AirCleanerUpdate

[Guest guest]

Hi Group-

 

The recent postings on this topic have given me an incentive to get off my butt

and share my experience on finding an air cleaner that I can tolerate and also

works for my particular required filtration situation.

 

I am beyond thrilled to report in the over 10 years that I have been sick with

MCS and more than 16 air cleaners that I have bought and returned including the

tops names like IQ, AllerAir, Austin, etc.....I have FINALLY found an air

cleaner that I can tolerate, which is a miracle due to the severity of my MCS.

 

My downside experience with brands I've tried:

Loaded with plastics, foams, glues, HEPA, location of the motor, lack of

variable speed control, lack of carbon options, chemicals used on motor/outer

cabinet/filters.

 

My upside experience with brands I've tried:

Technical expertise in effective chemical filtration, recommendations by key

environmental experts like Rea/Patel//Leiberman, manufacturer cleanroom

offgassing program for customers w/MCS (Austin Air has one).

 

Current situation:

This summer I had windows installed in my home and in spite of tons of

environmental precautions, I now have some chemical issues with the interior

environment of my home.  Nothing that time won't resolve but in the meantime,

needed some air quality options fast.  Had IAQ experts evaluate my home, had a

bunch of options and the bottom line best option to get me through this winter

was effective air filtration.  

 

Ugh..oh no.  Here we go again trying to find an air cleaner I can

tolerate.  Combined with all the cleaners from past years and now adding an IQ

Air and also an Austin that I bought/returned this past fall....I tripped upon a

company called AirPura. 

http://www.airpura.com/index.html

 

Ton of phone calls, liked what I was hearing, had the key features I wanted,

many options ideal for someone w/MCS.  So, I narrowed it down to their model

C600 and also the C600DLX.

 

Positive highlights on their C600 and C600DLX models for me:

No HEPA

Poly or Cotton prefilters

HEPA like barrier filter and post filter

All metal carbon canister and ends

Carbon canister available in glued and  non-glued

Glued canister uses AFM sealant

Non-glued canister has screwed ends and can be refilled

Benign felt gasket

Motor is truly a post filtration location

360 degree mesh intake (like Austin Air design)

360 degree air outflow

18 or 26 lb carbon canisters

3 " deep. 26lb carbon canister

Variable speed motor

Powerful 560CFM capacity motor

Effective up to 2000 sf

Baked exterior cabinet

No poly, no plastics, no treated filters or gaskets

 

Biggest difference between C600 vs C600DLX:

Model C600 has prefilter, coconut shell carbon with sandwiched carbon filters,

post filter. 

Model C600DLX is same design but has coconut shell impregnated w/potassium

alumina.  This machine was developed for the toxic Chinese drywall folks down

south thus the impregnated media to capture the formaldehyde.

 

Test run of both machines:

So I ordered both machines.  With these two machine being totally equal except

one has impregnated carbon and the other does not...I did a side by side

comparison.  Since AirPura machines don't have a lot of the toxic stuff like

other machines do, this test allowed me to finally do a comparable test to

narrow down what the heck really bothers me the most about these air cleaners. 

Other than the obvious suspects like the plastics and foams, I have always

suspected HEPA bother me in addition to the carbon.  Well now I had two machines

with no HEPA, no plastics, no foams..so it pretty much gave me a rare

opportunity to see if it's the different types of carbon media.  And because of

this side by side test, I now finally know for sure.

 

I put the coconut shell carbon C600 in one room and the C600DLX w/impregnated

carbon in another room.  Within 24 hours and like many MCS people, I too found

that there was no doubt that the impregnated carbon bothers me.  The plain

coconut shell a little, but not too bad.   

 

Sooo then I expanded my test to the speed settings on the variable speed

motor. I played around with lowering the motor speed and found that  " sweet spot "

on the coconut shell machine that not only did the machine no longer bother me

at all BUT it also was still effective with removing the chemical problem I have

in my home.  I could never find that " sweet spot " on the DLX model so with the

machines being equivalent except for the impregnated carbon...now I know the

impregnated carbon does bother me. 

 

So my test conclusion is that between no HEPA, coconut shell carbon and

the variable speed motor...I think all are contributing to my tolerance of this

C600 machine.  I already bought a 2nd machine and hope to scrounge up enough $$

to buy a 3rd machine at the end of this month.

