Clean air is now the ultimate luxury
September 28, 2021 8:24 AM Subscribe
Sometimes I wonder if I should start a marketing consultation business where the sole service and product is tell companies whether or the name of their product sounds like cyberpunk street drug or not.
posted by loquacious at 9:10 AM on September 28, 2021 [38 favorites]
posted by loquacious at 9:10 AM on September 28, 2021 [38 favorites]
I have a Coway air filter, though mine is about five years old, so probably not the same model as in the video. It really works well. You can even see a reduction in the dust in the air through streams of sunlight. And the HEPA filter does indeed get really dirty.
I got it for my wife who was experiencing really bad allergies. Figured I could at least keep our bedroom more pure for the 8 hours she spends sleeping. The filters were pricey, and the fan noise is kind of annoying—especially on High setting the way the video tested it! We kind of drifted away from using it and it's sitting in a downstairs storage closet right now.
I'm surprised by the results of that video! The Coway is pretty damned effective. I just have to wonder what the overall benefit is... Sure, I can keep one or two rooms cleaner. But we move around as human beings, and we don't spend the vast majority of time in any one single room. And thankfully though I live in a big city, we don't live in one of the more polluted ones.
Considering the cost of the filters, the noise and the limited-area benefits? I'm not sure how worthwhile any of these things are unless you happen to live in a badly polluted place.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:16 AM on September 28, 2021
I got it for my wife who was experiencing really bad allergies. Figured I could at least keep our bedroom more pure for the 8 hours she spends sleeping. The filters were pricey, and the fan noise is kind of annoying—especially on High setting the way the video tested it! We kind of drifted away from using it and it's sitting in a downstairs storage closet right now.
I'm surprised by the results of that video! The Coway is pretty damned effective. I just have to wonder what the overall benefit is... Sure, I can keep one or two rooms cleaner. But we move around as human beings, and we don't spend the vast majority of time in any one single room. And thankfully though I live in a big city, we don't live in one of the more polluted ones.
Considering the cost of the filters, the noise and the limited-area benefits? I'm not sure how worthwhile any of these things are unless you happen to live in a badly polluted place.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:16 AM on September 28, 2021
TO2 was never a solution to dust and allergens. It catalyzes carbon monoxide into CO2 and Water, so only really good for things like car exhaust.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:20 AM on September 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:20 AM on September 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
Due to massive regional wildfires over the last few years, the San Francisco Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) has enacted a program for low-income people to obtain air filtration units.
With this issue likely to continue for years or decades, individuals should explore all options to mitigate smoke pollution, while the government can attempt to mitigate the underlying conditions.
posted by JDC8 at 9:24 AM on September 28, 2021 [5 favorites]
With this issue likely to continue for years or decades, individuals should explore all options to mitigate smoke pollution, while the government can attempt to mitigate the underlying conditions.
posted by JDC8 at 9:24 AM on September 28, 2021 [5 favorites]
If you live in forest fire territory, they are absolute necessities.
posted by tavella at 9:26 AM on September 28, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by tavella at 9:26 AM on September 28, 2021 [7 favorites]
If you live in forest fire territory, they are absolute necessities.
Indeed. I was a bit skeptical, however, and so I bought an AQI meter to test for myself. When I took it outside, I got numbers equivalent to the current EPA results (it was a bad wildfire day) so I was fairly confident in the monitor.
I took the meter indoors and got a slightly lower reading, then turned on the $100 Vornado HEPA filter my wife's son had given us. I could watch the numbers drop in real-time and within 30 minutes, the room was in the moderate range (down from unhealthy) and dropping. By moving the filter from room to room, we quickly cleared the air.
I also tested the box-fan/furnace filter (MERV 13) technique. It also worked, but was less efficient.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:48 AM on September 28, 2021 [11 favorites]
Indeed. I was a bit skeptical, however, and so I bought an AQI meter to test for myself. When I took it outside, I got numbers equivalent to the current EPA results (it was a bad wildfire day) so I was fairly confident in the monitor.
I took the meter indoors and got a slightly lower reading, then turned on the $100 Vornado HEPA filter my wife's son had given us. I could watch the numbers drop in real-time and within 30 minutes, the room was in the moderate range (down from unhealthy) and dropping. By moving the filter from room to room, we quickly cleared the air.
