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Air Purifiers as White Noise Machines

25 points luu 2 hours ago 23 comments

rob-olmos 1 hour ago | parent

Alrighty, don't a lot of people already do this? Sometimes I'll do both an air purifier white noise and some music or something from myNoise

TedDoesntTalk 1 hour ago | parent

The Austin Air HealthMate is great as a noise machine. Very loud. It’s a HEPA filter and lasts 5 years. Never seen any other that lasts that long, but you pay for it upfront. after-market replacements are $250-300 for another 5 years.

kccqzy 37 minutes ago | parent

I have that machine. It seems better at filtering chemicals and VOCs but not great at filtering particulates. It gets rid of odors very well but my PM2.5 meter barely budges.

jerlam 22 minutes ago | parent

Yeah, it's a completely different kind of air purifier than the "tape a HEPA filter to a fan" ones, which is why it costs $1,000 instead of $150.

gopalv 1 hour ago | parent

An air purifier is a good addition to a kids bedroom.

I got one during Santa Cruz wildfires in 2020 and now the kids have a pavlovian reflex to sleep once that gets turned on.

Ikea makes an air-purifier table, which is a end-run around it being a useless box in the room when switched off.

It's fairly expensive, not as good as a purpose built one, but it blends into the average room pretty well.

encom 1 hour ago | parent

I've considered an air purifier for allergy reasons, but...

>removes smoke and infectious particles

Where do people live that they need to remove such things, 18th century London?

yodon 1 hour ago | parent

>Where do people live that they need to remove such things

SF Bay Area during the summer fires of a few years ago

grandpajoey 56 minutes ago | parent

Anywhere in the US west of Texas and most of Canada.

helterskelter2 51 minutes ago | parent

Almost anywhere now in North America or Europe during the summer.

jerlam 25 minutes ago | parent

Doesn't even need to be during the summer.

Wind blows smoke around. There are currently fires in northern Michigan that are affecting the air quality in Chicago, which is 350+ miles away.

https://data.usatoday.com/fires/

fellowniusmonk 34 minutes ago | parent

As an allergy enjoyer there is no air too pure.

My allergies became generally better at all hours just from sleeping in super cleaned air.

Why? Reducing baseline inflammation perhapse? Maybe decreased inflammation during sleep helps too, improved breathing? idk. Whatever it is this organism seems to prefer it.

Even when exposed to allergens during the day the run up to sneezing is much slower or doesn't happen.

vegan_muffin 29 minutes ago | parent

Do you have broad shoulders and have you ever did shoulders area weightlifting training for span of many months?

yread 24 minutes ago | parent

I use mine just to purify air for my precious LTO tape drive. My baby doesnt like dust

dekhn 59 minutes ago | parent

I bought a large soldering iron air purifier and it turns out to be great; it has a continuious speed selector, easy to replace filters, and very pleasant spectrum. I like it better than the air conditioner, which cycles on and off noisily.

mfkp 42 minutes ago | parent

One of the best air purifiers you can get (linked in the above writeup) uses PC fans and a custom controller where you can control the speed/volume: https://housefresh.com/best-air-purifiers-we-tested/#2-best-...

LTL_FTC 33 minutes ago | parent

Those fans will not have sufficient static pressure to be useful. These makeshift purifiers may be great in a pinch (wildfire season and stores are all out), but far from the best.

jerlam 18 minutes ago | parent

The linked PC-fan purifier has been tested and shown to purify air faster than the conventional alternatives, and are not makeshift, so I'm not sure what you are referring to.

kube-system 15 minutes ago | parent

From the specs it looks like they are probably closer to higher-static-pressure server fans, the CADR is a few hundred CFM and it pulls 30+ watts. And as with many of these designs, you can compensate for low pressure performance by increasing filter surface area... the greater the surface area the lower the pressure drop. Of course, the problem with this is you are just spending more money on filters, which is the expensive part.

turtlebits 47 minutes ago | parent

Does that mean your air doesn't get filtered if you stop or decide to turn down the white noise?

I prefer having quiet air filters that I can run all day (based on air quality) instead of noisy ones I only use at night.

kube-system 29 minutes ago | parent

Many air purifiers are silent on lower settings and louder on higher settings. If I want noise I turn mine up. If I want less noise I turn it down.

alistairSH 20 minutes ago | parent

If you turn it off, sure.

I have one in the bedroom. On low, I barely hear it during the day (extra ambient noise from outside) but at night the white-noise is subtle but effective. That said, I don't like "loud" white noise, just a quiet hum.

senderista 24 minutes ago | parent

An air purifier is the best noise machine for me, much better than the white noise machines with the tinny speakers. Even the brown noise setting on those isn't nearly deep enough to let me sleep.