The real "hack" lies in the IKEA STARKVIND air filters.
They're from a reputable manufacturer, are HEPA filters, and best of all, they only cost $14.99 CAD (price may vary in your country). This makes them great as *replacement filters for other air purifiers*. This is one of the things I love the most about IKEA - hackable IKEA products are available worldwide and can be easily sourced and adapted as "materials" instead of "products".
The Starkvind air purifier appears to be airflow-constrained on the fan, and not the filters they used. I put its filter (with some cardboard glued to the edges to seal the difference in size) in a Coway Mighty AP-1512HH (often recommended) and have not noticed a huge decrease in airflow at all, even though technically there is less filter area. Based on rudimentary measurements with an anemometer, the airflow is acceptable, and after about a year or more of continuous use, it's lost about 10% of the airflow after I recently changed it.
Even better, if you are so inclined, you can buy several STARKVIND filters and cut them to size/merge multiple if your purifier takes different size filters. And if you have a smaller purifier, IKEA also has the FORNUFTIG (thinner) filter for $7 that you can similarly hack.
Starkvind means Strong wind, Fornuftig means Reasonable.
Got to love their product names, as a Norwegian.
Meanwhile I have 2x AX90s in my place. Love them! Got the 2nd when I realised the special it was on was not too far from a single filter change, so it'll be fun when they're both up for refresh.
I'm addition to appreciating clean indoor air, I'm kind of preparing for the next bushfire in Melbourne - can still remember the last one, which was very very bad. I think it might happen next year, and be even worse than last time given current fuel build up. I might check out the IKEA ones to keep the AX90 filters fresh, if the IKEA filters are much cheaper to replace / run on an everyday basis.
(The Samsung units have an amazing ability to go from a very silent idle to a really bloody high CFM, on auto - currently mainly experienced when cooking).
Hacking them to fit another purifier reminds me of the Apollo 13 incident, which included the astronauts having to do a McGyver hack to fit a square CO2 filter into a socket designed for a round one... using tape, hoses and other plastic items they had lying around :)
They're from a reputable manufacturer, are HEPA filters, and best of all, they only cost $14.99 CAD (price may vary in your country). This makes them great as *replacement filters for other air purifiers*. This is one of the things I love the most about IKEA - hackable IKEA products are available worldwide and can be easily sourced and adapted as "materials" instead of "products".
The Starkvind air purifier appears to be airflow-constrained on the fan, and not the filters they used. I put its filter (with some cardboard glued to the edges to seal the difference in size) in a Coway Mighty AP-1512HH (often recommended) and have not noticed a huge decrease in airflow at all, even though technically there is less filter area. Based on rudimentary measurements with an anemometer, the airflow is acceptable, and after about a year or more of continuous use, it's lost about 10% of the airflow after I recently changed it.
Even better, if you are so inclined, you can buy several STARKVIND filters and cut them to size/merge multiple if your purifier takes different size filters. And if you have a smaller purifier, IKEA also has the FORNUFTIG (thinner) filter for $7 that you can similarly hack.