 

The 1st machine is in my bedroom and is on the very lowest setting, is very

quiet and keeping up well w/the chemicals. 

 

The 2nd machine is amazing as it's keeping up with a lr/droom combo that has a

cathedral ceiling and is where 8 of the windows are located.  That machine is a

little under the 1/2 way setting on the variable speed motor and is keeping up

extremely well with the offgassing chemicals. This impresses me considering it

is not an enclosed room and is managing the cathedral air space.  Once again, I

have found that " sweet spot " where it is just high enough to keep up with the

chemicals but on the perfect speed where I don't react to the carbon

expelling in the air outflow.  Coconut shell is not considered by many to be

very effective w/formaldehyde and other heavy duty chemicals but that's a trade

off I am totally ok with.  The MSDS sheets on my chemical situation doesn't

involve formaldehyde anyway...or so it says.  But either way for me to have

FINALLY found an air cleaner that I can tolerate is SUCH a huge victory.  

 

My 3rd machine will be ordered I hope by the end of the month or as $ allows. 

That machine will go upstairs in the loft and be positioned to capture the loft

itself as well at the two attaching bedrooms.  Although the machine down in the

cathedral living room has hugely reduced the amount of chemicals fumes migrating

up there, combined with the upstairs windows I still need an exclusive machine

up there.

 

I also would like a 4th machine to cover the kitchen, which is walled off sorta

by itself.  But not gonna happen financially.  So what I am doing is when I know

that I need to spend time in the kitchen, I roll the cathedral lr/droom machine

over to straddle the kitchen and run it on high for 10 minutes or so recycling

the air in the room numerous times.  I then turn it down to the " sweet spot "

where it doesn't bother me and voila, can do what I need to do in the

kitchen.   

 

For anyone who does not know what variable speed is...many air cleaners come

with low/medium/high type dial settings or maybe 5 settings like

lo/lomed/med/medhigh/high..something like that.  A variable speed motor does not

have preset speeds like that.  On these AirPura dials, there is no notched

feeling on the dial as you turn the air speed up or down.  It's a smooth dial

that you can scooch up or down one hair at a time. This allows me to find that

truly perfect spot that is just enough speed to move the air and eradicate the

chemicals but low enough to not bother me. 

 

Years ago, I owned a couple of AllerAir machines. 

http://allerair.com/

That was back in the day before they had the MCS line and also the varible speed

motors.  They now have variable speed motors on some of their models for those

that think such a feature may be of value to them.  I have seen numerous MCS

people post about success with their AirMedic line.  They also have the AllerAir

MCS line of machines made with cotton filters, metal carbon canisters, etc.  I

think that AllerAir may still require the purchase of a test kit before

purchasing a machine, which is then applied to the purchase of a machine.  They

offer machines with numerous carbon options such as impregnated carbons,

zeolite, etc. 

 

For those posting about Austin Air, I had the Plus model and only at the very

top speed did it keep up with the chemicals in my house.  But at top speed, it

also spewed the offgassing of it's foam, glue, plastic motor lubricant, etc made

it intolerable for me.  Like someone else in this group posting about Dr Rea

recommending Austin...so did his protege/my environ doc Dr Sherry as

well.  To be honest, having owned and Austin and opened it up and seen what's

inside..I am shocked that they are so highly recommended for people w/MCS. 

Maybe it's because of their awareness of MCS and the offgassing program that

they offer to us. 

 

Oh yes and BTW...for anyone in the market for an air cleaner..listen to this

one.  I found a distributor where I am buying my machines and check this out:

-does not collect sale tax outside Virginia

-they pay shopping to you

-60 day unconditional money back guarantee

-they pay return shipping

-no restocking fee except for certain exclusions. 

Yes that's right and just to recap....no outside Virginia tax, no shipping both

ways, no restocking fee, 60 day return policy.  Unheard of in the world of air

cleaners, as many of us know!!

 

So there, that's my report on my air cleaner saga..lol..  I am SOOO grateful to

have found this company AirPura and have these C600 machines.  I can now at

least tolerate my home and buy enough time until we open up our houses in the

spring.  Sounds dramatic but know that other MCS people understand when I say

that I feel like these are saving my life right now.

 

Kathy