Air purifier? - Part 2

[WussRedXLi]

3rd party China custom HEPA filters vs Blueair 2xx series filters.

Source = cigarette smoke (0.2-0.5 microns predominantly)

China HEPA wins..... however, i guess you'd have to note that there are quite a few types of China customised HEPA media as well, and it probably could depend on the price range of the HEPA media.

They tested the DIY fan-HEPA contraptions too. Cheap is cheap, but do note that effectiveness (CADR) is not very good. Still will work in an emergency situation in a small room i guess, better than nothing. There also might be a heightened risk of overheating the motor esp in a cheapo fan with cheapo motor, coz in the video it showed that the airflow dropped from 5.6 m/s to 1.2 m/s velocity.

 

[WussRedXLi]

Found a good video illustrating the noise levels between the Xiaomi Gen 1 and gen 2 vs other AP. Unfortunately the "other APs" in this video is still pretty limited. But still, something for you to view.


The 3M APs have 200+ and 400+ m3/hr airflows (small and big version)

Also featuring the Cleanroom FFU/Fan Filter Unit. Is big-ass unit, no doubt. 1200 m3/hr, but really low in sound pressure level. If you have space for it, might be good, eg for mansionette, those 140+ m3 5-room units, landed etc.
1 unit clean the whole house, doors all opened, have individual fans inside the rooms to ensure a bit of airflow.

2015 haze experience, can do one, no issue....some of you folks would know the drill.

More blabber

Laser particle counters and gadgets galore!

 

[WussRedXLi]

They also have the half sized ones. ie Instead of 1.2m height, it's 60cm height.
In a way, the filter cost and ease of shipping is also improved. Can even use official forwarders as it'd be below the length restrictions, ie 4PX max is 120cm, might be cutting it a bit close coz it does come with cardboard boxes....though Prouter is 1.5m iirc.

See if you wanna sea ship or you can spend the dough to air ship. It's approx 30kg with the shipping box for this bugger.

The good thing is that you would be able to utilise the whole 500 m3/hr airflow.
It would even be less noisy than the above full sized 1.17m tall version. (ie 3dB less, basically a half cut of it )


Everything in, still cheaper than the Sharp A80, Sharp A50, Novitas, Philips etc...... 888 RMB price for china domestic to your forwarder's warehouse, but i suppose better prepare for 950 rmb to upgrade to 顺丰.
Front view still sucks though.



Replacement filter @ RMB 160 cost only. (SGD 32)
Don't worry about particulate/filter life capacity, this one can hold like 5X the amount of our branded HEPA filters. 1-2 years change once is definitely doable.

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...x1tBP&id=542808312334&ns=1&abbucket=11#detail

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...x1tBP&id=526225817218&ns=1&abbucket=11#detail

Big one RMB 1488
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...296&pvid=ac0ed974-a1d8-4602-a5b6-59708cf695f6

More videos (Xiaomi gen 2 for comparison)
dB SPL @ 1m measurement

Actually you can use the Xiaomi aliyun and Xiaomi smart home gadgets (power socket gadgets) to control the FFU wirelessly via the internet, if you want that "cloud control" when you are away from home.

Can do remote sensing at a far away location of a house (eg in living room) and set the specific ON/OFF conditions for FFU operation. Xiaomi stuff.

 

[carlover76]

Guys,

I have done some comparison on the different models of Sharp Ionizer and decided to settle down with FP-F30E.

Anyone know any lobang on the Filter for this model?

 

[tessina]

Hi shifus,

My wardrobe area gets pretty dusty, and I am considering getting an air purifier to help with the dust accumulation situation.
Didn't go through the entire thread but I notice the Mi AP series gets mentioned a lot, likely due to its relative affordability.

Would this be a good option for me? Room size is about 30m x 7m x 2.5m.
I am currently using another 2 other APs in different rooms:
- kid's bedroom Honeywell HA170E
- master bedroom Samsung AX40

 

[Asakura]

recommended cos its cheap to replace the filter. and when u use it around the house. u can just buy 1 type and can change for all the units.

 

[WussRedXLi]

Washing your HEPA filter.