I also tested the box-fan/furnace filter (MERV 13) technique. It also worked, but was less efficient.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:48 AM on September 28, 2021 [11 favorites]
I used to get mad at blatantly fraudulent companies like this, but more and more I find that I'm actually more mad at the lack of governmental oversight that allows anyone both bold and morally bankrupt enough to spread dangerous bullshit without consequence. Especially in the health sphere, where people depend on products to do what they say.
If your specious claims don't hold up, and people get hurt, you should go to jail for it.
posted by heyitsgogi at 9:59 AM on September 28, 2021 [16 favorites]
If your specious claims don't hold up, and people get hurt, you should go to jail for it.
posted by heyitsgogi at 9:59 AM on September 28, 2021 [16 favorites]
> Sometimes I wonder if I should start a marketing consultation business where the sole service and product is tell companies whether or the name of their product sounds like cyberpunk street drug or not.
Naming agencies have been around for decades.
It sounds like easy money to have a job that involves sitting around and cooking up names for things, but it turns out that if you want companies to drop five- and six-digit sums on your product brand recommendations, you have to back it up with trademark searches, focus group testing, and a staff on hand to write the prospectus around the name, all of which costs considerable amounts of money.
posted by ardgedee at 10:18 AM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Naming agencies have been around for decades.
It sounds like easy money to have a job that involves sitting around and cooking up names for things, but it turns out that if you want companies to drop five- and six-digit sums on your product brand recommendations, you have to back it up with trademark searches, focus group testing, and a staff on hand to write the prospectus around the name, all of which costs considerable amounts of money.
posted by ardgedee at 10:18 AM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Considering the cost of the filters, the noise and the limited-area benefits? I'm not sure how worthwhile any of these things are unless you happen to live in a badly polluted place.
As a person with lots of indoor and outdoor allergies … air filters are absolutely a necessity and work wonders. It sounds like you don't suffer from allergies?
posted by wemayfreeze at 10:32 AM on September 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
As a person with lots of indoor and outdoor allergies … air filters are absolutely a necessity and work wonders. It sounds like you don't suffer from allergies?
posted by wemayfreeze at 10:32 AM on September 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
Tap water is (usually pretty much) potable, with maybe a slight aftertaste. But if you compare that to water from a mountain stream, there's no comparison
True, tap water doesn't contain giardia.
posted by LionIndex at 10:37 AM on September 28, 2021 [41 favorites]
True, tap water doesn't contain giardia.
posted by LionIndex at 10:37 AM on September 28, 2021 [41 favorites]
According to the article Molekule was in fact named by such an agency.
Without even getting to the Wirecutter analysis the marketing of this thing sets off all my snake oil alarms. Technology nobody else uses? Check. Unverifiable claims? Check. No truly independent testing? Check. Badmouthing something that's been repeatedly proven to be effective? Check.
I recently pulled my Austin Air purifier out of storage because my allergies are the trigger for the eczema I was diagnosed with earlier this year. On high it's louder than I'd like, but it seems to work well in a bedroom, even on low. It's not particularly attractive, but it's also not particularly ugly. The design just kind of … is. At least the powder coat finish looks better than a big plastic thing would. If I were buying a new one now I might not buy the same model, but it does exactly what it claims to do.
posted by fedward at 10:43 AM on September 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
Without even getting to the Wirecutter analysis the marketing of this thing sets off all my snake oil alarms. Technology nobody else uses? Check. Unverifiable claims? Check. No truly independent testing? Check. Badmouthing something that's been repeatedly proven to be effective? Check.
I recently pulled my Austin Air purifier out of storage because my allergies are the trigger for the eczema I was diagnosed with earlier this year. On high it's louder than I'd like, but it seems to work well in a bedroom, even on low. It's not particularly attractive, but it's also not particularly ugly. The design just kind of … is. At least the powder coat finish looks better than a big plastic thing would. If I were buying a new one now I might not buy the same model, but it does exactly what it claims to do.
posted by fedward at 10:43 AM on September 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
The smoke from the California wildfires provides a good test for air cleaners. I got a cheap air quality tester, which shows when the smoky outdoor air gets into the house.
