Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier • Hacker News Board

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#161

Post by prash_ant » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:37 PM UTC

postalrat wrote: post #100

jeromegv wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean... I'm an IT professional. I have no time, energy, desire or ability to build. my own fan, maintain it, and trust that it does a good job. That's the reason I bought an air purifier. The restaurant industry is also there for people that don't want the time to learn to cook certain dishes themselves. And (many) restaurants are still thriving.

As an IT professional I find myself with the time, energy, desire, and ability to do many projects like this myself. Are you sure you are a real IT professional?

We should appreciate the diversity of the 7,903,275,000 people in the world. Everyone single one of us has different opinions, ideas, abilities and interests.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#162

Post by cosmodisk » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:37 PM UTC

I've done so much research about air purifiers that I think I could do a thesis if I were in academia. The vast majority of these devices fall under one category: rubbish. Lots of gimmicks performed when it comes to efficacy. Bending reality with borderline claims or inventing useless terms that mean nothing. If you are serious about indoor air quality, start with IQAir. Their products are bulky, contain multiple filters and you know that you'll be able to get replacement filters 5 years later. Blueair has some reasonable products too (ignore the smaller, cheap product lines).

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#163

Post by Dylan16807 » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:37 PM UTC

daenz wrote: post #83

jeromegv wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, but nobody is preventing that information to be shared. When I looked for air purifier last year, there was tons of articles I saw on how to build your own. This isn't hidden, there's tons of good resources out there. I don't understand why you try to shame us for choosing to buy our own. Of course we are fortunate we can afford it. We aren't talking of a sports car here, it's few hundreds dollar, this is…

I am being polite in explaining the low-income perspective on devices like these. Looking at a device designed for low-income people who are trying to breathe healthy air and saying, essentially, "it's ugly, I would never want that" is extremely tone deaf around why it exists in the first place: because desperate people need an inexpensive solution. If you feel shame from that alternate perspective, I would suggest i…

No post body was provided.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#164

Post by donohoe » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:38 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #29

GavinMcG wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 produc…

But the editors are isolated from the commercial side.

Regardless of what they pick, they do not manage the affiliate links. Thats an entirely different process.

>> That's not really true when the same person who writes the reviews is the one trying to solicit kickbacks in the background

No. The person doing the review has no insight or commission on any affiliate income.

Whether you like the NYT or not, their coverage and reviews are made to the best of the abilities, and while mistakes happen, the writers are not trying to nickle and dime you.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#165

Post by garmanarnar » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:38 PM UTC

syntaxing wrote: post #156

A bit off tangent, but Blueair purifiers was the only brand where the output air was 0 PPM2.5 during wildfire season in the Bay Area (I have the $50 uncalibrated laser PPM sensor that purpleair uses so interpret this as you want). I tried Dyson, Winix, and making a V-shape DIY purifier with a vornado fan. Nothing was able to pull the indoor air below 15 besides Blueair so I recommend it to any of my family and friend…

Which line of Blueair are you using? I use Bluepure and I think they do a great job, but I don't have any instruments to measure their efficacy.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#166

Post by bombcar » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:39 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #28

Wirecutter 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.

> There are countless examples of recommends products doing a bait and switch

This is a larger problem than just Wirecutter, it would be interesting to have an industry trade body or something similar that would document when material changes have happened to the same product name/number. Sure, many would be immaterial, but there are substantial ones that happen all the time (if the product is big enough to have "fans" they notice and track this stuff).

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#167

Post by kurizu4444 » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:39 PM UTC

syntaxing wrote: post #156

A bit off tangent, but Blueair purifiers was the only brand where the output air was 0 PPM2.5 during wildfire season in the Bay Area (I have the $50 uncalibrated laser PPM sensor that purpleair uses so interpret this as you want). I tried Dyson, Winix, and making a V-shape DIY purifier with a vornado fan. Nothing was able to pull the indoor air below 15 besides Blueair so I recommend it to any of my family and friend…

I did a good amount of research and I think the Mila is the best cost/performance you can get, especially for a non-closet sized room

https://milacares.com

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#168

Post by post_break » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:39 PM UTC

daenz wrote: post #60

donohoe wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The air purifier industry is more about aesthetics than it is function Well, sure, to a point. I could make my own air purifier (like the one you link) but it looks awful. I would not want that in my home. So yeah, aesthetics do matter. Its not the only thing but it is a factor.

> it looks awful. I would not want that in my home. When west coast forest fires put dangerous levels of smoke into peoples homes, box fan air filters are an extremely valuable tool for lower income families. Consider yourself extremely fortunate if you are able to choose form over function on devices like this.

Your comment is hilarious. Buying an air purifier that looks good makes sense, making an air purifier during times of crisis also makes sense. They are not even remotely the same thing. Oh boy you're so lucky you can get a Dyson, we've got wild fires here in California! You see how ridiculous that sounds?

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#169

Post by 1986 » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:39 PM UTC

etchalon wrote: post #134

jefftk wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article explains it well: Here’s a thought experiment: Take a 1000 cubic feet room and a purifier that processes 100 cubic feet of air per minute. (I follow Wirecutter in using vulgar imperial units.) Assume pessimistically that all particles are the worst-case size. If you run that purifier with an E12 filter, the fraction of particles that will remain after one minute is .1 × (1-.995) + .9 = 0.9005. That’s beca…

The idea that the difference between 0.9005 and 0.90005 is "small" is … weird. The moment I read that I checked out on the rest of the authors opinions.

Why? It's a 0.05% difference, seems pretty small to me.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#170

Post by jstanley » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:40 PM UTC

CharlesW wrote: post #92

hammock wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes conspiracy theories are true. They are still conspiracy theories

“A conspiracy theory is not the same as a conspiracy; instead, it refers to a hypothesized conspiracy…” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory

A conspiracy is when people collude in secret. A conspiracy theory is a theory that some people collude in secret. Conspiracy theories are true when they correspond to true conspiracies.