You will spoil it, and becomes worse than when it was unwashed, even though it looks cleaner than before.

CASE STUDY. NEVER WASH YOUR HEPA.

hi WussRedXLi. how are u? u help me order a xiaomi 2 air purifier a year ago. however today i washed the hepa filter and heard a BOOM sound and it stopped working. Could u help me order a good or intro me another one as i cannot read chinese on the websites? thanks

 

[WussRedXLi]

Hi shifus,

My wardrobe area gets pretty dusty, and I am considering getting an air purifier to help with the dust accumulation situation.
Didn't go through the entire thread but I notice the Mi AP series gets mentioned a lot, likely due to its relative affordability.

Would this be a good option for me? Room size is about 30m x 7m x 2.5m.
I am currently using another 2 other APs in different rooms:
- kid's bedroom Honeywell HA170E
- master bedroom Samsung AX40

Interesting situation and needs. First time i have ever come across this actually.....

First off, for dust reduction, you do not need anywhere HEPA, not even H10/E10 grade.
Just a G3-G4 efficiency type of filter is more than fine.

Another issue is this. You'd need reliability and safety, coz for wardrobe area (Walk in wardrobe?) and the purpose of dust reduction on surfaces and nooks and crannies, you'd need 24/7 operation in order to have any degree of effectiveness. And possibly a power efficient unit coz 24/7.
And with that, you'd also need cheap filter replacements.

How much is your budget anyway. Seriously i am afraid on first glance there is no good solution at all, even if you are a pro in ordering from Taobao and using 3rd party forwarders.

You buy from qoo10 or something, even with the Xiaomi AP2, you'd better have a very deep wallet.
Coz 7m x 30m x 2.5 is extremely huge. Even if's a typo 7m x 13m x 2.5m, it's still very huge. Bare minimum you'd need 2-3 units of the Xiaomi AP2, even if you can afford it and the filter replacements (easily 6 months replacement schedule).

And i presume that this area is pretty much enclosed and/or AC most of the time. Else really no effect even if you have good budget and i recommend you the best/most effective commercial/semi-DIY stuff from TB.

 

[WussRedXLi]

Classification of filters, filter properties and typical examples of use

http://www.ksklimaservice.com/en/cl...filter-properties-and-typical-examples-of-use

 

[Asakura]

maybe people should try cutting open their used hepa filter to understand why it shouldnt be washed

CASE STUDY. NEVER WASH YOUR HEPA.

 

[tessina]

Hi WussRedXLi,
Thanks for taking the time to reply!

Oops, I typed wrongly! Haha, you must think I live in a warehouse.
The full room size is 10m (length of room) x 3m (width of room) x 2.5m (height to ceiling), half of which is the wardrobe (yes, walk-in wardrobe). The area where the bed is, is running the Samsung AX40. Note that there is no door/partition between the walk-in and the sleeping area. AC on only at night. Open the windows for both sides (sleeping area and walk-in wardrobe area) to ventilate the room somewhat during the day for a few hours.

Honestly, am not sure what to set aside as budget, as I do not know the feasible options available and associated costs. Perhaps an initial outlay of max $500, and max yearly maintenance $100 (change out of filters etc.)?

P.s. totally don't know how to use taobao

 

[WussRedXLi]

Hi WussRedXLi,
Thanks for taking the time to reply!

Oops, I typed wrongly! Haha, you must think I live in a warehouse.
The full room size is 10m (length of room) x 3m (width of room) x 2.5m (height to ceiling), half of which is the wardrobe (yes, walk-in wardrobe). The area where the bed is, is running the Samsung AX40. Note that there is no door/partition between the walk-in and the sleeping area. AC on only at night. Open the windows for both sides (sleeping area and walk-in wardrobe area) to ventilate the room somewhat during the day for a few hours.

Honestly, am not sure what to set aside as budget, as I do not know the feasible options available and associated costs. Perhaps an initial outlay of max $500, and max yearly maintenance $100 (change out of filters etc.)?

