BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

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NYCaviator
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BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by NYCaviator »

Wildfire season is upon us, and the area we spend part of the year gets very bad air quality when the fires start. Last year was especially bad so we changed our HVAC filter to a higher MERV one which kind of helped, but the fan doesn't run that frequently. I was thinking about adding some HEPA filters to the house but wasn't sure if they were actually effective against wildfire smoke that managed to creep into our old house.

I was looking at the smaller BlueAir 411 for the bedroom and the larger 211 for the living room/kitchen/dining room. Anyone have any experience with these in wildfire country? Do they work and are they worth the price? How often do you have to change the filters?
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RickBoglehead
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by RickBoglehead »

Turn fan on instead of auto.

Or, get an intelligent thermostat and set it to turn on fans x minutes per hour.
Avid user of forums on variety of interests-financial, home brewing, F-150, EV, home repair, etc. Enjoy learning & passing on knowledge. It's PRINCIPAL, not PRINCIPLE. I ADVISE you to seek ADVICE.
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quantAndHold
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by quantAndHold »

You can turn your AC setting to fan instead of auto to get it to run all the time, but you also have to be careful with high MERV filters if your HVAC system wasn’t designed for them. You can reduce the airflow and possibly freeze up or damage the compressor.

I don’t know specifically about the BlueAir filters, but yes, HEPA filter systems should help, is you keep the filters changed. If you want to throw money at the problem and do a whole house solution, an HVAC company can add a whole house filtration system to your HVAC system as well.
gtd98765
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by gtd98765 »

Not wildfires, but we used BlueAir purifiers in a highly polluted (coal dust) country abroad. They made a substantial difference, which you could tell just by walking out the door by the smell. We also used a professional air quality tester that confirmed the inside (with BlueAir) vs outside difference.
BadgerInBerkeley
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by BadgerInBerkeley »

We live in CA and the wildfires are getting rough. We have had a good experience with blue air 211 and purchased a second one this year. We also have smaller units we got years ago from Amazon that work well for bedrooms.

I recommend investing in some version of purifiers. It’s too important to not pay a modest cost for clean air several weeks (months?) out of the year. And hey, they’re still around for general use as you like.
Stumptowngal
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by Stumptowngal »

I am a huge advocate of the BlueAir 411. We own three of them. Oregon had its share of wildfires last year also (we were 12 miles away from an evacuation area) and the BlueAir provided some much needed relief.

We already had one BlueAir for the bedroom due to pets and my allergies and typically changed the filter every 5-6 months. However, I had to change out the 2 month old filters once the wildfires subsided; because they were absolutely black and clogged. I've already purchased additional filters for this season in case there becomes a shortage. The quality of BlueAir, which I researched extensively, made it worth the cost to me.
jt90505
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by jt90505 »

Invoking the 'only stupid question is the one you don't ask' rule, do you need to keep windows shut when running the filter for it to be effective?
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runner26
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by runner26 »

Live in CA. Have a 500 in the living room and a 400 in the bedroom. Except for the orange light coming through the windows I wouldn't have noticed the heavy smoke outside while inside. I have been running mine 24/7 for over 10 years which is also a testament for their reliability/durability. One thing though is that one came with a couple of special features (smell and dust detection) for automatically boosting fan speed. These failed rather quickly and I would not seek these features. Simple fan through filter is enough.
mtmingus
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by mtmingus »

Stumptowngal wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:01 pm typically changed the filter every 5-6 months. However, I had to change out the 2 month old filters once the wildfires subsided; because they were absolutely black and clogged.
We have two 211+. The filter is very expensive. Once the light turns yellow, we vacuum the filter and it is as good as new. Of course we are not in the wildfire country and the filters were never that bad (black and clogged).
phxjcc
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by phxjcc »

I prefer Austin Air.

Have used them for 20+ years.

Maybe in short supply—I think they got a huge order from the feds due to COVID-19.

