Air purifiers, filters, & dehumidifiers

Edit: New readers to the topic can join at post 93, March 2022

After having mould problems addressed in our Sydney home, the mould technician recommended an air purifier in all our bedrooms. Choice hasn’t tested any and can’t locate any Australian reviews. Please share your experiences with your air purifier - noise, initial and running costs, any changes in your health?

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If you have mould problems, I would think that an air purifier would only address the symptom, not the cause.

Have you addressed the root cause of the mould, eg lack of ventilation, need of damp proofing, etc? Prevention is better than cure.

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Dehumidifier or air purifier.

I won’t think that a air purifier would have much impact on the room where mould has been a problem as the spores can last for years (in any fabrics/materials/cracks/crevaces/hard to clean surfaces such as fancy cornices/clothing which has been in contact with air) in the room. Any time the room moisture level increases, mould would grow again. I would imagine air purifiers, if they are effective, would only reduce the likelihood of mould occurring if all mould spores have been removed from a room. If the room has had an infestation in the past, I imagine that it would still contain mould spores.

I would suspect that a dehumidifier would potentially work as it would bring the humidity down to a level to prevent condensation/high surface moisture thus allowing the spores to germinate.

Some air conditioners have a dehumidifying function which would work in such case…but may be costly in the long run.

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To clarify the querie, my mould issues have been addressed - they’re solved.
I’m after advise on an air purifier only.
The technician recommended an air purifier on the basis that we live close to a major road and I need to keep windows open for airflow. He believes in their benefits for general health and improved sleep quality.
I’m happy to try one in the bedroom with the closest airflow to the road.

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My choice of air purifier is/was Neotec negative ion generator, my model is Xj 2500. It has been used adjacent to the desk where I smoked frequently in home office for ten years.The filter was replaced fortnightly, mucky.
Since smoking ceased recently, office is freshest room in house, and will shift generator to other rooms. I bought it as believed claims that it was similar effect to ocean waves in generating negative ions, and that it was extensively used in pubs etc.

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I have friends that use one and swear by it. It is one of the Elanra models. Google them, they look pretty good. I would like to get one myself.

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My son is a chronic asthmatic. We purchased a Philips AC4012 air purifier with 3 filters 12 months ago, we have to clean the outer filter every 3 to 4 weeks. We have not replaced the Hepa or carbon filter yet ( $50 and $60 each). My son immediately reported he felt a lot better in the mornings after waking up and had a clearer noise and throat, we immediately found the room smelt cleaner and fresher ( not what you would expect from a mail teenagers
room).

We wish we had known the benefits of a air purifier / cleaner for asthmatic people years ago.

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I found the link below very interesting reading regarding the Philips AC4012 .The tests were carried out in Beijing which has very heavy air pollution .

http://www.myhealthbeijing.com/children/air-purifiers-for-the-other-99-percent-philips-ac4072/

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Thank you for the link (very informative). What is rarely stated is how beneficial a good air filter can be to an asthma
sufferer.

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@rwest48 Thank you .

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Hi all. I have a rather dusty bedroom. Consequently I am thinking of purchasing an air purifier and have been researching them thoroughly. Unfortunately Choice has never conducted a comparison test of air purifiers which is disappointing given how hard it is to compare them just by researching the internet - it is so confusing.
The only purifying feature I need is eliminating dust particles, large and small. Also it needs to be very quiet and powerful enough to service a 25 to 30m2 bedroom. I also want one that does not require purchasing replacement filters very often eg not much upkeep. I came across the Philips series 1000 air purifier which I can buy for around $240 but then someone suggested that the Philips series 2000 would be better as they have it and it moves more air. So at the moment that is the front runner. Has anyone got this air purifier? If so how often do you have to replace filters and are they expensive? Also how effective is it in removing dust from the air?
But then I see these other air purifiers on the market such as the Coway AP-1512HH and the WINIX 4-stage air-purifier AUS 5500. I have the same questions about these models also (eg how effective are they in dust removal, how often do the filters have to be replaced, how many different filters do actually need raplacing and price of filters?). I also am struggling to find a source of the Coway AP-1512HH can anyone tell me of an Australian seller of this model?
I will only fork out for an air purifier if it actually will significantly reduce airborne dust particles in my bedroom otherwise it is not worth it. I do vacuum with a good vacuum cleaner once every fortnight but I hardly ever dust. This page - https://www.wikihow.com/Reduce-Dust-in-Your-House - mentions that you should do a complete top to bottom clean of your walls every couple of months with a microfiber cloth, a “deep cleaning”. I have never once done this and to me this would take like 2 hours which I don’t have, even every 2 months. Are they serious? Does anyone else ever actually do this? Wouldn’t a decent air purifier eliminate the need for this?

