Looking for air purfier suggestions for our print studio.

[dgberg]

I have been putting this off but for the new year it is my top priority. Does anyone have an air purifier in their studio that they can recommend? I have done my google search and came up with about 50 options. The better ones in the $300 to $800 price ranges
No mould,mildew,smoke concerns,just dust.
Want to protect my printers but now that we are roll laminating the dust has to be addressed.
All suggestions appreciated.

[hilljf]

I use the BlueAir AV501.  works great.

[dgberg]

John,
How often do you change or clean your filters? Throw away and replace or clean and reuse?
Thanks for your response.

Just went to their site and looks like a very high quality product.

[Les Sparks]

Any air cleaner by a reputable company that uses HEPA filter media should work fine provided that it moves enough air for the room you are cleaning.  The website http://hepaaircleaner.com/ provides a short discussion about how to estimate the air handling requirements.  In most cases you need an air cleaner that has the ability to deliver over 150 cubic feet per minute (cfm)
The factors you should consider are:
HEPA Filter media
Adequate air moving
Quality of construction (some units allow significant amounts of air to bypass the filter)
Noise level (some of the 150 plus cfm units are quite loud)

EPA provides a reasonable discussion of air cleaners at http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/airclean.html.
Les

[hilljf]

I change the filters every six months.  The unit has various fan speed levels and at the low speed is essentially silent.

[Robert DeCandido PhD]

You can sometimes find the Blueairs as refurbs for about half list price...we have the 402 model and as someone else mentioned, at the low (to moderate) fan speed they are completely silent. We change filters (home use - no cats/dogs or birds...only tropical fish) every six months to a year (closer to one year).

Highly recommended.

rdc/nyc

[dgberg]

Thanks for the suggestions. The website has a refurbished model for sale. The room with all the delicate equipment is 800sq. ft. so I may have to go with the larger 600 series.
These buildings housed my cabinetry business for 22 years.  The larger adjoining 1200 sq. ft. woodshop (framing and mounting area) is seperated
by a spray booth and a pretty airtight door. Some amounts of dust still find their way into the print studio.  I think this unit will help quite abit.

[degrub]

In general, tt also helps to control the humidity, particularly during the heating season, to help objects bleed off static charge that attracts the "dust".

Frank

[ghaynes754]

Dan

How about one of the Jet systems, usually seen in wood shops.  I've got a Jet AFS-1000B in a 400 square foot room.  Probably overkill but the price was right.

Gary

[Steve Weldon]

Depending on your current HVAC system, you can often add an in-line electrostatic air filter/purifier.  These will do two things, remove dust, and positively charge ions.. which makes them heavier causing dust to sink to the floor vs. floating around the room.

I did this on the last home I built and it was very nice.  Every 3-4 months you'd simply remove the grids and put them in the dishwasher for a cycle and then replace them.  We used the HVAC system at least nine months of the year, and the frequency you needed to dust dropped dramatically.

I think my system used Lennox.

It's a viable system if your HVAC system is most often in use.