ETA: filters last 5 YEARS.
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telemark
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by telemark »

jt90505 wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:14 pm Invoking the 'only stupid question is the one you don't ask' rule, do you need to keep windows shut when running the filter for it to be effective?
For best results, yes. A purifier that works well in a sealed room may fail to handle a room that's being flooded by new smoke from outside. But there's a middle ground. I had my balcony window open last night to let the cool air in and a purifier running in my bedroom, but the AQI outside was only in the 30s, which isn't bad at all. When we get some real smoke I'll keep things closed and run the air conditioner.

One comment on how HEPA filters fail: the problem isn't that they stop working, it's that they start working too well as the little holes fill up. Eventually you get to the point where the fan can hardly push air through them. How long they last depends on what kind of air they're filtering, the given times are only estimates.

I don't happen to own any BlueAir purifiers, but they have a good reputation.
gtd98765
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by gtd98765 »

jt90505 wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:14 pm Invoking the 'only stupid question is the one you don't ask' rule, do you need to keep windows shut when running the filter for it to be effective?
Yes you need to keep the windows shut when running the filter for best results. It's just like an air conditioner in that regard - you don't run the a/c with the windows open because then you are effectively trying to air condition the outside.
02nz
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by 02nz »

I have a 121, no wildfires nearby but reviews are good and it's pretty quiet. It's $200 right now from Costco, vs. $440 everywhere else.
MadHungarian
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by MadHungarian »

I run my furnace/AC fan full-time, with adequate but not spectacular electrostatic filter on the furnace. And i also have several BlueAir 605 HEPA filters, one in each major room i use. Due to some respiratory issues.
Seems to work okay during smoke season.
I like to use the biggest HEPA filters i can find, since i run them at a lower setting to reduce the noise levels.
MadHungarian
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by MadHungarian »

runner26 wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:48 pm Live in CA. Have a 500 in the living room and a 400 in the bedroom. Except for the orange light coming through the windows I wouldn't have noticed the heavy smoke outside while inside. I have been running mine 24/7 for over 10 years which is also a testament for their reliability/durability. One thing though is that one came with a couple of special features (smell and dust detection) for automatically boosting fan speed. These failed rather quickly and I would not seek these features. Simple fan through filter is enough.
Yes, i prefer the "Classic 605" model for that reason. It's big and dumb. Not as many things to fail. Just stick some black tape over the annoying bright blue LED and it's great.
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whodidntante
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by whodidntante »

Before you buy some fancy city folk filter, consider the TCO of hillbilly engineering. A 20" box fan with a 20x20 furnace filter taped on it can filter a lot of air for not much dough. If that doesn't filter enough, buy two. You can also buy box fans designed specifically for this purpose.
Mudpuppy
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by Mudpuppy »

I have in my air purifier evaluation notes that the BlueAir "HEPASilent" filters do not use true HEPA filter media (mechanical filtration only) and that they instead use an ionized filter methodology (electrostatic + mechanical filtration). That ruled out BlueAir for me when I was searching for a replacement HEPA filter for my allergies. I refused to consider any filter with an ionizer.

I currently have an Austin Air HealthMate in the cat room, a Levoit LV-H134 in my bedroom, and a Levoit LV-H135 in the living room. The Austin Air is definitely a workhorse of a unit, although I need to replace the filter already and it hasn't been the rated 5 years of filter life. It no longer controls odors like it used to when it was new, so my cats have likely saturated the carbon. Thankfully, filters are interchangeable within the Austin Air HealthMate line, so I can replace it with a HealthMate Pet filter, which has more carbon and zeolite to tackle pet odors. I'm signed up for their mailing list hoping for a coupon to come through.

The Levoits are not as robustly built as the Austin Air, but they are intended to be more consumer-level products than the Austin Air. I don't expect them to last as long, but they're serving a role in replacing my old Honeywell circular filters (the current Honeywell models with circular filters are far too noisy for me). I call the Levoit LV-134 the "Dalek" due to its shape and it is very quiet on the lowest fan setting, which I prefer for sleeping. I'm the least satisfied with the LV-H135, which is louder and less effective at filtration on the lowest fan setting than the "Dalek". It's not keeping the living room as clean as the old Honeywell did.