I have the classic old round Honeywell air cleaner (you can't buy these anymore, but fortunately you can still get filters). It is very good at reducing the PM2.5 count to zero in a large area pretty quickly even at its low setting.
posted by eye of newt at 11:26 AM on September 28, 2021
I have the classic old round Honeywell air cleaner (you can't buy these anymore, but fortunately you can still get filters). It is very good at reducing the PM2.5 count to zero in a large area pretty quickly even at its low setting.
posted by eye of newt at 11:26 AM on September 28, 2021
TO2 was never a solution to dust and allergens. It catalyzes carbon monoxide into CO2 and Water...
Yeah, that's my first reaction: not everything in the air that makes you wheeze is a pure carbohydrate that can be broken down into CO2, H2O, and O2 -- if their point is that they're oxidizing the contaminants "to destroy them", but adding oxygen atoms to larger molecules is just called "burning" and it produces soot, so unless they're collecting those somehow they're just adding more dirt into the air. Like, how does their filter handle something as big as cigarette smoke particles, does that even remain inside the machine long enough to react? Maybe it's supposed to stick to the titanium grid or whatever's inside there.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:41 AM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Yeah, that's my first reaction: not everything in the air that makes you wheeze is a pure carbohydrate that can be broken down into CO2, H2O, and O2 -- if their point is that they're oxidizing the contaminants "to destroy them", but adding oxygen atoms to larger molecules is just called "burning" and it produces soot, so unless they're collecting those somehow they're just adding more dirt into the air. Like, how does their filter handle something as big as cigarette smoke particles, does that even remain inside the machine long enough to react? Maybe it's supposed to stick to the titanium grid or whatever's inside there.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:41 AM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
I built my own box fan filter, but my design uses a 20x20x4 MERV12 duck tapped to the back, along with a washable fiberglass filter and a carbon filter. So the air enters through the carbon filter which does a good job trapping small particles and odors, then through the fiberglass filter which gets most dust, cat hair, etc. Then the replaceable filter.
posted by interogative mood at 11:48 AM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by interogative mood at 11:48 AM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
By changing the composition of our atmosphere from what we and all other mammals evolved in, we are rapidly shrinking the healthy habitable zone down to power-dependent filtered air structures.
Wait until we realize te effects of chronic elevated CO2 on human development and health.
We will need to colonize earth like a hostile planet just to live long enough to complete the not-even-started task of removing all the pollution we have caused or triggered. Of course we'd have to stop making the problem worse first.
posted by anecdotal_grand_theory at 11:58 AM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Wait until we realize te effects of chronic elevated CO2 on human development and health.
We will need to colonize earth like a hostile planet just to live long enough to complete the not-even-started task of removing all the pollution we have caused or triggered. Of course we'd have to stop making the problem worse first.
posted by anecdotal_grand_theory at 11:58 AM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
What I'd really like to see is an energy recovery ventilation (ERV) unit that can fit in a window like an air-conditioner. Or maybe mini-split size is okay. The current models are just huge, cost $1K+, and need an attic or basement to mount.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:18 PM on September 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:18 PM on September 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
I would love for air filters to be installed in all schools and day care centers. Clean air is not a consumer luxury. Air pollution due to proximity to landfills, freeways, industrial polluters have plagued schools in low income communities for decades.
I think about the phrase "private sufficiency, public luxury."
While it's true we all spent extra time at home these past 18 months, and those of us in wildfire territory have really been alerted to the need for air filtration (I taped MERV-9 filters to box fans and run those on especially crappy air quality days in LA County), I really want the conversation to include how air filters can be a social investment.
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:34 PM on September 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
I think about the phrase "private sufficiency, public luxury."
While it's true we all spent extra time at home these past 18 months, and those of us in wildfire territory have really been alerted to the need for air filtration (I taped MERV-9 filters to box fans and run those on especially crappy air quality days in LA County), I really want the conversation to include how air filters can be a social investment.
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:34 PM on September 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
Remember when bottled water first came out?, there was a lot of "what a scam, selling water in a bottle", then it became the primary source for drinking water.
