Honeywell F300E Air Purifier

Know what ozone smells like? Thanks to arc experiments when I was in high school I do. I can smell ozone coming out of the vents when then furnace is running. Not too strong, and it goes away in a few minutes after the furnace cycles off. A little stronger the closer to the vent: and in vents closer to the source (furnace/filter). It's not in the promotional literature but Honeywell admits the thing generates ~5 ppb ozone and that some fraction of folks can smell it at these levels in the details of the manual; ( PDF available on line). Smell was really strong when unit was new, they claimed it goes down as the unit breaks in and burns down some high points and also accumulates some debris. Perhaps this was the case for me. But I still smell it, I suspect that ozone itself might be irritating my respiratory system and eyes and I wish I had just went with some sort of 4" depth filter (Example Honeywell F200) or perhaps even a full HEPA filter (Example Honeywell F500). Note that HEPA's operate in partial bypass mode.

All EAC's (Electronic Air Cleaner) will produce some low level of ozone. I could not find any comparison for how much for the competition like Aprilair or the Carrier AIRA and consumers reports was no help here; they should redo this and carefully measure in the 0-50 ppb range. Perhaps my unit is particularly bad for ozone; I will soon contact Honeywell for their input. Don't buy an EAC before reading the reports on line from the American lung association, the US Feds (EPA I think), Consumers Reports from 2005 (free PDF at US fed sites) and this really good report from Canada; link to PDF on a site by Googling “Influence of an Electronic Air Cleaner on Indoor Ozone.” Ozone may have subtle health effect even at 10 ppb or below I read somewhere in peer reviewed literature on line. Long term inflammatory effects in lungs & Circulatory.

A carbon filter could potentially catalyze away the problem (Ozone) but I have not found any easy fix marketed anywhere on the web after looking a long time. Maybe in the future EAC and carbon will work great together in one easy to deal with off the shelf product. But perhaps this technology is not ready for prime time yet?