The DARK TRUTH about Air Purifiers
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- čas přidán 25. 06. 2024
- For millions of people in North America, air purifiers have become a signature household item. This billion dollar industry keeps growing by the minute, promising us one of basic human needs - clean air. But, how did we go from having a general concern about the air we breathe… to this?
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Script: Marieli Aixa
Editor: Matthew Veal
Project Manager: Lurana McClure Rodríguez
Host: Levi Hildebrand
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I am not normally one to comment. But I am an expert in air cleaners. I am an Environmental Engineer (PhD) who conducted her research on respiratory aerosol transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic (including air cleaners). While that one study you shared may have had conflicts of interest, there are so many that do not. My advisor conducted research in the 1990s during her PhD that showed that air cleaners were effective at decreasing tuberculosis in bulk air in a room. Indoor Air Cleaners are one of many layered strategies that should be implemented to reduce spread of airborne diseases indoors. The biggest issue I've seen are air cleaners that say they reduce VOCs but actually just produce ozone, which is bad to breathe in. There is also a lack of 3rd party testing for air cleaners that would more objectively show their effectiveness. As long as you buy a HEPA certified air cleaner with a high CADR, you are good. Though it is important to size the units properly for your home.
If you would like an opinion on air cleaner brands that are reputable, please let me know and I'd be happy to share!
Thank you so much for your insight!
Best comment
@@tehyas4622 Yes please, I'm looking for one for my pollen allergy!
Get this comment to the top, stat.
Guess O' Hare really did find a way to sell air
I bought air purifiers for my house when last year's wildfires were giving me debilitating migraines. It made a big difference. I know it won't solve all of my problems, but it helps me stay pain-free.
Same here Canadian wildfires caused the NYC area to look like apocalyptic setting in a horror movie with unsafe orange sky's and air, so on that my air purifier did help quite a bit.
As someone with allergies, I've known about air purifiers for ages. They're handy devices, especially for helping keep dust down, and the right one at least helps cut down the issues of smoke from forest fires within the place. But yeah, it's absolutely insane just how much the air purifier market has exploded, and how so many of them are hundreds of dollars for something to feel good...
Personally I'm just looking to get one for the future. When I eventually move out, I'll have to live in a studio in the city. Which will get quite nasty air whise. Especially since I like to keep my windows open.
make Corsi-Rosenthal Box ( A fan and some hvac filters taped together). Effective, cheap and scientifically proven to work.
I have a friend that live in Washington. SHe has multiple air purifiers to deal with all the wild fire smoke. The air gets near unliveable at times with all the smoke
Competition is good, makes it cheaper for you to buy
@@RoberttSmithh Yeah, but oversaturation leads to a significant amount of inferior products that look nice, but are actually garbage. With no regulation behind the industry people are effectively buying placebos.
Honestly there isn't a lot of technology behind air purifiers. You don't have to pay thousands for them. Pretty much just a fan, a 3M HEPA filter, and some duct tape and you'll have effectively the same thing (maybe won't look as nice).
this is called a Corsi-Rosenthal Box
anything with "and some duct tape" at the end of it is gonna be awesome
@@FutureProofTV yea you should get one its like over 50% effective against pretty much everything. I have one in my house. :en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsi%E2%80%93Rosenthal_Box#cite_note-23
Corsi rosenthal box with pc fans = quiet and cheap to run
There are companies that sell ready to go kits like clean air kits for those that don’t want to diy
@@thomaslund-molfese5321 People have been strapping filters onto the back of box fans for many decades before those two idiots with PhDs claimed to invent it. I know plenty of people with woodworking shops who've been doing it for decades.
Disabled folks and people with chronic conditions are the people I hear talking about this the most. Personally, I got very very sick last year when the smoke from the Canadian wildfires spread. And that was despite wearing a mask! Now that severe wildfires have been increasingly common, we should try to ensure that everyone gets better air. Especially with airborne diseases running unchecked, ant-mask sentiment, etc. etc. It would also be a boon for schools. Remember how sluggish classes would get during warm afternoons? I've also heard anecdotally of people going to conventions and struggling to breathe due to how packed the area was. We need to do more to take this seriously.
I live in Milan, one of the most polluted city of Europe, given its geographical conformation. This winter, every time I opened the windows, I could see the number of particles shown on my air purifier rising to concerning level. It was super reassuring to have one, and that's fucking depressing.
Damn
Our neighbours are all using wood stoves. The Pollution ist concerning and WE use Air purifiers. Migranes and breathing problems gone...
