I want a home air filtering unit.
Not built into a heat/ac unit.
Not Ionic–I haves asthma, & the ozone raises Hell with my lungs.
Not a HEPA unit—the filters are too costly.
Just something that does an OK job, low cost, with a washable filter.
What are my options?
I hate to tell you this, but HEPA Filter stands for High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter. I’m not sure that a non-HEPA Filter will do the kind of air filtration you need. Perhaps you could let us know what you need to filter out?
You don’t need HEPA efficiency at all. Home air cleaners keep recycling the air and returning it to the room or house. HEPAs are 99.97% efficient for 0.3 um particles and better for all other sizes larger and smaller, but they’re putting the cleaned air back into the dirty air, so as long as they capture a significant fraction (say 30% or more) they are removing dirt. Their removal rate depends more on their air flow than their efficiency, unless the efficiency is really low.
If you’re designing an HVAC system from scratch, you could specify filters with an ASHRAE efficiency of perhaps 50% or 70% and get a very nice result. As far as home products, though, the marketplace is kind of a mess. If you PM me with some specific models, I’d be happy to tell you what I can about them.
There are filters that have been certified to meet the HEPA standard, with that testing (and the perceived market value) resulting in a higher selling price.
There are also filters that are marketed as “HEPA-like;” they often use the same filter material as HEPA-certified filters, but may have different housing or seal designs, and/or haven’t gone through the actual certification process, so they are sold for a lower price. Something like this might meet the OP’s needs; true-HEPA is a must for single-pass filtration, but for recirculating filtration (e.g. a portable room air cleaner), the efficiency doesn’t need to be that high.
Just run your furnace fan (if you have central heat). It’ll circulate all the air in your house through whatever filter you chose to put in it.
Also, a lot of t-stats have the option to randomly cycle the fan on and off throughout the day so you don’t have to be running it constantly.
If you don’t want to do that, another perfectly viable option is to get whatever filter you want and (as dumb as it sounds) bungee cord it to a box fan.
20"x20" furnace filter of your choice, duct taped to a 20" box fan. Run the fan on high, and change the filter every 2-3 weeks.
Not particularly pretty or efficient, and definitely not a “whole home” solution, but it’s about as inexpensive as you’re gonna get.
I want a home air filtering unit.
Not built into a heat/ac unit.
Just reduce dust & such.
If it’s not built into the furnace then it won’t be a whole house filter. The key, as mentioned, is cycling as much air through the filter as possible. Any air filter in a room will really only benefit that room. Running your furnace blower will help mix the air among rooms, but it’s not going to be as effective.
This Honeywell model uses a washable filter. Dunno if it’s any good, but I was thinking about buying one for the bedroom (also asthmatic and heavily allergic to dust mites) so perhaps Napier can tell us if it works.
No, it’s got an Ionizer, according to Amazon.
Is there some particular reason why? The answer to that may help point us in the right direction.
Otherwise, check out any of the tons of models available on the internet, at Target, Best Buy etc. Many of them have the option to turn the ionizer on and off* and as for the HEPA filters, just check before buying it to see if there are non-HEPA replacements available. If you can find one that uses a standard furnace size filter, it shouldn’t be an issue.
*If you’re handy, it won’t be an issue to open it up and disconnect the wires to the ionizer.
FYI, for reference, I’m seeing this one on Amazon (note: this was just the first random one I grabbed, don’t know anything about this specific model). It appears you can switch off the ionizer. You can get HEPA filters for it, from Amazon for $15-$20 for a 2 pack or non-Hepa filters for…actually more than that since it appears HEPA filters are standard for these, but 10ish dollars doesn’t seem like that much (to me).
But still, I’m interested to know why using your central air handler isn’t an option.
Also, FTR, I had a similar unit to the one I linked to when I was in college. It worked very well. I kept it running in my bedroom about 12 hours a day and people used my room to smoke in, never smelled like smoke (it did also have an activated carbon pre-filter).
It’s hard to say.
