Los Angeles sure is a filthy city!

[electrolux137]

About 10 years ago or so, I bought a Honeywell air cleaner that I found at a thrift shop for ten bucks. "Such a deal." I installed a new filter in it and we have been using it practically non-stop ever since.

Every three months or so I open it up and vacuum the filter, but replacing the filter every-other time (e.g., every six months). This time, when I opened the air cleaner, the filter was so filthy that I replaced it with a new one. See photos.

It's really amazing how much stuff this little machine pulls out of the air, instead of it going onto our furniture and floors and into our lungs! What you see is just a three-month accumulation!!

 

[kenkart]

Might be dusty!!!BUT!

I will trade some dust for this awful humidity, hovering around 100 percent,everything is sopping wet, the drain on my central ac runs a steady stream of water.

 

[tolivac]

The large air filter on thaat Honey air purifier reminds me of the two similar filters on the Caterpillar Genset engine out here at work!When the engine is running you get almost Shop Vac suction on the filter air inlets!Don't know how dirty these get-a contractor for Caterpillar changes them-there is an airflow guage on the filters to show when they need changing-never seen them register in the "change" mark.The engine filters don't have the outer filter wrapper.The engine filters filter the air before it goes into the turbochargers-and those glow red hot when the engine is going!The turbo charger fancase is cool.

 

[luxman107]

I have a couple of the Aerus/ Electrolux guardian airs.. They do a great job too the filters always need to be vacuumed off and changed once a year because they get filthy too. They really help my allergies though.

 

[myles_v]

I have a Hunter air cleaner downstairs that gets full of dust really fast, which is understandable since the 5 dogs stay on that floor all the time. I also bought a Holmes Aer1 air cleaner for my bedroom around 2 months ago. It comes with the Aer1 Total Air filter which is supposed to be replaced every 4 months. Just today I replaced it with the Aer1 Allergy Plus filter which is supposed to filter better (true HEPA filtration vs the "HEPA type" filtration in the "Total Air" filter) and it only has to be replaced once a year (the pre filter still has to be washed every 4 months, though). I learned to not vacuum off the cheap pre filter in it, since my Dyson just ripped it when using the crevice tool.

 

[gsheen]

How Noisy are these air cleaners ?

 

[myles_v]

My Hunter air cleaner is pretty noisy, but my Holmes air cleaner is pretty quiet, and I think I would be able to sleep with it on the high setting (but I normally leave it on either low or medium at night). I used to have a Honeywell air cleaner that was just like the one in the original post and if I recall correctly it wasn't very loud. The handle that you have to twist to remove the filter got stuck and wouldn't open, though.

 

[electrolux137]

Mine has three speeds. You can barely hear it when it's on low. High is a bit noisy but only intolerable when we're watching TV -- the ambient white noise interferes with the TV's audio.