Air Purifier specific questions

[Sid.Stavros]

Gentlemen, although in the past i have smoked many times indoors my pipe, i have done lately some cigars and i realise that the remaining smell creates a problem to the family. Yes the door of the room was closed and the balcony door was open but: Winter is coming so i have to find a solution, i don't want to smoke out in the balcony and i can not have a dedicated room exclusively for smoking so i have to make things better in the room when i left it.

I was inspired by this video:

View: https://youtu.be/vZUS4rOnyqE?si=gYp68KWDeFjoAD-M


and i bought an Air Purifier with the below specifications:

Smart Wi-Fi option: Yes
Filtration percentage: 99.95%
Operating range: 22㎡
The amount of purified air (CADR): 200m³/h
Humidifier: No
Filter type: HEPA + activated carbon
Recommended filter replacement time: 6 months
Timer: Yes
Automatic mode: Yes
Filter replacement indicator: Yes

I already have test it 3 times and yes it works, things are far better than before (natural ventilation only) but i have some specific questions and i need your help.

a) when i am smoking, the balcony door must be one click open or i had to let the air purifier handle all the smoke?
b) when i leave the room i must let the air purifier in the timer and after 2-3 hours to open the balcony door or i must open it immediately when i leave the room?
c) the burst of fresh air will make the air purifier absorb the odour better or will increase it's task and make him work harder?

 

[deluxestogie]

I have never found a way to keep the interior of my home from stinking like an old cigar butt, if I smoke a cigar indoors. I do not share my home with anyone, so nobody to complain about the smell—except me. Cigar smoke just stinks up the walls and carpets and upholstery, as well as my clothing.

My remedy is to always smoke cigars outdoors. Outdoors, the cigar smoke wafts away, rather than lingering in my clothing. In cold or foul weather, I smoke a pipe in my study.

So...for your smart air purifier to fully do the job, you may need to strip down to your underwear after each cigar, and dress in fresh, uncontaminated clothing, before entering other parts of your home.

Good luck with your trials.

Bob

 

[DaleB]

What you need is not so much an air filter, but an ionizer. Years ago we had an Electrolux-branded one that allowed me to smoke a cigar in the basement of our house, and the next morning there was no detectable odor. It was high quality and pretty potent, though very low noise. That one eventually died, but we've got a floor standing model now (Therapure, I think) that does a somewhat respectable job. It also had a UV lamp and a HEPA filter. In my office (a converted spare bedroom) I can close the door, smoke a pipe, and have the room cleared by morning using that AND the Medify MA-50 air cleaner - though I have to set them both on the desk and not the floor, so they circulate the air better.

There are some heavy duty ionizers you will see for sale, like the one below. They're great for use when an entire house or garage needs to be deodorized after, for example, smoke damage or a rental house tenant that turned an entire house into a cigarette ashtray. You absolutely do NOT want to use these in an occupied dwelling, ever. However, after an electrical fire in our basement, one of these completely removed the smoke smell after a few hours of run time over a couple of days. It's an industrial strength ozone generator, and very unhealthy to be in the house while it's running.

 

[stonefly]

Gentlemen, although in the past i have smoked many times indoors my pipe, i have done lately some cigars and i realise that the remaining smell creates a problem to the family. Yes the door of the room was closed and the balcony door was open but: Winter is coming so i have to find a solution, i don't want to smoke out in the balcony and i can not have a dedicated room exclusively for smoking so i have to make things better in the room when i left it.

I was inspired by this video:

View: https://youtu.be/vZUS4rOnyqE?si=gYp68KWDeFjoAD-M


and i bought an Air Purifier with the below specifications:

Smart Wi-Fi option: Yes
Filtration percentage: 99.95%
Operating range: 22㎡
The amount of purified air (CADR): 200m³/h
Humidifier: No
Filter type: HEPA + activated carbon
Recommended filter replacement time: 6 months
Timer: Yes
Automatic mode: Yes
Filter replacement indicator: Yes

I already have test it 3 times and yes it works, things are far better than before (natural ventilation only) but i have some specific questions and i need your help.

a) when i am smoking, the balcony door must be one click open or i had to let the air purifier handle all the smoke?
b) when i leave the room i must let the air purifier in the timer and after 2-3 hours to open the balcony door or i must open it immediately when i leave the room?
c) the burst of fresh air will make the air purifier absorb the odour better or will increase it's task and make him work harder?

