Air purifier?

[chuanz]

What happened to Western Singapore at 2000-2100h?

The 2100h 1hr PM2.5 reading was 60 ug/m3. AQI 153
2200g PM2.5 was 50 ug/m3. AQI 137

I thought it was another fluke reading, but apparently not?

 

[WussRedXLi]

I thought it was another fluke reading, but apparently not?

2Hrs....and there are no news on google (i filtered with "past 24hrs).

 

[kennyg1969]

If I have no requirement for humidifier, I suppose Sharp FP-E50E is just as good as the KC-A50E.

 

[Mikl1984]

If I have no requirement for humidifier, I suppose Sharp FP-E50E is just as good as the KC-A50E.

It will be even better as water block is main source of leakage

 

[kennyg1969]

It will be even better as water block is main source of leakage

Thank you

 

[WussRedXLi]

1997-98 were the years which saw the most powerful El Nino ever recorded. 82-83 was the 2nd most powerful El Nino ever recorded. Check out 2015's ESPI now.

The atmosphere is extremely coupled with the ocean now. Indonesia, esp the areas S of the equator, is going to be extremely dry.

http://pmm.nasa.gov/trmm/rain-averages-and-anomolies

ESPI is calcuated with precipitation anomalies from two areas (Figure 1) in the Pacific Ocean and quantifies the strength of ENSO, in terms of regional rainfall changes. A detailed summary of the methodology can be found at http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/ESPIsummary.html.

http://eagle1.umd.edu/GPCP_ICDR/Data/ESPI.txt

YYYY MM ESPI
1982 5 0.04878
1982 6 0.44726
1982 7 2.20202
1982 8 1.69388
1982 9 1.94570
1982 10 2.00151
1982 11 2.98626
1982 12 1.98466
1983 1 2.53204
1983 2 2.07586
1983 3 1.58187
1983 4 1.51723
1983 5 1.67017
1983 6 1.40125
1983 7 -0.99598

1997 2 -0.84283
1997 3 1.30719
1997 4 1.30295
1997 5 2.21203
1997 6 3.54739
1997 7 2.05480
1997 8 3.03662
1997 9 3.06810
1997 10 3.22811
1997 11 2.18152
1997 12 2.31548
1998 1 2.50963
1998 2 2.04086
1998 3 1.43830
1998 4 1.19558
1998 5 1.07707
1998 6 -0.71741

2015 2 -0.02540
2015 3 0.96322
2015 4 1.27272
2015 5 3.03944
2015 6 1.85040
2015 7 3.45910

 

[WussRedXLi]

2 units of IQAir HealthPro 250 on gumtree. $600 for 1. Seller said he'd give disc for getting 2.

The HyperHEPA is about $350. But if don't mind the smell from daily operation, can last 2 years. It's crazy thick, 14"x14"x5" thick. So cannot DIY

Whole set of filter (H10 prefilter, AC and potassium permagante or something like that, HyperHEPA filter) = 3200 RMB. Or $700.

http://world.taobao.com/item/38571006755.htm?spm=a312a.7700714.0.0.tN6HoP#detail

 

[plasticpistola]

Filter life is 12 months max, if used daily. For the HEPA part.
Activated charcoal filter is much shorter lifespan.

Replacement filters are readily available @ BEST if you afford the running costs, or Taobao has ready made units, though at 31mm thickness (1.25 inches) and not 45mm.....if you were to forgo using the AC filter. 6X cheaper and literally no performance hit if you were to use 45mm depth for the 3rd party ones.

Hence, in a way, you can change at a cycle of 6-9 months depending on haze levels (daily usage) coz it will start to smell.

Yep, got auto. But just leave it in the haze mode or medium mode....there is a Clean ION shower mode that sets the fan in HIGH for 15 mins and then reverts to previously set fan speed (eg Medium). So pretty convenient.

Never leave it in the low mode just to be silent, coz you have set it to High mode for 30 mins. It will never be able to maintain a decently low particulate matter level, esp on hazy days. Tested quite a few times before with a meter.

All APs need to operate with the Air-con, unless you can tahan the heat with closed doors/windows

my ax40 always start w 30mins on high then after that switch to auto~

kym?

 

[plasticpistola]

2 units of IQAir HealthPro 250 on gumtree. $600 for 1. Seller said he'd give disc for getting 2.

The HyperHEPA is about $350. But if don't mind the smell from daily operation, can last 2 years. It's crazy thick, 14"x14"x5" thick. So cannot DIY

Whole set of filter (H10 prefilter, AC and potassium permagante or something like that, HyperHEPA filter) = 3200 RMB. Or $700.

http://world.taobao.com/item/38571006755.htm?spm=a312a.7700714.0.0.tN6HoP#detail

wah iq air spotted in superman Li's orpis!

