"Kyle" wrote in message
We pulled the cleaner assembly out of the electrostatic cleaner and it
immediately made a difference. I thought it was excessive, but my wife
bought a pretty pricey air purifier for the tenants.

My wife called GE (the maker of this particular electrostatic cleaner)
and our best guess is this unit is ~30 years old. We either have to
replace it with another electrostatic cleaner or come up with some way
of scrubbing the tar and nicotine build-up off the filter frame as well
as the inside of the unit. I think I'll also have to find a flat
piece of HEPA filter material which I could fit into the filter frame.

Normal cleaning of electrostatic air cleaners is done by running the filters
through the dishwasher. This should get the crud out of it. Does the filter
work properly? It should have a test button which causes a spark zap
if the electronics are good.

Bob