Has anyone had any experience using a HEPA (high efficiency particle arresting) air cleaner?

We use it all the time in our ICU, but it’s, well, an ICU.

They are expensive. WalMart has the cheapest price. every 30 days, remove the filter and take it outside and remove the trapped particles and dust. you can reuse it for 3 months. this helps with the price.

There really is a big difference is air filters. this is one of the very best. we use it.

Yes and it is a piece of crap. Your air will smell like peroxide and after a while you will develop headaches. My brother in law tried to get us to use one that was over a 1000 dollars. Here goes the thing. You can not live in a bubble. Nature cleans your air out for you better than any machine.
Allergies come and go but the more you try to avoid them the worse they get.
I got my husband to embrace his allergies and even give up his allergy treatments that were making him worse. Once he embraced them all his allergies started to go away on its own.
All that cleaning air purifiers also made it harder on him everytime he went out to work. He body would be slammed with all the allergens in the air he would avoid at home.
Any how, got rid of our air purifiers all together. We are healthier now and even my dog is healthier.
If you need one just to minimize dust and not have an ionic cleaner than holmes hepa filters are pretty good and not too expensive.
Just stay away from any with an ionic cleaner.
Or at least change your a/c filter monthly. People breath the same circulated air in their home, using the same filter for months and then wonder why they feel unwell at home.

@john65pennington: what brand is yours??
@Pandora: that’s so sucky… thanks for the heads up. i have tried not addressing my allergies and they are so terrible, i am suffering – i cannot breathe. plus, i have two cats in a teeny tiny studio and cleaning the air may not be such a terrible thing but i certainly don’t want my apartment to smell like peroxide!!

I have a Blueair which I like but I would suggest that you go here, to epinions and read the reviews and find one that gets good reviews, suits your purposes, is the right size for the space you have and get the best one in your price range. I like epinions.com because the reviews are written by real people who have purchased the products and taken the home and used them. There’s a lot of crap out there and some of the crap is pretty expensive. And the cheap crappy ones aren’t going to help either. I think some of the issues people have is that its not a magic cure for allergies. I have dust allergies. The less dust in the air in my house, the better I feel but if you are allergic to pollen, e.g. an indoor air purifier isn’t really going to help you much, I don’t think.

And I second @Pandora stay away from the ionic ones and make sure you change the air filter in your furnace on a regular basis.

They sell shampoos that are great for lowering the allergens cats carry. However, cats do like to spray and it could be that urine smell in a small apartment is more than you can handle. Open your windows frequently to air it out. Sunlight will also do a lot to lower any mold.

Samantha Rae, wife is looking, hold on….............

3M, it has no smell and works great. you will see the difference in the cheaper versions and this cadillac. 5-star rating here.

@lillycoyote: thanks for that site! i am also allergic to dust mites, and some outdoor stuff… clearing the air inside would be helpful.

@john65pennington & wife: thanks! i am going to look into it .

@Pandora: i used to use one… the doctor recommended wiping the cats down with a damp cloth once a week which i could probably manage to do… do you know of any brands? i will ask my specialty pet store this weekend and see if they can order one for me!

I use groom max shampoo for my dog. It has no dyes in it. I do not know if it can be used on cats.
If you brush your cats more frequently than they will shed less though the home.

@Pandora: i need more of a “leave in” type product… and my cats get lion cuts so despite their long hairedness, they are mostly short haired now :) that’s sasha in my avatar, you can see her mane

Ask a local groomer or pet store. They usually have a few suggestions. I’m know there are products for kitties but I have a dog and a lot of their things don’t do well for each other since cats like to groom themselves a lot.
Love the pic.

If you have carpet and can afford it, see if you can hire a professional carpet cleaner that knows how to deal with pet odors and allergens and look for mold and mildew.
Biggest sources of indoor allergens are carpets that are harboring pet odors, mold, and mildew.
Next is the furnace as I already mentioned.
After that its is dust and curtains. People forget to clean their blinds and curtains and then when they open the window all the dust is blown everywhere.
Ceiling fan dust as well.
Always wipe everything down with a damp cloth when dusting or sweeping.
Dust will float around for a day, otherwise.
Hope you feel better soon.
Oh, another thing that helped my husband was having him use a pillow for allergy suffers, and having him wipe his own hair and face with a damp cloth before going to bed.
Your hair will also pick up a lot of crap of the day and then you rub it all over you clean pillow and breathe in all that crap all night long.

@Pandora: thanks for all of those pointers! luckily, i don’t have carpet! the curtains and blinds are a good point… i use a swiffer duster for dusting but maybe i should try another method, like you mentioned. no ceiling fan either, just a table top one that i clean regularly. and i’m kinda snobby about getting into bed dirty, almost always shower before bed :) thanks so much for all of your input

Good. Wish I didn’t have stupid carpet. LOL
Hope you feel better soon.
I always had really slight allergies, but I had a daughter with eczema and asthma and a husband with sinus allergies.
I had to learn a 101 ways to clean my home and not destroy a family member or pet in the process.
Have a good night.

We’ve used Holmes air cleaners for 15 years. We have them in the rooms that we are in the most, bedroom and work room. They only clean the air in ONE room, 150 square feet to about 180 square feet is all the cover.

I have a whole house unit and it works great. It is made my Air Bear. I also have an electrostatic behind it. That gets anything the Air Bear missed. (Not much)
There’s no odor at all. It is astonishing to see how much dirt it pulls out of the air.