Air purifier?

joemalu · Oct 30, 2014

wizardundo said:
Finally reached!

It is just as what you all mentioned, the fan is loud for mid and high settings. It would be hard to sleep, kinda of sound like someone is using the hair-dryer.

For those who intent to purchase this from the Qoo10 site, do note that the price has increased again. It was $99/- with additional $15/$20 ($5/10 for colours, $10 for delivery). The current price is $115/- with additional $20/25 ($10/15 for colours, $10 for delivery). So need to do market research to see if there is any other good prices around.

It has been on for the past 30 mins, cant smell any difference.

Then better get from mustafa $129 with local warranty.

WussRedXLi · Oct 30, 2014

March 2014 haze (from Peninsula Malaysia)
All figures are 24-hr average

Number of days > 25ug/m3 = 10 days (WHO recommended limit)
Number of days > 35 ug/m3 (ie > AQI 100 or orange zone, US EPA Unhealthy Zone for Sensitive Groups) = 9 days

Highest 24hr average concentration = 66 ug/m3 on 15 Mar 2014. AQI 156. PSI 110.
(For comparison, oct 6th (3hr PSI of 153 then) we had a 24-hr PSI level of 125 / 79 ug/m3)

Stats from Sep 1 till Oct 29

Number of days > 25ug/m3 = 52 days (WHO recommended limit)
Number of days > 35 ug/m3 (ie > AQI 100 or orange zone, US EPA Unhealthy Zone for Sensitive Groups) = 26 days

From Oct 1 to Oct 29th :
West region average concentration is the highest @ 35.03 ug/m3
This is 11% higher than the next highest which is South.
This is 23% higher than the lowest region which is Central.

wizardundo · Oct 30, 2014

joemalu said:
Then better get from mustafa $129 with local warranty.

The air purifier is not very big and only weights 0.10kg as quoted from Qexpress's invoice, so you can hand carry it home without much trouble. :s13:

Casper · Oct 30, 2014

Hi guys,

So happy to chance by this forum and am surprise that there are so many experts here on air purifiers! I'm thinking of getting either the Samsung A40 (41 sqm) or the Winix U300 (36sqm) from Qoo10. The difference is about $50. I need it for my living room and I measured that it is 43sqm. The Samsung looks like a better match in terms of coverage.

Another Q... is the plasmaionizer or virus doctor thingy dangerous in terms of ozone or ions etc? Should we turn it off?

Another thing... which purifier is better against combating against industrial waste odour in the air? My place always has some chemical smell drifting from Msia.

Can you advise which is a better product and buy? I thought the Winix is Korean no. 1st seller in air purifier but it seems to me that many bros here prefer a Sharp or Samsung.

Thanks!

WussRedXLi · Oct 31, 2014

Hey Casper....nice of you to join the thread. Will ans you later...today a bit bz.

WussRedXLi · Oct 31, 2014

Your living room is 43sqm and assuming 2.85m ceiling. That’s 123 cu metre. The Samsung AX40 though is specced for 41 sqm, in reality that means 323m3/hr div 123 = 2.62 air changes per hr/ACHs. That is probably enough for less than PSI 200 haze (all of us look at the 1-hr figure here, oct 6th 3-hr PSI of 153 was really PSI 180 for Southern regions and slightly lower for Western regions). If you want more protection and also more towards the standard of having 5 ACHs, you may wish to look at 2 units.

Just turn off the Plasma, it’s off by default on the Samsung AX40.

Having to deal with chemical odours is a bit trickier, for starters you’d need a heck lot more Activated Charcoal than the minute amounts contained in typical air purifiers. Some models in Austin and IQAir contain several pounds of very high grade coconut husk AC, we’ll try to replicate that. (will post on that again).

I’d say go for the Samsung AX40. Winix is slightly higher in power consumption and slightly noisier.

Casper · Oct 31, 2014

WussRedXLi said:
Your living room is 43sqm and assuming 2.85m ceiling. That’s 123 cu metre. The Samsung AX40 though is specced for 41 sqm, in reality that means 323m3/hr div 123 = 2.62 air changes per hr/ACHs. That is probably enough for less than PSI 200 haze (all of us look at the 1-hr figure here, oct 6th 3-hr PSI of 153 was really PSI 180 for Southern regions and slightly lower for Western regions). If you want more protection and also more towards the standard of having 5 ACHs, you may wish to look at 2 units.