As a kid in the late 90s and early 2000s, my dad was OBSESSED with making sure we had air purifiers that were fully working, clean, and well maintained. There was an air purifier store and repair shop near us. He'd bring us along sometimes. Both my sister and I grew up with severe asthma, so he was very particular about making sure our home was as good as it could be. That shop is out of business and my dad has passed, but air quality stays on my mind to this day. Hopefully, we start worrying about improving the natural environment rather than selling temporary fixes for our constructed ones.
Do you continue to use air purifiers? How's the asthma doing?
You really did a disservice by not making it explicitly clear that a fan and a filter is all that's required and failing to mention the Corsi-Rosenthal box option.
Cheap, easy, and effective!
He may have never even heard of it, like me. I researched the hell out of air purifiers about 2 years ago (not because of the pandemic, but because I lived in Manhattan and have sinus issues) and had never heard of this until now. While a lot cheaper, it takes up a lot more space, it's ugly, and it's probably pretty loud which are all things people don't want in an air purifier haha
Yes! This simple device is a godsend during fire season.
Corsi-Rosenthal boxes are an excellent option _if_ you only care about large or inorganic particulate (dust, pollen, etc.). If you want to reduce VOCs (and if you're trying to promote general health rather than panic-reacting just to specific threats, you do), you need charcoal filters too. That can still be done in similar fashion, but the cost of activated carbon is significantly greater and DIY solutions will start costing as much as a similarly effective (yet simple and reasonably priced) commercial options.
All of that is going to pale in efficiency compared to solutions built into your ventilation (air exchange) systems, because they don't spend electricity re-filtering the same air over and over. Purify the incoming fresh air, expel the stale. That's especially important with expensive carbon filters, because most of the VOCs in your home/office (particularly the harmful ones) are from _within that space_ - at least so long as you're not near heavy industrial air polluters. Exchanging that air reduces VOCs even if you aren't filtering them or your carbon is completely used, and you get longer life out of the carbon filtration you do have. (The VOCs bind to the carbon until it all is inert; more VOCs through the filter = faster filter failure.)
RTINGS actually posted a video just after this one saying the CR box is the best air filter! czcams.com/video/RjN205kkwoY/video.htmlsi=8thISrPNrTMgv5gz
If my filter can’t make my farts smell good I don’t want it 😤
give me eucalyptus farts or give me death
@@FutureProofTV 👍🤣
Get a heavy carbon and HEPA filter. It’ll make your fart smell like the HEPA filter. I tested with my own silent-butt-deadly farts.
That's because your farts are a war crime.
A humidifier can do that. It's gonna smell like someone farted in a garden, or clean linen, or an eucalyptus forest. You get the gist!
I love my air purifier as someone with breathing issues
Me too! Wouldn't live without them.
Fun fact, you can get a box fan, and a 20x20 HVAC filter and tape it to the back of the fan.
98% as effective as an air purifier
The problem with a box fan is it may end up just sucking air from around the fan and not from the filter due to it not being a high static air pusher.
If you want to test, lay it on the ground, then feel what happens.
I did this and can confirm that it works. My box fan filter gathers dust very quickly. The results are clear.
Well, the question I was hoping to be answered - "do they work" - wasn't answered. Instead, this is just a rant about how companies rushing to fill a need are somehow bad for doing so.
that's most of this channel to be honest.... a lot of videos just boil down to: "ya this product is really nice and useful, and people get a lot out of it... but consumerism is bad so we're gonna make a clickbait video about how reusable water bottles and tote bags are destroying the planet"...
EXACTLY how I felt. I kept watching thinking okay, so...are they bad, are they good, is it worth having one...... and nothing!
5:13
@@SAMcCr34testhat boils down to the reason it got popularised in the first place, but does not answer all the other legitimate and seemingly beneficial reasons people are buying these for.
The title is clickbait and this video could've been 3 minutes long. He really doesn't know what he's talking about
You can make a pretty good air purifier for about $30-40. Better than most of the crap on the market, just think about it. Get a 20 inch box fan and a HEPA filter and tape the filter to the back of the fan.
If you want to get a little bit fancier with it, get 4 filters and build a box out of them and then put the fan on top (so that the air blows up) which will channel air from all directions through the filters and upward to disperse. These companies are fleecing you for what is ultimately a very simple product!
You can also go even cheaper with MERV13 filters. Healthy Home Guide has a video discussing research papers that show the superiority of homemade filters relative to the expensive ones in this video. Not to mention that the homemade ones draw way less power and are much quieter
who wants that ugly thing sitting in their living space though?
There is something left out on from this video, STENCH. In addition to the HEPA filter in air purifiers (which likely will help with dust mite and pollen allergies), many also have a layer of a carbon filter for absorbing odors. Not everyone wants to cover odors with fragrance and also there are some people who (to varying degrees) can not tolerate fragrances. Many people who live in an apartment can tell you that not only do sounds travel in from neighboring apartments but also smells such as cooking and smoking.
