# Dedicated Shop Air Purifier vs. General Air Purifier



## Mancolt (Jan 6, 2021)

I'm new to woodworking, and in the middle of a basement reno. I plan to use a portion of the basement for my small shop. The shop would be about 300 sq ft. I started googling about air purifiers, as I haven't been doing a good job managing the dust I'm creating while working on the basement, but want to change that.

I read an article on wirecutter (The Best Air Purifier) which reviewed many of the top air purifiers, but when I google specifically for wood/shop air purifiers, the list is completely different, and usually contains names like Jet, Powermatic, or WEN. I'm hoping someone can help me understand the differences between the designs of the general air purifier units (which were highly rated by Wirecutter, like the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty) vs. the Jet AFS-1000B. It looks to me like they both would get the job done but the Coway for half the price. I'm sure it's not that simple though. 

Like I said, I'm going to have a small shop, but would currently like to use it to clean the entire basement air while we're working, which is closer to 1000 sq ft. It can run 24/7 though, since I don't anticipate it generating enough noise to be a nuisance while we're in the project phase.


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## WoodyWeekends (Mar 27, 2020)

The home air purifiers cannot handle the amount of dust produced in a woodshop. They get clogged quickly. The shop air purifiers usually can circulate more air than home ones.

I have two 20" box fans with some filters taped to the intake side. For the price, they work great.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

It's about the volume of air it can run through the 2 stage filters for the big woodshop air filtration units like the Jet ASF1000, which I have. The home units can't compare.
Look up the specs and you'll see the difference. The cheapest of course are the box fans and furnace filters, so starting out go that route. They're also a bit more quiet when run on low speed. The issue is changing or cleaning the filters without spuing dust all over the inside of the workspace, so take them outdoors! Make "U" channels for the filter to slide in and out. I made some from thin aluminum angles, at the Home Center.







https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=diy+shop+air+filtration+system+


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## Dave McCann (Jun 21, 2020)

Mancolt said:


> I'm hoping someone can help me understand the differences between the designs of the general air purifier units (which were highly rated by Wirecutter, like the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty) vs. the Jet AFS-1000B. It looks to me like they both would get the job done but the Coway for half the price. I'm sure it's not that simple though.


Here are the specs pulled from the respective product owner manuals for the units you mentioned. (click on the photo for a larger more easily read photo)








As one can see the Conway at max speed will move 268.39 cubic feet per minute of air verses the Jet which moves 1044 cubic feet per minute. Even with the Jet unit set at it's lowest speed of 556 CFM that is still over twice the volume of the Conway.

Also the Jet has a "bag" to collect and hold the dust which means, the unit will to continue function, with less frequent need to shut down and clean the filtration system.










I hope this information helps you compare the two units.


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## DustyDan (Dec 21, 2020)

The purpose of the systems ( Conway vs Jet) are different and the target airborne contaminants are different. A normal household air purifier is targeting a low concentration of very fine contaminates such as pollen, smoke or household dust that is mostly generated by dead skin and dander. These units do not need an extremely high room volume turnover rate and rely on high efficiency filters that target very small particles. A wood shop generates a tremendous volume of relatively large particles. In order to “purify” the air a much higher air flow is needed to keep the particles suspended long enough to reach the filters.

For a small basement shop that may generate large concentrations of airborne dust, a true concern is spreading that air into the remainder of the house. I would recommend a two tiered approach. First and probably most important is to capture as much of the source as close to the source generator. This is a dust collection system located close to those tools that create the dust. Shop vacuums that use cyclone separators are an economical and easy solution. Most of the high dust generating tools have dust collection ports to connect. This will give you the “biggest bang for the buck”. Since there will always be dust that eludes dust collection systems, air purifiers can help clean the air in the room and would provide that second tier of purification.


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