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I keep seeing articles about these and I have to ask: are people actually building them? Sure they work but they’re so ugly. Is it really worth saving $40 for y

I keep seeing articles about these and I have to ask: are people actually building them? Sure they work but they’re so ugly. Is it really worth saving $40 for your bedroom to look like a garage?

pushswap 5y ago
In my experience, no it's not worth it indoors in a relatively clean environment. I built 3 of these for myself with dust, carbon, & hepa filters, and I used them for over a year. They are louder, use more energy, are less efficient, uglier & cost more money than several store bought alternatives which often include several carbon & hepa filter replacements which is the main expense in building these fans. They work well in the garage though, and if you don't plan on changing the filters frequently they are the cheapest build option.
Syonyk 5y ago
I certainly built an ugly filter box this year. What's better? My bedroom having some home built filtration art in it, or the inside of my lungs looking like they've sucked down a lot of forest fire? If you care that deeply about what your room looks like, great. There are plenty of good looking air filters you can pay lots of money for. I'll spend far less to have a far better filter out of the deal.
- asdff 5y ago
  These articles made sense 5 years ago when there were only a few high priced air filters widely available online, but now the chinese copies have proliferated amazon and other sites and the market is pretty saturated imo. My filter was $30, about the size and look of a larger bluetooth speaker, it is dead silent on the lowest setting, replacement filters another $15 or so, and its good to filter my bedroom pretty heavily in terms of square footage. Can't beat that. At that price we have one of these in a couple different rooms.
  - simias 5y ago
    Ditto. Mine is really quiet too on low settings, which is great if you want to leave it on while you sleep. They also have a carbon layer that's supposed to help with odours and that pollution that can't meaningfully be caught by a simple HEPA filter, although I don't know how effective it is.
  - amanaplanacanal 5y ago
    Have you actually measured particulates to see if it is doing its job? Currently running a box fan plus filter but might switch if these are actually good.
    - 5e92cb50239222b 5y ago
      I am using a cheap Xiaomi (there's not much choice where I live), and a few PMS5003 sensors scattered around the apartment. It works fine for 25 m²-something room when it's relatively clean outside (around 100 µg/m³ or less), but you really have to push it (and suffer the resulting noise) when pollution outside goes above 300 µg/m³ or so. It's been able to keep indoor air around 20 µg/m³ with outside levels going above 800 µg/m³, but I have to use ear plugs because the noise is impossible to tolerate for more than half an hour (and it's pretty difficult to sleep next to). If you let the heavily polluted air in (a few hundred µg/m³), then close the window and set the purifier to maximum power, it cleans the room in ~20-25 minutes.
- Arainach 5y ago
  OP's comparison wasn't a homemade filter versus no filter, it was versus commercial options. I've done box fan filters before, and they certainly help if they're what you can afford or can find in stores, but after enough years of dealing with wildfire smoke this year I invested in commercial units and I am significantly happier. After doing a fair amount of research, I ended up with a series of Coway units. They're more expensive than box fan filters, but they're smaller and significantly quieter, especially with a sensor-driven auto mode that adjusts fan speed based on detected pollution levels. This means I'm far more willing to leave them on all the time and get the benefits 24/7. The fact that they're multi-stage is a big plus too, particularly with cat hair around. It means that I have to clean the outer charcoal filters more often but the inner HEPA filters only 1-2 times a year. As an added bonus, power consumption is significantly lower than my box fans.
  - TheBlerch 5y ago
    Which Cowan units do you use? The only concern I have with smaller air filter devices is they sometimes can have significantly less surface area than the furnace filters typically used with box fans.
    - Arainach 5y ago
      The Airmega 400 for the main living room and a pair of AW-1512/Airmega 200 (they're the exact same unit with cosmetic differences, get whichever you can find in stock unless you strongly prefer the look of one). Surface area wasn't my main focus. I'd rather change filters more often (not that that's a huge issue outside of wildfire season) and deal with a quieter unit.
falcolas 5y ago
