Did you know that the worst air pollution is indoor air pollution? We've become huge air purifier fans (no pun intended) and these pictures are living proof that our air, at least, is dirty and is now cleaner. And we'd far rather have all this thick fuzzy grey mat of particles on that filter than still circulating in our home.
In our small apartment we have three air purifiers. This one is the bigger one and it lives in the closet, but is able to circulate air throughout the main room. It's a Honeywell Ultra Quiet HEPA unit, and what you are seeing is all the dirt it has collected since September. That's roughly four months.
We feel that with these machines, not only is our air noticeably cleaner, our apartment is as well. They take out of the air a lot of the dust particles that would otherwise settle on our surfaces, so, in a sense, we don't have to clean as much.
The reason we're vacuuming the filter is because this unit has one of those long, endless life filters that can be cleaned in this way. You vacuum off the outside of the filter every few months or so and it should last you a couple of years. That's the theory at least. We'll review it in our Test Lab when we've had a bit more experience.
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The question I have is whether we know enough about what we should and should not be breathing to correctly filter out the bad stuff and keep the good. It's a bit like filtering out all bacteria (with, say, anti-biotics). That's the ticket to ill-health.
There were these cheese-making nuns in Connecticut who were forced by well-meaning FDA inspectors to switch to stainless steel vats from wooden. It spoiled all their cheese. It turns out that the wood that they were using had natural properties that killed the bad bacteria and kept the good.
I think that one needs to guard oneself against glorifying the life antiseptic as the life healthy, or the life worth living.
How is the air purifier able to filter your living room while it lives in the closet? I've avoided getting one of these, as they're rather unsightly. It wouldn't seem as though it could purify very well while inside of a closet..
Speaking of all that dust, what do you guys recommend as a great vaccum cleaner for a small apartment (aka no storage room for massive upright vaccums!)? I've had a powerful handheld, bagless Shark for a couple of years, and the suction is amazing, but the filters become so clogged with dirt/dust it's hard to clean!
What'dya say???
man, I love this site...
:)
I'm going to echo Design Dabbler's comment. Indoor air does have a higher concentration of dust, so maybe having one to get rid of so much dust [or you can just use a rag like people have been doing forever]. but elliminating bacteria from our lives is why allergies, asthema, and auto-immune diseases are so much more prevalent than they were 50 [or even 20!] years ago
A lot of dirt is dead skin cells and little microscopic critters - I doubt it's a bad thing if those are removed from the air you breathe. Likewise with air pollution. I doubt these filters remove much in the way of bacteria from the air - they're pretty small, and would pass right thru.
I was using bacteria more as an example of something that we should not eliminate wholesale from our lives. The same is true, I think, of irritants of various types, or dustmites, or even dead skin cells. Do we know what role, say, dead skin plays evolutionarily? Are we better off removing irritants from our environment than letting our bodies develop ways of coping? For certain irritants -- asbestos, for example, or tobacco -- the answer is known, but I don't think we know the answer in general. Purification, may not be the answer in every case.
Any recs for a smaller filter? We're looking for one for the bedroom.
Also, I don't think purifying your air is the same as overusing anti-biotics or antiseptics. That argument sounds a lot like the argument that eating non-organic food is good for you because it gets you used to pesticides. If you look at indoor pollution stats, specifically the number of VOCs put out by paint, mattresses, furniture, etc, theres no way you want to be inhaling that stuff.
I think it was just all the dusty Oprah folks tracked it all in, is all.
The problem with vacuuming the air filter is that you are reintroducing some of what has been trapped in your air purifier through the exhaust in your vacuum.
Even if your vacuum cleaner has a HEPA filter you've now just transferred the dust to it's filter, which then needs to be cleaned and/or thrown out. Kind of redundant isn't it?
Might as well get an air purifier with a disposable filter.
Isn't filtering the air we breath what our noses are designed to do. I do, however, like the idea that dust is filtered out, anything that reduces dusting can't be a bad thing.
connie is right.
You people crazy. As long as there aren't toxic materials in your living environment, ventilation system or immediate outdoor air, there is little you can do. Besides, most of the particles that are really harmful are smaller than any filter can capture. The stuff that these filters help with is when you have animals, smokers or a sawmill next door. The really bad stuff, like auto pollution, heavy metals and certain molds are not captured by filters.
Andrea,
Back when Martha had a catalog I drooled over the Miele stick vaccuum with HEPA filter in Martha Green. It's small enough to fit in a broom closet. I never got around to buying it, but Miele generally gets high marks (and apparently it's Martha approved).
i have been using an air purifier for the past 5 years. last year i switched from vornado to a very slim model from sharp. the sharp is quiet and blends in well with light color walls.
Andrea and Szig,
My Miele stick vaccuum (a white one) is the bomb. You can get it at any number of sites online. Mine came from Williams Sonoma a few years ago, and it's still working fabulously. It's so light that I can hang it from a hook in my closet.
david- i was wonderin the same thing. seems like would have to be super powerful air flow/filter.
but we'll never get an answer to the question...which is why i don't ask anymore.