I credit my air purifiers for keeping my at risk spouse safe from COVID infection. Strategically placed fans, air purifiers, ventilation (open windows ) and high quality mask are effective tools when someone in household is sick. Bonus it helps with dust, cat hair and the various smells (including my neighbor's regular pot usage.. hallway reeks, no smell in our apartment).
Im sorry, but "Nobody knew what an air purifier was 10 years ago" is hyperbole at best, idiotic at worst. Air purifiers have been around and advertised on TV and other media for decades as solutions to allergies, dust, etc etc.
For real, feel like this channel is targeted towards people that have never researched anything and live on autopilot doing what their friends tell them to do?
Yeah, he should have said "Nobody cared what an air purifier was 10 years ago" and it woulda been more accurate lmao.
@@Triflixfilmsyou mean the vast majority of people?
@@willy4170 that's a very cynical view of life... Anecdotally, yes, most of my friends do research their purchases more than this channel would have led me to believe.
Yeah, I am staring at my Sharper Image air cleaner that has to be at least 20 years old. LOL
I have a ton of animals and am allergic to everything in nature. My air purifier made it possible for me to breath indoors. I just got it last year. I was very skeptical. But it totally works. And I use it in the kitchen because we don’t have good exhaust there. I don’t have any of the big fancy ones. I don’t even know ow what type it is. But I will never let mine go. So much dander and dust in there. It taught me how absolutely filthy my whole house and life is 😂😂
20 years ago, I had purchased an air purifier. The cost of the filter refills, at that time, was more than the cost of the machine. I eventually had to stop using the air purifier, as I was unable to find the filters anymore. Needless to say, I no longer use air purifiers
It sounds like a scam to make the filter refills so expensive! I have models like that too, and I just wash the filters in the shower even though they are not meant to be washed.
Why no reference to the Corsi-Rosenthal box? DIY and save money!
Because people have been using box fans with filters strapped to them for decades before those two idiots decided to say they created it.
@@grayrabbit2211 But the video didn't mention the idea, or the configuration.
@@mindstalk It's because it's not a product you can actually buy... Their target audience probably would find it to be too difficult
This video pointed some important things out - but apart from that it didnt really add much. I kept waiting for the "dark truth" part where you dive into the tech for example or actually uncover anything of additional value. And then the video ended : /
Did you miss the part where they're profiting off our need for clean air? lol
no one's forcing you to buy an air purifier. opening your windows or just breathing the "status quo" air is completely free, and as you've mentioned, here in NA, it's not a health issue for the most part.
@@FutureProofTV ...so?
@@FutureProofTVthat's really not much of a dark truth rather than just business logic. OP is right, misleading title is misleading.
@@FutureProofTVthat's not dark, that's just our every day reality now.
Simple and cheap DIY air filters made with MERV13 filters and a box are better than all the expensive ones! They don’t capture as high a percentage of particle per pass, but because they process air way faster they end up being multiple times more effective for all particle sizes. Plus, they usually pull way less power and are quieter.
Healthy Home Guide made a video (Hepa filters are a scam) summarizing a bunch of research papers showing this.
Nah air purifiers are the goat even doctors use them in their office.
I've seen doctors offices recently with them not plugged in anymore, we live in hell 🙃
weirdly I don't think I've ever been advertised or encountered the "air purifier protects you from illness" pitch. I've only ever seen and used them as products to help with allergens and as pet owner aids.
I've got a small one i keep by my bed to reduce dust and allergens. It helps me breathe better while i sleep, and as a bonus acts as a white noise machine. It was maybe $100 at Canadian Tire, $75 after instant rebate from Efficiency Nova Scotia. I didn't know people bought them for general home air quality.
I have an IKEA Dajlien model on my nightstand. The white noise is soothing and I don’t wake up with a stuffy nose either.
- Im a new dad!
-Hands the baby an electric screwdriver
… a drill?
Shortly after getting a parrot that gives off dust, I purchased a Honeywell HEPA filter, and have it run for 12 hours a day. It solved my wife's asthma problem. He, and the filter machine, are now 34 years old. Both parrot and filter are still in perfect working condition! Thanks, Honeywell. All the machine needs is changing the filters and a drop or two of oil onto the motor's shaft. Model 64000 for those who want to know.
I have 2 HEPA air filters in my house. It really cuts down on the dust in the air and very little dust settles on surfaces now. I got them when the wildfires in Canada were sending their smoke.
as someone who live in a very, very polluted city with aqi up to 200+, i have 6 hepa air purifiers at home. it makes an absolute difference in my household because we can't open the windows to air out the house.
I bought one 10 years ago (and very much knew what they were) and quickly found out that if you have forced air heating or central air conditioning, a nice whole house filter (that is changed regularly) will give you similar results.
