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It's time for me to buy a dedicated air purifier. Does anyone have any specific recommendations? I would really prefer not to spend a grand on one, hoping to make do with one of the many in the 200$ range. I've read a few consumer reports etc, but I though I'd check in here with all you knowledgeable folks who may have insight on how one may be better than another for our particular task....

Just to clarify, you are talking about air purifiers and not one of the ceiling mounted fine dust air filters, right?

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Josh House

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Med buddy we use these, one of the best air cleaning plants available. That is if you mean an air cleaner and not something for dust removal.

No energy needed, low cost, warms the place up in the winter too with something green.

Hesh...

What's the CFM on those units?

Josh, I have a ceiling mounted air filter, but of course it only captures dust of larger size. I'm looking to complement it with some sort of unit that will take care of the sub micron stuff that is actually harmful. I found the replacement filters you can get from Wynn Environmental, but not the specs as to how fine they go. I was thinking of getting some sort of home store HEPA filter. Just wondering if any one here knows of a good device.

Sadly not very good....

Here is what I have in my home shop and it works well but I very rarely use it. It was not very expensive, can be VERY powerful or turned way down, not too loud on low, has a remote control, and overall no complaints here.

Austin Air 400 cfm.

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Pat

I have this one and really like it. Runs quiet on setting 1 and 2 but really cranks on 3. I run 3 if I'm making alot of dust in the shop and leave it on 2 over night. By the next morning the shop is clean and fresh smelling. I also run a few smaller versions of the Jet air filter that Hesh posted but just during and shortly after making dust.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CC ... UTF8&psc=1

Hesh, I have both the Delta and Steel City version of that machine. It's great for pulling visible dust out of the air, but doesn't touch the stuff that actually causes problems. So I'd like to find a unit somewhat like Goodin describes.

Goodin, the main complaint about that machine seems to be filter replacement costs. How are you finding it in that regard?

Ed

I would look into better filters.... You can buy real fine filters in many different sizes.... One thing you will find, though.. If you want to push the same CFM through a real fine filter - you will end up expanding your filter size... like say modifying the Inlet where the filters mount to take 3 filters side by side.... You end up reducing the Velocity across the filter element - which makes them catch fine particles better.... You also reduce the Pressure drop across the filter system this way.. so you can get more CFM's through the same fan unit....

You can get cheaper filters in bulk at filtersfast.com. About $14 each for the purifier I linked to. Change them every six months or probably four months in a dirty shop.

Don't get fine outer filters for the unit like hesh posted. Makes it inefficient. It's a double filter system and you don't have to replace the inner fine filter very often at all.

Ed,

You might try moving your air cleaner from the ceiling to a spot as low to the ground as you can manage. Ceiling is a great spot to keep an air cleaner out of the way but it's the worst spot in the room for capturing dust.

I moved mine from the ceiling to the floor under my workbench and it's much more effective than before. I set it on it's side on 2 foam blocks to keep the noise down and since it's under an overhang on my bench, it hardly takes up any useable space.

You might find that by moving it, it's capturing a lot more of the stuff that's causing you problems.

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That's a good idea Andy. I'll see if there's a spot for it, though floor space is at a premium. I also bought a small HEPA filter which I put on the shop floor center and leave running on high every night. Seems to help a lot, but without some sort of air quality meter I could easily be fooling myself...