I thought that someone would mention that the best filters for the air are plants. buy some.
then take a damp cloth and wipe all the dust away about once a week.
Andrea - Check out the Eureka Quick-Up Vacuum. It's a stick vacuum that converts to a hand-held and can be mounted on the wall. It's tiny but fairly powerful and comes with a filter.
Link : http://tinyurl.com/ypbzju
I have thought about buying a filter but with a tight budget I want to make sure I buy the right one. What are people's experiences with different filters as far as filtering capabilities, noise, cost, lifetime etc...?
This has been on my to buy list since I moved into the City. Thanks for reminding me. These are the three that got good reviews on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-04161-Purifier-Germicidal/dp/B000050AOT/sr=8-4/qid=1171128582/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4/002-5131848-0255219?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden
http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-17000-HEPA-QuietCare-Cleaner/dp/B00007FS10/sr=8-9/qid=1171128582/ref=pd_bbs_9/002-5131848-0255219?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden
http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-HFD-130-Germicidal-Purifier-Permanent/dp/B000AQQOF4/sr=8-8/qid=1171128582/ref=pd_bbs_8/002-5131848-0255219?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden
Have you tried Allergy Relief Store.com? It sells filters of all kinds. I don't like the kind Maxwell is using because air continues to flow over that dust and then back into circulation. That doesn't make sense to me. I buy really expensive filters that are meant to be used for three months, but I only use them for one month. The nose knows when 30 days have passed. I'm spending 20 times what I used to pay for a filter (I use MERV 13), but my home has almost no dust. I buy them by the case to save money.
I've purchased several air purifiers over the years, but always ended up getting rid of them because I felt like they were taking up space without doing much work. Can anyone recommend a purifier that really seems to work? I've always purchased cheap ones because I was unsure if they were woth the money, but I'd be willing to spend more if there was one that would really do the job!
If you live in a small apartment that doesn't have generous ventilation, air filters are a bonus.
It's frightening how much dust is generated by clothing, carpets, pets, etc, etc. And it simply gathers and circulates within your dwelling if it is not taken out.
It would be a different matter altogether if we were talking about installing these in the great outdoors and filtering everything in sight; I think these filters are great inventions, and am shopping for one.
As for the nun analogy, that's somewhat of a crapshoot. The fact of the matter is that they had no idea what was growing in the wood barrels till after the fact. What if those same 'helpful' bacteria also produced neurotoxins? The fact is, they didn't know (hence "it turns out").
I live on a main street in lower Manhattan and have an Enviracaire IFD High Performance Air Purifier 60001, at the recommendation of my doctor, who is Board Certified in Environmental Medicine/an MPH. I am NOT one of those people who believes in hyperclean environments - but there is lots of data that fine pollution from cars is very bad for your heart, no matter how well you take of yourself, which is why I have this. Visually, it isn't bad. I bought my first filter after 9/11, an Austin Air, and this one is MUCH more effective - I end up with black soot on the wall next to it, so it is clearly doing something. Don't bother with the SharperImage filters - they don't do anything. Read Consumer Reports about this. I have only one filter in a 900 sq ft "loft" with 11 foot ceilings - my doctor said that all that would happen is the air wouldn't cycle through the filter as often as in a smaller space. And where vacuuming a filter with a HEPA vac is concerned - I wouldn't worry too much about what comes out in the exhaust. Consumers recommends the SEARs storebrand vac - Where filters and HEPA are concerned, "works well" is more important than "pretty."
We're happy with the Vornado (about $200) from Bed, Bath...
I don't know what that thick white dust is but the less in my lungs the better. The air in the room is noticeably fresher too.
The charcoal pre-filters are easy to replace and cost $20 for 3-4. The main filter is more($80) but is only changed about once a year. I had a Honeywell Enviracaire before and found it more physically intrusive and a little harder to clean and my cat peed on top of it once.
Other people mentioned some of the things that I thought of, but I have something else to wonder... if the filter is actually IN the closet, wouldn't whatever fan it might have almost kind of break down the fibers of the clothes in there and then have THEM clog up the filter?
I'd think that might be part of what you're finding in the filter.
For that air purifier to work well, it needs to have at least 3 feet of clearance around the unit. Do you have that in your closet? I was also thinking that a lot of that white stuff may be coming off your felt doors.
The people who are asking how do we know that dust is bad for you... likewise, there is about as much evidence that smog is bad for you. Are you advocating that we shouldn't prevent smog? I mean, to what levels are you willing to take your argument? As for your armchair public health ruminations (which are themselves, armchair scientific ruminations) about how there didn't used to be asthma 50 years ago, have you wondered about why that may be the case? Oh, just off the top of my head 1) more air pollution and 2) better diagnosis of asthma? But what do I know, I'm just a mathematician. I'm sure you're a pulmonologist.
This is late, but I thought I'd add. I'm looking to get a purifier because I oil paint, and my apartment is poorly ventilated. I found this site:
http://www.air-purifier-power.com/
which is put together by a guy who's really into air purifiers, and has independently reviewed a bunch. He has a "top ten", which I found helpful.
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