Yeah, this was my thought too. Would it not make more sense to upgrade/filter the overall ventilation of ones home so as to have the air get cleaned before it even enters ones home, rather than purifying it after it's already entered one's home? Like, just put HEPA-filters on the ventilation? 🤷♀
My air purifier has a built in dehumidifier, before I purchased it I had re-occurring mold problems due to high levels of humidity since the ventilation in my bedroom sucks.
This created mold all behind my wardrobe and bed and it was a never ending battle with spray bleach and repainting walls.
As soon as I got my air purifier/dehumidifier 10 months ago (it's on 24/7) I no longer have mold.
I don't know if it's related or if I'm overthinking but I had really bad sleep paralysis episodes and now I rarely get them so for me air purifiers are a God send.
Air purifiers are great at reducing virus particles in the air. I made a CR box and had a small smart air purifier in college and it really helped me not catch COVID from my roommates (when combined with vaccinations). I don’t know what my family would’ve done without them during the wildfire smoke.
I teach in Asia and most classrooms have air purifiers to protect the kids from the bad pollution and reduce the spread of airborne illness. I’m surprised you didn’t cut more into dyson for irresponsibly marketing an air purifying mask that basically does nothing during a pandemic.
As a license hvac contractor your best shot if you have central air conditioner I recommend get a media cleaner it’s a big filter that last up to 12 months and pair it with a UV light. Have years of good feedback from customers with allergies or if there’s mildew on ductwork.
Thanks for your insight!
I have an air purifier because I mistakenly purchased one thinking it was a dehumidifier. In the end I kept it and been using it daily 😅 good for allergies I think
It made living indoors with animals possible for me and my kids so I think so.
As someone who live in the country with Air Quality Index above 200+.
This technology save our lives
Yes! My HEPA has been a saviour since covid hit the scene. You really don’t realise how much junk is in your air until you change a filter. Yikes. They should be in every public building - hospitals and schools at least!
Air purifiers are awesome. Do you need a $1200 dollar unit? Absolutely Not. This topic needed more research and a script with better writing.
What was the "dark truth"?
To replace our dark dirty air filters.
the industry that preys on your downfall bro????
there was none. this was a loosely constructed topic with a biased perspective against the consumerism of air purifiers. far lower quality than his usual videos. just browsing through the comment section will tell you about all the ideas and information that was completely ignored.
@@FutureProofTV That's like saying farmers prey on your need for food.
If manufacturers were deliberately making air worse, then you could say 'prey'.
@@mindstalk Many manufacturers are deliberately making air worse though.
Low quality air isn't a problem that's "always been there", the need for air purification has been created by a lack of regulation, and now people need to shell out in order to solve it personally.
The solution shouldn't need to be "buy a product" it should be regulation of corporations.
CZcams videos can cause a full on existential crisis. Gotta be careful with those CZcams videos. 😂😂
Right! I saw the thumbnail and thought, “We can’t have ANYTHING!” Lol
I guess I don’t understand what the dark truth was here.
Having my air purifiers on or off makes all the difference for someone with asthma. Its very very noticable when the PM2.5 specifically is elevated so I use filters that target that size. The industrial air conditioning systems where I work do a great job but its that bike ride home that kills me when its bad out so I just lay down with some clean air for a little.
Just my annecdote, I use levoit but have bought on sale for less than 70 because its ridiculous.
So what exactly is the dark truth? I was expecting some big exposé about how they're evil and actually killing you. But it sounds like they're a functional product but it's "bad" that the market has them at both lower and higher price points...?
My birds produce lots of dander and my partner has pollen allergies, a simple air purifier I thrifted years ago really works wonders.
Man we've been putting hepa filters in front of fans in the wood/metal/paint shop since forever. Before my time at least and I first graced shop class in the mid 90s.
Shit I put hepa filters on my dust collectors, charcoal filters at my soldering desk, charcoal filters in the metal shop + paint booth section, and THEN the whole things under negative air pressure just cuz I HATE DUST. In my home, it's hepa filters and a UVC light inside my HVAC (I have another UVC on my water, all of which is plumbed in copper). There is absolutely NO WAY I'm paying anywhere over $30 for a fan and a filter, idc how much lipstick they put on the pig.
You need a fan, a hepa filter, a charcoal filter and a UVC light. There's nothing being sold that's going to best that; those are all the tricks. Ionizing air, or creating ozone (O³) isn't air you want to breathe, don't fall for that BS.
i live in a city that has an average of 15x of 2.5pm dust particle concentration suggested by WHO. I will never stop using air purifier in my home.
I’ll be honest started watching your videos yesterday. I went through the entire catalogue and I’m now caught up…. From one proud Canadian to another, I’m flippin addicted to this channel. Keep up the great work!