Another brand in my consideration list, but which I just can't bring myself to pay the price for, is IQAir HealthPro line. That's another "workhorse" brand, with a large odor control module (on some models in the line) and a lot of design focused on sealing air pathways and optimizing filtration. I just balk at the $800+ price tag every time I consider buying one for my bedroom and moving the "Dalek" to the living room.

I have spent way too much time thinking about these things. I even have a whole spreadsheet that calculates the 5 year true cost-of-ownership based on initial price, recommended filter replacement intervals, and filter costs.
jt90505
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by jt90505 »

gtd98765 wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 5:53 pm
jt90505 wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:14 pm Invoking the 'only stupid question is the one you don't ask' rule, do you need to keep windows shut when running the filter for it to be effective?
Yes you need to keep the windows shut when running the filter for best results. It's just like an air conditioner in that regard - you don't run the a/c with the windows open because then you are effectively trying to air condition the outside.
thanks to both that replied. Not having air conditioning, and since wildfires typically thrive when its hot, having a filter would most likely provide minimal benefit since we depend on air flow to keep the house livable temperature.
squirm
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by squirm »

Just make a box out of Merv filters and duct tape and use a box fan on one side, blowing out.
DosCommas
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by DosCommas »

We use BlueAir. My son’s school uses them as well. They are very good and because of their filtration tech they are quieter and have higher throughput than traditional HEPA.

My advice is buy the larger model so you oversize it for your room so you can keep it on the lower 1 or 2 setting where it is quiet. I originally bought a smaller size for my bedroom (classic 200 series) and upgraded to the classic 400 series which are larger but can keep it on the silent fan setting 24/7. I haven’t tried these newer models.
DosCommas
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Re: BlueAir air purifiers and wildfires

Post by DosCommas »

Mudpuppy wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 2:39 am I have in my air purifier evaluation notes that the BlueAir "HEPASilent" filters do not use true HEPA filter media (mechanical filtration only) and that they instead use an ionized filter methodology (electrostatic + mechanical filtration). That ruled out BlueAir for me when I was searching for a replacement HEPA filter for my allergies. I refused to consider any filter with an ionizer.

I currently have an Austin Air HealthMate in the cat room, a Levoit LV-H134 in my bedroom, and a Levoit LV-H135 in the living room. The Austin Air is definitely a workhorse of a unit, although I need to replace the filter already and it hasn't been the rated 5 years of filter life. It no longer controls odors like it used to when it was new, so my cats have likely saturated the carbon. Thankfully, filters are interchangeable within the Austin Air HealthMate line, so I can replace it with a HealthMate Pet filter, which has more carbon and zeolite to tackle pet odors. I'm signed up for their mailing list hoping for a coupon to come through.

The Levoits are not as robustly built as the Austin Air, but they are intended to be more consumer-level products than the Austin Air. I don't expect them to last as long, but they're serving a role in replacing my old Honeywell circular filters (the current Honeywell models with circular filters are far too noisy for me). I call the Levoit LV-134 the "Dalek" due to its shape and it is very quiet on the lowest fan setting, which I prefer for sleeping. I'm the least satisfied with the LV-H135, which is louder and less effective at filtration on the lowest fan setting than the "Dalek". It's not keeping the living room as clean as the old Honeywell did.

Another brand in my consideration list, but which I just can't bring myself to pay the price for, is IQAir HealthPro line. That's another "workhorse" brand, with a large odor control module (on some models in the line) and a lot of design focused on sealing air pathways and optimizing filtration. I just balk at the $800+ price tag every time I consider buying one for my bedroom and moving the "Dalek" to the living room.

I have spent way too much time thinking about these things. I even have a whole spreadsheet that calculates the 5 year true cost-of-ownership based on initial price, recommended filter replacement intervals, and filter costs.
I was originally concerned about the ionizer as well in the Blueair filters but it is not designed like other filters. The ionizer is internal to the filter in the intake side to effect only the air inside the filter and does not have any detectable buzzing etc (leading me to believe it is low). They have published independent data that their filters do not leak any detectable ozone, which is the typical concern with ionizers and why many filters with ionizers are not allowed to be sold in California.
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