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Comment by JohnBooty | Hacker News Reader

We have four in our house and they are workhorses. Still running strong and quiet 3-4 years later of running 24/7. Probably one of the best things I've ever bought.

They are also popular enough, and have been around long enough, that there is an "ecosystem" of third party replacement filters that are affordable and capable.

The sound of the Coway is also quite nice for sleeping in our opinion. It's a quiet "whoooosh", not grating at all.

Given the observed longevity of the Coways, I suspect they are actually cheaper than "DIY box fan" solution after a couple of years if you're running them 24/7. Sure, you can get a cheap box fan, but you'll be lucky if it lasts 6-12 months running 24/7 while trying to suck air through a filter.

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What benefits do you feel from having four filters? Not hating, genuinely curious. It's just never occurred to me to filter the air in my home aside from burning something on the stove or similar

I'm also curious about running them 24/7.

Mine run 24/7 on low for a few years so far, one is going on 3 years and the other is about 8 months. No issues other than periodic cleaning and filter replacement. Main hint: keep a spare filter before California fire season.

I've actually been running mine on "2" the ("medium") setting for 3-4 years with no problems.

I have asthma, allergies, and pets so.... yeah. Medium it is for me.

I check my indoor air quality and I only have to raise them to medium/high when air quality is bad outside (winter temperature inversions, summer fire season) or when cooking (often don't bother but I'm not as sensitive)

It's not a necessity if you have the window open to move around the air, but that's typically not as much of an option in the winter. You'd be surprised how much dust and particles a purifier picks up.

If you take a look at the photos for the Blue Air 211 on Amazon, you can see how much it picks up. Mine was exactly like the photos. The pre-filter was completely covered in dust, and the inner filter was completely dark after 6 months of use.

    It's not a necessity if you have the window open to move around the air,

If you live in an urban area or someplace else with lots of air pollution, the outdoor air might be a problem!

Of course, I don't think an air filter like this would be very effective with the windows open.

I have one in the bedroom and one in the main living/office area. They were essential in California during the past few years of fires. The indoor air quality was maintained consistently while outdoors was horrendous.

That's a good question, happy to answer.

I have asthma and mild allergies triggered by pet dander and sometimes seasonal pollen and such. It's a 3 bedroom house. 7 rooms total. And we have pets, because we're dumb.

Ideally we'd have one filter for each room, but they're not the cheapest things, so we just keep them in the rooms where we spend the most time.

Do they work? They've had a positive impact on my asthma/allergies. Not a magic cure, but nothing is. Obviously, it is a part of a comprehensive strategy that includes vacuuming and so forth.

Side benefits of the filters are that they also cut down on dust accumulation on surfaces, and are somewhat effective at reducing odors in general thanks to the swappable charcoal filters.

(FWIW they used to go on sale for like $119 once in a while, in pre-COVID times. That's when we got ours...)

    It's just never occurred to me to filter 
    the air in my home aside from burning 
    something on the stove or similar

Yeah, I don't think this is some sort of thing that everybody needs to do.

If you're currently doing fine, then this doesn't seem like something you need....

It depends greatly on your climate. I didn't need one in the midwest, where air quality is pretty good and there's a lot of humidity in the air, but when I moved westward I definitely noticed the difference in air quality (my asthmatic symptoms came back which I haven't had since I was a child).

Especially in autumn when the wildfires start up - even if it's many miles away there is a very noticeable degradation in air quality.

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