I live in Thailand. And gosh!!! The mainly reason I got one is because of the pm2.5 issue (fine particles pollution) On certain months and certain regions it becomes worst people do get sick form it especially in the northern part of Thailand. When I look up on pollution air quality map. I do envy people of North America. You guys have great air over there.
I too glad this technology existed. We even gotta wear a mask when we go outside to protect our lungs.
What do they know about clean air privilege. DUH
Bought a $400cad Coway Air Purifier at my previous house due to mold and copious dust buildup, had terrible respiratory issues and headaches. After having the purifier on for a week my issues went away and did make a huge difference in air quality. Moved into a brand new build and still use it to this day, worth it in my books.
What dark trurh. Nothing was revealed
I bought one a year before covid (and it was pretty cheap) to address some dust, and it still works, still I clean a decent proof from its filter once a week or two using my vacuum cleaner :D
Thanks for showing me that Dyson model. Now I’m just looking at my poor man’s levoit in pure disgust. 😂😂
I got my Dyson (after much debate about the price) and I wish I had gotten it sooner! It has made such a huge difference and I can finally breathe in our house (in the woods and 2 inside cats). We had an older one from a brand that I can't remember and while I thought it was good it really wasn't. Check if you have a costco they usually have them on sale a few times a year. You have to order them online $350 a few months ago; so ask a friend that has a membership :) or check on the Dyson site they have referb ones for $275-$300. My brother got a refurb one and said it literally looks and acts brand new only thing was the box was dented and had a few scratches.
@@katiesmith8900 I hope you know I’m showing this to my levoit. I hope it feels terrible now🙃
The best thing I ever did for interior air quality was 1) get rid of as much carpet as you can 2) the carpet you keep, get a good vacuum and vacuum often 3) clean my air ducts 4) use the highest Merv air filter your furnace is speced for. Then of course use a few chemicals as possible to keep the house clean. 5) get rid of scented candles and those wall plugins.
The thing is, one air purifier isn´t even enough. You need as many as you have rooms.
I was lucky enough to design my house with a recuperation system. The point of it wasn´t even to improve air quality, but to regulate temperature and reduce heating costs by recycling heat waste. Coincidentally the main unit also has a built in HEPA filter. It doesn´t just improve air quality, there´s noticeably less dust on my shelves, i need to clean less often.
Now the only thing i need is to convince my wife that she doesn´t need to open the windows every fucking morning, because that´s totally counterproductive to what we´re trying to do with a $10000 HVAC. She won´t listen.
My wife has bad allergies and we live in an old 70's house with nothing but hardwood floors so the dust in our house is wild.
We ended up accumulating 4 of the wifi Levoit purifiers and they are excellent. We have them setup on timer schedules so they run full blast when we are at work, back down to a medium setting in the evening and mornings and then the one in the master bedroom goes to night time mode (near silent) late at night and the ones in the kitchen, living room and my office all ramp back up to high speed.
The amount of dust they capture is shocking but it 100% explains why we genuinely just wake up feeling better in the morning. Also, huge bonus points to the one in the kitchen (Core 400S model) at being an absolute champ at not only significantly reducing the amount of smoke/haze when cooking on the skillet but also cleaning all that out of the air really quickly. We used to have that lingering smoke from bacon and other stuff like that on the skillet and it would just linger as a haze for 20 or 30 minutes after cooking but the purifier in the kitchen running full blast when it detects the smoke from cooking makes a huge difference.
Be aware that many air purifiers have ionizer feature that produced ozone, which is very bad for you and can mess up electronics.
indeed, many "made in china" unregulated air purifiers may have a feature that produces exceeding amounts of ozone for residential homes
Living, walking proof here. I live right smack in the middle of a big city and I own 4 air purifiers in my home alone (1 in each room) and another 1 in my shop's waiting area. I spend 90% of my time indoors with allergies to poor air quality so it's a real need for me and my family. That being said, you don't have to spend thousands on cutting-edge air purifiers. Just know your budget, know the space you're buying it for (ie. a living room or a home office, etc) and just buy one that fits your requirements - and make sure it has a HEPA filter at the least.
I have a nice and cheap air filter - it's a fan with a filter. 99% of it's job is to keep the cat hair levels below 'apocolypse'. 😂
which part is the "dark truth"? the radiation filtering one?
I love my Smartmi air purifier. 😊Got it on Amazon a couple of years ago. Thanks for this video!
I have severe annual allergy issues, just about every day of the year, worse when I lived somewhere that was almost all carpet. My quality of life immediately and dramatically improved by getting a basic Levoit several years ago. Running it on low for a couple hours, maybe a few times a week is enough to clear most of the allergens. I've never even had to replace the filter, just take it out occasionally and clean it (there are tutorials online for how to do so, for those of you wanting to reuse filters and save money). I bought one for each of my immediate family the next Christmas becuase it helped that much; made visiting my brother more bearable, as it cleans the majority of the dog smell of his apartment, when he remembers he has a purifier.
