Vacuum FIltration Poll

[centralsweeper63]

I found that I got dust problems and allergies like asthma from the absolutely massive dust clouds I would generate with shake-out bags and bagless filters before me continuing to generate them made them go away after about a year. I always had ashtma, the dust clouds made it gets better somehow though.

 

[ultralux88]

It depends for me, I run all kinds of vacuums through the house that use cloth bags and mediocre filtering paper stuff, but when I'm actually cleaning seriously, I do tend to prefer something with better filtration, or the central vac. I do have rather severe allergies too, but I chose to deal with it by using air purifiers rather than worry about it. And I've gone towards preferring ionizers (those controversial Living Air type machines specifically), and now when I run a vacuum with questionable filtration, I don't even get allergy symptoms, there will just be a bit more dust on everything to clean up.

 

[centralsweeper63]

Interesting to hear they do actually work.

 

[cheesewonton]

Ozone is an air pollutant. It is part of photochemical smog.

 

[centralsweeper63]

It is a pollutant, I did decide to stay away for safety, though it is is interesting to hear it works none the less.

 

[ultralux88]

Ozone is an air pollutant. It is part of photochemical smog.

I don't actually consider it a pollutant. Its created naturally by both the sun and by lightning, and is present in all air at low levels, and naturally raises in levels when pollution does, as its a natural reaction to the pollution, because it does actually oxidize and break that down. I know in too high of levels it is absolutely irritating, but when you run these machines correctly, its putting out a very low level, comparable to what occurs naturally, and you don't smell it or get any irritation. I'm one of those people with such bad allergies and breathing problems, that if it were going to be a problem, my breathing problems would have worsened, rather than going away completely.

This video pretty much explains my opinions on ozone, and why I actually consider it something I want to have in the air, at the correct amount:

 

[centralsweeper63]

Alright, interesting.

 

[ultralux88]

This guy does an extremely good job of explaining how these air purifiers work, this is a newer design than my two older Living Air machines, but I’ve got two newer ones that do have the UV/photocatalytic thing in them too, which makes hydroxyl, and those I usually don’t bother turning the ozone generator part on, the old Living Air units are absolutely making ozone, but I don’t turn them up high. The ionizer part on all of them is always on though, which is why I never really get allergies when running some dusty old cloth bag machine.

 

[centralsweeper63]

Maybe it is mind over matter. No air purifier can clean your whole house at the same speed as you are cleaning.

 

[mark40511]

If you don't have a lot of clutter, and have a good HEPA bagged vacuum that doesn't leak into the bag chamber...and the right tools to go with that vacuum, and you clean all over the place floor to ceiling, you would be amazed how much dust you can get... So yes, filtration is important. If you have clutter and a lot of things laying around and you have to vacuum around them, it's almost pointless. All you end up doing is going is vacuuming around the clutter.. that piles of clutter just lay there collecting dust and that dust goes airborne if someone moves it.

 

[centralsweeper63]

Exactly. That is a good description.

 

[ultralux88]

Maybe it is mind over matter. No air purifier can clean your whole house at the same speed as you are cleaning.

No, my allergies are too severe to just imagine they're gone. It could be something like how when I leave the house, I rarely experience allergy issues, because the vast majority of the time I'm at home (sleeping) I no longer am inundated constantly with crap in the air, so my body handles shorter exposures better. So maybe I just don't get as bothered by 20-30 minutes of dirty vacuum exhaust, and within a couple minutes of turning the machine off, anything I stirred up will be on the floor or some other horizontal surface. But I do have rather severe allergies, and was heavily reliant on medication not to be miserable. One year I had constant sinus issues and infections, 3 doctors told me I could either take Zyrtec D (or any of those with the D) daily, or I could continue to suffer, its that bad.

 

[centralsweeper63]

I can believe that. I am sorry I didn't, I didn't realise they were so bad. What works, works though. I have food allergies so I understand how bad it can be. Gluten, dairy, soy, wheat, pollen. I have lots. But it is a shame to hear how hard dust allergies are to deal with. Good to hear you have found your solution.

 

[cheesewonton]

I take an Allertec 10 mg ( Costco brand for Zyrtec ) in the morning and two squirts of Flonase in each nostril at night. The cats sleep with us, I nuzzle them and our dogs and life is good.

 

[centralsweeper63]

I have hay fever liquid sometimes in pollen season. I have the liquid because I cannot swallow the tablets for some reason.

 

[rlsellman21]

I don't have environmental allergies or asthma, so I can deal with a vacuum that doesn't have HEPA filtration, like my Oreck XL for example, which is currently using type CC paper bags, although I do plan to get HEPA bags for it once I use up all of the paper bags that I currently have for it.

 

[centralsweeper63]

You cannot get Oreck bags in NZ anymore, so I have to use the docking style bags on a non-dock machine. It holds pretty well but that combined with the fact that they are the budget ones they leak like a sieve. Though the outer bag does do a pretty good job.