As it happens this is my field,
there is no way that device will achieve what you are after.

Nicotine smoke is one of the stickiest things I encounter inside HVAC systems and it would clog the high arrestance filtration and carbon in that device in short order.

A better option would be to install a simple bathroom or kitchen exhaust fan in the old man cave and there are a number of more involved options such as through wall exhaust fan such as a commercial kitchen might use to where no one would know you had even lit up.

Another point on air purifiers....I don't know if there are still any being sold but beware the units that are of an ozone generating type.
Ozone does a very good job of taking odors out of enclosed spaces but a little research will show there is significant health risk to breathing it.

Displace the air, don't filter it.

 

[deluxestogie]

It's sure looking like changing behavior is far less expensive than fixing the impact of behavioral choices afterwards.

Bob

 

[Pj654]

Are you able to set up an exhaust to an window? If you could just smoke near an exhaust fan having it straight up remove it would be the easiest. Can have near desk and run some airway to the window. And then run your filter during and for a hr or two after to get any possibly lingering smoke. Plus having an exhaust would make a vacuum so the chance of smoke escaping would be very little as it'll be pulling a draft into the room rather than out.
In my experience with growing the other smokable and smoking said smokables. From what I understand heavy duty amount of active carbon is your #1 priority.
When I lived in my old rental and smoked inside tobaccy and wacky tobaccy still, I'd just run a smaller grow tent air filter - a very heavy duty carbon filter. In there because I don't want smoke around my pets, and it worked good enough I walked the landlord through and tried to have him find the room and he failed ( I was allowed to I was just intrigued how well it truly worked to an outsider lol )
Goodluck sir. As a Canadian I feel you in this winter BS.

 

[jamorro]

What you need is not so much an air filter, but an ionizer. Years ago we had an Electrolux-branded one that allowed me to smoke a cigar in the basement of our house, and the next morning there was no detectable odor. It was high quality and pretty potent, though very low noise. That one eventually died, but we've got a floor standing model now (Therapure, I think) that does a somewhat respectable job. It also had a UV lamp and a HEPA filter. In my office (a converted spare bedroom) I can close the door, smoke a pipe, and have the room cleared by morning using that AND the Medify MA-50 air cleaner - though I have to set them both on the desk and not the floor, so they circulate the air better.

There are some heavy duty ionizers you will see for sale, like the one below. They're great for use when an entire house or garage needs to be deodorized after, for example, smoke damage or a rental house tenant that turned an entire house into a cigarette ashtray. You absolutely do NOT want to use these in an occupied dwelling, ever. However, after an electrical fire in our basement, one of these completely removed the smoke smell after a few hours of run time over a couple of days. It's an industrial strength ozone generator, and very unhealthy to be in the house while it's running.


View attachment 57782

To specify these are Ozone generators. Ozone is VERY bad to inhale.
As others have said i think youll find that its gonna be a tough one to solve even with a oversized aire purifier that you clean and change the filters on frequently.

 

[Sid.Stavros]

My first thought was an exhaust fan to lead out the smoke in the stairwell of the apartment building (and then to the roof) or outside the balcony.
As you can understand i have to demolish a wall, draw an electric line, put an extension plastic etc and this job is not revesrable plus will create a small mess (noise-debris) inside the room while making it.

 

[McNatsarim]

Heat your garage to a cost reasonable temperature where you'd be comfortable in a heavy sweater and stocking cap. Set up an exhaust fan immediately next to where you'll be seated so that it captures the ash tray for cigar at rest and also your exhale. Be conscious about your smoke, don't go walking around away from the fan. This is your cheapest option while protecting your family from smells and your ears from your wife.

 

[StoneCarver]

So...for your smart air purifier to fully do the job, you may need to strip down to your underwear after each cigar, and dress in fresh, uncontaminated clothing, before entering other parts of your home.