No allergies, medical conditions, or concerns about pollution - but I happily bought relatively expensive filter replacements recently for a high volume HEPA filter primarily because it reduced overall dust accumulation in my space easily by 80-95%. I see it more as a less complicated roomba/my automated cleaning person :).
Definitely an underrated purchase, I recommend it to people and I feel like compared to most consumer products out there, it has a noticeable impact on quality of life.
Those of us with allergies have known about air purifiers years before COVID. Dealing with dust, pets, smoke and vog purifiers have been a necessity for me for years.
I would have gone with the Spaceballs canned air reference, personally. 🤣🤣
I know you probably used The Lorax to appeal to more people, but I immediately thought of Spaceballs when you mentioned air as a commodity.
As someone with ADHD, I've done my fair share of air purifier research a few years ago. I bought a Xiaomi Air Purifier 2 because I'm into smart home stuff and like to monitor my air quality. I came to several conclusions:
- Air purifiers only work if they're moving air, however most "auto" or "silent" settings don't move any air
- They're loud! At least when you have them set to the right speed to do something. I have a DC motor fan which is MUCH quieter than the air purifier fan whilst moving the same amount of air.
- If you want to remove smells you need activated charcoal filters. However, if they get oversaturated they start to release stuff like formaldehyde back into your room. You can often tell by this weird sweet but off smelling odor in your room.
- Filters are expensive to replace. I believe mine cost 40 euros per filter and you're advised to replace them every 6 months. For reference, the Air purifier with a filter cost me 120 euros new. I don't do that anymore though, just vacuum the dust out.
- They don't really reduce the amount of dust in the room, because mostly I have mine in auto mode which is silent and doesn't move any air.
- A basic air purifier is fine if you don't need fancy PM2.5 monitoring or remote controls. It's just a fan and a filter, nothing special.
I wouldn't really recommend them to anyone unless you're ok with the noise or live in a seriously polluted area. I live in a major city with leaky windows right next to a big road, so it's a must for me.
TBH, I can't sleep without the white noise of the air purifier.
At least I can just listen to FP. The stock video and stills imagery don’t actually add anything to the information. So I can still get things done ! Thx FP!
You only need to look at 3 things when comparing air purifiers:
1) HEPA filtration (mentioned in video).
2) CADR (clean air delivery rate)/CFM (cubic feet per minute). Generally anything above ~230 CFM is good for any room.
3) ACH (air changes per hour). The CDC recommends 5 ACH. Calculate by multiplying the CFM by 60 and then dividing by the cube footage of your desired room.
You can do other fun things with the CFM like calculating the unit cost per CFM. This is great at comparing value.
Everything else is just fluff.
I paused this then ran an errand, when I started playing it it ran a air purifier ad 😂
I cant exactly remember where the experiment was presented but a few years ago, when testing air purifiers, it was found that a simple furnace filter taped to a box fan did a better job than any of the consumer grade air purifiers on the market. Making and selling the units is just another way companies are trying to prey on vulnerable people.
This felt less like an informative video and more like a thought piece. Maybe due to the choice of title because it seems like your main point wasn’t really about air purifiers but about the fact that we now have the very real problem of air quality.
Anyway I don’t really feel like I learned much but I do agree that it sucks to not have clean air as a default.
I have zero allergies, contrasting with the fact I also have C.O.P.D. I've never smoked, and live in relatively unpolluted rural southern Ontario. So how did I develop C.O.P.D.? Chronic, unmitigated, extreme life stress. If it doesn't wreck your heart, it'll get your lungs. 🤨😒Or sometimes, both.😱😭
Your generation might not had given much thought, but a lot of us older ones had and were buying air purifiers. There was a time you didn't think twice about having your windows open, even at night when you were sleeping. Homes didn't use to be energy efficient, so there was always a bit of fresh air entering the house. Then things changed! Odors like cooked fish, wet dog and from smokers were getting harder to get rid of. That's when people started buying filters for their central systems that cleaned the air better. Then we found out they could shorten the life of your central system and they didn't really remove odors from all the rooms. So what did we do we started buying air purifiers. I bought my first ones over 20 years ago. Today you can get much better ones for less than what we paid back then. My original one for my living room was $350. The one I have today that works great was about $45.
I accidentally bought one of those tiny air purifiers thinking they could filter larger areas. I am definitely investing in an air purifier for rooms or larger areas soon.
