Clearing the Air

December 13, 2003 5:47 PM

What's the best way to clear the air in a smokey room? I'm a non-smoker, but someone in an adjacent apartment is chain smoking and it's stinking up my place. It's getting too cold to just crack the windows.

I'm working with the apartment managers, but I'm not sure that's really going to go anywhere. In the mean time, does anyone have any clever suggestions? I'm considering air purifiers, but my ceilings are fairly high (i.e., lots of air to filter) and I don't know if they would to much good. Are there any good models out there? Google searches have gotten me a lot of conflicting reviews.

posted by tirade to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

I remember a recent consumer guide report on air filters, the bottom line was that the good ones are very pricey, and the cheap ones don't work well. Ionic breeze didn't stand up to well in either the price comparisons or overall performance rankings, and the best solutions involved filters on the intake for central heating. Have you talked to your neighbor yet? Not that I think it will do any good, but sometimes people are reasonable. For example he/she might agree to smoke in an interior room. If you don't have asthma you should fake it, borrow someone's inhaler, wheeze, threaten to sue, etc.
posted by Grod at 6:16 PM on December 13, 2003

Hire a DJ to play all night until they move?

The first thing I would do is look for the source. There must be some sort of way the smoke is getting from one apartment to the other. It shouldn't travel through walls so I would begin by looking around for shared heating ducts, exhaust fans, gaps around the molding on adjoining walls -- any way that smoke would be able to get in. You may find that you can solve this with an application of caulk, disabling a heating duct or stuffing some insulation in a crack.
posted by cedar at 6:16 PM on December 13, 2003

For some reason, I'm reminded of this thread.

Seriously, a HEPA air purifier does a good job at cleaning up smells. The Vornado rocks my socks.
posted by adampsyche at 7:30 PM on December 13, 2003

Does your apartment unit have it's own individual heat/air system? I live in an old loft with 18 foot ceilings and had a HEPA central air purification system installed. Fresh air recirculated through every vent all the time and I can take it with me when I move.
posted by oh posey at 9:22 PM on December 13, 2003