Just turn off the Plasma, it’s off by default on the Samsung AX40.

Having to deal with chemical odours is a bit trickier, for starters you’d need a heck lot more Activated Charcoal than the minute amounts contained in typical air purifiers. Some models in Austin and IQAir contain several pounds of very high grade coconut husk AC, we’ll try to replicate that. (will post on that again).

I’d say go for the Samsung AX40. Winix is slightly higher in power consumption and slightly noisier.

Gosh WussRedXLi, you are such a pro and thanks for sharing. Ok, I'll probably order the AX40 then. I do have a Honeywell 17000 already, so I'll probably buy one unit of the AX40 and not use the plasma thing.

Dealing with chemical odour would indeed be a bigger challenge! Any idea where
I could buy coconut husk AC?

Cheers

WussRedXLi · Oct 31, 2014

Casper said:
Gosh WussRedXLi, you are such a pro and thanks for sharing. Ok, I'll probably order the AX40 then. I do have a Honeywell 17000 already, so I'll probably buy one unit of the AX40 and not use the plasma thing.

Dealing with chemical odour would indeed be a bigger challenge! Any idea where
I could buy coconut husk AC?

Cheers

Are you living up North?

I've come across 3 threads about the pretty high chemical odour up North, maciam like burning plastic smell. Some are complaining that they feel giddy and have no appetite to eat dinner just now even. Sounds pretty serious to me today. (I don't think it's related to your case, but just thought it's worth mentioning here as well)

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/e...ike-burnt-plastic-4863389-5.html#post89632470

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/e...e-neigber-call-mata-strong-smell-4863412.html

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/e...-never-activate-place-protection-4863420.html

Since you already have 1 x HW 17000, that would be sufficient in your case. In a haze situation, you can clean the living room first with 2 sets for 30 mins, then move 1 set into the bedroom and continue cleaning there.

WussRedXLi · Oct 31, 2014

For air purification, the tend to use AC made from coconut husk. Long story short, coconut husk's pore size is best for removing Volatile Organic Compounds/VOCs and scent molecules.

For water based dissolved organic compounds in aquariums, they use bituminous coal. Again, long story short, I know about this coz last time I dabbled in freshwater aquariums also.

Can't find much coconut husk ACs, also there are many grades anyway...

I am using this, this works ok. Coz take advantage of Amazon's low price + free ship to SG with my other purchases

Amazon.com : Marineland PA0373 Black Diamond Activated Carbon, 40-Ounce, 1134-Gram : Aquarium Filter Accessories : Pet Supplies

I would recommend this marineland one coz the size of the "pellets" is just nice, not too big as you need it to be small pelleted so that a lot of surface area is exposed. And not too small as in it's like fine sand. It's very good value, you get quite a lot of AC for the price.

Commercially outside for SG retail, you pay SGD60 for a small piece of AC filter from Sharp.

If that's too much trouble and hassle for you, you can try the Honeywell AC mesh filters. Just cut. Not too expensive also.
Amazon.com - Honeywell Universal Carbon Air Purifier Replacement Pre-Filter, HRF-AP1 / Filter (A) - Carbon Prefilter Air Purifiers

So 2 option here liao.

How you use this is like this. Give it a rinse once under tap water, put it into a laundry bag. You can dry it under the sun, or what I just do is to place the laundry bag with the AC at the air conditioner's FCU/fan coil unit air intake.

The idea is to get air flowing around and preferably across the bag. It doesn't have to be a lot of airflow. Try to spread it as thin a layer as possible. Surface area exposed is key.

WussRedXLi · Oct 31, 2014

SGD60-70 for this. (the black filter) This is a Sharp air purifier.

It's very light, at most 100-150g worth of carbon impregnanted into the cloth fllter element. However, it's probably very efficient. Can 100+g of this AC compare with 1.2kg of AC from that Marineland AC (sgd20 nia) I posted above?

WussRedXLi · Oct 31, 2014

Samsung air purifiers use a 0.5 inch thick honeycomb structured cells to house some AC pellets. The filter for the Samsung AX40 is 11" x 12" in size. It's just a small handful of AC pellets housed in there.
Same thing, the pellets housed in there are not the same as the above Marineland AC meant for aquariums. But they'd still work, I tried before.
The idea is to use enough.

