I just moved into a new rental and this ...new furniture smell is pretty intense... it’s VOC off-gassing, so an air purifier just sitting there circulating the same air isn't enough i need actual air exchange to dilute it.

andd i can't leave the windows open all day because the street traffic noise outside is super deafening, and i definitely can't drill holes for a wall-mounted ERV.....

so i ran into a pre-launch concept called "cozeware freshflow" while searching for window-mounted fresh air options.... the idea of bringing in filtered outside air without drilling makes sense for rentals, but i wonder if a compact window unit can actually move enough CFM to dilute VOCs effectively....

or would running the bathroom fan 24/7 be a better deposit-safe hack?...any idea?

Hi all! Hopefully this is the right place to post this question. Over the past number of years I have casually tried to learn about air quality in the never ending quest to keep the air in my house clean (I have 2 dogs and a cat). Each time I reached a point of information overload and would get analysis paralysis after looking at approximately 23838923 different types of air purifiers available online, and buy nothing.

Then, a week ago I took one look at the fire map (I’m in northern MI) and decided I had to do something quick, even if I didn’t really know what I was doing, so I DIY’d a CR Box. Mostly I saw a lot of Canadians had done it during Covid and wildfires, and I have great trust in my neighbors to the north so went for it with some 20x25 filters from Costco. It is hideous (thanks to my tape job 💅), it is abominably large, it works, I love it, and now want to make one for each room in my house.

So naturally now that I’ve been “hands on” and feel like the Bob Villa of Air Quality (or Red Green for the duct tape fans), my casual curiousness with air quality has turned into my newest hyper-focus. I am pretty geeked that 4 store-bought filters taped together with a box fan was the solution to make my eyes and throat stop stinging last week and protect my family while fine ash was raining down in northern MI, and want to learn all about it.

So now that I know the tiniest sliver more than I did a couple weeks ago (but still please do not ask me to explain positive and negative air pressure and how it impacts hvac, I am Just a Girl™️ and trying my best), I am actually even more confused about the air purifier market.

Which leads me to my question for this post: For air purifier models that offer aromatherapy diffusion as part of the machine, is that not defeating the purpose of the air purifier? And a waste of not only the EO but also impact the purifier performance? Especially since it mostly seems to be offered on models that have a charcoal filter as part of the set up, and if I am understanding the use of charcoal correctly, to me it seems like adding essential oils to be diffused by your purifier would just be a waste of the carbon filter. Or am I misunderstanding how an air purifier would interact with EO particles?