This is not a sponsored post, and I am not affiliated with Coway or Honeywell in any way. This review is my own independent research that i am sharing so you might benefit from the hours of research I’ve put into finding a solution to air purification for covid, and now, for wildfires. However, there are some affiliate links, that when you click and purchase through my links, i may get some commission, with no additional cost to you. it helps me continue to share my resources with you all.
About a month ago (July 2020) I put some serious time into researching how to get better air quality inside my home. My youngest child has Reactive Airway Disease, which, in it’s simplest form, means that any time her body produces even a tiny bit of mucus (runny nose from dust, a minor cold, etc) her lungs freak out, close up to protect themselves from the fluid, which actually traps more fluid inside. it escalates quickly into pneumonia (like, 24 hours quickly), and she’s been in the hospital 17 times since her life started 4 years ago, and has more chest x-rays than i’ve had pedicures in my entire life.
So, Covid-19 is a very real threat to our little fam, and I wanted to make sure her home was as safe as possible for her.
I began looking at Molekule (because hello, it looks so beautiful and fancy) and dyson, but after reading SCORES of comparative reviews, i found Coway AP1512HH .
Initially, I was skeptical, because of the inexpensive price. I was already prepped to spend upwards of a thousand or more (and panic sweating because of that kind of coin being dropped on….air…)
but after really getting into the brass tacks, it seemed like this was a much better option. I won’t go into the comparison myself (because I haven’t tried the other major brands, and those reviews can be found online if you’d like to do that research yourself), but I can tell you my personal experience with the Coway.
The fires raging on the west coast started almost exactly a week ago, and we are currently under an orange sky, with ash falling outside. When the Coway senses some impurities in the air, it goes into ‘active’ mode, really sucking in air, and blowing out clean air through a multi-layer purification system.
I wasn’t sure how often it would go into ‘active’ mode, or how sensitive it would be, initially. the first time i plugged it in, it ran for a few minutes- almost completely silently. about an hour later, we turned on the oven to preheat for dinner… and within a few moments it sensed the oven being turned on because of imperceptible amounts of smoke in the air and jumped into active mode. At first i thought it was a coincidence… could it really detect an air quality change, all the way in the living room, from an oven being preheated in the kitchen?
yup.
now, with the wildfires burning, it goes into active mode every few minutes, filtering out the ashy smoke that is seeping into our house from outside. you can see in the above photo, if you look carefully, the red light is on, which means it’s detected harmful contaminants in the air and is actively filtering them.
also, it is SO QUIET. and so slim. and basically makes me giggle because it looks like an old school iPod shuffle (remember those?) I’m considering camouflaging it further, but i want to ensure that i don’t decrease it’s efficacy because air quality is one of my top concerns this fall and winter covid/flu season.
Ease of use? well…. i plugged it in, and turned it on. it figures everything out by itself. i don’t know how it does it, but it does it, and that’s exactly how i like things to run.
But filtering out contaminates is only one part of the equation. The humidity level of the air can also help to decrease the spread of airborne viruses- the more humid, the harder it is for viruses to travel. here’s the research from the CDC on humidity and virus transmission and an article from Medical News Today about indoor/outdoor humidity levels and virus spread.
Do you see our humidifier in the photo below, camouflaged behind our house plants next to the mirror?
We got the Honeywell Germ Free, and you can buy it here:
From the research, it looks like humidity levels hovering around 40-60% is ideal, which is great because more humid than that can also induce mold growth indoors- something that would definitely be bad for your health. but keeping your indoor air quality - especially in the winter- around that 50% point is going to not only help slow the spread of viruses, but also be a lot nicer to breath for your sinuses, and definitely make your house plants happier.
Case in point, you can see my humidifier is placed near my most water-hungry plants- my fiddle leaf fig and monsterra. conveniently, they also help camouflage this humidifier, because to be honest, it isn’t winning many aesthetic points.
Honeywell does carry a much more aesthetic humidifier, and I was genuinely tempted to get that one because , as you know, our house is so small (and without any storage) that everything really does need to work on an aesthetic level since it can’t really be hidden. But, in the end, I went with the germ free model because of the UV light sanitation it uses to further purify and decrease viral and bacterial and mold spread. Because the primary goal of this humidifier was for health reasons, in the end, this one won out. However, I would definitely be interested in getting the more aesthetic models for other rooms in our house that are not used as heavily as our living room (shown below- the ‘designer’ series)
I hope this helps you out there, find a more cost-effective solution to indoor air quality during this time of wildfires and covid.
WILDFIRE AND PANDEMIC RESOURCES:
Regardless of where you live, you can text your zip code to 888-777 to receive text updates about emergency notifications for fire, tornadoes, etc.
List of Resources for Wildfires, originally from https://www.naccho.org/blog/articles/west-coast-wildfires-resources-for-response-recovery by Kim Rogers
Ready.gov: Before, During, and After a Wildfire
CDC: Wildfire Preparedness – Before, During, and After a Wildfire
National Resources Defense Council (NRDC): Issue Brief – Health Impacts of Wildfire Smoke
Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization: Hospital Fire Prevention and Evacuation Guide
Resources for Covid-19
CDC: disinfecting and cleaning your home to reduce Covid-19 spread
Mental Health America: mental health and financial resources for Covid-19
This is an overwhelming time in human existence. we are facing a global health pandemic, massive tragic weather phenomenons, a social justice uphill battle, and many are without income or the normal support system of friends and family due to social distancing. I see you, and you are not alone. we can come together to help one another through this.
If you are experiencing thoughts of suicide please call the national suicide prevention line: 800-273-8255
this is a difficult season, and this will pass. we can all share resources to help one another. stay safe, and healthy.