It did?
*glances at glass of tap water*
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 12:35 PM on September 28, 2021 [16 favorites]
It did?
*glances at glass of tap water*
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 12:35 PM on September 28, 2021 [16 favorites]
Considering the cost of the filters, the noise and the limited-area benefits? I'm not sure how worthwhile any of these things are unless you happen to live in a badly polluted place.
Or, you know, a place with airborne viruses.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:49 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Just an FYI for anyone else who uses their air purifier primarily for wildfire smoke, be aware that reduces the Clean Air Delivery Rate, or CADR. For example, if you're filtering smoke you want 4 times the CADR than you do for regular impurities. This calculator is helpful for determining the size purifier you need under different conditions.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:54 PM on September 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by oneirodynia at 12:54 PM on September 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
I bought an air purifier to help with hayfever, and I think it does help a bit, but the problem is the noise. We don’t need better filter technology, we need quieter fan technology.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:03 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:03 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
I bought an air purifier to help with hayfever, and I think it does help a bit, but the problem is the noise. We don’t need better filter technology, we need quieter fan technology.
One of the Coway filters from the Wirecutter's video lives about 10' from my pillow. Its sound is only annoying when it kicks onto high -- and that's only happened when we get forest fire smoke drifting through or I burn something in the kitchen. Either case I'd rather have the air purifier running on high for an hour than to be stuck inhaling all those particulates.
posted by nathan_teske at 1:16 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
One of the Coway filters from the Wirecutter's video lives about 10' from my pillow. Its sound is only annoying when it kicks onto high -- and that's only happened when we get forest fire smoke drifting through or I burn something in the kitchen. Either case I'd rather have the air purifier running on high for an hour than to be stuck inhaling all those particulates.
posted by nathan_teske at 1:16 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
I purchased the other indoor air filter mentioned in the Wirecutter video (BlueAir) last year. I've been satisfied with its performance during Spare The Air days
I was in San Francisco for work in the fall of 2018, and I encountered the worst air quality that I have ever experienced in California (Los Angeles included). I was grateful that I was setting up a preparedness event at the local office, and I had a supply of N95 masks to screen out some of the smoke.
posted by JDC8 at 2:23 PM on September 28, 2021
I was in San Francisco for work in the fall of 2018, and I encountered the worst air quality that I have ever experienced in California (Los Angeles included). I was grateful that I was setting up a preparedness event at the local office, and I had a supply of N95 masks to screen out some of the smoke.
posted by JDC8 at 2:23 PM on September 28, 2021
I live in a valley known for bad air quality. I bought a basic home air filter from Winix as a Woot refurb a few years ago and I can say I've noticed a difference. Specifically during the winter when the air quality is the worst I would twice a season get a mild cough sore throat. It's the 4th year now and that regularly schedule winter sore throat is gone.
posted by ShakeyJake at 3:55 PM on September 28, 2021
posted by ShakeyJake at 3:55 PM on September 28, 2021
StickyCarpet: "Remember when bottled water first came out?, there was a lot of "what a scam, selling water in a bottle", then it became the primary source for drinking water."
Um, it's still a scam? And I don't know who it's the 'primary source' for, but nobody I know.
LionIndex: "But if you compare that to water from a mountain stream, there's no comparison
True, tap water doesn't contain giardia."
I've traveled a bit, drunk and eaten whatever on the streets of La Paz, Istanbul, Cartagena, Amman, etc., with no stomach problems, at all, except for the one time I drank water literally jumping out of a big rock on the slope of a mountain in southern Chile, in the middle of a native forest five hours walk uphill from a settlement of maybe 20 houses.
It was delicious.
God herself had caused it to jump out of the earth to quench my thirst.
It also gave me simultaneous projectile diarrhea and vomiting.
We were staying in a small rural schoolhouse where the best available bathroom was a hole in the ground we'd dug ourselves a few days back and the nearest "doctor" was a second year med student staying in another schoolhouse a few hours away on a gravel road.
It was not fun.
posted by signal at 4:10 PM on September 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
Um, it's still a scam? And I don't know who it's the 'primary source' for, but nobody I know.
