Air Purifiers

Hi hi!
We're thinking about buying an air purifier for my dad's bedroom for his christmas present this year. He has lots of respitory allergies that effect him from the minute he walks into the house. We know some of it is pollen and dust but some of it is also definately the 3 cats. He's especially found it difficult to breathe while sleeping. We got him a dust mite barrier for his new matress, so that's covered (so to speak ) and have been tossing up the idea of the new air purifier.
Problem is that I checked consumer reports and they say that air purifiers, unless they are the type that you connect to your furnace at the estimate of $800 aren't worth anything at all. They recomend getting a better filter for the furnace instead.
What are some of your experiences with air purifiers? Is it worth the couple hundred dollars that we're looking at or should we just buy him something fun instead?
Thanks a bunch!
Jess

YES! definitely worth it! I have allergies and asthma and during winter when the windows are closed, the purifier help a lot. My brother and his family also swear by these. My doctor told me that they don't' really help, but I KNOW it helps me!

I have a few in the house, but the best one is a Honeywell I bought from Sears.

I run ionizer/purifiers.
My mom can actually come in and sit for 30 minutes or so.
She's accutely asthmatic and allergic to cats and birds, and I have plenty of both.

Ionic Breeze: works very well, can't hear it at all, but they start to corrode after a while. At the price, I wouldn't buy another.

If you buy one with filters, check the price of a replacement filter and the recommended interval between changing them. If you have to pay $50 for a new filter every 3 months, they are usually not worth it. I have a Bionare that I've had for about 10 years now - only need to replace the filter every 3 years ($65).

The latest I bought a few months back (Freshair by Ecoquest) was very pricey ($600), but it is portable and the filter only needs to be pulled out and washed - they give you 2 so you can rotate them. Works better than anything I've ever tried so far. They tell me there is an internal filter that you have to replace every few years at about $60. It covers up to 2500 square feet so can actually do an entire house.

I hate the noise of most fan based filters - rules out Duracraft, Honeywell, Sears, and a lot of other brands for me.

I like my Amcor, their filters can just be run through the dishwaher.

Originally Posted by Arlyn

I run ionizer/purifiers.
My mom can actually come in and sit for 30 minutes or so.
She's accutely asthmatic and allergic to cats and birds, and I have plenty of both.

Click to expand...

I love mine!!! And you can get them on Ebay for 1/2 the store price!!!