So we had this crappy air filter thing in the study where we office. The room is too small (gah we need a new house bad), but the thing didn't work very well. I could tell because the filter screens on the front fans of my computer case need cleaning pretty often, meaning the air purifier wasn't getting all the dust in the room. It finally gave up the ghost.
Soo... I need a couple things from Newegg and figured while I was there, I'd get a new air purifier. I like Newegg because the prices are usually very good, they have pretty much anything I want and they ship most things for free in 2 or 3 days, with no taxes.
Incidentally, that's why local retail is dying.
Anyway.. I go looking at the air purifiers on Newegg and do my usual shopping routine when I haven't done much research and haven't already decided what I want. I exclude the most expensive, and least expensive, and look at the specs and reviews. I decided on this one. Granted, there aren't many reviews on it, but they're all 5 stars.. it's a mid range model, and looks a tad more powerful than we really need for this room so I figure that's the one.
It arrived today.
I figured from looking at the photo on Newegg, it's a decent sized unit and while it has an air intake of 360 degrees, it'll still be fine for this spot that's under the corner of this big u-shaped desk thingy we have, right next to the sub-woofer of my computer's sound system.
I unboxed it.. it's large... in fact bigger than the sub-woofer enclosure by a fair margin. The instructions say that for first use, turn it on "turbo" mode for 5 minutes before setting it at the desired power setting.
You remember that scene from Aliens.. where Ripley is fighting the queen alien thing, and she's in that equipment loading rig thing.. doing battle.. "get away from her you BITCH" (I memorize most movie dialog without trying btw). So ya.. Ripley gets over to the airlock and pulls the lever to open the outer doors.
Ya.. that's what it was like when I turned this fucking thing on turbo mode. It basically sucked up all the air in the room in about 3 seconds putting me into a very low pressure situation.. and then it spit all the air back out.
The only negative I can see with this is that it is pretty loud. On turbo mode, it's like a jet taking off, but on low it's still not quiet at all. We have a smaller unit from a different manufacturer in the master bedroom, and when it's set on 2 out of 4, the noise it makes is just like a white noise machine. I doubt I could fall asleep in complete silence now.
The noise from the new unit really doesn't bother me because I either have music playing, or playing a game, or have my headphones on and such. I don't like it quiet really, because that's when I notice the ringing in my ears the most.. plus I just don't like dead quiet in the study.
This unit has a HEPA filter in it.. a big one, and the nice thing about those is that they really never need to be replaced. You can just run the shop vac around the filter and vacuum out the dirt/dust and put it back in.. good to go. There's a carbon filter that wraps around the HEPA filter that does need to be replaced.. I think like every 3 months or so.. but I don't think they are expensive. I'll just order a whole bunch of them because manufacturers like to discontinue models and then it's difficult to find parts for them later.
If you don't have an air filter in your study and master bedroom, I suggest.. highly.. that you get one. If you want to know why.. have some sunlight come into the room around sunset and you'll see all the particles floating around in the air. Even if you're not allergic to anything (which I am), it's worth filtering all that out so you're not breathing it into your lungs hour after hour.
Trust me.. for $120 bucks, it is so worthwhile. I'd just get one that is reviewed as quieter for your bedroom then the one I bought for my study. Then you can adjust the speed to the volume of white noise that suits you.. or if you really can't stand the noise, just turn it off while you sleep, and back on again when you wake.
I guarantee you'll notice a difference. The air will smell a little funny for the first few days, but then it'll settle down to just pure air.
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