apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Yes! I' would love this-
where can I get it??!

$18 for scentless??? There's something sort of "emperor's new clothes" about this. Why not just get a lump of charcoal? or put charcoal or baking soda in an interesting container? That would cost much less than $18, and to the same practical and aesthetic effect.

They used to be available at

Please tell me you know of a source in the United States ... ordering information on their website is in Japanese. I can't use scented products and this would be a wonderful alternative.

This thing is stupid. Look up any sort of air purifier information provided by consumer reports or the government and you'll see that to effectively clean the air in a 200 sqft room with an 8' ceiling you need an airflow of about 163 CFM (cubic feet/minute). This is 10 times the average ventilation rate for a household with one person in it according to industry standards.

Given that air can't move through the cube faster than it moves through the house, you'd need to have a 10x ventilation system running in order to make one cube process the air of your 200 square foot room. Make it 6 cubes like the site recommends (a bargain at only $108!) and you've only got to have a ventilation system with a 60% higher CFM than standard. I'm sure all our apartments have that, especially the old buildings without forced ventialation.

If you think a couple of these carbon cubes are going to magically scrub your air of odors I've got a great bridge to sell you.

Aren't air fresheners different than air purifiers?

In this case no. If it's charcoal it would "freshen" by trapping particulate matter (odor causing compounds) in the charcoal. This requires that the particles be driven through the structure of the cube to encounter the microscopically jagged edges of the charcoal and get caught.

Many traditional fresheners work by dispersing something into the air that either masks odor or traps odor causing compounds and pulls them to the floor or otherwise destroys them.

So given that this idiotic thing is formed of pure carbon and isn't shooting that out into the air (which would be bad), it can only function like an air purifier. It's essentially a filter with no method to draw air through it.

Think of it this way. You can vaccuum up dust in your home (air purifier). You can lay sheets down over dusty areas (air freshener). Or you can leave a swiffer in a corner and hope that all the dust in your home somehow blows onto it and gets caught (the fabulous Chikuno Cube!).

max, i think i love you.... keep talking science, baybee!!!

Just curious. Where does Max's infinite hatred for this cube come from? Most would be content just to say it sucks.

viva la max!

acw, I hate when companies sell crap to people. I hate phony "holistic" medicine that's diluted so much ANY active ingredient is rendered ineffective (try looking up the ingredients of many herbal pills). I hate those magical amulets people by that "emit a protective field" to sheild you from the "harmful rays" emited by electronics (those are real, check em out). I can't stand quackery, flim-flamery, and woo-woo "it's magic!" claims.

I hate when people have irrational fears of "chemicals". Think about it people, just about everything is a "chemical". That all natural tea tree oil that's way better than evil chemicals? Well according to some new studies it can cause huge hormonal imbalances in children and bring on early puberty.

This magic cube is in the same realm as those magnetic stickers people buy to put on their gas tanks to give them "increased milage due to molecularly aligning the fuel".

What really gets me worked up is when people simply don't think things through and let themselves be fooled by packaging and outlandish claims.

We have brains, we should try to use them.

@G Lump of charcoal would do the job fine.
But remember, this is highly condensed (so even if you touch it, charcoal won't be on your hand), high quality charcoal. And I've heard it's very effective.
If you like smelly ones, you can find them in supermarket. Pick up some headache tablets as well.
But if you would like to get rid of smell, or other 'benefits' of charcoal, then I think this is very good one. Best looking one at least