I’ve had this one for years but there’s a pretty wide range of air purifiers available on the market.
We ended up with 2 of these: Amazon.com: SilverOnyx Air Purifier for Home, H13 True HEPA Filter, Air Cleaner with UV Light, Air Quality Monitor, for Allergies and Pets, Dust, Quiet Odor Eliminator for Bedroom - Large Room 500 sq ft Black: Home & Kitchen
Someone said they think air purifiers are a ripoff. I can tell that is 100% incorrect.
We've gone through a couple of the last years with MASSIVE smoke issues (wildfire smoke) where the air outside our house is well above hazardous levels. Inside our house, we use those purifiers and have seen a drastic reduction in pollutants/irritants in the air. That specific purifier will show you the AQI index as well.
We would place them outside occasionally to check the outdoor AQI and would watch the number shoot up within a few seconds.
Highly recommend them if you are in the need. There's many different options though.
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Also, we've had our 2 air purifiers running basically 24/7 for the past 2+ years. We do clean the filters.
This one. It works great, but I figure they all do as long as the filter is rated to remove smoke particulates. This one is pretty loud on the highest fan setting, but the trade-off is worth it.
Not cheap, but this air purifier (https://www.amazon.com/SilverOnyx-Purifier-Quality-Sanitizer-Allergies/dp/B06XG4Z87P) will suck up any smoke. From personal experience, it is more effective when using glass (virtually no odor after smoking) to smoke rather than rolling one up (effective, but takes much longer and there can be some odor remnants). The combined burning of paper and herb tends to leave more of a lingering odor. So, if you're still having odor issues with an air purifier running, it may be a matter of how you're smoking.
I can vouch for this air purifier's effectiveness. I live in a very small apartment and my next door neighbor (also a smoker) had no idea I had been lighting up inside for months. Neighbor got a nasty letter from the landlord about complaints from his neighbors and apologized to me...told him I wasn't complaining, so long as he's willing to share every once in a while.
A few other factors to consider when using an air purifier. First, understand how air circulation in the room works. You might be undermining the air purifier by smoking in a location where air/smoke gets moved away from the purifier.
Second, I know it is the middle of winter, but an open window does wonders. My purifier is next to a window, so smoke gets sucked in by the purifier and any byproduct output goes out the window.
Third, air purifiers pick up everything in the air, not just smoke. So, if there are other scents or a lot of dust in the room, the air purifier might not be able to "focus" on the smoke." Best workaround is to run the air purifier for 1/2 or so before smoking. This will eliminate any "base odors," so all air purification power goes to dealing with the smoke.
This also means that if you light a candle before you smoke, the air purifier is going to pick up some of that scent. So, not only will the purifier not be picking up only smoke, it will also take the candle's scent out of the room.
Fourth, cleaning an air purifier never hurts. Obviously, it is designed to suck up scents and dust. But, this doesn't mean that a purifier's intake is immune from clogging, which impacts its effectiveness. Hit the intake area with a can of spray duster to remove anything that might be interfering with the purifier's efficiency. The same goes for the output of the purifier.
Finally, neither an air purifier, nor candles will do anything about smells that have already been absorbed by other materials in the room. Furniture is the usual culprit for soaking up smoke odors and causing them to linger. But, anything else with a fabric or otherwise porous surface can have the same effect.
I'm suggesting anyone forgo the pleasure of sitting on the couch and smoking. But, throwing a cheap blanket over the couch can serve as an intermediary to soak up smoke. A blanket can be put in another room or easily washed, while furniture cannot.
And...if all else fails...Crown & Crest candles are pretty pungent.
> It's going to get close to 90 today but all our windows are shut tight.
That's the hardest part. We have AC that goes in the windows, but we just moved so don't have proper fittings for the windows in our new house. So....we are coping with no A/C and all windows shut.
I broke down yesterday and, thank you amazon same day delivery!, ordered two of these air purifiers: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XG4Z87P/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Dropped our inside air quality rating from about 110 down to about 30 to 50 average now.
It's weird to think we'll probably have to keep using air purifiers from this day forward (meaning every summer) if we keep getting these fires. Didn't have them last year, didn't think we'd need them for this year....was wrong about that!