Sharp FP-P35CX Future Filter Availability?

A Reader writes:

Hi Ed,

Good idea about the tape and additional prefilter. :)

Do you also happen to know whether any other filter (from Sharp or others) will fit the FP-P35CX?

Sharp filters are not readily available - unlike my 10+ year old Holmes and Hunter purifiers (can buy at Target or filters-now.com).

I'm a little concerned about not being able to buy filters 5-10 years from now.

Regards,

A Reader.

Ed's Reply

Hey Reader;

Filter availability is an issue with many brands today.

Sharp's filters last longer than the typical air purifier - Hunter and Holmes filters are available due to their frequent replacement intervals, a serious profit center for the manufacturer.

These machines are designed as loss leaders for the filter business.

The chief characteristic of this type marketing is inadequate prefiltering, which allows the HEPA, or as often a HEPA-imitator, to clog with visible dust, fooling the naive purifier consumer into believing that their air is being cleaned and that new filters are necessary.

The old best-seller Ionic Breeze's main selling point was "Look at all the junk that accumulates on the collection blades!" This was almost entirely visible dust that any cheap vacuum would pick up.

Just yesterday I dismantled an old Holmes tabletop model. It had a thick layer of coarse dust coating the upstream side of the HEPA-type filter.

I threw out the old filter, but will not pay $30 for filters for a machine that cost $30 to start with.

My five year old Sharp FPN60CX still runs 24/7 with the original HEPA. I have refilled the carbon bag after 4 1/3 years. My total maintenance cost for this machine is under $20 for five years - absolutely untouchable economy.

The secret to HEPA life is prefiltering to keep large visible dust, say above 10 microns, out of the HEPA. It takes trillions of sub-micron particles to clog a medium sized true-HEPA, which will clog in just weeks when exposed to clouds of 50 micron dust - say in a pottery workshop.

I use the old Holmes/Hunters as prefilters when the original overpriced HEPA clogs. I fill them with cut to size materials from the big box retailer's furnace filter aisles. It is easy to cut down a MERV 11 or better filter to fit any size box. I use layers of washable polyurethane foam prefilters in these coarse-dust-catchers.

For the consumer, the message is "An air purifier is NOT a substitute for a vacuum cleaner," as a majority of buyers falsely presume.

But I do not guarantee future filter availability for Sharps.

Sharp sells far fewer filters, so retailers have little incentive to carry them.

Older Plasmacluster filters, and numerous other brands, are disappearing from inventories everywhere during the economic downsizing currently underway. The air cleaner industry was due for a shakeout even without the "recession."

The only filters I can be sure of seeing 10 years from now are the Austins and IQAirs - modular filters which fit an entire product line.

A very large number of current products will be gone then, possibly including the Sharps.

I have three 14-inch round Honeywells, one is almost 10 years old, for which filters are still available. Honeywell saw the future a few years ago and switched to a stackable modular design for their 14-round products.

I estimate the average life expectancy many non-premium class air cleaners sold today to be less than 2 years.

If you have 10 year old Hunters & ect you are beating the odds.

I don't think there are are filter substitutes for the 35 series Sharps, though there has been discussion on the Contact-Mail list about 60-series swaps.

Best wishes,

Ed