"dpb" wrote in message
ups.com...

Non-entity wrote:
...

There were electronic filters before, they performed very poorly (they
arced
more than they cleaned anything, and I'm convinced they let an awful lot
of
large particles go on through, and some of the techs have told me the
gaps
between the collector plates and ionizing wires were so big a lot DID get
through). This Trane unit is supposed to be better.
...

Have one of those still and can attest to the significant difference in
visible dust motes and in obvious improvement in my mother's allergies
that they are quite effective for dust and pollen allergens. Don't
know about actual measured by particle size efficiencies, but if whole
house (as other respondent notes) and run, I'm convinced they are very
effective for that purpose. Whether that's what is needed for your
mother's best improvement is another question.

--db in sw ks


I'm not making a judgement on the Clean Air Effects as a whole, yet. Right
now I kind of "trust" (gulp) that it's a good design and performs well. My
mother's lungs can't get better, but perhaps she can be more comfortable if
the air quality is a bit better - especially with the two @#$% cats. I just
moved to KC six months ago and notice there seems to be more "stuff" in the
air in general, too - I'm used to the mid atlantic reigon where there isn't
much wind - there is lots of pollen, though, at certain times of the year.
The cat dander and dust really bothers me as well. As far as medical
advice, well, her doctors say the same thing my doctor says - "might help,
might not." It does seem there is more dust in the air here than I'm used
to (used to live in the mid-atlantic reigon) and I notice a lot more wind
here, so I was looking for at least a bit of improvement.

My biggest concern here is, have I bought an expensive air filter that can't
be practically cleaned? I've seen some messages discussing this model that
suggest the final filter might only last two years or so. If so I hope
Trane doesn't have replacement "honeycomb" filters - I thought, perhaps
incorrectly, that I was getting rid of perpetual filter expense with this
unit. The instructions seem to have been written to be very vague about
cleaning. I can always carefully clean the pre-filter, I'm used to that,
but the filter AFTER the ionizer seems to be a mystery! The instructions
say to clean the honeycomb filter with a "vacuum, preferably outdoors."
Water, as from a sink dish-sprayer, if absolutely necessary, and at the
most - WARM water.

As I had written before, this house USED to have a Honeywell electronic air
cleaner, then replaced with an earlier Trane (I think). This is the third,
expensive attempt. With recently replaced windows, hence a tighter house,
hopefully the Trane Air Effects will be of some help. The design of this
filter seems good, with the ionizer needle array, but I just don't know how
that final filter is going to get cleaned. Magic :\{ ??

Thanks, KC Bill