Ionic Air Purifier

[Faram]

I am thinking about buyin a Ionic Air Purifier, but it sort of feels like woodoscience.

Is those things for real or not? Do anyone know?

[General Deathdealer]

I own one, and it works pretty good. It goes for about 5-7 days before you need to clean it and I think it does a good job. It is really quite until it needs to be cleaned, then it starts to pop (sounding like when you shock yourself with static electricity). But even then it is a hell of a lot quieter than a regular air purifier.
The only down side are the ionizing plates that you have to clean are not very easy to clean. The dirt and stuff comes off easy, but maneuvering your hand with a wash cloth or sponge in between the plates it not very easy.
But overall I would recommend them.

[PainRack]

methinks its highly exaggerated in the ads I seen.

[General Deathdealer]

I agree that it is over-hyped on TV. Plus the fact that it is quite a bit more expensive than a normal air purifier. But it is nice not having to buy any filters for it, and like I said before it is a hell of a lot quieter than a normal air purifier. I can actually have it on and not have to turn the sound on the TV up.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

I am thinking about buyin a Ionic Air Purifier, but it sort of feels like woodoscience.

Is those things for real or not? Do anyone know?

They will attract dust and crap to the charged plates as they should. Unfortunately, there is something of a downside that the companies that build these ionic filters tend to downplay . . . and that's they tend to have the rather unwelcome effect of producing a fair amount of ozone. Which is great way up in the stratosphere, but on ground level, it can be something of a respiratory irritant.

[Isolder74]

look them up on consumer reports website before buying. They alway test things well beyond normal use.

[Larz]

They will attract dust and crap to the charged plates as they should. Unfortunately, there is something of a downside that the companies that build these ionic filters tend to downplay . . . and that's they tend to have the rather unwelcome effect of producing a fair amount of ozone. Which is great way up in the stratosphere, but on ground level, it can be something of a respiratory irritant.

Actually, I've seen quiet a few late night advertisements for ionic air purifiers that have the ozone smell as a plus point. "You smell that...thats the smell of fresh air."

[General Zod]

They will attract dust and crap to the charged plates as they should. Unfortunately, there is something of a downside that the companies that build these ionic filters tend to downplay . . . and that's they tend to have the rather unwelcome effect of producing a fair amount of ozone. Which is great way up in the stratosphere, but on ground level, it can be something of a respiratory irritant.

Actually, I've seen quiet a few late night advertisements for ionic air purifiers that have the ozone smell as a plus point. "You smell that...thats the smell of fresh air."

I'm not sure how that's a plus point. . .I can barely stand the smell of Ozone when it starts raining outside on a dry day. So much sometimes that it makes it hard to breathe.

[Larz]

<Snip>

Actually, I've seen quiet a few late night advertisements for ionic air purifiers that have the ozone smell as a plus point. "You smell that...thats the smell of fresh air."

I'm not sure how that's a plus point. . .I can barely stand the smell of Ozone when it starts raining outside on a dry day. So much sometimes that it makes it hard to breathe.

But... thats the smell of fresh . I'm fairly sure its just a way to try and spin the new odor that you get from your supposed deodorizer. Hell, there are companies that sell machines that specifically generate ozone claiming that its a safe way to deodorize and purify air. The EPA doesn't tend to agree with these companies.

As for ionic purifiers I would suggest paying the extra cost for one that at least partially converts some of the ozone back into oxygen before spitting it out. And as Isolder74 said, always check it against what Consumer Reports says.

[LaserRifleofDoom]

It's real science. I remembe I first read about them in a national geographic(?) article. They were trying to find a no moving parts method of moving air through ducts, and the cleaning was just a surprise side effect. Then a year later I started seeing TV commercials for the Ionic Breeze from Sharper Image.

[Azazal]

look them up on consumer reports website before buying. They alway test things well beyond normal use.

If I remember correctly, Consumer Reports rated the Shaper Image Ionic Breeze as being ok and on all it was hyped to be. Shaper Image tried to sue them only have the judge slap down the case, but to set some punitive damages against Shaper Image for trying to stifle negative reports of their products.

