kitchen air purifier

[aliqaisar]

Hi everyone,


I’ve been thinking about getting an air purifier for my home, but I’m confused about which type would actually work best. My main concern is that it should help not only with dust, pollen, and allergies, but also with kitchen-related issues like smoke and lingering cooking odors.


A few questions I have in mind:

• Do air purifiers really make a noticeable difference in the kitchen where smells and smoke are stronger?
• For general home use, which features should I focus on—HEPA filter, carbon filter, or both?
• How quiet are they in real use, especially if I want to keep one running at night?
• How often do the filters need to be changed if the purifier is used near the kitchen?
• Is it better to get one large purifier for the whole house or separate ones for rooms like the bedroom and kitchen?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has tried an air purifier in similar conditions. What worked well for you, and what should I keep in mind before buying?


Thanks in advance!

 

[onocoffee]

I both worked in foodservice and smoked cigars for quite a long time now - and the one constant that always works best is: evacuation. Get it all out. Blow it, suck it, whatever - just get it out. This will give you the best results.

Of course, it is not a cheap solution since you have to replace all the air that's being displaced. If I were to redo my home kitchen, that's what I would be focused on - getting a really strong and high volume exhaust to suck it all out. Filtration for me is secondary and if it were the primary solution, it's less than ideal.

That said, you might look into those Corsi-Rosenthal filters. I've made a couple and they work well for HEPA-level filtration (though I say that, I won't know until I die from something other than lung cancer induced by wood dust). But if I were in need of in-house filtration, I'd build one for inside the house as well.

 

[peter halle]

Hi @aliqaisar and welcome to the forum. I hope that the other Members can assist you with suggestions, but I certainly would love to know what brought you here to this forum for possible suggestions.

Peter

 

[leakyroof]

Food Service Past and married to a woman who is serious about her cooking. I agree with the Exhaust recommendation. You can end up needing make up air from a vent if you are moving a lot of CFMs out, but that is as easy as cracking a window in another room.
We crack open a bathroom window two rooms away from the kitchen or enclosed porch door adjacent to the kitchen.

The main reason I’d be reluctant to run a filtering unit in a kitchen even as secondary, is grease build up on the filtering media of your unit. Harder to clean than true kitchen hood filters

We run a 48” wide 6 burner stove , with a 1200 CFM hood venting straight out the wall behind the stove through an 8” round duct.

Your needs could be much less , but don’t underestimate, it’s very frustrating to be under vented when that’s what you are really striving for.

Now, for just great, quiet air filtering, we run 3 small Blu-Air units, so quiet on Low that I can easily sleep 2 feet away from one in our Bedroom. We have 3 pets, two cats and 1 dog, so those units pull a lot of Pet Dander out of our breathing air plus household dust and odors. Can’t recommend them enough.