The Honeywell and Amazon descriptions I read don’t say it has an ionizer, though two Amazon customer reviews say respectively that it does and doesn’t. If Honeywell added an ionizer as a product feature, I’d think they’d say so.
The manufacturer is a big older higher tech company with a reputation to uphold, and they’re charging $64, so that sounds good.
But they say maddeningly little about the filter, except that it captures “up to 99%”. A product spec that places an upper limit on how efficient the product is doesn’t accomplish much of anything. A lower limit would be the only thing we could really count on.
I would guess it’s probably effective, but that is hardly satisfying.
This Air Purifier has been AHAM certified for use in rooms up to 62 square feet (click on the Details button)… so it will clean the air in your closet if you keep the door closed.
Sorry to disappoint the OP, but effective air purifiers are not cheap and cheap air purifiers are not effective. If you want something that actually works you have to go high-end, something like IQAir or Austin Air.
I have an Austin Air Healthmate Jr; filters last five years and I am on my third filter – runs 24/7 and it works.
A) Expense.
B)I am not handy.
Expense? You’re going to have to expand on that. Furnace filters are 5ish dollars if they’re the 1" thick ones and, what, like 20 bucks if you have the 4" pleated ones. Considerably less if you pick up a reusable one and wash it every few weeks.
Running your furnace fan 24 hours a day (for comparison’s sake) will cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of a buck fifty a day, the little purifiers are about a tenth of that.
So, the question is, do you want to lay out 50-100 now to spend a few cents a day or have no upfront costs, but maybe 50¢ on power a day (running it for about 6 hours a day).
There’s pros and cons for both, but I’m not sure expense is one of them. At least not the way I’m reading it.
Look this thing is a small wall unit, not a true furnace.
And no, I won’t dig out the model & etc.
$20 for a heater with fan option, and any material you want to put in front .
You can of course use any material you wish, eg an old towel, an old shirt, or buy foam ,
or for proper filtering, almost to HEPA level and to reduce the irritants that give you asthma, 3M Filtrete Room Air Cleaning Filter with Carbon.
You can replace any filter with 3M Filtrete Room Air Cleaning Filter with Carbon, or cover the existing filter up ( suggested around 70% of its area) with 3M Filtrete Room Air Cleaning Filter with Carbon.
Then you have some dehumidifier or air filter running, and if you don’t want to pay for the brands expensive filter, replace it with 3m Filtrete.
Just ensure the air flow after the filter is working, if its not working the device may overheat … it uses the air flow for cooling too.
You could use the 3m carbon filter to reduce ozone from ion filters.
It would still do, literally, exactly what you want it to do, right? It’s going to bring air in, run it through a filter (of your choosing) and exhaust it back out.
I’ll drop it because you aren’t interested in that option, but as I said before, it would be helpful for us to know why you’re not interested in doing that in order for us to point you in the right direction.
What about, as mentioned a few times, just strapping a regular furnace filter to a box fan?
Honestly, I think what you need to do is just go to Best Buy or target and pick out whatever model they have there that doesn’t have an ionizer (or has a button to turn it on or off). They’re pretty much all going to be HEPA, it’s kinda the point of them. If the cost of replacement filters is an issue, then I think this project may be out of your budget as those things are only like $10 (I’m seeing even the big ones at 40).
But, look we’re all trying to help, and so far all you’ve said is:
-I want a home air filtering unit.
-Just reduce dust & such.
(Re: questions about running central furance fan or disabling ionizer)
A) Expense.
B)I am not handy.
-Look this thing is a small wall unit, not a true furnace.
And no, I won’t dig out the model & etc.
We’ve tossed out a bunch of suggestions, asked lots of questions and you’ve just sat back and said ‘no’ a bunch of times without any guidance.
So, having said that, my answer to your multicolored, bolded and standard font question if “I want a home air filter, what are my options” are ‘go on Amazon or to a brick and mortar store and see what they have, those are your options’
Honestly, if you don’t help us, we can’t help you.
ETA, and who asked for the model number of your wall furnace?