Beth
#1
Fire season is upon us, and after having a fire in our neighborhood last night, I’m motivated to take advantage of Amazon Prime Day and pick up an air purifier or two. Maybe if I buy these it will act as insurance and there won’t be another fire!
Wirecutter (the NYT reviewers) recommends the Coway and Blue Air brands.
Does anyone have any recommendations or tips on what I’m looking for so I can pick the best one?
I’d get one for a ginormous room, and then one more for a normal sized room.
(PS, the fire is under control)
Alpha
#2
3 Likes
Beth
#3
OOOhhh, right! I remember seen those videos during the height of covid!
I have a few - the Coway 1512 recommended by Wirecutter years ago where they did a test comparing various brands. The Coway model came out on top, so I bought a bunch and distributed them around, bedroom, living room etc. Change the filters regularly (I do it more often than the 6mo and 1 year suggested, because LA air is filthy). But I put them on the low setting, otherwise the fan kicks in noisily sometimes - there’s no advantage to higher speed on the fan, as that’s just to clear the air faster, slow and steady is just fine, and I prefer quiet. Also, avoid the ion setting, more harm than good, I don’t want ozone in my lungs, thanks.
2 Likes
sol
#5
Coway user here. Love it. Quiet(ish) and you can get cheap(er) replacement filters than the brand name that work just fine.
(On sale now! No, I don’t get a kick-back. Wish I did for all the times I’ve recommended this.)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01728NLRG
2 Likes
Beth
#6
Ordered!!! Must be like you and @CronosTempi
1 Like
I have 2 Coway 240’s in the house
1 Like
Beth
#8
Excellent to know! I went down the very deep rabbit hole of the 1512 vs the 240!!
It seems the 240 cleans the smoke out of the room slightly faster, but after torturing myself, I just went with the cheaper one because my goal is to never use it!
However, we know if I spend more, it will guarantee I’ll never need to use it!
1 Like
I have ours running all the time on “low”. Indoor air quality is one of those overlooked “longevity” hacks
2 Likes
Beth
#10
I have wondered about this. Our little town is known to have pretty good air quality so I’ve not paid attention.
From what you know, would you use it indoors even if you have great air quality outside? I know Cronos Tempi lives in LA which has much worse air than we do here. You?
We had looked into getting the zehnder whole house ventilation system, but when the guy selling it said you are wasting your money if you plan to keep your windows open, we decided against it.
I think it’s cheap “insurance”.
The Coway units have an air quality sensor and if I leave it on automatic it really kicks in when we cook. And we do have a range hood that we use. I’ve heard it ramp up a few times when I was not aware of any indoor air quality issues.
Air quality is very subjective and impossible to gauge (unless very bad) without instrumentation. It can also be very localized so a large city can have a range from great to super bad and vary constantly or be the same for weeks on end.
I have used the “myRadar” app for 9 years and it will provide air quality alerts, we get those once or twice a week even though we are in a small city surrounded by farm land and 40 minutes from Lake Erie. Again, I would not even notice that the air quality was not perfect.
1 Like
Beth
#12
That is helpful. I’ll leave the one I ordered on and see if it goes on (I’ll check to see if that is auto as well)… and if it does, I guess I’ll commit to having them out all the time… I’m a looks-ist and was trying to avoid that
I’ll check out that app as well, thx!
I wonder if it’s better to have two 1512’s for a ginormous room (one on each end) vs one more powerful one on one end. At the very least, the 1512 could go in the bedroom
1 Like
I use an IQ air. Pricey but works for me.
2 Likes
OK. Why not just use air quality monitors at home? That is going to be more accurate than generalized measurements of air quality in your city. The latter is useful for outside activities such as exercise etc., but of limited use inside the home, seems to me. FWIW, I have several air quality monitors at home, in my bedroom, kitchen, living room etc.
1 Like
Those are nice units.
I do have several cheap CO2 monitors around the house and office as they are a reasonable indicator of basic air quality, if CO2 is high something is going on. .
2 Likes
The Blueair filters have an air quality embedded. They measure and plot PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 over time. They also have an automatic mode that will increase the filtering if needed to clear the room of particles.
I have several Blue Pure 211i Max and I like them. Pretty silent except when they go at full speed to clean a room.
1 Like
Clearing the Air: How an Air Quality Researcher Takes Care of the Air Her Family Breathes
1 Like
Beth
#18
If I’m reading that article correctly, it leads me to believe if you have a large great room, it might be better to have multiple purifiers running than one bigger one.
In the article they mention how bathroom/shower fans might help air quality. That never occurred to me. I’ll share a tip for anyone who might be building a home…if possible, have remote fans (ours are in the attic), instead of installing them in the ceiling, and that way you can keep them on all the time and never hear a sound.
Ok, anyone recommend an air quality monitor … maybe a remote one where I can walk around room to room to check things out?
1 Like
Well, using several purifiers allows you to filter the air faster at lower fan speed, so that makes sense. That’s the approach I took, because I don’t like fan noise.
2 Likes