LionIndex: "But if you compare that to water from a mountain stream, there's no comparison
True, tap water doesn't contain giardia."
I've traveled a bit, drunk and eaten whatever on the streets of La Paz, Istanbul, Cartagena, Amman, etc., with no stomach problems, at all, except for the one time I drank water literally jumping out of a big rock on the slope of a mountain in southern Chile, in the middle of a native forest five hours walk uphill from a settlement of maybe 20 houses.
It was delicious.
God herself had caused it to jump out of the earth to quench my thirst.
It also gave me simultaneous projectile diarrhea and vomiting.
We were staying in a small rural schoolhouse where the best available bathroom was a hole in the ground we'd dug ourselves a few days back and the nearest "doctor" was a second year med student staying in another schoolhouse a few hours away on a gravel road.
It was not fun.
posted by signal at 4:10 PM on September 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
Yes - fresh water. So a friend was visiting from a city which has excellent treated drinking water, and we were walking down kunanyi/mt wellington in Tasmania and there was a snow melt spring. I told her, "Don't drink it - I can, because I am used to untreated water, but it is not a good idea for you, coming from the city."
"But it's uncontaminated."
"Yes, but it is also untreated."
She drank. She suffered.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 6:51 PM on September 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
"But it's uncontaminated."
"Yes, but it is also untreated."
She drank. She suffered.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 6:51 PM on September 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
Speaking of smoke-related air purification, I have heard that a surprisingly effective thing you can do to get the smoke out of your air is to just have open containers of water, the more surface area the better, because the smoke particles that come into contact with the water will be trapped in it, getting them out of the air.
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:05 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:05 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Naming agencies have been around for decades.
Eh, that was totally the joke. I wasn't seriously proposing such a business.
I've worked in marketing. I'm even doing copy and content again lately and it gives me a bloody headache.
I'm painfully and regretfully aware that no one is going to give me any dollars - much less a million dollars - to make sure their naming and branding doesn't sound like something you would ingest to jacked up on in an industrial fetish club because A) they don't care and B) even more importantly they love slipping entendre into proposals and getting away with it and they're not going to pay me or anyone to spoil their fun.
posted by loquacious at 10:39 PM on September 28, 2021
Eh, that was totally the joke. I wasn't seriously proposing such a business.
I've worked in marketing. I'm even doing copy and content again lately and it gives me a bloody headache.
I'm painfully and regretfully aware that no one is going to give me any dollars - much less a million dollars - to make sure their naming and branding doesn't sound like something you would ingest to jacked up on in an industrial fetish club because A) they don't care and B) even more importantly they love slipping entendre into proposals and getting away with it and they're not going to pay me or anyone to spoil their fun.
posted by loquacious at 10:39 PM on September 28, 2021
If I want to sell a product at a high margin, with a flat out dubious level of effectiveness at doing its stated job - as part of an organisation which was heavy on PR and marketing bullshit, big on making threats to detractors and interested in unjustified besmirching of my most effective competitors...
Then I too, would call in IDEO for the industrial design. ("Surviving IDEO")
posted by rongorongo at 8:01 AM on September 29, 2021
Then I too, would call in IDEO for the industrial design. ("Surviving IDEO")
posted by rongorongo at 8:01 AM on September 29, 2021
Tap water is (usually pretty much) potable, with maybe a slight aftertaste. But if you compare that to water from a mountain stream, there's no comparison, and people decided they deserve that mountain stream water.
People want idealized mountain stream water, not the real kind. My water comes from a spring halfway up the mountain behind my house. The watershed is entirely forested, no ag runoff, no houses above it, and I own all the watershed above and surrounding from whence the water comes. It flows from a box in the spring via a pipe into a large holding tank buried in the ground. I have water pressure because the tank is pretty high above the level of my house. So I do know a bit about "mountain stream" water insofar as that is what I drink. It runs, cold and clear and with the occasional newt (about which more later) out the side of Rays Hill, into pipe, into tank, and then into my tap. I am LIVING THE DREAM over here and have been for all of my life that I wasn't away at college.