[LadyTevar]

In many hotels, if there is a strong smell in a room the staff will set up a Ozone Generator. The housekeepers are warned not to enter that room as long as the generator is going, as it literally ionizes all the air inside the room, leaving it extremely hard to breathe.

After the generator's ran for 1-3 hours, the room is opened, allowed to 'breathe' for a few minutes, and then the generator is removed.

[Starglider]

I actually built one of these when I was a teenager. IMHO the standard consumer ones are hopelessly underpowered. My version had a big voltage multiplier ladder built out of power supply grade diodes and caps, while the case was a short plastic cylinder under a twenty cm aluminium hemisphere. I drilled a few hundred tiny holes in the aluminium and then soldered in bunches of thin copper wire. It was pretty cool when running; the charge on the wires was high enough to make them wave around gently like some kind of sea creature, while making a faint hissing noise. The current was enough to create a bright spark and a moderately painful shock if you touched it while it was on. I don't recall any problems with ozone, but it did give the whole house a pleasant 'thunderstorm' type feeling after running for a day or so, as well as absolutely coating all the flat surfaces immediately around it with dust (but on the plus side, virtually nothing else got dusty while it was running).

Ridiculously unsafe from an electrician's point of view, but then a lot of the things I made as a teenager were. Unfortunately it went missing during one of the many moves I had to do when at university.

[PeZook]

<snip>

Dude, this is just so cool so as to defy description.

Maybe you could make more and sell them?

[Starglider]

I don't think there's a sufficiently big black market in overpowered ionisers that flout consumer safety standards to fund an underground soldering lab. Though the police would have to get past my tesla coils and lightning gun equipped henchmen when they finally caught up with me.

Seriously, it sounds like you might like this site, the creator kept making dangerous but fun electrical stuff much long than I did, and there are some nice images. There's even a home made ioniser on there, disappointingly underpowered and safe compared to the rest of his projects (and mine), but there's a handy circuit diagram if you want to make your own. Just decreases the limiting resistors (but not too much), uprate the caps and extend the ladder a bit.

[nickolay1]

By the way, how many stages did your multiplier network have?

[Starglider]

I'm afraid I can't recall the exact circuit I used - that was 11 years back. Probably between thirty and forty though.

[Starglider]

I'm afraid I can't recall the exact circuit I used - that was 11 years back. Probably between thirty and forty though.

Sorry, I mean thirty to fourty diodes and caps. That would be fifteen to twenty effective voltage multiplier stages.

[nickolay1]

I see. Was this connected directly to mains power?

[Starglider]

Of course. As I noted, it was ridiculously unsafe. If the current limiting resistors had shorted out, it could've been lethal.

[Durandal]

I have one, and it works wonders. Seriously. Just get a good one and be prepared to pay a couple hundred at least for it.

[Srynerson]

Actually, I've seen quiet a few late night advertisements for ionic air purifiers that have the ozone smell as a plus point. "You smell that...thats the smell of fresh air."

I'm not sure how that's a plus point. . .I can barely stand the smell of Ozone when it starts raining outside on a dry day. So much sometimes that it makes it hard to breathe.

Well, it's a plus point for those of us who enjoy the smell. To answer the OP question, I have a friend who got the Sharper Image ionizer last year shortly after moving into a new apartment. It definitely diminished the stale cigarette/fresh paint/old cat aroma remaining from the previous owner.

[Mr Bean]

On the ionizers.... They work kinda sorta. But they are not the best for the task at hand. Not the quickest, not the most efficient. The best air-filtering is to be had by a good HEPTA filter. A two stage filter will filter out nearly all the crap floating in rooms and homes quite quickly. I own two, one I keep in my room and run eight hours a day or so just before I go to sleep. I have to clear dust from my room roughly once every three months compared to two weeks or so otherwise.

The ionics work, but they work slow for the most part, and because of the lack of reliable air flow over most of them they don't work quickly.

[Aaron]

Didn't Darth Wong's explode after he cleaned it?

[Marko Dash]

and whats stoping us from puting a few hundred on some rooftop to clean a city's air?


p.s and why do i have to click submit about 20 times before it posts?