Cleaner Home Air?The fact that you are here gaining knowledge is the first step toward a cleaner, healthier residential environment.
Many people buy air purifiers with expectations far beyond what even the best can deliver. Homes with multiple smokers and several pets, or large families with active children, can have pollutant reintroduction rates and accumulation much higher than quiet rooms with one occupant. An air cleaner may offer improvement in home air quality, but will not eliminate secondhand smoke, pet dander, or particulate mater where many feet track in and out. I built my country home on a sandy hillside. Fine sand and hardwood forest leaf mold, tracked in by a family of five, makes a very dusty environment. Being chemically sensitive, I exclude all toxins from the interior. So a HEPA filter serves that environment pretty well. But since moving to an apartment in sunny uptown Houston, petrochemical capital of the western world, I need a whole different breed of air purifier, for chemicals in the air. Most dwellings today have chemical sources which cannot easily be removed, like building materials and furniture. Everyone should consider a carbon volatile organic chemical filter. I recommend first removing as many pollutant sources as possible, then evaluating your needs, and then considering the technology available. Evaluation CriteriaYour first priority should be to do no harm; many "air purifiers" sold today emit ozone, and/or outgas chemicals.Some are powerful ozone generators. Others emit ozone as a byproduct of ionization or electronic air cleaning. Everyone knows about the "good" ozone layer of the earth’s atmosphere and how it protects us from harmful ultraviolet radiation. But routine, daily ozone exposure in the home is hazardous to your health, ignore all who claim it is safe! For more ozone info, see technologies navbar. Out gassing should also be considered. Many consumer items sold today are toxic: from toys to toothpaste. Some home air cleaners have chemical components that break down and release toxic fumes. Many cheaper HEPA type filters use toxic adhesives to seal folds. Polypropylene filters do less out gassing. Soft plastic, with the highest solvent levels, is cheaper to use in consumer appliances. Painted finishes often out-gas chemicals, seek zero-out gassing paint. Electric motors require lubrication. When hot, electric motors outgass prtroleum and plastic vapors. Sealed motors, or motor placement ahead of carbon filters, prevent vapors from being discharged.
ChemicalsAn air cleaner must provide real gas and odor removal if health benefits are expected.This generally means activated carbon, measured in pounds, not ounces. A home air purifier with real activated carbon costs more. Gas molecules, called Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), are 0.001 micron and smaller and cannot be removed by even the best HEPA particle filter. VOC’s are carbon based airborne chemicals vaporized from a huge number of common household products and furnishings. For more on carbon and VOC, see Technologies navbar.
Air Cleaner ConstructionOne item that many consumers miss is quality internal construction. Manufacturers know this, and even some good household air cleaner brands will skimp where they think nobody notices. It is real easy, and profitable, to build a leaky air purifier: sealed units need stronger, better built motors. Clogged filters restrict cooling air to motors, a leaky system allows cooling air to flow past dirty filters, protecting cheap motors. A solid case, good gaskets, real seals, and precision fitting eliminate bypassing and assure high efficiency at cleaning sub-micron particles. In this category there is no residential air cleaner better than IQAir. IQ Air Purifier HealthPro Plus Comprehensive Review A residential air cleaner design should maximize the lifespan of each filter stage by allowing independent filter replacement. Some air cleaners combine all filter elements into one bundled cartridge; HEPA and carbon in one. While this can be economical, it is sometimes inflexible in varied environments, containing either high particulate or high chemical pollutants. The Austin Air cleaner is a quality example. Austin Air Purifier: HealthMate Review I have seen several consumer reviews expressing dissatisfaction with their carbon cartridge air cleaner, after leaving it running in the swimming pool, garage, basement, or other chemically contaminated or damp area. Sorry, regular readers, but I must repeat: please remove pollutant sources before installing your an air cleaner in your home. Best economy occurs when independent filter replacement is combined with electronic filter monitoring. Many air purifiers have no filter monitoring. Some cheaper units fake filter monitoring by clocking, rather than measuring air resistance. They tell you to change filters about every 60 days, whether the filter is really dirty or not. Again, the IQAir leads this category, with sensor chips in every filter stage and true filter status displays.
