Anybody know anything about whole house aircleaners?

[kellyinkc]

Hey all, need to get an air cleaner for the house. Wife went to allergist and found out mold spores, cat and dog dander, dust and dust mites are a problem. I found a UV light for the furnace that "kills" mold spores. Do they work? Plus a cleaner for the dust. Appreciate any feedback if we have any HVAC people out there.

[FromThisSoil]

My dad got the Oreck household air purifiers and he said they seem to work. I'm not sure if they have the UV light in them that kills the bacteria, but from what I understand, they do their job...which is to kill 90-some-odd% of bacteria in the air.

[kellyinkc]

I'll check them out. In research stage now.

[Murr1525]

Research labs use UV light all the time to keep tubes/pipes of water from becoming contaminated with stuff growing in the water. I would imagine it works in air too.

[kellyinkc]

Think the UV gemocidal lamp will be the most "bang" for the buck.
Allergist says to get new bed too. He said after ten years dust mites etc. gets in the mattress, ours is 15. We like the Sleep Number bed and Spring Air.

[rusty bumper]

I would advise a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter in it too. We use a Filter Queen vacuum cleaner that emits practically zero dust particles.

Course, you can find a lot of vacs with added HEPA filters now-a-days.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not completely sure, but I think you can buy special filters for the house ventilation that will kill mold spores.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

[rusty bumper]

Originally posted by kellyinkc
Allergist says to get new bed too. He said after ten years dust mites etc. gets in the mattress, ours is 15. We like the Sleep Number bed and Spring Air.

We use a mattress pad that can be washed and reused. I presume a pad will help cut down on dust mites.

Have you tried a Simmon's Beauty Rest mattress? Best mattress we ever bought.

[LAfirefytr]

do know much in the HVAC arena, but everyone in my home (myself, wife, 1 1/2 yr old son) all have allergies and we live in an area that is one of the worlds worst for a person w/ allergies (Guld Coast of Alabama). I , at the recommendation of several people including our allergist, purchased Ionoc Breezes for our Living room/kitchen area, and each of our bedrooms. It cost about 600.00 but was well worth it. Our standard of living has improved beyond belief. It made a world of difference in our health and the air quality in our home. My only regret is I waited as long as I did to buy them. I got them from our local Sharper Image Outlet and was able to get them the 1 for the bedroom at 50% off. If you do not have a store close, you can go to the Sharper Image website and they have an Outlet there as well. NOt sure if this is what you are looking for, just thought I would pass the info on to you though. Best of Luck.

[magnus]

Originally posted by Rusty Bumper
I would advise a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter in it too. We use a Filter Queen vacuum cleaner that emits practically zero dust particles.

My mom had a canister Filter Queen for a couple dozen years. I think she replaces the hose 2-3 times, but the motor never wore out on that thing. She finally got rid of it because it was too heavy to lug around (arthritis, poor health, etc.).

I didn't know you could still find those things...

[magnus]

Originally posted by LAfirefytr
do know much in the HVAC arena, but everyone in my home (myself, wife, 1 1/2 yr old son) all have allergies and we live in an area that is one of the worlds worst for a person w/ allergies (Guld Coast of Alabama). I , at the recommendation of several people including our allergist, purchased Ionoc Breezes for our Living room/kitchen area, and each of our bedrooms. It cost about 600.00 but was well worth it. Our standard of living has improved beyond belief. It made a world of difference in our health and the air quality in our home. My only regret is I waited as long as I did to buy them. I got them from our local Sharper Image Outlet and was able to get them the 1 for the bedroom at 50% off. If you do not have a store close, you can go to the Sharper Image website and they have an Outlet there as well. NOt sure if this is what you are looking for, just thought I would pass the info on to you though. Best of Luck.

I'm glad the Ionic Breeze is working for you. I was all set to buy one, until I read the Consumer Reports article on them. Not to be cute, but CR basically said that the Ionic Breeze blew a lot of hot air about their product. It didn't really do any more than the $60-100.00 air filters that you get from Sears can do.

I've also not heard real great things about the Oreck either.

[the other pc]

A friend of mine has a Honeywell electronic HVAC filter that he swears by. He says it’s mega-effective and easy to maintain. He pulls out the filter grids and puts them in the dishwasher to clean them.

It also made a handy “weeding out test” for HVAC contractors when he was shopping for a new system. He immediately knew the ones that refused to keep it in his system were idiots or crooks. They guys who knew what they were doing were happy to work with it.

The UV light will only kill microbes that float in the airstream directly illuminated by the internal lamp. So if you have mold spores popping up in some area the best it can do is kill the ones that disperse, get sucked into the air return and get pushed through the UV unit. I don’t know how effective that would be. I guess if your air system has a high turnover rate it may be useful but it won’t do anything to stop the source.

A whole house vacuum cleaner is a good idea. They’re extra powerful (you don’t need to lug the motor around so it can be huge) and any dust that gets past the filter gets blown outside rather than back into the room.


PC.

[rusty bumper]

Originally posted by magnus
My mom had a canister Filter Queen for a couple dozen years. I think she replaces the hose 2-3 times, but the motor never wore out on that thing. She finally got rid of it because it was too heavy to lug around (arthritis, poor health, etc.).

I didn't know you could still find those things

We bought our's about 12 years ago for $800.00 (About 1/2 price back then ), but it is the best unit we have ever owned. When you remove the motor cone assembly, the cone shaped filter is white as snow on the exaust side!

I found their web site here.

I also bought an optional pet attachment for the cat. Our first cat (died of old age a few years ago) loved to be vacuumed, but don't try that with the one we have now!

[kellyinkc]

Originally posted by Rusty Bumper
I would advise a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter in it too. We use a Filter Queen vacuum cleaner that emits practically zero dust particles.

Course, you can find a lot of vacs with added HEPA filters now-a-days.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not completely sure, but I think you can buy special filters for the house ventilation that will kill mold spores.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

We have an Filter Queen. It's old and works great! My mom her mom has one. Ever use the eucalypis oil in the Filter Queen? Cleans out your sinus passages.
Got more research to do on this air cleaner stuff.

[kellyinkc]

Originally posted by Rusty Bumper
We use a mattress pad that can be washed and reused. I presume a pad will help cut down on dust mites.

Have you tried a Simmon's Beauty Rest mattress? Best mattress we ever bought.

We have a Simmons Beauty Rest, Love it!

[jfelbab]

Trane CleanEffects™ furnace filter is the best in the industry. It it filters particles down to 0.3 microns. It can be added to almost any gas forced air furnace. It is cleaned by rinsing or vacuuming and there is none of that expensive filter media replacement needed. These filters are 1200 times more effective than a 1" fiberglass filter. If you then keep the blower on your furnace running all the time at a reduced speed the air in your home will be continuously filtered.

If you have mold spores in your home, a coil irradiation above your AC cooling coils is the most effective at killing the spores.

If you have access to the cooling coils a simple 20:1 water-chlorine bleach solution sprayed on the coils monthly during the cooling season will also keep the coils mold free.

FYI, the air in most peoples homes is 5 times more polluted than the outside air. If you have allergies, these solutions are very effective at reducing the symptoms.