The water tastes good. I like my water. However, when you drink mountain stream water that runs directly and unfiltered into your home water pipes, you may occasionally experience an interruption in service, basically a thing where you turn on the faucet and no water comes out. There can be multiple causes of this interruption but my least favorite one is newts.
The problem, not to put too fine a point on it, is that newts (which breathe air and die without it) sometimes get into the big 1.5" pipe that runs down the mountain from the pressure tank and from there into the 3/4" pipe that runs into my house and from there into the 1/2" domestic line and then they can't make the turn at the T intersection where the pipe feeding into the hot water heater goes off. A standard drowned newt does not fit (easily or all in one piece) through a 1/2" T intersection in a domestic copper water pipe. I speak from experience on this point, I assure you. On the plus side, by the time the newt has gotten this far down the water line, it's a pretty dead newt, with... soft-ish tissue? Like there's not a lot of structural integrity going on, I mean.
You can remove a dead newt from the t intersection of your copper pipe by disconnecting the water heater sharkbite supply connector and holding it into a bucket while a helper turns on the main. The water pressure will pulverize and expel the dead newt into your bucket. (Pro tip: Use a five gallon bucket with a lid and small opening such as one used for paint or hydraulic fluid. An open five gallon bucket has an excessive risk of... splatter. Again, I know this with a certainty that can only be gained the hard way.) Dead newts do not smell good. Pulverized dead newts mixed with water and forcefully sprayed into a five gallon bucket so that at least some of their deadness becomes an aerosol smell even worse.
This is the reality of Mountain Stream Drinking Water. Happens every other year or so at my house. I hope the rest of the world enjoys their bottled water experience, which I expect NEVER EVER has a how long have I been drinking dead newt germs? feel about it.
On the plus side, my air smells great.
posted by which_chick at 9:48 AM on September 29, 2021 [16 favorites]
People want idealized mountain stream water, not the real kind. My water comes from a spring halfway up the mountain behind my house. The watershed is entirely forested, no ag runoff, no houses above it, and I own all the watershed above and surrounding from whence the water comes. It flows from a box in the spring via a pipe into a large holding tank buried in the ground. I have water pressure because the tank is pretty high above the level of my house. So I do know a bit about "mountain stream" water insofar as that is what I drink. It runs, cold and clear and with the occasional newt (about which more later) out the side of Rays Hill, into pipe, into tank, and then into my tap. I am LIVING THE DREAM over here and have been for all of my life that I wasn't away at college.
The water tastes good. I like my water. However, when you drink mountain stream water that runs directly and unfiltered into your home water pipes, you may occasionally experience an interruption in service, basically a thing where you turn on the faucet and no water comes out. There can be multiple causes of this interruption but my least favorite one is newts.
The problem, not to put too fine a point on it, is that newts (which breathe air and die without it) sometimes get into the big 1.5" pipe that runs down the mountain from the pressure tank and from there into the 3/4" pipe that runs into my house and from there into the 1/2" domestic line and then they can't make the turn at the T intersection where the pipe feeding into the hot water heater goes off. A standard drowned newt does not fit (easily or all in one piece) through a 1/2" T intersection in a domestic copper water pipe. I speak from experience on this point, I assure you. On the plus side, by the time the newt has gotten this far down the water line, it's a pretty dead newt, with... soft-ish tissue? Like there's not a lot of structural integrity going on, I mean.
You can remove a dead newt from the t intersection of your copper pipe by disconnecting the water heater sharkbite supply connector and holding it into a bucket while a helper turns on the main. The water pressure will pulverize and expel the dead newt into your bucket. (Pro tip: Use a five gallon bucket with a lid and small opening such as one used for paint or hydraulic fluid. An open five gallon bucket has an excessive risk of... splatter. Again, I know this with a certainty that can only be gained the hard way.) Dead newts do not smell good. Pulverized dead newts mixed with water and forcefully sprayed into a five gallon bucket so that at least some of their deadness becomes an aerosol smell even worse.
This is the reality of Mountain Stream Drinking Water. Happens every other year or so at my house. I hope the rest of the world enjoys their bottled water experience, which I expect NEVER EVER has a how long have I been drinking dead newt germs? feel about it.
