Green Air Machine (and Csonka) review

[svghax]

Hey guys, so - I live in LA (Pasadena), making smoking outside totally fine year round - that said, I also have a projector, and a nice movie and a stogie is always great, right? I'm also probably moving back to the Bay Area (berkeley I think) in the winter, where smoking at night, well, it's always too cold.

So, I thought I would get some kind of sanitiser!

I got a Csonka (the super I think) and it wasn't working for me, and running it all the time made my place smell like ozone and cigar smoke, which wasn't too awesome. I'm returning it...

I then got a Green Air Machine off eBay from http://myworld.ebay.com/jbinnovprodinc/ this guy and it's been fantastic. The only cigary smell left, if any, is a slight cocoa smell (someone asked if I was baking something chocolaty).

My smoking routine is to smoke without any real ventilation, I leave the window in the kitchen open (it's attached to the living room, it's an apartment) but that's all. After smoking, I open the door and run my AC in fan mode with the exhaust vent open (pulls air out, and blows fresh air in) for about... well, however long it takes for the projector light not to be visible in the air (15-20 minutes while I get ready for bed usually). I dump my ash tray outside, and then set the Green Air for however long I'm going to sleep and close the door to my room, it does 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 hour away modes.

After 4 hours there's a bit of smell left, but it's not bad, it just smells like a cigar shop a little, not stale, after 8 hours it smells like nothing, just a bit of ozone. I then open up everything in the morning while I cook breakfast to get the ozone smell out and it smells perfect!

I've never tried not airing things out, but why would I?

Anyway, the key to this unit, as opposed to the other units on eBay is, while it lacks a HEPA filter, it has a charcoal filter. This is the only unit I could find that used ozone and has a charcoal filter, so that's why I chose it - charcoal filters are used for removing smells, HEPA filters are for removing allergens; I'm not allergic to anything, but keep that in mind if you are.

I haven't tried anything but the Csonka and the Green Air, not even candles, so I can't say this is better than a HEPA filter unit, but it works very well for me. Living in an apartment, I don't have any windows that can fit an exhaust fan, and the AC unit blows in while it exhausts, so I can't blow smoke rings which is too much fun. Blowing rings through the projectors light and watching them change color and what not, seeing if I can get them to the other side of the screen, etc...

I read the threads on here before I bought both of these, and someone had said they didn't see too many threads on the Csonka being amazing or terrible, so I wanted to make sure I posted this up after using each for a while. I would say you should avoid the Csonka unless you've got a good exhaust system you run while you smoke, simply because it doesn't seem to do much.

Close all your windows and everything when you're using anything that actually filters so it can cycle the air in the room; if you leave anything open, it'll be useless (probably).

The Green Air also has... um... some kind of filter that's supposed to be amazing (better than HEPA they say) but it only covers like 90% (at most) of the airflow in the purifier, so I feel like a lot of air will simply go around it. It's at an angle, which is supposed to be better, but the angle leaves open space, so I'm not so sure about that. It also has a UV disinfection thing which is... well, probably good, but it's not why I, or any of you will, get/got it.

It looks like it's made of fiber board with plastic wood venires, but it looks fine sitting next to my bar and cabinet humidor.

Oh, my place is probably... 600 square feet - the area I smoke in anyway - and has a little hallway off it which seems like it would make airing out a little more difficult. I don't think shape really effects the cycling of air, but it might. If people want, I can take pictures of my place so you can see what it looks like for reference.

I can also take pictures of the unit opened up so you can see what it looks like inside and all... It'll be on an iPhone, so they probably won't be amazing, but it'll be something right?

I thin I covered just about everything, but if you have any questions please ask!

[Davearob]

Thanks for the review.. with winter approaching I have been thinking about a filtering machine if I can find one that works well

[svghax]

Honestly... I'm not totally convinced on the ozone thing... I found the best thing is to simply run this and then wipe down the floor the next day. Wiping gets any flakes of ash that might have fallen, and it seems that the smoke likes to settle on the floor as there's black... soot(?) whenever I wipe it after smoking. It doesn't look dirty, but just doing that makes a huge difference.

[rsamos]

FWIW - HEPA filters aren't for allergens. They are for any small (sub micron) air born particulates. That's why they're used in clean room environments like semiconductor process labs & clean benches.