I have built two. $40 for the both of them (cheap box fans), and a 20x20x1 filter fits the back quite nicely. They look good enough, and they work fantastically. In one month of north-west smoke, they got nasty as hell, which is that much less crud aggravating my lungs.
evv555 5y ago
I have seen variations of this used to build laboratory flowhoods. People have been building variations of these in amateur bio labs for the past 20 years and probably longer.
Eric_WVGG 5y ago
There was a particularly nasty American west coast wildfire a couple years ago, skies red like a science fiction movie. Air purifiers were sold out everywhere, but you could still get a box fan and a couple furnace filters.
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  > but you could still get a box fan and a couple furnace filters. That wasn't my experience. The day the smoke moved in, I ran to the home store to grab a couple extra furnace filters, and there was a steady stream of people grabbing them, and heading to the box fan section. The secret seems to be out.
  - Wistar 5y ago
    Yeah, the filters sold out everywhere here in Washington State in Sept 2020. My daughter was in Yellowstone at the time and, on her drive back, stopped at multiple home and hardware stores along the way and found none available.
mdoms 5y ago
It's incredible how much some people simply do not care about the aesthetics of their living areas.
- fighterpilot 5y ago
  Some people like that workshop-esque aesthetic. I find it nicer than the clinical Ikea aesthetic.
  - mdoms 5y ago
    Ah yes, the two aesthetics.
- SilverRed 5y ago
  Even when you tell yourself that you do not care, it still has an impact on your mental state. I used to have a dump of a room with junk like this stacked up and after getting rid of it all, I just felt so much better while being in the space.
X6S1x6Okd1st 5y ago
for 2020 I made one, it was well worth it for having indoor air that wasn't AQI ~300. It was a stop gap until I could actually get my hands on a large commercial air purifier, those were unavailable at the time.
MisterTea 5y ago
> Is it really worth saving $40 for your bedroom to look like a garage? What is more important to you: superficial nonsense such as looks or your health? Go ahead and spend the money so your crush pad can retain its splended wonder while the rest of us breath happily along with some extra dough in our pockets.
- chickenpotpie 5y ago
  Or I can just spend $40 more and get a nice looking air purifier? You’re making a false dichotomy. That’s like asking if I would rather wear plastic bags or be naked. There’s other options
  - MisterTea 5y ago
    > Or I can just spend $40 more and get a nice looking air purifier? Then YOU go ahead and do that. My point of arguing your elitist criticism is that some people either don't have or need that extra $40.
  - hinkley 5y ago
    How many purifiers have you bought? The custom purifiers always have proprietary filters. That’s where they make their money. It isn’t $40 difference, it’s $40 per year. Often more. And once they stop selling that model, they’ll discontinue the filters and so you’re buying another one. And another. And another. Each with its own problems that you have to live with or shop around for, which means more purifiers purchased while sorting it out.
rootusrootus 5y ago
To each their own, but I agree, I like having a tidy living space and an ugly box fan contraption isn't too high on my list, just to save a few bucks. Even then, I just keep a big stack of furnace filters handy and swap them regularly. When we got hit with the wildfire smoke last year I put in a new filter every day. More practical than putting box fans around the house.
turtlebits 5y ago
I have a regular air filter and it’s fine for maintaining air quality. However, The box fan setup uses a much larger filter and pushes way more air. I only take it out if the outdoor quality is abnormally poor. Yes it’s ugly and noisy but it’s for emergencies. Also, you’re saving way more than $40. Wirecutter’s recommended one costs $200.
s0rce 5y ago
Now that regular cost-effective home HEPA filters are widely available I mostly rely on those. However, I find that the box fan + furnace filter works really well in the window to bring in fresh air without letting the pm2.5 in. This is nice because otherwise CO2 levels build up and it gets stuffy inside. This works on all but the worst days when you can really smell the fire/smoke outside, AQI > 200. Overall, its not the prettiest and I'd prefer a HEPA filtered energy recovery ventilation but I'm not going to install that in my rental for a couple weeks a year. Usually in Oakland climate the windows are open.
Forge36 5y ago
They aren't hard to store. If you already have a box fan keeping a few extra filters ready it's a good temp solution.

