CatHairpocalypse. Going to die from Feline Lung soon. Send help.
June 16, 2018 6:30 PM Subscribe
Cat hair. Too much. In the air. Are any of you are actually using an air purifier or filter and does it help noticeably on household cat HAIR? Are you dumping out boatloads of hair when you clean its filter? I don't have central air so filtering there won't work.
I already vacuum and brush daily, and I've got systems set up to handle the hair tumbleweeds and, upholstery and linens. Please limit comments to air filtering.
(I don't care about dander). I can fall asleep on a pillow still warm from Bear, my very furry boy no problem. (I love showing this picture to my allergic friends, they start sneezing just looking at it!) Bear also has two sheddy friends, thus the hairpocalypse.
Saw this thread from 2005 already but it's a bit old. Maybe something better exists now?
I already vacuum and brush daily, and I've got systems set up to handle the hair tumbleweeds and, upholstery and linens. Please limit comments to air filtering.
(I don't care about dander). I can fall asleep on a pillow still warm from Bear, my very furry boy no problem. (I love showing this picture to my allergic friends, they start sneezing just looking at it!) Bear also has two sheddy friends, thus the hairpocalypse.
Saw this thread from 2005 already but it's a bit old. Maybe something better exists now?
Best answer: We have two sheddy cats and two Honeywell air purifiers with HEPA filters. They don’t collect actual hair; I don’t think they’re designed to.
posted by Metroid Baby at 7:06 PM on June 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Metroid Baby at 7:06 PM on June 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Aggressive vacuum that in of itself has hepa filtration like a Miele or Dyson. In combination with two Honeywell hepa filters made life way more pleasant. It gets even getter with wooden flooring.
posted by jadepearl at 8:10 PM on June 16, 2018
posted by jadepearl at 8:10 PM on June 16, 2018
Best answer: A lot of room filter appliances have a HEPA filter inside _and_ a charcoal pre-filter closer to the outside; the air goes through the pre-filter first, before going through the inner HEPA filter.
The charcoal pre-filter is designed to be changed more often and is a lot less expensive, plus you can get replacements that are kind of a generic large size and then cut them down to fit.
You can probably see where I'm going with this: make sure your chosen filter system has one of these, and make sure you check and change the pre-filter regularly.
Oh, and I recently got one of these and they're great. It's a little more expensive, but it's made of metal rather than plastic -- lasts longer, doesn't have an overwhelming plastic odor like some actually do (counterintuitive but true) -- and is completely silent with normal operation. Also, as you can see, the inflow area is _huge_; it uses a large chunk of pre-filter, but that's a good thing if you're filtering wisps of hair on the air.
Even better, it uses mechanical buttons, turns on instantly, and doesn't seem to use any power when it's not filtering air. It's designed, though, to be left on the lowest setting continuously.
posted by amtho at 8:40 PM on June 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
The charcoal pre-filter is designed to be changed more often and is a lot less expensive, plus you can get replacements that are kind of a generic large size and then cut them down to fit.
You can probably see where I'm going with this: make sure your chosen filter system has one of these, and make sure you check and change the pre-filter regularly.
Oh, and I recently got one of these and they're great. It's a little more expensive, but it's made of metal rather than plastic -- lasts longer, doesn't have an overwhelming plastic odor like some actually do (counterintuitive but true) -- and is completely silent with normal operation. Also, as you can see, the inflow area is _huge_; it uses a large chunk of pre-filter, but that's a good thing if you're filtering wisps of hair on the air.
Even better, it uses mechanical buttons, turns on instantly, and doesn't seem to use any power when it's not filtering air. It's designed, though, to be left on the lowest setting continuously.
posted by amtho at 8:40 PM on June 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Our roomba picks up cat hair the regular vacuum misses. When I use the roomba, there is so much less dust in the air.
I have never seen cat hair in our hepa filters. I have seen practically a whole new cat fall out of the roomba waste compartment after a cleaning cycle.
posted by jbenben at 10:11 PM on June 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
I have never seen cat hair in our hepa filters. I have seen practically a whole new cat fall out of the roomba waste compartment after a cleaning cycle.
posted by jbenben at 10:11 PM on June 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: The air filter doesn't pick up cat hair very much, but it does blow it around until it settles in the lee of something. So we sweep the whole floor and vacuum baseboards and corners every week, and it's still a double-handful of hair from three short-haired cats. So that's my suggestion: small air filter that you probably won't pull much cat hair out of, and weekly harvests from where it lands.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:14 AM on June 17, 2018
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:14 AM on June 17, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by halation at 6:48 PM on June 16, 2018