[OP]
Contributor
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.
Member
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.Originally Posted by Dave Zellers
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.
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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.
Beranek's Law:
It has been remarked that if one selects his own components, builds his own enclosure, and is convinced he has made a wise choice of design, then his own loudspeaker sounds better to him than does anyone else's loudspeaker. In this case, the frequency response of the loudspeaker seems to play only a minor part in forming a person's opinion.
L.L. Beranek, Acoustics (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1954), p.208.
[OP]
Contributor
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.
Member
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.
Contributor
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....light=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
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ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
FOUR - CO2 lasers
THREE- make that FOUR now
ONE - vinyl cutter
CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle
Friend of the Creek
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
Contributor
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
Ex-SCM and Felder rep
Contributor
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.
[OP]
Contributor
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
Contributor
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.
"Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.”
Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805)
"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking."
Henry Ford
Member
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.
Contributor
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.
[OP]
Contributor
Member
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.
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