogs that shed like crazy and the pre-filters are always loaded with dust and dander whenever I pull them. If I needed another one, I would probably see if I could find a used on on Craigslist or something.

Erik

[Derek Meyer]

The most recent "Ask This Old House" program had a segment on home air filters for furnaces, and they showed a DIY air cleaner for home using five MERV-13 rated filters (20" x 20") and a box fan. They made a cube of filters held together with duct tape, with a piece of cardboard for the bottom side, and the box fan on top. It looked interesting enough that I might try it, as we have an extra box fan and I can get the filters for a discount through work. I will post if I make one to let you know the results.

[Dave Zellers]

The most recent "Ask This Old House" program had a segment on home air filters for furnaces, and they showed a DIY air cleaner for home using five MERV-13 rated filters (20" x 20") and a box fan. They made a cube of filters held together with duct tape, with a piece of cardboard for the bottom side, and the box fan on top. It looked interesting enough that I might try it, as we have an extra box fan and I can get the filters for a discount through work. I will post if I make one to let you know the results.
After watching a few videos of homemade fan/filters built for fifty bucks or so, I'm leaning that way myself. Probably get some pushback form SWMBO but I'll make my best case. It will be predominately for dust so furnace filters will be fine. Don't have room for a five filter giant cube but something like this could work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-_8uyShk_k

[Tony Joyce]

We just recently(12/2020) installed a Trane CleanEffects whole house filter on our furnace. While I can't speak to the dust part yet, the odor removal portion works great.
We also installed a UV light. Something more people should consider.
Also if you don't have a humidifier you should consider one, it helps with breathing and your solid wood furniture will thank you, especially if you are using oil or wood heat.

[Doug Dawson]

After watching a few videos of homemade fan/filters built for fifty bucks or so, I'm leaning that way myself. Probably get some pushback form SWMBO but I'll make my best case. It will be predominately for dust so furnace filters will be fine. Don't have room for a five filter giant cube but something like this could work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-_8uyShk_k

That’s a shop-acceptable solution. The problem you might run into is that 1) those cheap fans like he used last about a year on average, typically; 2) the wife-acceptance-factor is going to be pretty poor, visually; 3) they are _noisy_. The last one might be the real deal-killer in a bedroom. The better units are whisper-quiet, you barely even know they’re running.

[Brian Elfert]

Also if you don't have a humidifier you should consider one, it helps with breathing and your solid wood furniture will thank you, especially if you are using oil or wood heat.

A lot of experts say that many houses don't need a humidifier. People tend to put too much moisture into the air which rots out windows and such.

[Dave Zellers]

2) the wife-acceptance-factor is going to be pretty poor.

:) Yeah, I decided to not even bring up making one. Would never fly. :)

[Thomas Wilson]

I have a bunch of Honeywell air filters to help with my wife’s allergies. They work. The cost of the pre-filter material is not too bad but the main HEPA filters are really high.

[Dave Zellers]

I have a bunch of Honeywell air filters to help with my wife’s allergies. They work. The cost of the pre-filter material is not too bad but the main HEPA filters are really high.

Thanks for that, as I get serious about my search, Honeywell is on the list. My wife has moderate to mid level Spring allergies and some Fall leaf mold allergies so if we are going to do this, we might as well do it so it solves those. We had to stop bringing cut daffodils into the house in the spring because of this. Her reaction is not horrible which is why I said this is mostly about dust, but two birds with one stone... albeit a more expensive stone. :)

[Tom Bender]

Wow, that video is scary. His TS technique is terrible and his BS is not any better. 3/4" plywood sure makes for a heavy fan.

[Dave Zellers]

Wow, that video is scary. His TS technique is terrible and his BS is not any better. 3/4" plywood sure makes for a heavy fan.

LOL. Yes most of his videos are like that. I'm surprised he still has all his fingers. Still, I might make something like that for my shop.

We went with this one- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CNQQM9N/ Arrives today- really looking forward to it.