Spent $80 on a silent air purifier for my shared apartment. It just hums and barely moves air.

My roommate refuses to open windows in January because she says the cold gives her migraines. The cheap purifier I got barely filters anything and now I'm stuck with stale air. Anyone found a model that actually works without sounding like a jet engine?

3 comments

3 Comments

samwalker1mo ago

Got a similar problem with my roommate last year except it was about humidity. She kept running a humidifier so high the windows would fog up and I told her it felt like breathing soup in there. Ended up finding this old tower fan at a thrift store for like ten bucks and rigged a furnace filter to the back of it with bungee cords. Looks absolutely ridiculous but it moves way more air than those expensive purifiers and you can barely hear it on low. The cold air thing is rough though because that's how she gets her fresh air and you're stuck with nothing.

davis.noah13d ago

Wait, hold up! I actually disagree pretty hard here. That furnace filter setup is genuinely one of the best DIY fixes I've seen for stale air and dust. The whole point of those furnace filters is they're designed to catch particulates before they go through your HVAC system, so slapping one on a fan is basically the same thing but cheaper and more direct. I've done it myself and it definitely catches visible dust out of the air, no contest there. As for the cold air thing, your roommate is just being stubborn opening windows in winter instead of finding a better solution like a small space heater or a draft stopper. Honestly sounds like she wants it her way and you're stuck accommodating a bad habit.

josephl671mo ago

Wonder if that jury-rigged filter is just blowing dust around instead of catching it.

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