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Hi @Julien,
Thanks for starting the discussion and apologies that we couldn’t provide a review for you in this instance. We’ll be sure to flag this as a requested test for the future.

In the meantime, I’ve pinned your discussion and moved it to a central thread in the hope some Community members can help out with their experience.

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As an alternative thought to using an air purifier?
If you have a significant external dust issue.

In heavy and dusty industrial environments a slightly different approach is used. Offices, Electrical equipment rooms etc that you need to keep dust out of have a different solution. Large office and high rise buildings have similar needs as usually the windows are not open.

I have not been able to quickly locate any details of systems for small scale residential properties.

The rooms or buildings are pressurised by small fans that move outside air though cleanable filters to the inside. This provides clean filtered fresh air and can be vented through leakage around doors and windows, exhaust vents or even open windows/doors.

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Here is the link to reviews of 40 models of air purifiers on Product Review and the link to their homepage.

https://www.productreview.com.au/c/air-purifiers/2.html

https://www.productreview.com.au/

As @meltam suggested, it would be best to discover and remedy the cause but it is probably best to avoid inhaling the affected air until then.

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I’ve placed a test request additional tag - to my surprise, being simultaneously relatively cynical and ignorant about purifiers until now, the comments here tell quite a positive story - I’m interested :slight_smile: My perception is that my house is fairly low on dust, which is a little surprising given I live in the desert with a swampy, but it would be very interesting to see whether these devices would benefit flow-through systems like swampys especially … in terms of RC either split or ducted, are there similar filter mods that could enhance their function in this area?

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An interesting point!

Every home has it’s own circumstances?

Hopefully testing an air purifier accounts for different dust sources and what sort of dust each source creates/produces. There are obviously other factors such as removal of odours and damp and moulds that also need to be assessed.

Some dusts such as fibre residues and pollens might float on the air for a long time. Other dust might be heavier and settle in a cloud around our feet!

Perhaps it is that there is no one solution or recommendation. One brand and model might be excellent at odour removal and very fine
lints etc. Another might be more agreesive at circulating air and collecting coarser dusts, but miss the odour control.

It is worthy of a better understanding and assessment.

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I recently purchased a Dyson Pure Cool Link. It’s too early to say whether it’s helping my allergies but I can review it as a fan. It’s an incredibly quiet and sleek unit with low enough settings that it runs almost silently when needed. It’s performance as a fan isn’t as high as a conventional box fan though so don’t expect a gale, just a refreshing breeze.

The downside is the $549 RRP. (I got it for $349 from the Good Guys, although they did try to sell me junk insurance too)

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Would it be that your swampy is actually filtering the desert? Wet pads will attract dust and in your part of the land I suspect you run it fairly regularly so it could be analogous to an air purifier (at least for dust). We wash ours down and flip or rotate them once a year or two; there is always dirt in the sump that we wash out. The latter suggests the flowing water collects dirt from the pads that settles out of the normal water flow into the sump.

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Well my Dyson air purifier (mentioned above) has faced its first real test. Although I’m sure some of it is a placebo effect, I’ve noticed after a while sitting with it running my immediate area loses that smokey smell vs the rest of the house. I also seem to breathe a little better. I wish I had control of our wifi so I could connect it and see what it’s detecting.

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