Do Air Purifiers Remove/Reduce Cook Food Smells?

hazwing on 18/06/2023 - 09:45

I've read where people buy air purifiers to help reduce the smells after cooking food. Just wondering if this is actually true and if so is there anything in particularly you need to look for to maximise this effect? Do you need the hepa filter, or is it something to do with carbon filtering??

We find after cooking (even with doors/window open), the whole house smells of food, particulary upstairs where all the bedrooms are and where the hot air rises to.

Any particularly model that would do this well? Xiaomi always comes up on ozbargain, but some people rate the ikea one as well.

Electrical & Electronics Air Purifier

Comments

  • Hybroid on 18/06/2023 - 09:49
    +5

    I believe it depends what kind of filter you have. A basic HEPA mesh filter won't, but an activated charcoal layer could help remove those odors.

    An air purifier is just a fan that sucks air through the filter.

    Visual reference: https://i.imgur.com/w22dWSs.jpg

  • Brucet on 18/06/2023 - 09:55
    +1

    Try one which sell in Ikea…( I got one and it does work…need 2 filters )

  • jizmo on 18/06/2023 - 10:23

    Fart in one and see what happens before you buy.
    If you plan to shop around, have a large helping of eggs and baked beans the day before.

  • JimmyF on 18/06/2023 - 10:26
    +2

    Do air purifiers remove/reduce cook food smells?

    Most remove particles/smoke

    To remove smells, you need to use a filter with a carbon filter as part of it.

  • Pikaloo on 18/06/2023 - 10:55
    -5

    You can buy Glen 20. Or you can turn on the exhaust fans whilst cooking.

  • askvictor on 18/06/2023 - 13:27
    +2

    One with a carbon filter will, eventually (it takes a while to get all of the air in the room through the filter). I've got a k-mart one and it works pretty well (includes carbon and hepa filters)

    But firstly, are you using the range hood while cooking? If not, that's your first step. Is it a vented (i.e. pushes air to outside the house via a duct) or recirculating range hood? If it's re-circulating, it has carbon filters of its own, but they need to be replaced every few months, so you should look into that. If it has a vent, make sure the range hood itself is configured to vent - a lot of them are built to do both modes, but there's a lever that switches from one to the other - I recently had my vented hood replaced, but the installer set it up for recirculating, so it wasn't actually doing anything (especially since the recirculating outlet was blocked). Once I flicked the lever, it actually worked.

    • hazwing on 18/06/2023 - 15:39

      Our range hood is reticulating, never noticed any carbon filters. Just the washable filters that are in the good

      • askvictor on 18/06/2023 - 18:06

        see if you can find the manual for it (look online if you can find the serial number). There might be filters in there, or possibly they should be there but have been thrown away.

        • hazwing on 18/06/2023 - 23:35

          wow, I had a look in the manual. There are optional carbon filters available for the rangehood. Mind blown!

          There definitely aren't any carbon filters installed.
          And looking at the manual, the rangehood is set to exhaust. So I wonder if it really does actually exhaust somewhere (I see no pipes out anywhere). Or whether they set the wrong mode on installation.

          • askvictor on 19/06/2023 - 22:24
            +1

            @hazwing: There's usually a vent with flaps on the outside of the house. If not, it could be venting into the wall/ceiling cavity, which is bad news - the oils will collect and create a fire hazard and attract rodents. If there's no vent at all, or it's in recirculating mode, the air still has to go somewhere, so you'll either have basically zero suction, or you'll be able to feel the exhaust somewhere.

            Also, I just smoke my house out while cooking some chops (despite my vented hood), so I put my kmart air purifier on, and it was all clear within an hour or two (PM reading went from about 200 to 12 in that time).

  • thatonethere on 18/06/2023 - 22:58
    +1

    Is the extractor fan perhaps venting into the ceiling cavity (and thus back into the house).

    Or the fan is wearing out and not sucking very hard.

  • jolee3 on 18/06/2023 - 23:53
    +2

    We have a Mi Air 3H (with HEPA filter) and it definitely makes a difference for us. We bought it when we lived in an apartment that had one large open kitchen/living space - we could still smell the cooking of lunch at dinner time. It doesn't clear the air immediately, it will still take an hour or more depending on size of space. The place we live now is larger and less open so it does take longer, but it does eventually clear the smell completely (we usually let it hum along on mid power not high). In our experience it is very effective.

  • Archi on 19/06/2023 - 08:55
    +1

    depends on the filter you have but will also depend on the type of food smells you are talking about.

    how big is the room, sounds like open plan and you have up stairs…

    another way would be close all doors to make the size of the area smaller. open a window or door closest to where the smell or smoke is generated, and have a fan prefferably a strong one pointed out to move the air from inside the house to the outside,

    i have also tried closing all the bedroom doors upstairs open bathroom door and have exhasut fan running and same as above and use a fan to direct the air out side through an open window

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