P.s. totally don't know how to use taobao

In order to reduce costs for multi-rooms/huge areas and high periods of operation.....it's practically a must to take time to learn and know how to use Taobao, unless if your combined household income is well above 20k/month.
Your situation and needs exactly calls for this..... Use the money saved for your kids or something.


You can make use of your existing Samsung AX40, however you'd need to run it as much as possible, literally 24/7 if someone is at home, even if the door is going to be left opened (windows can be closed).
As such, the demands on filter usage is going to be extremely high.

Trust me on this......i am running close to such a scenario.
The Samsung AX40 can take such extreme loads and won't break down, operating at just about 19 watts @ highest fan speed with the below filter that i'd be recommending...that is what i measured off the plug. Original Samsung filter is ~ 30+ watts. 19 watts coz the airflow (CADR) would be reduced and correspondingly the noise level too, so don't worry too much.
But what you get is heckloads of savings on the filter.

The product is this "naked" HEPA filtration media. Don't wanna bore you with the details, but trust the few of us it'd work ok and we have verified with laser particle counters. Don't worry with whatever filter leakage as it's pretty minimal, it doesn't really matter much in our real life unless if it's a lot, but in a cleanroom that'd matter of coz.


https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...296&pvid=43635d5f-f000-4b2b-bae2-00fb48e1c353

What you need to do is to use a penknife or sharp scissors and slice off about 2cm worth of it, it's very easy....just a 2 min job here at most.
And after that use the bubble wrap or plastic bag that came with it, roll it up and squeeze in to plug the gap. Picture illustration below.

I can also recommend 1 additional Xiaomi Air Purifier 2 to beef up the filtration CADR. Below is also a 3rd party one, most probably the HEPA media is the same stuff as the above one. The amount of HEPA media "volume" is probably 2X as the above....so the RMB 50 price (2X the above) is justifiable/correct.

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?s...&id=544111133415&scm=1007.12144.81309.23864_0

Original Xiaomi HEPA filter. Note this has activated carbon in it.

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?s...=1007.12144.81309.23864_0&skuId=3466464255160

 

[WussRedXLi]

For buying of the Xiaomi AP 2 and above filters, you can go to camilize.com and email the boss (it's a she), she has this buyforme service which i think is still FOC at the present moment. So basically she'd buy for you after you paid her and give you an international shipping number which you'd track for the shipment from CN to SIN.

The forex rate to use is 4.9. ie 100 RMB = 20.40 SGD.


The stuff is probably about 5kg for the AP and another 1kg for the filter. Email her and let her know that there is a possibility that the seller might send in 2 different shipments (2 different tracking numbers), so she might wannt take note of this before she help to consolidate and forward the package to Singapore to your house.

What you'd do is to fund transfer the SGD to her POSB. She buys for you. Then when the AP and filter arrives at her warehouse, the folks weighs it and give you an exact kg and she will email you SGD to pay second time. Transfer a second time and it'd be on your way. V simple. Basically is POSB and email. The sign up at her website and overall procedure is many times simpler than if you'd use Taobao by yourself and the official forwarders.

You'd also avoid the 3% taobao credit card processing fee and ~ 3.5% VISA/bank forex charge if you use Taobao checkout yourself.

And also they'd do some basic checks of the goods for ya upon receipt at their warehouse, any additional issues they'd sort it out for you....


Go to this page for all the pics which you can read. Forward her this URL, this seller seems ok.


https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...kCoCe&id=550537894039&ns=1&abbucket=11#detail[/QUOTE]

 

[WussRedXLi]

So basically with the AX40 with 25RMB filter and Xiaomi AP2 with 50RMB filter, you can do close to 24/7 at the lowest possible filter recurring cost.

With 24/7 operation, i'd reckon that you need to change the Samsung AX40 about 3 times a year (4 months), and the Xiaomi every 8 months or so.... maximum duration.


During haze periods, swap out the 3rd party filters and use the original filters if you wish.

The AX40 would have a slight performance hit during nightly use with 3rd party filter, but remember that you are adding a Xiaomi AP 2 with 3rd party filter as well to boost that (operate at about half power in the Xiaomi app, noise issue).......so it shd be sufficient.