On the plus side, my air smells great.
posted by which_chick at 9:48 AM on September 29, 2021 [16 favorites]
My Kickstarter will be up in a day or two but my elevator pitch is "mountain spring water with just a dash of dead newt for flavor"
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:27 PM on September 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:27 PM on September 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
In the much of the western US, the tap water in the city does come from a mountain stream.
posted by polecat at 3:51 PM on September 29, 2021
posted by polecat at 3:51 PM on September 29, 2021
Having limited ventilation here, air quality has become an interest of mine. Remember when bottled water first came out?, there was a lot of "what a scam, selling water in a bottle", then it became the primary source for drinking water.
Maybe I run in the wrong circles. I dont know anyone who drinks bottled water. I know people who use a Brita or an RO filter. We drink filtered water from our fridge. Most friends and acquiantances are straight tap ppl. Do normal people really stock up on evian or acqua di pana at the grocery store? Im in Toronto.
posted by lemur at 6:35 PM on September 29, 2021
Maybe I run in the wrong circles. I dont know anyone who drinks bottled water. I know people who use a Brita or an RO filter. We drink filtered water from our fridge. Most friends and acquiantances are straight tap ppl. Do normal people really stock up on evian or acqua di pana at the grocery store? Im in Toronto.
posted by lemur at 6:35 PM on September 29, 2021
Not Evian - store brand water by the shrink wrapped case, yes. Very common in Seattle and we have superb city water.
posted by clew at 12:09 AM on September 30, 2021
posted by clew at 12:09 AM on September 30, 2021
Most of that store-brand bottled water (and also some of the pricier stuff) is literally tap water.
posted by mbrubeck at 8:11 AM on September 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by mbrubeck at 8:11 AM on September 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Speaking of smoke-related air purification, I have heard that a surprisingly effective thing you can do to get the smoke out of your air is to just have open containers of water, the more surface area the better, because the smoke particles that come into contact with the water will be trapped in it, getting them out of the air.
When I was a kid (in the 90s) someone I knew had a vacuum that used a water tank to capture dust/dirt/etc, not a filter or bag. She'd run it by itself as an air filter sometimes. I've never, ever seen those in stores and I wish I knew why, because if it works that would be way cheaper and better than filters.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 10:28 AM on October 1, 2021
When I was a kid (in the 90s) someone I knew had a vacuum that used a water tank to capture dust/dirt/etc, not a filter or bag. She'd run it by itself as an air filter sometimes. I've never, ever seen those in stores and I wish I knew why, because if it works that would be way cheaper and better than filters.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 10:28 AM on October 1, 2021
You're eponysterically describing the Rainbow vacuum cleaner. No filter, just a shallow pan of water in the base of the canister that traps all the dust. It works very well -- the water traps quite a lot of dirt and hair no matter how clean you think your house is -- though carrying a shallow pan of grimy water up and down a staircase can be impressively unforgiving of error. I can hope that particular design issue has been addressed in the models introduced in the decades since my parents bought theirs.
According to Wikipedia, they're still made and sold. Despite the company having a modern website, you can still only buy one by requesting an in-house demonstration, so that much hasn't changed since the late 1930s.
posted by ardgedee at 10:53 AM on October 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
According to Wikipedia, they're still made and sold. Despite the company having a modern website, you can still only buy one by requesting an in-house demonstration, so that much hasn't changed since the late 1930s.
posted by ardgedee at 10:53 AM on October 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
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If you're serious about air filtration, might want to take the extra expense to use a system without disposable filters (electrostatic etc). Most people just leave them in place months and months after they have been saturated, and are doing nothing.
But if you do use carbon filters, be aware that immersion in warm water and a mild detergent can get you 3 or 4 resuses.
There's an interesting story about how titanium dioxide became recognized as an air cleaner. Richard Meier designed a church in Rome, and developed that white TO2 paint for an extra bright white. Residents nearby were wary about this new chemical coating, so air quality tests were performed around it, and surprisingly, air quality was better downwind than upwind, and that led to the realization that TO2 plus sunlight cleans air. Too bad that Molekule didn't pull that off, probably just a nominal quantity of TO2, and the UV light is not sunlight.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:00 AM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]