Air purifiers - b***ocks or worthwhile?

[gh0st]

Thinking about getting one for my room as have animals in there.

Looking at a bionaire purifier with HEPA filtration and ioniser.

Do these things actually make a difference or are they just a useless gadget?


Gh0st

[stackmonkey]

I don't know anything about the specific filter, ghost.

HEPA filter is good - basically a very high efficiency particulate filter, works down to sub micron sizes.I bought my D*son because of these, I'm allergic to pet fur etc and needed to rid a new house of all trace.

Ones that claim to remove odour will usually either just mask it (perfume of some description) or (better) will have a form of activated carbon in it that the chemicals will be absorbed onto. This becomes less efective as it gets used up, dependent on the concentration of chemicals in the air.

[gh0st]

AFAIK this one has an activated carbon filter as well as the HEPA unit so it should do it quite well.

[scruffy]

Do they work if you fill your flat with chip fat smoke.

...or do you actually have to keep the place clean like every other clean smelling flats' inhabitants?

[Pigeon]

I strongly suspect they are just another way to con you into spending money.

[jeff m]

I have a whole house electronic air cleaner, yes they work.
Does it clear fried fish or burnt oil smell, not instantly, but a powerful kitchen extracter takes care of that.
They do need cleaning, we do ours every two or three months, not something I look forward to.
With ours we got a bonus, we live in a spider infested location, every morning I'd walk through a web! The air cleaner took care of them too.
Mine's an Emerson-White (Honeywell clone) has a physical pre filtre and charcoal filtre.

[Slow.Patrol]

Thread resurrection.

Despite daily vacuuming and the occasional cold blast when frosty, my dust mite allergy persists.

Air purifiers have popped up on Google as a possible remedy.

Anyone got any experience or recommend an inexpensive brand/model.

[MajorMantra]

I've just bought one for the first time ever as we we have a coal-burning Rayburn and I'm not thrilled about the amount of soot it emits (some of which is ending up in my toddler's lungs).

Knowing nothing about air purifiers, I've bought one of the cheap IKEA ones for now to see if it makes a meaningful difference. It's a Fornuftig, £60 with a carbon filter.

Might consider something more sophisticated in the future if it seems worthwhile.

It runs pretty well silently on low, and has two higher settings which are louder.