I keep seeing articles about these and I have to ask: are people actually building them? Sure they work but they’re so ugly. Is it really worth saving $40 for your bedroom to look like a garage?

pushswap 5y ago

In my experience, no it's not worth it indoors in a relatively clean environment. I built 3 of these for myself with dust, carbon, & hepa filters, and I used them for over a year. They are louder, use more energy, are less efficient, uglier & cost more money than several store bought alternatives which often include several carbon & hepa filter replacements which is the main expense in building these fans. They work well in the garage though, and if you don't plan on changing the filters frequently they are the cheapest build option.

Syonyk 5y ago

I certainly built an ugly filter box this year. What's better? My bedroom having some home built filtration art in it, or the inside of my lungs looking like they've sucked down a lot of forest fire? If you care that deeply about what your room looks like, great. There are plenty of good looking air filters you can pay lots of money for. I'll spend far less to have a far better filter out of the deal.

asdff 5y ago
These articles made sense 5 years ago when there were only a few high priced air filters widely available online, but now the chinese copies have proliferated amazon and other sites and the market is pretty saturated imo. My filter was $30, about the size and look of a larger bluetooth speaker, it is dead silent on the lowest setting, replacement filters another $15 or so, and its good to filter my bedroom pretty heavily in terms of square footage. Can't beat that. At that price we have one of these in a couple different rooms.
- simias 5y ago
  Ditto. Mine is really quiet too on low settings, which is great if you want to leave it on while you sleep. They also have a carbon layer that's supposed to help with odours and that pollution that can't meaningfully be caught by a simple HEPA filter, although I don't know how effective it is.
- amanaplanacanal 5y ago
  Have you actually measured particulates to see if it is doing its job? Currently running a box fan plus filter but might switch if these are actually good.
  - 5e92cb50239222b 5y ago
    I am using a cheap Xiaomi (there's not much choice where I live), and a few PMS5003 sensors scattered around the apartment. It works fine for 25 m²-something room when it's relatively clean outside (around 100 µg/m³ or less), but you really have to push it (and suffer the resulting noise) when pollution outside goes above 300 µg/m³ or so. It's been able to keep indoor air around 20 µg/m³ with outside levels going above 800 µg/m³, but I have to use ear plugs because the noise is impossible to tolerate for more than half an hour (and it's pretty difficult to sleep next to). If you let the heavily polluted air in (a few hundred µg/m³), then close the window and set the purifier to maximum power, it cleans the room in ~20-25 minutes.
Arainach 5y ago
OP's comparison wasn't a homemade filter versus no filter, it was versus commercial options. I've done box fan filters before, and they certainly help if they're what you can afford or can find in stores, but after enough years of dealing with wildfire smoke this year I invested in commercial units and I am significantly happier. After doing a fair amount of research, I ended up with a series of Coway units. They're more expensive than box fan filters, but they're smaller and significantly quieter, especially with a sensor-driven auto mode that adjusts fan speed based on detected pollution levels. This means I'm far more willing to leave them on all the time and get the benefits 24/7. The fact that they're multi-stage is a big plus too, particularly with cat hair around. It means that I have to clean the outer charcoal filters more often but the inner HEPA filters only 1-2 times a year. As an added bonus, power consumption is significantly lower than my box fans.
- TheBlerch 5y ago
  Which Cowan units do you use? The only concern I have with smaller air filter devices is they sometimes can have significantly less surface area than the furnace filters typically used with box fans.
  - Arainach 5y ago
    The Airmega 400 for the main living room and a pair of AW-1512/Airmega 200 (they're the exact same unit with cosmetic differences, get whichever you can find in stock unless you strongly prefer the look of one). Surface area wasn't my main focus. I'd rather change filters more often (not that that's a huge issue outside of wildfire season) and deal with a quieter unit.

falcolas 5y ago

I have built two. $40 for the both of them (cheap box fans), and a 20x20x1 filter fits the back quite nicely. They look good enough, and they work fantastically. In one month of north-west smoke, they got nasty as hell, which is that much less crud aggravating my lungs.

evv555 5y ago

I have seen variations of this used to build laboratory flowhoods. People have been building variations of these in amateur bio labs for the past 20 years and probably longer.

