As an owner of a couple of Förnuftigs, I have each connected to a smart switch (which I already had) triggered over HomeKit by Eve air quality sensors (which I also had). Had the upgrade, the Starkvind, been on the market, when I got onboard, I would probably have opted for that instead, as it packs both a sensor and the ability to be controlled wirelessly over Trädfri.
I have had other air purifiers before, and have been happy with the Förnuftigs – the air purifying business is, IMHO, to a large degree a racket that was badly in need for disruption. I bought my two Förnuftigs with filters for less that what I would have needed to pay for a single filter change for the air purifier I used before.
I'm not qualified at all to do a deep dive, but I've got a FORNUFTIG and a STARKVIND and can give you some thoughts.
The STARKVIND is a LOT bigger than the FORNUFTIG. Assuming you're getting the standalone model, it's probably the depth of two or three FORNUFTIGs. This really surprised me. The table version is very interesting because it eliminates that problem by being a functional piece of furniture.
The STARKVIND filters are different than the FORNUFTIG, so no filter sharing. Conceptually they're the same - a paper particle filter plus an optional carbon filter. At its highest setting it's louder than the FORNUFTIG's highest setting, but at its lowest it's virtually inaudible. If you leave it in Auto mode you'll hear it ramp up when it detects particulates in the air and ramp down when the air quality returns to normal.
The main reason I bought the STARKVIND was the Zigbee interface. The IKEA Home Smart app is functional, but after the initial setup I only use Home Assistant to control it. In Home Assistant there are sensors for particulates and filter life, and controls for fan speed and mode (auto/manual). I'm using the IKEA gateway for my STARKVIND since deCONZ support wasn't completely ready at the time. Overall, it lives up to expectations as far as control goes.
Starkvind means Strong wind, Fornuftig means Reasonable.
Got to love their product names, as a Norwegian.
Meanwhile I have 2x AX90s in my place. Love them! Got the 2nd when I realised the special it was on was not too far from a single filter change, so it'll be fun when they're both up for refresh.
I'm addition to appreciating clean indoor air, I'm kind of preparing for the next bushfire in Melbourne - can still remember the last one, which was very very bad. I think it might happen next year, and be even worse than last time given current fuel build up. I might check out the IKEA ones to keep the AX90 filters fresh, if the IKEA filters are much cheaper to replace / run on an everyday basis.
(The Samsung units have an amazing ability to go from a very silent idle to a really bloody high CFM, on auto - currently mainly experienced when cooking).
I had considered something similar, but recently I found that Ikea has started selling air purifiers and sensors for very reasonable money.
They even sell an activated carbon filter that you can add.
> IKEA already has a side table that doubles as an air purifier, but now it has a way to gauge just how clean that air really is
Please note that the purifier/table combo and the standalone purifier, both called Starkvind, already have a PM2.5 sensor and are smart (Zigbee) devices.
I have three of the Fornuftig and am very pleased with them, save for the noise being quite bothersome at the highest setting.
They’ve helped quite a bit with a pollen allergy.
Getting good information has been a nightmare and it’s nice to see a post calling out the utter nonsense that gets spread about HEPA and filtration, with no thoughts to diffusion.
The big problem I have now is that I would like to upgrade to the Starkvind smart purifiers as they’d be ideal, save for again not being able to get any decent information on filtration and flow rate.
If the author ever reads this, I’d absolutely love a deep dive like this one on the Starkvind!
He's comparing a $100 option that does not have an auto-sensing device to a $54 option (that also doesn't have a device.)
This is pointed out by the author:
> Some (more expensive) commercial purifiers have air quality sensors built in and automatically turn on only when needed.
So in this case, you still have to manage fan speed yourself. Overall the bigger picture would include cost of filters over time, as well as electricity (which may be in favor of the commercial unit.)
And finally, you have to consider the dollar value of aesthetics!
The cheap IKEA air purifier has another huge benefit: you can control it with a smart socket. So hook it up to a tasmota smart plug and you will have a smart purifier.
Ventilation is critical, lest you get other issues such as mould which is a whole other set of problems in itself.
IKEA do some very good value devices. The Fornuftigs are nice, but quite weak. The Starkvind smart purifiers are better. They’re explicitly not HEPA and aim for less dense media / higher cycles, and they produce generally similar results at lower costs.
(There are some poorly informed reviews online that give a bad review because they’re not marketed as true HEPA filters, but this misses the point of cleaning the air you breathe rather than the air inside the unit. There was a post that corrected these reviews on HN some time back, will try to dig out and update).
Note that Ikea also sells a more powerful air filter called the Starkvind. This one is able to detect the air quality and automatically turn itself on.
