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Electronic Air Cleaners Destroy Rubber? - RF Cafe Forums
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Kirt Blattenberger
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Post subject: Electronic Air Cleaners Destroy Rubber?
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 7:43 pm
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Site Admin |
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Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003
2:02 pm Posts: 451 Location: Erie, PA
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Greetings: There is a letter in Bob Pease's
column in the 9-29-05 edition of Electronic Design
that tells a tale of how electronic air cleaners
can really tear up rubber products. In the article,
rubber VCR drive belts and even rubber gaskets around
doors and windows were being destroyed by the ionized
air.
https://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Arti ... 11084.html
The product specifically mentioned is the Living
Alpine Fresh Air Purifier Model 3500HL. Supposedly,
other ionizers can cause similar problems. When
I go to the company's website ( www.alpine-air-purifiers-usa.com),
it says the site is offline. Has anyone heard
of the ionized air destroying rubber products with
this kind of severity? .
_________________ - Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
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kanling |
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 1:49 pm
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Colonel |
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Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2005
4:31 pm Posts: 38 Location: Baltimore, MD
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Electronic Air Cleaners use high voltage plates
to attract dirt particles out of the air. Consequently,
some ozone is often produced. That could harm certain
rubber compounds I suppose.
The real problem
is that the ozone is a pollutant in itself and not
good for people with respiratory problems like asthma.
So, they buy an air purifier that removes one type
of pollution and adds another.
It is true
that electronic air filters remove the smallest
particles that conventional filters can't, but it
doesn't seem worth the added problems to me.
If I wanted some type of fancy air cleaner in
my house, I would go for a better air filter in
my furnace and run the fan on low speed all the
time. That method has been shown to be the most
effective. Stand alone purifiers can only do any
good in a small local area.
Don't even bother
with the overpriced, underperforming "Ionic Breeze"
from Sharper Image. Consumer Reports testing (and
other opinions I have heard) say that it is worthless
even at 1/10th the price.
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kpainter |
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 2:51 pm
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General |
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Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2003
11:47 am Posts: 84 Location: Santa Barbara,
CA |
I have one of the Living Air Classic things. I haven't
noticed any damage to rubber. However, the unit
failed after only one year.
Also, when it was working, I didn't notice
any reduction in dust levels as I was hoping it
would do. What it did do is mask smells with ozone.
You can adjust the level of ozone production until
you can't smell the ozone anymore. I am considering
doing the furnace filter thing as kanling suggests.
I had a tabletop "hepa" filter unit once and I had
to wipe the dust off the top of the damned unit.
Further, it didn't seem to do anything for smells.
Now that one lives in the landfill. I am
not sure that any of these things really work....
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kpainter |
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 8:09 pm
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General |
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Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2003
11:47 am Posts: 84 Location: Santa Barbara,
CA |
Kirt, I just saw Pease's article. That got me
wondering and I did some looking. Here is what I
found and it seems to confirm that these things
do degrade rubber - along with a lot of other bad
things.
https://www.dhs.ca.gov/ps/dcdc/cm/pdf/cm9803pp.pdf
Maybe I should be glad mine quit working
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Graham |
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:57 pm
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Colonel |
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Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2005
7:25 pm Posts: 43 Location: Hampshire UK
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In the US, there are laws about hurting people with
harsh oxidising chemicals.
Oxygen exists
as the O2 molecule, essential to life. OZONE is
an allotrope of oxygen in the form O3, which is
almost the finest killer of living material there
is. It is the second most powerful oxidiser, next
to the ultimate electro-negative reactive element
flourine. Ozone is more reactive than chlorine!
Think WW1 poison gas, and you are getting there.
Rubber, unless it is the entirely plastic kind,
has a protein content. It will perish in ozone rapidly.
Even the long stretchable molecules from some synthetic
rubbers might have a problem, but modern O-ring
seals are made to resist very harsh chemicals. My
point is, your lungs are not!
In the US,
there is active pursuit of any manufacturer offering
ozone generators for "air cleaning", because it
has been shown that ozone at any concentration likely
to be effective at germ killing is also very harmful
to your lung function. Ozone generators used for
sterilising swimming pool water have to be designed
to keep it contained.
Ozone has a half-life
of about 1/2 hour, but will degrade many times faster
than that in moist air. In water, it kills anything
in its path, and then disappears.
More, beyond
the 0.05ppm allowed, if you can smell it, then the
local concentration is more than that. This happens
near photocopiers.
Viton seals, silicone
rubbers ?? I dunno. Industrial ozone kit has to
be all stainless steel, with elaborate measures
to stop it destroying itself, especially at the
high voltage generator edges. They are also a vicious
source of spectrum pollution!
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aprilaire |
Post subject: Re: Electronic Air Cleaners Destroy Rubber?
Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 11:35 pm
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Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009
11:20 pm Posts: 1 |
What are some type of fancy air cleaner in a house
that is good on it? _________________
Aprilaire
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Posted 11/12/2012
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