IQAir - GC Series NE

Iq Air GC series 12 pounds of activated charcoal $1350 Amazon.

Huh? He’s asking about air purifiers for smoke, VOCs, toxins of any sort. The air purifier I mentioned is hands the best on the market. The one I specifically mentioned is used in ER and surgical areas. It’s expensive but it’s the best tool on the market to get the job done. Life changing for me.

I use an IqAir GC, Coway Airmega 400s, and Coway Ap1513. I have invested in these over the years and bought them from wholesale or second hand. They are all heavy-duty purifiers, but anything with a hepa filter will do. Make sure if you are on multiple floors... air purifier on each floor. Make sure it's double the sq.ft of the area you want to filter. If it's not enough.. double up.

Most air purifiers produce more of a rushing air sound, which is different to a large fan. And many can be quite loud on their top settings—examples are IQAir, most Medify Air models, and Winix. You could [build your own Corsi-Rosenthal box](https://engineering.ucdavis.edu/news/science-action-how-build-corsi-rosenthal-box), which is powered by a box fan. See also the related subreddit: r/crboxes If you want to listen for yourself, you can go through HouseFresh's YouTube playlist of air purifier sound tests. A few models may not be available in the USA or have been discontinued. Link: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOuKERCL33BQ1VAbZmUMzY6sY8MYsfO1r](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOuKERCL33BQ1VAbZmUMzY6sY8MYsfO1r)

Most common air purifier brands do not have enough nor the right type of sorbent media for gases, vapors, or odors. Sorbent media in air purification = activated carbon, activated alumina, or synthetic zeolites. Heavyweight sorbent media purifiers are very expensive, very loud, and clean the air more slowly than particulates-focused units. This is due to the need for ["dwell time"/"residence time"](https://www.airscience.com/carbon-filters) and the thick media beds. The two major heavyweight brands in the USA & Canada are **Airpura** or **AllerAir**. You want to look for models with 15 lbs.+ carbon canisters. Most standard options for these purifiers are plain/chemically untreated sorbents, which do *not* have high removal capacities for all gaseous "species". This sometimes presents problems where an odor emanates from the sorbent bed (possibly the not-well-adsorbed acetaldehyde) or there's a spike on tVOC monitors despite a reduction in odors. Assuming you don't live near a refinery or have really bad air chemistry otherwise (e.g., from fires), you may want to look into potassium permanganate (KMnO₄) impregnated activated carbon from Airpura or AllerAir. You'd have to contact the respective company first to specify this. KMnO₄ works in part via redox (reduction oxidation) reactions by breaking down certain gases. This can be problematic in unknown and/or highly complex air chemistries where resulting gases may be problematic. It can also off gas as it saturates or loses efficacy.

Your best options are likely the IQAir GC or GCX series purifiers. As for the exact model, you may want to choose one with potassium permanganate (KMnO₄) impregnated carbon or alumina. See [my other comment in this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/AirPurifiers/comments/1oco7i5/comment/nkoz4yw/).

IQair is the best. Blueair are made in China and mostly emphasize on looks

I can clearly tell when my IQAIRs are running, I sleep so much better. You might already have good air quality Fixing your furnace filter and central filtration will make a bigger difference than buying an air purifier

I keep my IQAir on medium 24/7 and kick it up to the highest setting after housework or during weather advisories (smoke, wind, high particulate, etc). When I lived in the house I was exposed to toxic mold—after I found out about it, of course—I had several (different brand) purifiers on the highest setting 24/7, and though they looked like hell after switching out the filters about once a month, did an extremely good job with professional AQI tests in the interim before the landlord let me out of the lease.

No idea about Merv 16 since I just buy what they have so I don’t have to think about anything, lol, but I use and travel with their car filter—bringing it into hotel rooms and letting it filter in different areas before going inside. Not sure how well it filters all the air in the room, but it’s a relatively small space, so I’m willing to take the chance since otherwise there would be no filtration. I am thinking about buying one of their large round models for the same reason since it would be easier to store at the side of the car instead of a bulky IQAir and would know the filtration would be on point. We actually have two IQAirs: one upstairs and one downstairs. The lower level is far larger than the second level, but they both seem to do a good job, especially on the highest setting (it does an incredible job filtering after-dinner “food smells” from the kitchen, too!).

I run 3 filters, Austin and IQAIR, in each of 2 spaces - one 300 square feet the other 600 square feet. If the air is poor outside my Purple Air sensors will still show green. However there are so many chemicals in wildfire smoke, particularly if structures have burned, that they don't get everything. I am sensitive to terpenes and right now they don't help with the Camphor tree flowers. So they can greatly improve air quality but don't expect all VOCs to be removed from the air.

Yeah, this is mine as well. 10 year warranty, Swiss made. It’s the only place my family can be when the allergies get really bad.

Wow, I didn’t know!! Thank you for explaining that. Costco had a good deal for shark air purifier and I was considering it. I have one IQ Air but their customer service hasn’t been great and the machine is really bulky, old fashioned with a hefty price tag. I was attracted to cheaper options but I’d get what I paid for it sounds like.

I have Austin Air and IQAir…both terrific. Expensive.