 

[flyben]

I stayed in this hotel in malaysia over the national day weekend and in the hotel room was this coway AP-1503 air purifier
The air in the room was awesome, almost smelt like mountain fresh air, way better than my sgd$200 sharp air purifier in my room, can't find back the same model but I found a similar one, coway AP-1511FHE which I am contemplating buying
Anyone has any comments or advise on this? Or first hand experience with high end coway air purifiers ?

 

[WussRedXLi]

my ax40 always start w 30mins on high then after that switch to auto~

kym?

Not recommended. There is too little airflow.

Recommended is high speed in X minutes (if it's a high airflow unit wrt room size, then you can shorten the duration) and then switch to medium for lower noise.

The general recommendation is that you hit a min of 5 ACH/Air Changes per Hour. Especially for allergy special cases, as they really need to get the airflow around their bed going, or they can use fan assistance.

But in reality, I guess regular folks can get away with 3-4 ACH and still be fine.

To get room's cubic vol, measure L, W and Height which is 2.9m for HDB. Minus 20% for furniture/bed/cabinet.
Then use AP airflow m3/hr divide by that. You can convert CFM to m3 per hour via google search, just type 200 CFM to metre cube per hour.

 

[WussRedXLi]

I stayed in this hotel in malaysia over the national day weekend and in the hotel room was this coway AP-1503 air purifier
The air in the room was awesome, almost smelt like mountain fresh air, way better than my sgd$200 sharp air purifier in my room, can't find back the same model but I found a similar one, coway AP-1511FHE which I am contemplating buying
Anyone has any comments or advise on this? Or first hand experience with high end coway air purifiers ?

The hotel is likely to have a F8, F9 filter for its HVAC already. So the air purifier rides on top of it.

That said, the smell is really due to the cleanliness of the room. Some old hotel rooms smell musky. But some which are somewhat newer with good maintainence are good. 2 other important factors that affect the "feel" of the room vs your own home room would be (1) temperature (2) humidity.
You can set the temperature of the aircon to be slightly lower, it affects the feel.

In your room, it's all about the frequency of the changing of bedsheets and aircon fan coil unit washing. And the hanging of clothes behind the door. ie source of smell.

Try to do these first and see, before spending good $$$ on that $1,299 Coway AP. Even an IQAir or Alen/Austin air purifier with that 3-5kg of activated charcoal/activated alumina etc would not do good, if your source is not removed.

It really has nothing to do with the HEPA portion of an Air Purifier.

PS. For Aircon FCU, try to DIY clean. Search on my posts here and elsewhere in EDMW, abt the Jackie foam aircon cleaner and also using the Panasonic oral irrigator to blast at the aircon cage fan.

If you can tahan the cost of engaging a technician to wash your FCUs every 2-3 months (annual would be $250 for 2 FCUs for my contact) and also someone can be at home to oversee that washing, then that's fine also.

Hmm....now can ship to SG again. It's retailing @ BEST Denki
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-EW-...4260&sr=8-1&keywords=panasonic+oral+irrigator


Anyway, this is the Activated charcoal filter for the Coway AP-1503. Nothing much, no difference between such products vs Sharp, Samsung, etc.

 

[WussRedXLi]

Anyone has any comments or advise on this? Or first hand experience with high end coway air purifiers ?

One thing that I suspect is that your $200 Sharp filter has not been changed for > 12mths, regardless of usage length/pattern.


If you have just received your bonus D) and have the itch to spend some money as a reward, you can consider the Samsung AX40, or even the Samsung AX60 which is basically 2 units of Samsung AX40 stacked on top of one another.

AP-1511
http://www.coway.com/product/product_view.asp?cate_pgae=product_thum.asp&bcate=3&mcate=&idx=87

HEPA Filter(99.9% filtration)
Recommended room size 50㎡/ 538sq.ft (by KACA standard)
AHAM CADR (Smoke 227, Dust 234, Pollen 256)
256 CFM = 434 m3/hr


All the below models can work with SG. Heck loads of folks are using AX40, some multiple units. I have one myself.

AX40 (get the additional filter @ 78, or get a few model with the same order)
http://list.qoo10.sg/item/SUPER-TIMESALE-SAMSUNG-NEW-AX40H5000GMD/415159815

The AX40 is rated 41m2 by the same KACA standard as the Coway AP1511.
The unit is 323 m3/hr airflow, or 190CFM

But one thing good thing about the Samsung is that it is extremely quiet at maximum speed. There is no equal to it, unless you get a big unit like the Sharp A80 (SGD500) and operate in medium speed, as a hack.

