This "maxed-out smoke absorber" air purifier was bought out of desperation on woodstove neighborhood smoke day #2 for the 2025/26 heating season. My elderly, incorrigible, "nobody tells me what to do!" neighbor also burns household garbage and at least junkmail in his house and garage woodstoves and on an outdoor fire pit. Who knows what else his relatives and friends bring over there to burn while they down their Schmidt and Grain Belt beers. Unfortunately, the prevailing wind is from his lot to mine. Thus, by the end of the day with all windows closed, my house (and throat, clothing, hair) smell like his acrid, sooty smoke. Ugh!
Everyone burns wood and has backyard/lakeside campfires here, so there's not much I can do beyond letting him know that my house fills with his smoke and fumes and then silently ask the Lord to direct them into that guy's own house so he can endure it himself. (Seems like it's always worse for the next few days after I mention it to him too.) The cops would be useless unless they actually saw a smoldering couch or a mattress in flames in his fire pit, and the result for me would be that he would drop even his current thin veil of pretense about being a friendly neighbor. Then what would he do?)
Anyway - about the purifier...
It's a 2-foot tall cylinder on casters which sits exactly and securely on top of an overturned milk crate (not included). I didn't want the pre-filter material at the bottom of the filter cartridge to quickly clog with pet hair or dust bunnies, so figured that having the inlet a foot above the floor would make it harder for clogging to be a problem - while also not limiting airflow through the purifier's fan.
I'm a pretty active and in-shape late 60s guy, but this unit with its fan/motor and 5 lb charcoal load and other filter components makes the assembled purifer all I'd want to lift onto a milk crate by myself. It rolls around nicely on the supplied casters. It's a substantial and well-made purifier.
The directions suggest leaving it running on low all the time for maximum benefit. Though it isn't loud at that level, when sitting ten feet from it in the living room, I kept thinking that the microwave was running in the kitchen. Actually got up from my desk two different times on the first day to see what that noise was.
On higher settings, this purifier really moves the air from its two outlet grates around the top edge. The moving air is enough on high that it may have an impact on what temperature is sensed by a room thermostat in the air flow.
My plan is to use this purifier only as needed to control the smoke fumes which seep into my house from the neighbors/neighborhood and windborne wildfire smoke from hundreds of miles away during wildfire seasons in the western US and Canada. It'll be on low 24/7 during those days when the air over the lake is hazy and the sunsets are brown.
If you're on the fence, buy this thing. It might be overkill, but it will be nice not EVER having to go to bed again with a sore throat from breathing bad air all day while staying inside of my own house. Never hurts to have the best and most powerful if one wants to do something significant to adjust the quality of their own indoor air. NOTE: I have zero breathing-related issues, allergies, pollen sensitivity or hay fever. I bought this to filter outdoor smoke.
The not-inexpensive filters are rated for 3 years or so under normal use - which is much more intensive than mine. Know that the activated charcoal packing does have a shelf life of about that length of time, so skip the idea of ordering a second filter with the purifier to keep on hand as a spare. Buy a second one two years from now so they don't expire simultaneously.