I'm sure you're aware that's why people wore smoking jackets and maybe a beanie to keep the smoke out of your hair. I like the beanies with a tassel on top.

It's sure looking like changing behavior is far less expensive than fixing the impact of behavioral choices afterwards.

In most things, prevention is always cheaper than treatment.

 

[deluxestogie]

Speaking of smoky rooms: Back in the mid 1960s (while I was still in high school), when I would visit the library at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, to research a paper I was required to write (minimum of 10 references), I discovered the wonderful aroma of pipe tobacco lingering in the "stacks"—beyond the main area of their massive library. Sometimes I would see a man in a well-worn, tweed blazer sitting back there, smoking a pipe. My recollection of all libraries back then includes the subdued aroma of pipe tobacco. I never saw or smelled a cigar in a library, though they were openly smoked in restaurants and stores.

Bob

 

[StoneCarver]

Yes times have changed for sure. I remember back in the 70s a guy smoking a pipe in a toy store, I was a child, and my grandmother complimented him on the room note of the smoke. I also remember, in the early 90s, the local Food Lion had ashtrays at each end of every aisle in the store. I'm sure the store employees and management alike appreciate not having that extra chore of cleaning out the ashtrays.

 

[DaleB]

We were in Germany in 2007, and the Burger King still had the little stamped-foil ashtrays that were once a common sight in fast food restaurants. The airport even had a free-standing smoking kiosk with a vent hood and smoke filters.

In 2009 I think that was all gone. The only place where indoor smoking is allowed here is cigar bars and cigar & pipe tobacco stores. In those places cigars and pipes are allowed (though I am always a novelty when I light a pipe in a cigar bar), but no cigarette smoking is allowed. I do enjoy smoking my pipe at my local tobacconist, but I do so very rarely since I almost never actually buy any tobacco there.

Back to the topic at hand... the tobacconist has a nice little smoking lounge with leather chairs and couches and a big TV. Lots of cigar smoking there. They use a combination of a ceiling mounted "smoke eater" and a couple of what I think are Rabbit Air filters. The place smells like a tobacconist shop, not a cigar lounge.

 

[Sid.Stavros]

Bad news

Yesterday i tried to do a simulation as experiment, winter, the door to the rest of the house closed and the balcony door slightly open, cigar smoking and the air purifier on the 2nd scale (it has 3) to see how much smoke it could absorb. After an hour, my wife tried to come in twice to talk to me, she started coughing and complaining loudly that she was suffocating, it smelled awful, she couldn't stand it, and finally she started whining because i stopped smoking a pipe in the room and started smoking a cigar, it's not nice, i will make everyone in the house to suffocate, etc.
When I left the room, i closed the door to the house and left the balcony door as it was with the air purifier working like that for another 4 hours.

Results:

1) the evening when i opened the room, there was still a lot of smell inside. I opened half the balcony door for the rest of the evening and unfortunately in the morning there were still remnants of the smell.
2) the so much exposure to smoke caused me cardiac arrhythmia and a drop in pulse to 28 (yes 28). I was one step away from calling the doctor! It took me several hours to recover and honestly I don't want to go through the same thing again. It turned out that the air purifier alone cannot absorb all the cigar smoke so i can't rely exclusively on it anymore.

If I opened the balcony door wider, a lot of smoke would escape, but at the same time, a lot of cold would come in so no real gain. If I have to smoke with the balcony door full open, then why to go out on the balcony wearing a jacket, etc? But this is not a pleasure thing, i can't drink coffee in peace or write on the computer while siting comfortable in my desk. I can't put my family through such torture again, ι can't hear so much grouchiness and of course expose my heart to such danger again.

The solutions as i see it are:
1) stop smoking cigars in the house
2) get a second air purifier or put another ''smoke killer" device in the room
3) drill a hole in the wall and put an exhaust fan to blow the smoke out and when i turn it off, it blocks the incoming air.

What is your opinion Gentlemen?

 

[Sid.Stavros]

In most things, prevention is always cheaper than treatment.

