USB and Portable Air Purifiers / Ionizers

[SensoVision]

Recently we have paid some time on lectures to the properties of ionizers and it was told that they could really make a difference and produce more healthy air in the home, it's also very good to use one if you have PC or other electrical equipment around(which is exactly my case). So I start to look around to see if there any ionizers available locally, those I've found are big and cost around 100USD but I've also find small USB ionizers(like on this page http://www.electronichealing.co.uk/products/ionizer1585.htm ) starting from 20 USD. So I wonder if anyone tried such devices, do you feel any difference and maybe you've tried to do same trick with the smoke as you can see on page mentioned above.
looking forward to hear your opinions on this.

[Andy]

Doesn't the earthed chassis of a PC and it's case absorb the ion stream severely restricting the range?

The ionizers I saw were made in plastic bodies and powered from 2-core mains. So the ion streams will have a greater range into room I guess.

I thought I heard they create dirty walls in your home since all the dust will be concentrated where the earth points are rather than being evenlt distributed.

The ozone produced may cause some disadvantages since it's poisonous. My feeling is that an air filter would be better if it can be obtained for home use.

[donecweb]

They just had a news report on TV here the other day saying that the actual percentage of air that gets filtered through one of the room ionizer's filter system is 20% or less of the room when used in a 180 square foot or 16.7 square meter room. All the rest of the area's air is unaffected. That if the air is forced through using a fan to circulate the air much of the pollutants are pushed through without being collected by the ionized plates. They also said the smell of an ionizer is produced by the creation of ozone which is not healthy.

[Andy]

Cheap Ionizers using high voltage applied to needle point spikes are probably much less effective than ionizers built into air circulation systems.

The smell can be like a see breeze which is Ozone (O³) but it is a poisonous gas at the end of the day.

Unlike Di-HydrogenMonoxide which is perfectly safe 

[SensoVision]

I realize that O³ could be pretty harmful as I've read several articles about ionizers, but from what I understand all kind of ionizers produce ozone or big ones which are made from wires(Lampa Czigevskogo) are not(or at least they didn't say that it produce ozone, they only told that if you hear this smell than ionizer is broken or badly made and shouldn't be used)...

I also don't mind about dirty walls but killing smells which come from neighbours kitchen including smoke from smoking and other nasty odours would be very good thing IMHO.

BTW what do you think about thing written here and do you know what's the safe level of ozone in the air http://www.electronichealing.co.uk/products/whatisozone.htm ?
I also wonder how ozone could be so poisonous if people who live high in mountains actually live much longer than some of those close to sea level... is highlanders' bodies are prone to this poison?
Also from what I understand levels of ozone and ionized air is much higher near sea, and if so why people for ages try to spend their vacations near sea and it really improves their health...
So I tend to believe that ozone in small quantities could be vital for our body.

As for buying bigger ionizer I'll try to check prices and see how much they cost here, as for small one I just wish to obtain one and try because it cost cheap, and if it produce "sea breeze" air than I would simply turn it off and wouldn't use.

[Andy]

I guess the ozone is a kind of presevative for older people. In Japan I will be near the sea and will have to eat lots of fish, so I guess I will live well beyond 100 years old 

[SensoVision]

long years to you, Andy!
BTW in the meantime I've search for bigger systems and most of them tell that produce Ozone close to natural level but don't say anything about it's concentration, sometimes they don't tell about ozone at all but all of them cost here around 100 USD(in Russia it's two times cheaper).
As for now I still wish to try small model to see how it works, of course if I find cheap one in online shop and they agree to send it here.

[Andy]

I used to have a small one but disposed of it.

But I have an unwanted portable air filter which would be interesting to compare. It works off 240 volts so should be ok with 220/230V. If I don't send it to you, it will have to be thrown away.

pm me with your delivery address and I may send it if the post cost is not too bad 

[SensoVision]

I'm on my way to send you PM hope it don't produce too much of Ozone?

[SensoVision]

While I'm looking for samples of portable ionizers, I'd like to post few links I've found which tells about technology utilized in ionizers:
This article tells about Electrostatic Precipitator, Negative Ionizer and Media-Charged Filter: http://www.air-purifiers-101.com/ionic-air-purifiers.htm
Here is the similar one but also tells about particle size which are effectively collected by different type of air cleaners: http://www.lakeair.com/technolo.html

And this one tells about pollutants in general and also give ideas how to fight with them not only with filters but e.g. with home plants: http://www.worldwise.com/airpur2.html

just thought it could be useful for those who consider on buying any of abovementioned devices.

[SensoVision]

Just wish to say that few days ago I've got two ionizers one is Cyclops AP-280 USB Ionizer and other model which looks just like EPI585 but without any notice about maker...
I'll try to post review of both of them, as for now I didn't try them in eleminating smells but I could confirm that they work under Linux without any tweaking, and seems to help in collecting dust near the place they are running, none of them seems to emit any sweet smell.
BTW I bought both of them in http://usb.brando.com.hk/ (mentioned it here because I like this shop, got good support there and my package was delivered to me on 12th day just like was promised).

[SensoVision]

just found good site which has good article about ionizers and also tell why Sharper Image products may not be a good choice: http://www.home-air-filter-edu.com/Ionic-Air-Cleaners.htm

As for review of USB ionizers it's in the process right now.

[SensoVision]

I'm still collecting materail to compare ionizers but as for now I spot that probably they wouldn't serve for too long, as needles which are used to emit ions are "burning" pretty fast if you use ionizer constantly. So guess my next try would be ionizer with replacement needles...