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u/theorist9

Smart Air Blast Mk II vs. Coway Airmega ProX
▲ 8 r/HouseFresh+1 crossposts

Smart Air Blast Mk II vs. Coway Airmega ProX

I've got a Coway Airmega ProX running in my ≈4,000 ft^3 open-plan living room/dining room/kitchen in Los Angeles, and it does a better job than any of the other purifiers I've tried at relieving my respiratory symptoms.

And its noise is pretty good: When I'm working 10' away at my desk, it's tolerable at speed 2, and when I really want quiet I can switch to speed 1 and it disappears.

Its one problem, though, is the filter odor, which just won't disappear even after a month. I posted about this odor on another thread, and a few commenters indicated they had the same issue.

From looking at the reviews on housefresh.com, the only purifier that seems to equal or exceed the ProX's CADR:noise ratio is the Smart Air Blast Mk II. Specifically, based on their measurements, it seems I could run the Blast at speed 1 and get better CADR and lower noise than the ProX on speed 2 (see bolded entries in table at bottom).

But here's what worries me:

  1. What matters isn't just the SPL (sound pressure level), it's the character of the noise. E.g., the Alen 75i at speed 2 has nearly identical SPL to the Coway at speed 2, yet I found the Alen more intrusive. So even though the Blast's measured SPL at speed 1 is lower than the ProX's on speed 2, there's no option to decrease the Blast's noise from there if it is intrusive.
  2. The Blast could have the same filter odor issue as the Coway.
  3. It seems unacceptable that the Blast has a street price >$1k (compared to $650 for the ProX), yet they didn't equip it with a brushless DC motor (which is why its wattage:CADR is about double the ProX's). So I wonder if there is excessive profiteering going on here. Plus if they're cheaping out on the motor, are they doing the same on the filters and other components?

So it would be really helpful to hear from someone who considers themselves both noise-sensitive and odor-sensitive, and who has tried both machines.

ProX:
speed 1: 212 CADR => 3.2 ACH, 37.4 dB
speed 2: 299 CADR => 4.5 ACH, 44.4 dB
speed 3: 462 CADR => 6.9 ACH, 53.6 dB

Blast Mk II:
speed 1: 375 CADR = 5.6 ACH, 41.9 dB
speed 2: 429 CADR => 6.4 ACH, 47.4 dB
speed 3: 547 CADR => 8.2 ACH, 54.7 dB

u/theorist9 — 6 days ago
▲ 5 r/AirPurifiers

Coway Mighty2 has more restrictive HEPA13 cert than other Coways

It's interesting that Coway has found the need to be more restrictive with its HEPA13 certification with its latest purifier, the Mighty2, than with its other purifers (including the original Mighty).

Specifically, other Coway purifiers (at least those I've checked) are certified to meet HEPA13 only at fan speed 1 or below, while the Mighty2 (I asssume) doesn't meet HEPA13 at speed 1, and is thus only certified for that standard at sleep mode.

It's possible this is because the Mighty2 has higher airflow/filter area than the other Coways at speed 1.

The one other manufacturer that I've seen acknowledge increased particle penetration (and thus a reduction in filtering performance) at higher flow rates is IQAir, but they don't present that anywhere on their website; instead, this was posted by one of their retailers (Allergy Cosmos). It shows the Atem X's filter decreases from H13 (HEPA13) to E11 (EPA11)* between fan speeds 1 and 8.

[*It's called E11 rather than H11 because the current HEPA standard doesn't extend down to 11, so they need to switch to the US EPA standard, hence E11. But you can think of E11 as what HEPA11 would be if it currently existed.]

I'll note that, since these machines all rely on multiple-pass rather than single-pass filtering, with a sufficiently high ACH they can still provide the needed particle reduction without meeting H13 at all fan speeds.

https://preview.redd.it/bovnr18nj01h1.png?width=1886&format=png&auto=webp&s=9615ef4a55cf8e78d5ad9470c74915dbea379b7f

reddit.com
u/theorist9 — 8 days ago
▲ 3 r/HouseFresh

Just got a pair of Coway Airmega ProX units. I like the design; its size means it moves a lot of air at a relatively low noise level. And its pelleted carbon should be more effective than bonded carbon.

However, the carbon portion of the filters gives off a "chemical" smell. I've run them for a few weeks at top speed (speed 3) in a room with open windows for about 15 hours/day, and they're only now starting to reduce in odor, but it's definitely still there.

Obviously this is not an ideal situation, since the purpose of the carbon is to reduce room VOCs, not introduce them!

I also have a new Winix 5510, which also uses pelleted carbon, and I don't detect any smell from it.

I'll add I also tried and returned the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Mighty. It has a very strong odor that didn't go away after running it for a week (thogh, IIRC, it was more of a plastic odor, so may have been the housing rather than the filter).

reddit.com
u/theorist9 — 28 days ago