Or you can choose the AX60. Or AX70. These 2 units are like 2 x AX40 stacked on top of each other.
http://list.qoo10.sg/item/SAMSUNG-AIR-PURIFIER-BLUE-SKY-PM2/425129631

Check with the seller whether the replacement HEPA cum AC filter set is the same as the AX40. I think so.
Detailed specs :
http://www.sgshop.com.my/?taobao=show_1_43692004744

 

[flyben]

Thanks for the tips WussRedXLi

So zhun I woke up this morning to my air con leaking water
I actually alternate between regular washing and chemical washing for my air con every half a year
Will wash the Aircon and remove clothes from behind the door in my room and try again first.
My sharp filter is actually about 6 months old, it's damn hard to get stocks for their filters, I used to get stocks from their service centre at Alexander technopark but recently found out that Best @ Vivocity and IMM sometimes carries stock.

After some reading up, I theory crafting and thinking to myself the freshness of the air incould be due to 3 factors, the hepa filter for particle removal, activated carbon filter for smell removal and plasma thingy that the coway air purifier uses to further break down molecules into CO2 and water vapor, not sure if that makes any sense thou.

Based on the above mentioned theory I was also considering the Novita NAP 602 which has the cool catalyst for this purpose

The Samsung Ax40 60 70 seems to be recommended by a lot of folks in this forum thou I personally don't understand why as it seems to have less features than both the Novita and coway models, not that I am very rich but hmmmm I guess this is like a 1 time investment for health purposes and also since I have a pretty serious insomnia problem I thought maybe buy something really good which could help.

 

[WussRedXLi]

Thanks for the tips WussRedXLi
So zhun I woke up this morning to my air con leaking water
I actually alternate between regular washing and chemical washing for my air con every half a year

Don't really have to do a chemical wash. Chemical wash is only needed after an extremely long period of non-washing hence too much junk liao, thus needed a total dismantling of the metal fins/heat exchanger and blast in the washroom + use chemicals to literally bleach....think of it as something like the level of acid wash.
Even if you DIY wash frequently like the 2 months frequency using the method (with the 90 PSI oral irrigator) I have mentioned, no chemical wash is needed. Coz the air purifier would mean that the fine dust load is much lower than a usual room, the FCU would never be able to accumulate junk to such a level that needs a chemical wash.....not for the next 10 years.

Best Denki at Taka carries the widest range and biggest stock of Sharp filters compared to Vivo (which is like non-existent anyway). I am not sure about IMM.

After some reading up, I theory crafting and thinking to myself the freshness of the air incould be due to 3 factors, the hepa filter for particle removal, activated carbon filter for smell removal and plasma thingy that the coway air purifier uses to further break down molecules into CO2 and water vapor, not sure if that makes any sense thou.

I am currently using 2 x AC filters. One from the LG PS-R429 (312m3/hr machine) and another from the LG PS-S209 (180 m3/hr machine). Both these AC filters weigh 1.1kg.
Coz we just recently changed the bed frame 6 weeks ago and there's some slight elevation of VOCs. There are young kids ard here so I figured that I'd use the filters, which are literally brand new coz I never opened the plastic packaging when I got the 2 x LGs (only used the customised size taobao HEPAs).
I have the original HEPAs in the packaging as well, unused.
I have a VOC meter from Taobao which is sensitive to pick up the VOCs from say new carpets/new bed. And @ the air purifier output, it's like 0.000 ppm, relatively speaking the meter works (don't believe it's anywhere accurate, but we don't need accuracy anyway).

What I can tell you is this. As long as you never get the source out of the room, ie clothes, bedsheets, or even curtains or the baby's sarong which has a piss smell, you'd never get that fresh smell. Not even with 5kg worth of activated charcoal/activated alumina impregnated with potassium permanganete in an IQ Air Healthpro 250.


The ion feature found in Sharp, LG, Samsung etc, not very useful in real life.
Don't really use them.
Though they sort of have proven that it works. But note, that Sharp is a very powerful model, it's like 3X the ion density found in the plasmacluster module found in the regular APs like A40, A50, A80, A28 etc.

Based on the above mentioned theory I was also considering the Novita NAP 602 which has the cool catalyst for this purpose

The Samsung Ax40 60 70 seems to be recommended by a lot of folks in this forum thou I personally don't understand why as it seems to have less features than both the Novita and coway models, not that I am very rich but hmmmm I guess this is like a 1 time investment for health purposes and also since I have a pretty serious insomnia problem I thought maybe buy something really good which could help.