Agree! However article is comparing to a $100 option and he spent about $60 on DIY supplies. The price differential is small enough that nobody should DIY. The convenience of having an auto-sensing device that turns on and off when based on changes to air quality is well worth the extra. As is the ultra low noise operation and added aesthetics.
> Better air quality is achieved through a thermostat with PM2.5 and CO2 sensors, as well as an air quality module on the air handler that controls HEPA filtration, fresh air intake and modification of the home’s humidity
This is very nice, but in the grand scheme of things nobody cares about these. They just want a warm house in winter and a cool one in summer.
If air quality/filtering were a free/cheap addon that'd be great, but not if it means the unit costs significantly more.
OTOH, that gives you a very nice market segmentation mechanic. Provide a lower-cost unit without things like CO2 sensors and HEPA filters, and charge a fat margin to upgrade to the fancy one for those richer people who have the luxury of such things.
I don’t understand, the cheaper IKEA purifier (FÖRNUFTIG) uses its entire front side, covered with fabric, as the pre-filter. To clean it, you stop the purifier and vacuum clean the front side, which takes 15 seconds.
The more expensive round one (STARKVIND) doesn’t use its fabric covered front as the pre-filter (it’s actually solid) and instead has a separate fine mesh (not that fine though) layer underneath. To clean that, you have to take the front side off first, which takes a bit longer.
One of my cats, who's since passed away, was asthmatic. Air purifiers throughout the house and a motion activated box fan plus furnace filter near the litterboxes resulted in an immediate and noticeable improvement in his quality of life. I've noticed a similar improvement in my own health.
I've since ended up with a variety of air cleaners:
* IKEA FÖRNUFTIG[0] is a small and relatively quiet unit. It can be wall-mounted, so it can take up virtually no space. The unit is reasonably priced. Filters are cheap.
* IKEA STARKVIND[1] is a much larger unit (also available in end table form[2] to save space), but also relatively quiet on the lower speeds. It's an interesting unit - integrates into Home Assistant (the unit speaks Zigbee), and has a PM2.5 air quality sensor. This unit is a lot more expensive than the FÖRNUFTIG, but the filters are reasonably priced.
* The box fan plus single furnace filter is incredibly noisy, but really good at dealing with cat litter dust. There is a huge range of price/quality when it comes to filters[, I just use the cheaper ones since I'm focusing on large dust particles.
* I have a couple of units that use Bionaire aer1 filters[3]. The units I have are quiet and reasonably sized, though they get louder as the filter fills up. The filters are expensive, and one of the units takes two of them which doesn't help matters. There is a variety of filters available.
There's a huge spectrum of tradeoffs between noise, size of the unit, filtration effectiveness, replacement filter cost, and extra features. I'm not convinced I've found the sweet spot yet.
I have both the Wirecutter pick which I've had for 7-8 years and the Förnuftig and I stopped using the Förnuftig after 2 months because it doesn't have a pre-filter and once dirty/filled, it cannot be recovered without replacing the whole filter. It also seems weak—the room can remain dusty indefinitely with it on. The Coway filter is just night-and-day more capable.
That said, in 2012, IKEA sold an amazing year-long-capacity-no-maintenance fiberglass German "Flimmer" filter like the ones they use over-head in their stores to keep products dust-free. That was incredible but wasn't marketed well and its replacement filters were discontinued in 2015: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/garden/sure-it-purifies-a...
Has anyone used https://www.mi.com/global/mi-air-purifier-3c ? Can it achieve lower noise per CADR? IKEA one on full speed is pretty loud (I may not know what loud air purifiers are, but I get concert of sounds at home I want to minimize - refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, electric water boiler, air purifier)
Does it work via LAN with Home-Assistant? Are they "smart" filters you are forced to change or "dumb" ones?
I bought this air purifier after reading this article and researching more. The biggest advantage of this air purifier compared to others on the market is its cost of replacing the air filter. It's significantly cheaper than others.
I stay in a city with considerably high air pollution 2/3rds of the year, and this has done a wonderful job of cleaning the air.
Plus, Ikea sells a tiny air quality sensor separately, so you can measure the quality of the air near where you're sitting, not where the purifier is.
Do you want to see/measure/track air quality? Do you want to be able to remotely control the purifier? Do you want a device that looks good? Do you want other features like heating/rotation/etc. Those are the reasons you might buy one...
I have had other air purifiers before, and have been happy with the Förnuftigs – the air purifying business is, IMHO, to a large degree a racket that was badly in need for disruption. I bought my two Förnuftigs with filters for less that what I would have needed to pay for a single filter change for the air purifier I used before.
reply