Electronic Air Cleaners Destroy Rubber? - RF Cafe Forums

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 Post subject: Electronic Air Cleaners Destroy Rubber?
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 7:43 pm 
 
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Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003 2:02 pm
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Location: Erie, PA
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?

.

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 Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 1:49 pm 
 
Colonel
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Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2005 4:31 pm
Posts: 38
Location: Baltimore, MD
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.


 
   
 
 Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 2:51 pm 
 
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....


 
   
 
 Post subject:
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 8:09 pm 
 
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 :?:


 
   
 
 Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:57 pm 
 
Colonel
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Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2005 7:25 pm
Posts: 43
Location: Hampshire UK
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!


 
   
 
 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?



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Posted  11/12/2012