Now, if you are hungry for more filtration, add an additional Xiaomi AP2 or Samsung AX40 (carousell second hand?). All scalable and with not much money be it AP unit cost or recurring filter cost. The Xiaomi AP 2 has a small footprint.

Try that with original products.....instant regret, if your household income is not above 20k/mth. (just an eg).
Of coz there are YOLO pax who'd say that it's cheap even with a HHI of just 10k/mth, well up to the individual.



PS. For the above 3rd party products, there would be a very slight smell for the first 24hrs of usage, just run it in for the first 24hrs with the windows opened, it's not unlike after you have purchased a new piece of small furniture from IKEA (probably takes less time for the slight smell to go away). People easily notice this coz if operated in a closed AC room, any wee bit of smell is quite obvious.

 

[WussRedXLi]

Had some time to go into details the above RMB 50 Xiaomi AP 2 filter. Seems like it does not have a pre-filter built-in..... plus it is about 1-2mm shorter than original (just use some paper to slot under the filter in AP to provide a good seal, no biggie).


This one RMB 53. Has a pre-filter built-in so that you can filter in every month or so.


Seriously speaking, this blue synthetic pre-filter layer is about G1-G2 efficiency and is sufficient to capture most of your dust and lint floating around when things are disturbed. It's probably a wee bit better than that plastic netting pre-filter that you see in aircons and other air purifiers.


Will it work? Read the reviews... even between 3rd party filters, there might be differences. So read the reviews and test it out before embarking on bigger purchases and stocking up for future.

东西虽然比较单薄，但是过滤效果非常好。出风口的pm2.5可以达到个位数，甚至于0。
2017年03月07日 19:16

This guy claims to be even better than original.
But i think there might be some user-induced measurement errors (it's difficult to measure correct)..... Just take it that it'd work.
For those with the more sensitive laser particle counters (not the IR LED diode ones) and have gone through 2015 dense and prolonged haze period (in SG context), you'd know what i am talking about with regards to REAL LIFE USAGE.

说老实话，刚看到这过滤器，和原装差太多了，但使用后，我用仪器测定，出风口的pm2.5只有6,我有2台小米空气净化器，另一个小米空气净化器的出风口pm2.5是21,原装滤芯还有34％的寿命，虽然做工不好，但过滤灰尘的使命达到了。不错，希望以后做工能改进。
2017年04月07日 20:05

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...VnUR7Q&id=44604512652&ns=1&abbucket=11#detail

If you want the conventional plastic PET netting kind of pre-filter, this one has it.

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...nUR7Q&id=534276047881&ns=1&abbucket=11#detail

 

[WussRedXLi]

For those Xiaomi AP 2 owners who want a better 3rd party filter. (seriously, benefits in real life are not a lot). RMB 72


They claim it's H12 rather than the usual H11 (~ 95%) that we encounter have. So probably closer to 99%.

But this one has an additional AC impregnated filter media layer. But for sure this would reduce the airflow noticeably.

I have seen this "brand" before, it makes other filters as well......but seriously i think it still uses those factories in SZ/GZ who makes it in bulk per run lah......just that maybe they are using/have access to slightly better filter media. (of coz you'd pay for it).

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...lAQUq&id=552895144389&ns=1&abbucket=11#detail

https://kelanair.taobao.com/search....1.3.3184437aMaE8pZ&search=y&scene=taobao_shop

 

[tessina]

Wow that's extremely valuable and well explained advice! Let me review this and get back if I have more questions! Many thks!

 

[WussRedXLi]

No problem, i'm surprised that the price of the Xiaomi AP2 managed to drop that low also....plus the 3rd party filters are at a very good price nowadays.

I might pick 1 piece up myself too. Operating at ~ 120 m3/hr to boost the air filtration in the room together with other APs running in medium speed. 310 m3/hr will be really super noisy and not suitable for extended operation....but you have to accept this coz it's a very small unit with very small footprint.....plus it's pretty cheap nowadays)

 

[rethaFrey]

anyone purchased the gen2 xiaomi via qoo10 recently? so many listings, not sure which is reliable.

 

[Asakura]

read their reviews lo