IKEA says the fornuftig is only for 8-10 square meter rooms. How "real" is that limitation?
Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier
21–30 of 723 posts
Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier
#22If filters struggle to trap particles around some specific particle size, wouldn't it make sense to combine two filters with different ranges together?
I'm pretty sure that they all have their worst performance at roughly the same particle size, because they're all working on the same two mechanisms (discussed in the article), and that's the small area where neither mechanism works very well.
Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier
#23Levoit seems to be recommended by /r/AirPurifiers/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VVK39F7/ The replacement filters are quite expensive though.
I don't recommend Levoit.
I've had two of the very expensive ones die in the last year. Both the same kind of death where the software gets confused and it does not respond to any commands and won't boot.
Crazy that we live in an age where a fan+filter+sensor needs to boot an operating system.
Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is definitely not a conspiracy theory. Incentives affect reviews, which is why truly unbiased review sources exist.
Especially when they already have a proven track record of nastiness: https://www.xdesk.com/wirecutter-standing-desk-review-pay-to...
I've used the Wirecutter, so I'm not going to claim to be totally unbiased. But I'm just not seeing any nastiness there: the reason they gave for switching their recommendation (while retaining their original recommendation as an upgrade pick) seems entirely legitimate. And as much as the company wants to emphasize the use of the word "kickback" it's not really apt: Wirecutter's model has always been affiliate linking, and that's exactly what they reached out about in their first and second emails. And when turned down, they still published the recommendation and (later) still identified it as the best option if cost isn't an issue.
Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier
#25If filters struggle to trap particles around some specific particle size, wouldn't it make sense to combine two filters with different ranges together?
They all struggle at the same size, is the issue.
Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier
#26On the first point in the article, there is a definition for HEPA which for ISO is 99.95% efficiency. The Ikea purifier doesn't meet this. It meets the EPA standard, hence the designation of E12 (99.5%).
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Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier
#27I've never thought about air filters, but the explanation on why they also filter smaller particles is very similar to size exclusion chromatography, a very common method used in a biolab. This is also a method that might appear counter-intuitive at first.
The idea there is to separate molecules according to their size. So you press them through a column of porous beads. Small molecules can enter these pores, which delays them and they travel through the column slower than large molecules that cannot enter them. This is pretty counter-intuitive, especially as other similar methods work as you'd expect with smaller molecules being faster to move through the material because they don't bump into it as much as larger molecules.
Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier
#28Wirecutter has gone to shit and stopped being useful about 3-4 years ago. Their move to a paid subscription was very odd to me because they had also lost all my trust by that point.
There are countless examples of recommends products doing a bait and switch (changing the materials/product after the wirecutter article recommending them came out) and just cases of Wirecutter giving bad recommendations.
Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Especially when they already have a proven track record of nastiness: https://www.xdesk.com/wirecutter-standing-desk-review-pay-to...
I've used the Wirecutter, so I'm not going to claim to be totally unbiased. But I'm just not seeing any nastiness there: the reason they gave for switching their recommendation (while retaining their original recommendation as an upgrade pick) seems entirely legitimate. And as much as the company wants to emphasize the use of the word "kickback" it's not really apt: Wirecutter's model has always been affiliate linkin…
But the problem is that it ultimately skews the incentives and contradicts their claim that the editors are totally isolated from the commercial part of their business.
Their homepage currently suggests the following:
> We independently review everything we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission [emphasis mine]
The "about" page claims:
> There’s no incentive for us to pick inferior products or to respond to pressure from manufacturers—in fact, it’s quite the opposite [emphasis mine]
That's not really true when the same person who writes the reviews is the one trying to solicit kickbacks in the background, and puts the credibility of the entire website into question. Their adjusted review could be completely legitimate but there's no way to be sure so it's better to err on the side of caution.
Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier
#30Levoit seems to be recommended by /r/AirPurifiers/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VVK39F7/ The replacement filters are quite expensive though.
I've been super happy with my Winnex and Coway. Pretty sure they are the ones that Wirecutter likes as well. The Levoits just don't seem to move much air. I like big, quiet fans that move lot's of air.