Operating CostsA good air purifier has long filter life.Smaller HEPA air purifiers often need frequent filter changes, in a few cases the filter costs as much as the initial purchase. Numerous cheap air purifiers are marketing loss-leaders for pricey filters. Nobody wants to search the household budget for cash to buy filters. So what about the filterless models on TV?" With electrostatic models you trade filter replacement costs for your labor cleaning the air cleaner. The ads make you think it's effortless. In my humble opinion, Such conditions allow bypassing, not cleaner home air. Who likes cleaning the filthy bagless vacuum? Anybody volunteering to wash the dishes? Why do consumers fall for the easy cleanup advertising? Long filter life is the strength of the economical Austin Airs. Many consumers want to change filters without tools. Remember that sealed systems needto be pressurized, if the filter is loose and falls right out, how well did it block air? Manufacturers bow to thiseasy access pressure too often. For an example of a fine air cleaner that went a little too far in easy filter access, see Blueair 601 Review Reasonable operating costs include energy use, home air purification using over 100 watts is going to cost money over the years. EPA "Energy Star" ratings measure clean air deliveryrate per watt (CADR/w), and provide comparative data. A leading energy-efficient and extremely frugal air purifier is the Sharper Image Hybrid GP. See Sharper Image Hybrid GP Review Sharp Plasmacluster FPN60CX is another very energy frugal air cleaner. Sharp Plasmascluster FPN60CX Review ConvenienceAn air purifier cannot clean air when it is turned off. Noise levels must be commensuratewith cleaning power. Some "silent" air purifiers do little cleaning, others are louder than they ought to be while cleaning. The right questions are;
See "Quiet Air Purifier"under Technology navbar for more. See Sharp FPN60CX linked above, for the quiet king of air cleaners. Electronic controls are very helpful, especially filter monitoring. I have nineair cleaners in my apartment home. Those with remotes are my favorites. In the future, housing will have computers to monitor air quality, until then I like the gas and dust sensors on my automated Sharp FPN60CX, a "clean air toy." Evaluate ManufacturerDoes the air purifier manufacturer have a good track record, with many air cleaners sold? Here is a minefield many buyers walk right into. On the low density side, there are many good products which are not going to survive the coming shakeout as this industry matures. Even reputable manufacturers and dealers must move inventory of discontinued, returned, or superseded models without making a lot of noise. The recent quiet introduction of the upgraded Friedrich C90B, Friedrich Air Purifier Review while the old C90A, with a surprise sales boost from ConsumerReports, sold like crazy, is one example. A majority of buyers did not realize they were paying full retail price for a discontinued C90A while the 20% more powerful C90B was available at the same price. Honeywell is not going away, but they recently discontinued about 20 models, leaving dealers and recent buyers holding the bag. Industry sales leaders, (Oreck and Ionic Breeze) with millions ("McPurifier") sold, offer little security on the high density side. I am loath to badmouth a bad product or dishonest company, you must read carefully. Air-Purifier-Power uses a 100 point scale, meticulously adhered to, to rate products. Any air cleaner rated below 75 is not among the best. Below 70 is "not recommended." Good vendors build a reputation for customer support, but bad customer support, poor warranty service, and returned-product-no-refund rip-offs are easy to hide. All webmasters know how this is done, but casual surfers will not recognize a "blind" search engine results page. Try adding "+complaint" to your product search and then look at the sites returned. If you get script generated scraper sites on page one, how deeply buried are any real complaints? Who would build a no profit page about vendor complaints under that pile? Easy Credit Rip-offGreat customer support can usually be measured by simply phoning the number, before you buy. Qualitycompanies answer the phone.Try pretending you have an accounting problem, like maybe you returned the product 90 days ago, but haven't seen a credit to your account. Good vendors, though few, rush to resolve these issues. But some make millions with easy product return scams. They take back the product with a smile, but "forget" to credit your account. You complain, they put you on hold. After repeated calls, you give up. Next month, you get a letter from a collections agency saying you owe for two home air cleaners, the one you returned and a faked replacement. This was common in ghetto areas in the material world, but scams are so easy everywhere on the www (wild.wild.web.) End Home Air Purifier, try Sitemap
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