I think you missed a big part of the story about indoor air quality. There's a lit of talk recently on how bad air quality can be inside homes because we don't consider the pollutants/particulates we produce ourselves in common tasks. I'm not sure how accurate my air purifier's own sensor but if I do some cooking like frying or put hairspray, it detects particulates and ramp up the speed even if it's in a different room. However it doesn't seem to react if I'm using cleaning products, but there's studies that shows that we effectively have worse indoor air quality after cleaning.
If you own a house ... look into ERV/HRVs.
My two cents: I can't speak for the efficacy of air purifiers but if you want one, check your local thrift store. I've purchased some really nice, high dollar air purifiers, heaters, etc from thrift stores for less than $12 each. It's my experience that people buy them new and them donate them once it comes time to replace the filters and other parts. So I buy them, order all the parts, replace them, and I have an excellent purifier for a fraction of the cost. Some of the filters can get up there in price but it's better to spend $50 twice a year than $500 on a new unit every year.
As someone with a lung disease I've relied on air purifiers for years. IQ and Alen are two of the ones we've went with. I'm incredibly sensitive to smoke, and as a former Californian dealing with the fires, as well as people's obsession with fireplaces, it was a necessity to protect myself. Many a night husband and I were forced to sleep with our faces basically pressed up against the filter's outtake fan because it was the only breathable air in the house. And yes, they are very expensive, but if you get the right one for your home size and do your research, they can also be lifesavers.
So you mean I can get a box fan and an air conditioning filter and I’m set. Good to know! So much cheaper than the ready built models.
I dont think all A/C filters are HEPA but you are right.
You will need earplugs for those box fans, they are almost as loud as AC
@@concernednewfie that’s cool. I think I’m going to try this out in the kitchen we don’t have any exhaust out so I’ve been using the levoit but I prefer it in the front of the house. Because now I basically stand in the kitchen all day because I can breath 😂😅. Sometimes I wish I didn’t like animals so much but they are so awesome and I love them!!!
I have one in my workshop to suck up microplastics when I'm sanding my 3D prints. Found out how much the replacement filters were, so I bought a bunch of cheap furnace filters and just cut them to fit. It's such a scam. TBH, unless you have severe allergies or some other respiratory condition, you probably don't need one.
This is a filter you're using in your workshop with an N95 right?
I once bought an air purifier to eliminate the cigarette odors coming from other tenants in the building, It worked great for about a week. Then it started diffusing cigarette stench instead of removing it.
I have that levoit junt at the hepa part of the video. It works so well.
before buying an air purifier , clean/maintain or replace your vacuum, make sure you stove/oven hood is clean and in good working condition, clean your cloths dryer (number one cause of housefires so a 2 for 1), make sure the vent is clear and venting where it should, and for the love of god clean your AC filters!
We've had air purifiers for like 20 years because my dad and I have bad allergies and my mom loves to have the windows open (especially while mowing the grass...). We used those static electric ones for years until they died. When I moved to Manhattan I needed to get an efficient one for myself since the AQ there is pretty bad compared to the rest of the US. I started to research them about 2-3 years ago and was baffled by the amount of info, just like you. I wanted an oversized one so it would definitely be effective, and Consumer Reports and a few other respected reviewers said that the Alen BreatheSmart series was the best. Their 75i model, which can clean 1300 sq ft in 30 minutes on the highest setting (95 CFM on the lowest setting, 350 CFM on the highest setting), was SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS. My apartments were a max of 600 sq ft, but I know a lot of these sq ft ratings for products are BS so I bit the bullet and bought it since I was making a lot of money .
It's your basic unit: plastic housing, touch panel, wifi connectivity (which absolutely REFUSES to connect to my Unifi AP, works fine with other APs...), and it's HUGE (bigger than a kitchen trash can)....but it's highly effective and it's whisper quiet. Even on "turbo" mode it's only about 57 dB (a "quiet library" according to the sound meter on my phone) or about as loud as a ceiling fan, on quiet mode it's 47 dB. The other reason I got it was to remove smoke/cooking smells from my apartment. Shortly after I had gotten it I had moved to a 1 BR apartment and had it out in the living room. I went to the bedroom, closed the door, opened both windows and smoked a bowl, blowing the smoke out the window. When I was finished, I went back into the living room, making sure to only have the door open for as little as possible, and the air quality indicator said that the air quality had gone from best to worst (there are 5 levels). It was about 20 feet from the door and another 10 feet or so from where I was smoking! I kept testing it more and more. Eventually I discovered that it was so effective that I could bring it into my bedroom with me, close the door, keep windows closed and just blow the smoke directly into it. The room would still smell, but about 30-45 minutes later you couldn't tell that I had smoked a bowl in there at all. I was definitely impressed. I'm in a much bigger apartment now (850 sq ft) in Miami, but I still have it with me. If I spray an aerosol can 30 feet away from it in a different room, within a few seconds the air quality will change from best to bad in a matter of seconds! While I think the thing is WAY over priced (even $450 seems like a lot), it's definitely effective. They do have two smaller models which are more reasonably priced. Their 700 sq ft model is only $250
I bought a $60 Mooka air purifier when I bought my house 3 years ago, for a specific reason. It's an old house with an old fireplace in the living room. Every hot, humid, sunny summer day, the living room smells like smoke. The air purifier does a pretty good job eliminating that smell.