«Το προνοείν και προλαμβάνειν κρείττον εστί του θεραπεύειν»
«To foresee, and to prevent is better than to cure»

Hippocrates (c. 460–370 BC) the "Father of Medicine"

 

[jamorro]

Bad news

Yesterday i tried to do a simulation as experiment, winter, the door to the rest of the house closed and the balcony door slightly open, cigar smoking and the air purifier on the 2nd scale (it has 3) to see how much smoke it could absorb. After an hour, my wife tried to come in twice to talk to me, she started coughing and complaining loudly that she was suffocating, it smelled awful, she couldn't stand it, and finally she started whining because i stopped smoking a pipe in the room and started smoking a cigar, it's not nice, i will make everyone in the house to suffocate, etc.
When I left the room, i closed the door to the house and left the balcony door as it was with the air purifier working like that for another 4 hours.

Results:

1) the evening when i opened the room, there was still a lot of smell inside. I opened half the balcony door for the rest of the evening and unfortunately in the morning there were still remnants of the smell.
2) the so much exposure to smoke caused me cardiac arrhythmia and a drop in pulse to 28 (yes 28). I was one step away from calling the doctor! It took me several hours to recover and honestly I don't want to go through the same thing again. It turned out that the air purifier alone cannot absorb all the cigar smoke so i can't rely exclusively on it anymore.

If I opened the balcony door wider, a lot of smoke would escape, but at the same time, a lot of cold would come in so no real gain. If I have to smoke with the balcony door full open, then why to go out on the balcony wearing a jacket, etc? But this is not a pleasure thing, i can't drink coffee in peace or write on the computer while siting comfortable in my desk. I can't put my family through such torture again, ι can't hear so much grouchiness and of course expose my heart to such danger again.

The solutions as i see it are:
1) stop smoking cigars in the house
2) get a second air purifier or put another ''smoke killer" device in the room
3) drill a hole in the wall and put an exhaust fan to blow the smoke out and when i turn it off, it blocks the incoming air.

What is your opinion Gentlemen?

1 is most likely the only real option

 

[adamziegler]

Bad news

Yesterday i tried to do a simulation as experiment, winter, the door to the rest of the house closed and the balcony door slightly open, cigar smoking and the air purifier on the 2nd scale (it has 3) to see how much smoke it could absorb. After an hour, my wife tried to come in twice to talk to me, she started coughing and complaining loudly that she was suffocating, it smelled awful, she couldn't stand it, and finally she started whining because i stopped smoking a pipe in the room and started smoking a cigar, it's not nice, i will make everyone in the house to suffocate, etc.
When I left the room, i closed the door to the house and left the balcony door as it was with the air purifier working like that for another 4 hours.

Results:

1) the evening when i opened the room, there was still a lot of smell inside. I opened half the balcony door for the rest of the evening and unfortunately in the morning there were still remnants of the smell.
2) the so much exposure to smoke caused me cardiac arrhythmia and a drop in pulse to 28 (yes 28). I was one step away from calling the doctor! It took me several hours to recover and honestly I don't want to go through the same thing again. It turned out that the air purifier alone cannot absorb all the cigar smoke so i can't rely exclusively on it anymore.

If I opened the balcony door wider, a lot of smoke would escape, but at the same time, a lot of cold would come in so no real gain. If I have to smoke with the balcony door full open, then why to go out on the balcony wearing a jacket, etc? But this is not a pleasure thing, i can't drink coffee in peace or write on the computer while siting comfortable in my desk. I can't put my family through such torture again, ι can't hear so much grouchiness and of course expose my heart to such danger again.

The solutions as i see it are:
1) stop smoking cigars in the house
2) get a second air purifier or put another ''smoke killer" device in the room
3) drill a hole in the wall and put an exhaust fan to blow the smoke out and when i turn it off, it blocks the incoming air.

What is your opinion Gentlemen?

#3 combined with reduction in use

 

[Knucklehead]

1) keep your wife happy
2) winter in Athens is 50F freaking degrees - go on the balcony
3) your wife is right, quit whining, go outside

With love,
Knucklehead

 

[adamziegler]

Athens is 50F

Oh. You have nice weather. I had -20 to -30F last winter. Even the garage was cold.