Eric_WVGG 5y ago

There was a particularly nasty American west coast wildfire a couple years ago, skies red like a science fiction movie. Air purifiers were sold out everywhere, but you could still get a box fan and a couple furnace filters.

rootusrootus 5y ago
> but you could still get a box fan and a couple furnace filters. That wasn't my experience. The day the smoke moved in, I ran to the home store to grab a couple extra furnace filters, and there was a steady stream of people grabbing them, and heading to the box fan section. The secret seems to be out.
- Wistar 5y ago
  Yeah, the filters sold out everywhere here in Washington State in Sept 2020. My daughter was in Yellowstone at the time and, on her drive back, stopped at multiple home and hardware stores along the way and found none available.

mdoms 5y ago

It's incredible how much some people simply do not care about the aesthetics of their living areas.

fighterpilot 5y ago
Some people like that workshop-esque aesthetic. I find it nicer than the clinical Ikea aesthetic.
- mdoms 5y ago
  Ah yes, the two aesthetics.
SilverRed 5y ago
Even when you tell yourself that you do not care, it still has an impact on your mental state. I used to have a dump of a room with junk like this stacked up and after getting rid of it all, I just felt so much better while being in the space.

X6S1x6Okd1st 5y ago

for 2020 I made one, it was well worth it for having indoor air that wasn't AQI ~300. It was a stop gap until I could actually get my hands on a large commercial air purifier, those were unavailable at the time.

MisterTea 5y ago

> Is it really worth saving $40 for your bedroom to look like a garage? What is more important to you: superficial nonsense such as looks or your health? Go ahead and spend the money so your crush pad can retain its splended wonder while the rest of us breath happily along with some extra dough in our pockets.

chickenpotpie 5y ago
Or I can just spend $40 more and get a nice looking air purifier? You’re making a false dichotomy. That’s like asking if I would rather wear plastic bags or be naked. There’s other options
- MisterTea 5y ago
  > Or I can just spend $40 more and get a nice looking air purifier? Then YOU go ahead and do that. My point of arguing your elitist criticism is that some people either don't have or need that extra $40.
- hinkley 5y ago
  How many purifiers have you bought? The custom purifiers always have proprietary filters. That’s where they make their money. It isn’t $40 difference, it’s $40 per year. Often more. And once they stop selling that model, they’ll discontinue the filters and so you’re buying another one. And another. And another. Each with its own problems that you have to live with or shop around for, which means more purifiers purchased while sorting it out.

rootusrootus 5y ago

To each their own, but I agree, I like having a tidy living space and an ugly box fan contraption isn't too high on my list, just to save a few bucks. Even then, I just keep a big stack of furnace filters handy and swap them regularly. When we got hit with the wildfire smoke last year I put in a new filter every day. More practical than putting box fans around the house.

turtlebits 5y ago

I have a regular air filter and it’s fine for maintaining air quality. However, The box fan setup uses a much larger filter and pushes way more air. I only take it out if the outdoor quality is abnormally poor. Yes it’s ugly and noisy but it’s for emergencies. Also, you’re saving way more than $40. Wirecutter’s recommended one costs $200.

s0rce 5y ago

Now that regular cost-effective home HEPA filters are widely available I mostly rely on those. However, I find that the box fan + furnace filter works really well in the window to bring in fresh air without letting the pm2.5 in. This is nice because otherwise CO2 levels build up and it gets stuffy inside. This works on all but the worst days when you can really smell the fire/smoke outside, AQI > 200. Overall, its not the prettiest and I'd prefer a HEPA filtered energy recovery ventilation but I'm not going to install that in my rental for a couple weeks a year. Usually in Oakland climate the windows are open.

Forge36 5y ago

They aren't hard to store. If you already have a box fan keeping a few extra filters ready it's a good temp solution.