Can you do one about non-profits and the way they are essentially privatizing public services and government entitlements - reselling them to citizens as "free services" - but we pay for them with our tax dollars.
"No one even knew what an air purifier was 10 years ago."
By no one he means 10 year olds.
Just as many said, I have allergies and respiratory issues and my Dyson has been an amazing purchase. While there is a consensus that most products can do a good Job, Dyson are able to better distribute air, thus increasing air quality in a space more efficiently. I might be wrong, but it has had a very positive impact in my life since I use it DAILY without fail. For people that do not have this issues, finding just GOOD ENOUGH will do the job if/when the air quality is too low for various reasons.
I remember we had our own fire issue here by New Orleans. The bayou sauvage swamp fire last year. Really set my asthma off
No Spaceballs reference? SHAME! SHAME!
Yeah... I was ready for some Canned Air.
Bought my first hepa air purifier last year. It does what it’s designed to do, clean the air, so I’m happy with it. It’s just a large fan that sucks dirty air through an inlet, forces it through a filter and vents the cleaned air out the other side. All hepa style air cleaners do the same thing. A furnace filter stuck to a giant box fan would do nearly the same thing if you didn’t mind having something that looks and sounds like an airplane propeller getting ready for takeoff in your living room. You’re just paying for the digital timer and fan control and air quality sensor and the packaging and design. UV germ killing and formaldehyde removal are of questionable value, the charcoal hepa filter should get rid of both. Just get a good quality unit backed by a reputable manufacturer that isn’t going to charge you an arm and a leg for replacement filters and you’re good to go.
I have one with a pretty big HEPA filter, I started using it for allergies, it helps me sleep better at night but is even more useful in winter when i take it from my bedroom to put it near the brick fireplace to capture the ash that get suspended in air
It IS a glorified fan you don't need a fancy one just a big one and a fresh HEPA filter every year
I own 2 coway airmega filter, I’m interested to hear what you have to say about it lol
You just need a fan and a HEPA filter taped in front of it. That's literally what I used when I lived in Shanghai and it was a life saver. Would have been nice if the video mentioned that.
I have multiple air purifiers, and they are outrageously priced for the simplicity of their operation. Marketers tend to throw around a lot of mostly meaningless stats about square feet of coverage to overstate capabilities. I seek out CADR rates and calculate air changes per hour for a space. Usually product literature only includes these rates at the highest fan setting which is often intolerably loud and power-hungry. A medium setting can be half the air delivery rate of high. The trick is finding ones that have a high CADR at an acceptable noise level, and that narrows the field quite a bit. You may have to email customer support to get some of these stats, but I've found that the bigger and more reputable manufactuers will generally supply them.
We have a 4000 square-foot home definitely well above the average house size and we have two very large higher end ones and a couple of smart levoit branded ones for round rest of the house altogether we spent about $900 for the nine of them and it is a huge huge difference throughout the entire home just from dust alone. Have been doing this for two years now and on a yearly basis we spend around $150 on air filters. It is not really that expensive whatsoever.
It feels like with air conditioning and air purification, we’re slowly becoming aliens to our own planet
"getting too close to people paying for bottled air" there's a product I see at every Walgreens in the pharmacy section that is literally oxygen in a can, "as seen on shark tank"
I experience nosebleeds due to both steam heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, and I have to use humidifiers for most of the year. Thus I don't use air purifiers, but I've been aware of them for decades. It would be nice to have central heating and cooling where you could dial in your desired humidity level.
Wade of Dankpods had better criticism of Dyson's headphones, including a focus on Bluetooth's general gripes.
I've used HEPA filters in my recording studio for nearly 30 years. I've always had them to knock down dust and to keep it from getting into the equipment.
I'm not sure why air filters would be a revelation to people. They've been on the shelves at Home Depot, Sears, Walmart, etc., for years as well. Prices have come down substantially in those 30 years, which is good. There's no reason to spend a lot of money here. It's a HEPA filter and a fan, nothing more. A box fan + filter taped to it will do the trick if you're hard up for cash.
Ive had an air purifier somewhere nearby my whole life. I had bad childhood asthma and the doctor suggested it. It used to be hard to get filters and people thought it was weird. Funny how things change.