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Good serious air purifier for mold

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Posted 9/19/2021 8:42 AM (GMT -5)
So I have 2 true hepa winix 5500. They’ve helped immensely, but I’ve become more sensitive and my mom is still having asthma issues. I’m also wondering if mold is still an issue. I know when I upgraded the carbon filter in the winixes from the the carbon sheets to the chunky carbon kind it helped a lot. I know carbon is supposed to get chemical and vocs out not mold so I wonder if I have sensitivity to that too. So I’m trying to look into better air purifiers to see if they might help. I know before anything not true hepa was not helpful.

Ones I’ve heard about are airpura 600, envirokkenz, and molekule

Thanks in advance

Post Edited (Bailey) : 9/19/2021 7:47:36 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 9/19/2021 12:34 PM (GMT -5)
I don’t trust the Molekule. I have only ever used IQAir Healthpro Plus. You need to find out if there’s active mold growth or contamination in your house. In my experience, the air purifier does little when there’s mold growth. It can actually make things worse at some point.
Posted 9/19/2021 2:45 PM (GMT -5)
Yeah everyone who does tests on molekule makes says it perform poorly. For some reason my expensive doc recommends it and uses it in their offices.

We did an ermi test year ago and it came back a tad positive, but there’s no obvious source of mold. I did want to get our vent cleaned but my dad has been resisting that for over a decade.
Posted 9/20/2021 6:47 AM (GMT -5)
So I’m 4 years into my mold journey, I had to completely rip out all the walls of my house in order to have a safe place to live.

Most importantly, find your source of mold and take care of that ASAP. Nothing will get better for you if there’s a constant source of mycotoxins in your home. These toxins go right through a hepa filter. I’ve found Immunolytics mold plate testing to be a good cheaper option to see which rooms have active mold spores floating around.

Get your air ducts cleaned too, and clean them at least every two years. Mold can grow in dusty ductwork.

In regards to air purification. I recommend an APCO whole house UV light that is installed in your ductwork over your ac coil. That’ll catch and kill most crap in your ducts. Also, upgrade your furnace filter to the highest MERV rating that will fit in your unit.

For stand alone units, I like the Enviroklenz and Winix as a nice combination. Best of luck on your journey.
Posted 9/20/2021 7:28 AM (GMT -5)
Thanks wbf and castroh! Yeah I’m on the fence about doing more mold testing. When I first got sick and hepa filter helped me I was actually living in an apartment. I also had coughing issues shortly before living in dorm. My point is that I had lived in 3 different locations in a short period and had he same symptoms that were helped by a true hepa filter so I have doubts about whether all 3 were mold damaged. I might do mold plate testing though since it’s not too expensive.

My dad is highly resistant to anything implying something needs to be done with our house. To be fair he does a lot of the work on the house himself so he’ll be exhausted.

Do you guys have opinions on whether it’s necessary to have uv light in the hepa filter? I like the idea but I know other say it’s not necessary.
Posted 9/20/2021 3:14 PM (GMT -5)
We love our Molekules and their customer service is incredible. One of our mini's began malfunctioning recently and they immediately sent us a new one at no cost.

We have Airdoctor's in our basement and love those too but they don't kill mycotoxins as the Molecule does.
Posted 9/20/2021 6:05 PM (GMT -5)
best thing for getting rid of mold is not an air purifier but a dehumidifier. get your humidity down to 40 - 50% and the mold will die.

this is what worked for me. i also have a very expensive xiaomi hepa filter, and i had mold growing just next to it on the wall smile
Posted 9/21/2021 11:34 AM (GMT -5)
Sunny can you tell the difference between using a traditional hepa and the molekule?

Mpost, that’s a good thought, though I have a weather station in my room snd the humidity is always between 30and low 40%. I struggle to breathe when it get too high
Posted 9/21/2021 9:03 PM (GMT -5)
Corinne did a review on air purifiers. She mentions molekule. Be sure to read all the way to the end, as she brings up negative reports.

https://www.mychemicalfreehouse.net/2019/01/the-best-air-purifiers-for-mould-review.html
Posted 9/21/2021 9:30 PM (GMT -5)
Thanks for are both really helpful rss
Posted 9/21/2021 9:58 PM (GMT -5)
Has anyone heard of "Brownian Motion" or "Brownian Movement," when it comes to air filtration?

What Is PM0.3 and Why Is It Important?
https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/what-is-pm0-3-why-important

This may not be relevant to mold, but it's something I recently found on the topic of air filtration and though I'd share.
Posted 9/21/2021 11:14 PM (GMT -5)

The Dude Abides said...
Has anyone heard of "Brownian Motion" or "Brownian Movement," when it comes to air filtration?

What Is PM0.3 and Why Is It Important?
https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/what-is-pm0-3-why-important

This may not be relevant to mold, but it's something I recently found on the topic of air filtration and though I'd share.

Yes. Brownian Motion is something that mold remediators must understand to be successful in remediation. I don’t know if many of them do. It’s the biggest downfall of remediation.

Mycotoxins (mold toxins) are categorized as nano particles. They are not captured by HEPA filtration. They bounce around in the air and settle on surfaces and possessions and are very difficult to remove. The CIRS folks use a product called Aerosolver, which is designed to clean the air and capture these small particles and following a protocol to capture and remove them. It works pretty well on particles in the air.

This is why an air purifier won’t do much if there’s mold contamination in the environment. As long as toxin producing mold is in the environment, it can produce mycotoxins, which are not captured by HEPA filters.
Posted 9/21/2021 11:43 PM (GMT -5)
WbF: I figured if anyone here would have known about this, it would likely be you. Thanks for that helpful snapshot you shared. I've never looked into mold-related issues, so I've not needed to go down that rabbit hole. I still think about the COEM office you mentioned, but never pursued it. I'm kinda stuck on many fronts.
Posted 9/22/2021 11:49 AM (GMT -5)
Interesting. So the Iqair hyper hepa tech doesn’t catch the mycotoxins either?
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