Don't worry about the cool catalyst part. It's already covered by the AC filter. Furthermore, most houses do not have a serious VOC problem in the first place.

You can read this about AC filters here.
http://particlecounting.tumblr.com/post/105818344169/does-carbon-really-work

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231001004356


Got serious insomnia issue, is mainly due to work stress + lifestyle (bright LEDs screens 2hrs before 2300hr), caffine prior to 1500hr, and sometimes for some sensitive pax the drinking of 1 cup of Pokka green tea during dinner also affects things.

You can look at Melatonin with 3-5mg intake, it's not a drug so no worries about addiction. You can safely take it for a max of 6 mths, it's a supplement and not medication so no worries about interaction with your other drugs (if any). And as always, talk to your doc on your next visit about Melatonin if you have concerns. But it's really safe for any healthy individual.

 

[WussRedXLi]

The Samsung Ax40 60 70 seems to be recommended by a lot of folks in this forum thou I personally don't understand why as it seems to have less features than both the Novita and coway models, not that I am very rich but hmmmm I guess this is like a 1 time investment for health purposes and also since I have a pretty serious insomnia problem I thought maybe buy something really good which could help.

For most of us, we are most interested in the HEPA portion, which is for haze particulate matter, viruses/bactiera, and dust mite droppings filtration. And some are interested in activated charcoal. That's about it.
HEPA is more than capable of controlling airborne bacteria/viruses via droplet infection. I posted before earlier in the thread that the smallest of infectious droplets range from 1.0 microns and up. This is also why N95s work, and why CDC approves the use of N95 masks for various bird flu and MERS/SARS infection control etc.

The high-end segment : Airgle, Austin Air, IQAir all do not have things like cool catalyst filters, or even negative ionisers (need to stress that this feature can be turned off in the Sharp, Samsung, LG, Novita etc). They work very well, but they are usually out of our league. The IQ Air and Airgle models touch 2k.


Coz the Samsungs on qoo10 have
(1)the best priceerformance ratio for the unit and also running cost, should you choose the original filters.
(2) It is the most silent out there at high speed (323m3/hr). 45dBA. You can leave it in High speed and not be bothered by it unless you sleep right beside it, which is easily solved by correct placement.
(3) 323m3/hr is just nice for HDB rooms. In fact the ACH for a typical BTO MBR (4.2m x 3.2m x 2.9 * 80% = 31 m3) is 10 ACH. It approaches 15 ACH for the normal bedrooms. It can be used in the living room as well during haze periods.
(4) It also draws the least amount of electricity for the airflow (AX40 spec is 34W, measured is 27W only).
A 40 watts difference with 12hrs operation is SGD45.5 annually. 6 years = SGD273
A Rowenta PU2120 is 83W and same airflow league (300+ m3/hr), 38 dBA Sound Pressure Level spec is @ lowest speed. Every 6 years, the difference in electricity gets you one free AX40.

That is only 1 AP. And we have been using multiple air purifiers in multiple rooms and homes for many years.

The LG PS-R459 / LA-378 comes in a very close second. For some, the Sharp A80 deserves mention and may suit them better due to its high 480 m3/hr high speed airflow (in medium speed, it actually is even more silent than the AX40 in high speed and flows ard the same m3/hr, if one chooses to run it that way). Too bad it costs SGD475 and not available for lower on qoo10.
That said, I'd pick a Sharp A80 in a jiffy if I can find a second hand one at less than 200 bucks.

3rd party HEPAs are available from Taobao, if one cannot afford originals but want to have that 6-9 months change of the filter coz the smell from the PM in the HEPAs start to smell at about the 6 mth part. They cost 1/4 to 1/5th the cost of originals but performance hit is probably some 10% in terms of CADR.

 

[WussRedXLi]

Few days ago, there was a Carousell ad for $100 for KC-850 + KC-840 both.
Too bad, was a tad slow. Not difficult to open to clean with alcohol. Can dump to my grandma's place. Currently have a A28 there.

This is the predecessor of the A50 and A40.

 

[WussRedXLi]

Since we are on the topic of Coway, time for me to post this again.

http://world.taobao.com/item/37005258842.htm?spm=a312a.7700714.0.0.6yJs8V#detail

 

[WussRedXLi]

Looks like haze lai liao..

SE winds kalimantan

 

[plasticpistola]

My sis just texted me saying sunset way area the haze smell is damn strong!