IQAir - Atem Car

IQ Air makes a car specific purifier. Got one for my niece and it drastically reduced her allergies while driving around the construction sites she works on - she is an architect.

IQ Air makes a car purifier. It slings over the back seat.

1st thing. Replace your cabin filter with a new high quality PM2.5/PM3 filter with carbon and rated airflow. For me this is Spearhead's non HEPA filter(don't get hepa for your cabin filter) 2nd. Full vacuum and wipe down of your car(natural cleaning wipes). Remove any and all chemicals from the car you can, keep the ones you can't airtight. This includes nail polish remover, hand sanitizer, spare gas can, etc. Keep all windows closed and keep recirculation ON at all times, unless it is clear roads in a rural environment. 3rd. Either get a sine wave inverter(if your car doesn't have a normal wall jack) and get a normal small table purifier, or a dedicated car purifier. Portable battery powered ones won't do jack. The 2 id recommend are the IQair ATEM($$) or the Philips GoPure 5212. Others are almost always lacking in some department.

I use a carbon pleated filter in place of the standard cabin filter, and I replace it every 6 months. It makes some differnece, but it's not great. The filter is car-specific, of course: [https://www.amazon.de/Mann-Filter-CUK-013-Innenraumluft/dp/B01EIAQO3E?th=1](https://www.amazon.de/Mann-Filter-CUK-013-Innenraumluft/dp/B01EIAQO3E?th=1) IQAir's ATEM item is a good effort on their side. However, a car-based air purifier that makes a difference in terms of particle counts (while providing fresh air to the driver/passengers) needs to be mounted at the vents of the car that supply the air to the passengers from the outside (and pressurize the car). With the current ATEM rericulating design, the only way to achieve clean air inside the car to keep the vents closed at all times, and then one can still expect a reduction of particle counts of two-fold at best. Plus, with this setup, I am not sure how one gets rid of CO2 and provides O2. I once designed a carbon/HEPA filter that plugged into the car's intake vents and had a booster fan. It required having a \~1 cubic foot box mounted somwhere outside the car, e.g. on the hood. This did not look pretty and would not pass the inspection, so I never implemented this. It also required 50-100W of power, not sure if the cigarette lighter would work for this. Unfortunately, the space under the car dash is too cramped to afford a proper HEPA in place of the cabin pollen filter, and the stock blower may not handle the air pressure. Since no proper HEPA car cabin filter is available on the market, I just wear a carbon/HEPA respirator in the car (it's 3M 75xx series). I do not care how I look to other drivers, my lungs are more important.

I had the GoPure and among this price point it was ok. My problem was cat dander on my clothes that I would bring in my car after being exposed to it at work. Even after wiping the car surfaces down before getting in the next day and lint rolling before leaving the office there’s no getting away from certain cat dander. Bought the IQ air as a step up and it takes care of the problem (but I still wipe the car and lint roll). Going to bite the bullet and order another IQ air for my sedan. Really don’t want to be spending all this money on air purifiers but will just have to until the allergy shots start working.

These are the 3 air filters I personally have. Most air filters only get down to 0.3 microns; these get down to 0.003 microns, which captures mold - which is my main concern - as well as viruses, bacteria, etc.  AirDoctor IQAir AirOasis I also have a Levoit that I like but doesn't capture as small of stuff as the ones above.