ELECTRONICS
Singer recommendations
AIR PURIFIERS
Honeywell has a number of portable as well as whole-house devices. The portables are listed here. You can find info on the whole-house units on their website. Available at Lowes, Sears, Home Depot, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc.
18150 Honeywell enviracaire® SilentComfort™ Air Cleaner
16100 Honeywell enviracaire® Portable True HEPA Air Cleaner with Odor Lock™
Filter Technology (rooms up to 160 square feet)
17000, 17250, 17400, 17450 Honeywell enviracaire® QuietCare™ HEPA Air Cleaners
(different sizes)
43300 Honeywell enviracaire® Two-Stage Professional Design HEPA/CPZ® Air Cleaner
10500, 11520. 12520, 13520, 14520. 16060 Honeywell enviracaire® Portable HEPA
Air Cleaner - ("Traditional"; different sizes)
13350 - "I live in an oldish apartment complex and smokers moved in below
me. I am allergic to smoke, so this was a serious problem. I got a Honeywell
13350 with hepa filter and BOY does it work. Cannot smell the smoke or any other
funky odors coming from their apartment. Plus, I can breathe better and my
allergies have calmed down." -Mandy
http://hcpretail.honeywell.com/hcp_store/productfamilyaircleaners.asp
Oreck Air Cleaners (and a comparison to other brands)
Oreck Hypo-Allerginic Tabletop Air Cleaner -- $199.00 on website
Oreck Hypo-Allergenic Multi-room Air Cleaner -- $499.00 on website
"I use the Oreck console because of my allergies. I also have one of the big Honeywell HEPAs, but it just doesn't work as well. The Oreck is a bit more work, as you have to clean the filter every few months depending on the condition of the air around you and the amount of particles, but it's been worth it for me. If you use this cleaner around a smoker, you'll have to clean the filter a lot more often, but it totally eliminates the smoke odors and particles from the room within 10 minutes. I can't say the same for my HEPA filter. On the Quiet Clean mode, my Oreck is pretty quiet. I like being able to control how hard I want it to work, depending on how dirty the air is. The Sharper Image Ionic Breeze is less expensive, but I opted for the more powerful cleaner because I live in an old house, with many pets, occasionally my smoker dad drops in for visits, and I'm extremely allergic to pollens. The Ionic Breeze doesn't move the air nearly as well, relying completely on its ionizing wands and natural air circulation in the room, which is pretty slow. The most effective cleaners circulate the air with a fan. The Oreck also has 2-5 times more surface area for the ionizing effect to take place, depending on the model. All in all, though, I think the ionizing technology used in both these cleaners is better than most HEPA filters." - Pipsqueak
Sharper Image Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier - $329. 95.
Current special on website: Two for $494.93. "Totally silent, no filters." - Fragonard
Venta AirWasher.
"The fanciest one. Comes in 3 sizes at $250(small), $500(medium), and $1000
(real big).
Uses water to filter the air, humidifying the air at the same time. The small
size is recommended as humidifier only though, lacking the horsepower to clean
air.Quiet, easy to clean and requires no filters, wicks or any other kind of
icky stuff. The water treatment solution is $20 for a bottle that will last 4-5
months." - Robotenor
A Cautionary Note
There is some controversy over the effectiveness and safety of negative ion
generators (Here are some sites to review for information:
www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html
http://hem.dis.anl.gov/eehem/98/981110.html
www.straightdope.com/columns/990910.html
www.skeptics.com.au/journal/neg-ion.htm
COMPUTERS
Dell Inspiron Laptops - they offer a free DVD player upgrade
www.dell.com
Toshiba Satellite Laptops* - I personally recommend these very highly.
I’ve bought two and been extremely happy with both. They are loaded with all the
features that are important to me --- everything internal (no heavy battery
packs or drives to carry around, no modem cards), active matrix screen, DVD and
disk drive … I love it!
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/pd/pd_home.jsp
Palm Pilots and Accessories
An informational site with tips and product comparisons: