Hey Nexus. Anyone has good reliable sources on how to make effective and cheap air cleaners at home please?

IME most DIYers just buy the best store bought manufactured filters that they can afford and force the air they want cleaned through them. I think really any box or tube or what have you is suitable as long as you seal it well and protect the finer filters with the courser ones and have a fan that can handle a little flow restriction.

Sorry if you’re asking for specific schematics and cfm’s and amps and such. Maybe somebody will chime in soon.

I built a "Laminar" Flow hood using a 120qt tub, a fan, a 6qt tub packed full of polyfil as a pre-filter, a purple allergen 3m filter (as a face to disrupt airflow, a trash bag, some gorilla tape, some tubing, hardware and silicone. Works awesome. I have 0% fail rate on cultures done in front of it. I have thoroughly tested it using the "incense and bottle test" and there are no eddies or vortices.

What kind of "filter" are you trying to set up? My flow hood 'scrubs' about a 2 cubic foot area (the size of my workspace.) For the money if you are trying to do your whole house you can "stack" filters (the purple 3m have anecdotal evidence of being very effective when triple stacked. Many people were using them during Covid. It "purified" the air without damaging the HVAC blower motor)

That's very inspiring to hear!

Do you have a schematic to share? And a parts list, maybe?
Did you pleat the filter material?

Thanks for the replies. Anyone has any videos, courses, or any other external resources maybe?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH5APw_SLUU

This looks interesting but I am not sure how true this is.



This one is a new video, looks also interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw7fUMhNov8

I will share the schematic and parts list sometime soon when I get around to it. I've been super busy lately. I was supposed to do a MHRB extraction TEK on another site this weekend with information about purity, polymorphisms and polymerization by request and still haven't got to it. That place is a storm of misinformation and I've been asked to contribute some solid information.

I don’t see anything wrong with either video. The only thing I would mention is that those lower quality filters like they showed on This Old House are only about a us$ or two. It’s better to protect your HEPA filters with those and throw those cheap ones away as they get clogged and protect your HEPA’s with new cheapy’s again.

I think you should just go see what they have at the hardware stores in your area and brainstorm. If you can handle doing extractions, this is well within your limits.