Consumer Question -- Ionic Breeze

[Weird Harold]

I've been contemplating buying an Ionic Breeze air cleaner and surfing google to find out the pros and cons.

However I haven't been able to find the one answer I've been looking for: What effect does this thing have on static electricity problems.

I live in a very dry climate, and seem to have a natural ability to generate large amounts of static elctricity. Those two factors combine to make me very leary about bringing something into my home that "generates negative ions" and uses static electricity to trap airborne particles.

So, does anyone have an Ionic Breeze.

Does it work for you?

Does it increase the number of static shocks you receive?

 

[lilfrk]

One of the residents where I work has one and I hate it. It has a funny smell to it, kinda like bleach or something. I get shocked by everything I touch in that room.

 

[ridddder]

Harold,

Although I don't have the answer to your question from what I have heard from friends is that this product is one heck of an airfiltering device. Somehow it would not suggest to me to be a static reducing device. However, I would suggest calling sharper image, and or emailing them. They are a very nice company to deal with, and have great customer service which is essential to be a icon in the home catalog department. I think of sharper image as the crutchfield of gadgets.

Your moniker- "Answers I've got answers, is great now you just need some sort of woman who says "questions, I've got questions."

That shouldn't be all that hard to find....lol

 

[LukkyKnight]

One of the residents where I work has one and I hate it. It has a funny smell to it, kinda like bleach or something. I get shocked by everything I touch in that room.

Ozone.

Anecdotally: I had a good friend with one, which he swore by in terms of air quality (I can't say if it really helped.) He didn't seem to have any greater static issues in the nearby rooms, but it was not a "dry" climate, so YMMV. Of course, if you're going to the trouble, WH, you could get a(nother) humidifer, too, ya know?

 

[Weird Harold]

Of course, if you're going to the trouble, WH, you could get a(nother) humidifer, too, ya know?

Or I could just move back to Oregon and deal with the humidity there. I'm mostly worried about whether I'll have to take extra anti-static measures -- ie if my savings in not buying filters will be offset by an increase in costs for Static Guard (tm). It doesn't seem to raise the static potential in the stores where they have several demos running.

lilfrk,
From your experience, it sounds like I miht be right to worry? How big a room is it being used in?

 

[Saint Peter]

Hiya WH

One thing to research before buying any style of air cleaning device is the amount of electricity used. It is my understanding that similar devices can use very different amounts of power to do the same job.

Good luck

 

[Weird Harold]

Hiya WH

One thing to research before buying any style of air cleaning device is the amount of electricity used. It is my understanding that similar devices can use very different amounts of power to do the same job.

Good luck

That is the big reason for considering the IonicBreeze -- the Quadra model uses 15 watts and the GP model (with ultraviolet light) uses 30 watts -- by far the lowest power consumption of any of the ait cleaners I've looked at.

The small size and noiseless (fanless) operation are a couple of other atractive features.

 

[Saint Peter]

I am in Denver and it is fairly dry here as well. The swamp cooler runs all summer and the humidifier runs all winter.

If the air cleaning device causes more static electricity in the air a humidifier could counter that.

 

[lilfrk]

lilfrk,
From your experience, it sounds like I miht be right to worry? How big a room is it being used in?

It's a big room, it has two beds, two dressers, two bedside tables, two over bed tables, all the crap of two grown people. I'm really bad at measurments but I'd guess it's about 15x20 at least.

The smell that thing puts off takes my breath away but maybe that's because I have asthma.

Now the shocks are another story completely. God forbid you're in that room with wet hands (which happens frequently) because the shocks would just about knock you on your ass. More than once I've been shocked to the point that blue sparks come off my fingers and my arm has ached for a considerable amount of time afterwards.

The smell and shock factor are always worse after the family cleans the thing. But both of those things are always there in that room.

 

[Guest]

I've been contemplating buying an Ionic Breeze air cleaner and surfing google to find out the pros and cons.

However I haven't been able to find the one answer I've been looking for: What effect does this thing have on static electricity problems.

I live in a very dry climate, and seem to have a natural ability to generate large amounts of static elctricity. Those two factors combine to make me very leary about bringing something into my home that "generates negative ions" and uses static electricity to trap airborne particles.

So, does anyone have an Ionic Breeze.

Does it work for you?

Does it increase the number of static shocks you receive?

_____

We have two Quadra units, for a year, now, one for our bedroom, and one for the living room. We love them. We also have an electrostatic cleaner on our house fan (for heat and A/C) instead of the standard media filters (the electrostatic unit fits snugly right where the slot was for the filters).

We have a gas stove, and especially in the winter, with the house closed up more, the amount of particulate carbon introduced into the air causes watery eyes, sniffles, and sneezing. These electrostatic units pull a lot of fine particulates out of the air, which has helped immensely with my wife's allergies. We both seem to breathe easier as well.

The Quadra units are NOT ionizers. They use charged plate/electrostatic technology that charges the airborne pollutants, then captures them on an oppositely charged collection plates (easily cleaned).

Regarding static shocks, I've seen no effect (none whatsoever) on any increases in static electricity, air borne, or otherwise.

I recommend them.

 

[Weird Harold]

However I haven't been able to find the one answer I've been looking for: What effect does this thing have on static electricity problems.

Well, I went and bought two Ionic Breeze Quadra Comact and got the mini-pligin unit free -- total cost with taxes, $402 and change. ($249 for the first, $124.50 for the second, and the Mini free -- "A $69.99 value".) Nearly amonth's rent, but less than I expected, because they don't advertise the "Compact" model, and it's seldom mentioned in the reviews.


So far, they're doing what I wanted them for -- removing odors -- without increasing the static electricity prolem at all.

Of course they've only been running on high for 36 hours and this is NOT a bad time of the year for static problems. I haven't noticed a bleach or ozone smell from them yet, but it could take a while for the concentration to build up enough for me to notice it -- I don't have the most efficient nose in the world.

 

[The Heretic]

I am fairly sure about one thing; such air filtering devices may work well with particulates, but I don't see how they can claim (as they do in their commercials) that they work with gases (such as from rugs, plastics, synthetic rubber, etc.); how in the world would such a device be able to discern between "good" gases (oxygen, nitrogen, etc.) and "bad" gases??

 

[Ljbonobo]

I am fairly sure about one thing; such air filtering devices may work well with particulates, but I don't see how they can claim (as they do in their commercials) that they work with gases (such as from rugs, plastics, synthetic rubber, etc.); how in the world would such a device be able to discern between "good" gases (oxygen, nitrogen, etc.) and "bad" gases??

The only way I can understand that it works is this. So called "good" gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and others mainly exist as diatomic molecules....aka O2, N2, etc. Due to this and their chemical nature they can't become charged very easily. On the other hand "bad" gases such as fumes and vapors of say like gasoline and aerosol and other such thing due to their chemical nature would be very easily charged up. That way they could then be caught on the oppositely charged plate or filter or whatever.

 

[Weird Harold]

how in the world would such a device be able to discern between "good" gases (oxygen, nitrogen, etc.) and "bad" gases??

The gases the claim to remove are mostly "organic esters" which are complex, and consequently massive, molecules. These molecules are more easily disrupted by the ozone (O3) they generate, and also tend to form a liquid or solid when static charges pull them to the plates where they collect.

They can't "collect" any "gas" that won't liquify or solidify, however, the primary means of removing those "bad" gases is through interaction with Ozone.