Comment by shadeless
5 hours ago
Not OP, but thanks for the comment! In my research for cleaner indoor air custom fan-mounted purifiers came up as a cheaper and much more effective alternative to commercial air purifiers, but I haven't seen the Airfanta before.
Regarding humidifiers, do you have any links for further reading on the pollution aspect? I assumed that the distilled water ones wouldn't pollute the air, but I'm now realising I haven't actually checked.
I guess that most of the humidifiers sold on e.g. Amazon are the types you mentioned, do you have any recommendations in terms of brands/models?
Yes agreed, the AirFanta is simply the cheapest among a few similar products, and you can DIY one for pretty cheap too. The AirFanta filters, IKEA filters, and 3M 1900 filters are popular choices for DIY builds.
Unfortunately even if you only ever use distilled water, crud and dust build up in the reservoir over time, and also start to grow bacteria. Technically the user manuals on these units will say something like to clean them every "use" (ie every day if used continuously), but realistically nobody does that.
Ironically if you use distilled water (even if you distill at home) it cancels out the up-front cost saving, which is about the only advantage of ultrasonic type!
Safer IMO to use an evaporative pad humidifier which physically can't atomize trace dirt into tiny pollution particles, then use humidifier drops to protect against bacteria.
It's so bad that it's cliche in AQI circles to ask "where's the humidifier" when someone complains of mysterious new dust buildup or PM2.5 spikes...
Tech Connections video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHeehYYgl28
Further reading: https://dynomight.net/humidifiers/
This storefront seems to have some good options (no affiliation): https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/43E58B1A-6C68-4879-9C38-7...