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Comment by genman | Hacker News Reader

Go with the one that has lower actual operating noise levels.

The IKEA one has three power levels, the first one is virtually inaudible, the second one hard to ignore even just being in the room during the day, the third one is really loud. Very good purifier though, looks nice, filters well. They even have a more expensive model that has Zigbee and integrates with Home Assistant.

Yes, I have the IKEA STARKVIND Table and 100% agree with that.

I hate fan noise!

Even in my computers. As I get older the more I'm irritated by fan noise.

I cant run the IKEA on anything by the first setting without wearing noise cancelling headphones.

The loudness level and tone of the fan is horrible!

I'd pay more for an air filter with fans that were less obnoxious! :-)

I also hate fan noise and ended up DIYing an air purifier with computer fans as you end up with a much quieter air purifier than commercial offerings for a given CADR. If you're going this route I suggest paying a bit more and getting the noctua pwm adapter (https://noctua.at/en/products/accessories/na-fc1) so you can control the fan speed, and designing it (or using an existing design, see https://www.cleanairkits.com/products/fanless-kits and https://www.reddit.com/r/crboxes/ for inspiration) built around filters you can pick up locally. (I built mine around ikea starkvind filters, but in Canada I've never been able to get them shipped online, and the nearest ikea is annoyingly far away)

For fan choice, Arctic P12/P14 fans tend to be recommended because they're cheap and are good on paper, but they're pretty terrible acoustically (super annoying hum in the 800-1300RPM range which tends to be the optimal level just below where you can hear 120/140mm fans). I'm also irritated by fan noise and have tried a lot of different fans over the years in computers, and I've ended up just paying the Noctua tax and buying nf-a12x25s because they're one of the quietest fans, they move a lot of air with pretty good static pressure, and they don't have any humming or other acoustic issues, just the air noise as you ramp their speeds up. Phanteks T30s are even better than the noctuas and a bit less expensive, but have a bit worse noise profile (a slight drone at higher RPMs that only super picky people will even notice).

For mine I made an uglier 3 fan version of the slim 5 fan cleanairkits design using hardboard, fan grills, wood glue, a hacksaw, a drill, and a drywall knife. I'd recommend just getting it laser/waterjet cut though instead of suffering trying to cut fan holes in hardboard with a drywall knife and a small drill bit (it takes forever, and ends up being ugly AF). For power I ended up using a USB SATA adapter (noctua PWM adapter takes SATA power, need to get one that uses an external power adapter so it can output enough power, can also steal it from the air purifier if you ever actually need a usb sata adapter) and an old UL listed 12V 1.2A barrel plug power supply I found in a box of old electronics.

Thanks for the links and info!

Some people (well, me at least) like the air purifier to make some white noise. Mine doesn't turn on automatically if, for example, the power cuts out and then comes on again, and I always notice it within a few minutes because the house feels weird without any background noise.

White noise is proven to degrade sleep and focus unless masking more distracting noise

I always love it with someone proclaims that my benefit / enjoyment of something is invalid because Science declared it so. This isn’t even how academics talk about things like this.

> I always love it with someone proclaims that my benefit / enjoyment of something is invalid because Science declared it so.

Also, this is not proven. I suspect the parent is thinking about https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/oct/18/white-n..., which cites https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10870..., which found 1 study out of 38 which "suggested the noise may lead to more disrupted sleep" and concludes that more research is needed.

Of course, individuals may find white noise personally irritating or distracting, and continuous loud noise of any sort is bad. But for others, noise can also help with relaxation, concentration, and sound masking. (I personally find white noise irritating, but I like brown noise.)

  proclaims that my benefit / enjoyment of something is invalid

I did no such thing.

Indeed, slightly or even double better performance won't help if you turn it off :)

IKEA FÖRNUFTIG is 28 dB at lowest fan speed. Wirecutter's pick (Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Mighty) is 24 dB.

If you are really bothered by noise in a bedroom, Electrolux Pure A9/AEG AX9 is 17dB at it's lowest setting (goes up to 49dB at it's maximum speed as opposed to IKEA's 60dB).

But it's obviously not as cheap as the IKEA one.

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