Eg, just to give you an idea.

WussRedXLi · Oct 31, 2014

This is how IQAir does it in their Heathpro air purifiers.

Austin Air Healthmate

The Healthmate HEPA air purifier is simple, without electronic extras, but it has a heart of gold: 15 pounds of activated carbon, with zeolite mix to adsorb over 3000 different VOC chemicals and odors.

Austin Air claims its filter material meets HEPA filter standards (99.97% particle filtration at .3 micron size), and is 95% efficient in filtering airborne particulates 0.1 micron and smaller.

Austin Air Purifier: Healthmate Review

WussRedXLi · Oct 31, 2014

The Austin Air not cheap....local retail it's around 1.5k I think, shd be top model.

One of my colleague friend in another dept, they bought 4 pcs for their dept floor. Coz got quite a few of their key staff are allergic and susceptible to haze.

Good coy and dept huh? :

IQAir Heathpro starts from around low 2k local retail.

Casper · Oct 31, 2014

Yup, I live up north and occasionally gets foul smells which I would ideally like to remove by a purifier or AC as you have mentioned.

Thanks so much for your detailed illustrations. I would most certainly get that marine coal that you have mentioned. I've also bought extra Honeywell carbon filters that I'm thinking of just sticking to my normal fan to try get some air flowing through it. However, is it necessary to wet it first and then dry it? Or just using it straight is better... unless of course you might be afraid of carbon dust flying around.

Casper · Oct 31, 2014

Wow... very good company... taking good care of the employees health!

The Austin and IQ purifiers sure looks great... but it is beyond my budget. Think getting few boxes of the marine coal might be a easier bet! haha

WussRedXLi · Oct 31, 2014

Casper said:
Yup, I live up north and occasionally gets foul smells which I would ideally like to remove by a purifier or AC as you have mentioned.

Thanks so much for your detailed illustrations. I would most certainly get that marine coal that you have mentioned. I've also bought extra Honeywell carbon filters that I'm thinking of just sticking to my normal fan to try get some air flowing through it. However, is it necessary to wet it first and then dry it? Or just using it straight is better... unless of course you might be afraid of carbon dust flying around.

Yes, the AC dust is pretty fine, but no worries that's still pretty coarse by haze standards (Indon's haze via peat fires primiarily is actually PM 0.15 to 0.4 microns) and probably not PM2.5 level. So won't cause too much problems.

Give it a few good rinses so that the excess is all forced and rinsed out. With the air purifier running, you don't have to worry too much. With just a gentle breeze running across the pellets, very very low level of dusts just for the initial few hours of using ba.

WussRedXLi · Oct 31, 2014

Casper said:
Wow... very good company... taking good care of the employees health!

The Austin and IQ purifiers sure looks great... but it is beyond my budget. Think getting few boxes of the marine coal might be a easier bet! haha

Definitely, money is not easy to earn nowadays. Even if one can afford 10k on 4 x IQAir, i'd say just save up. Coz SG's annual air quality overall is still far away from China's standard.

BTW, it's best to place the laundry bag on top of aircon FCUs with air intakes on top. If yours is forward facing, then you are out of luck.

You can place it near the air intake of the air purifier, but not as effective in reality I guess.

Casper · Oct 31, 2014

Roger that WussRedXLi..!

Thanks once again.!

WussRedXLi · Oct 31, 2014

Read some qoo10 comments that the Sharp A28 does not have a HEPA filter and it only has a dust filter, hence is useless. That is not true.

It has a E10 filter, 85% efficient @ MPPS.

This would work to bring PM2.5 concentrations in the house down to safe levels. However, if you have a very bad case of rhinitis/sinusitis and you want this to work for clearing your blocked nose in the morning when you wake up and your bedroom is quite huge, then this won't work.

You'd need a way larger set, plus always always get rid of the source contaminants. As an example to the last point, a cleanroom is an extreme example, they always remove contaminant sources coz they easily foul things up. You are not going to get clean air if your aircon FCU is not clean, your curtains are dusty, your wallpaper is harbouring dust coz you never wiped down in the past 5 years etc.

http://www.aafeurope.com/en/150/en1822

Video here, self explanatory