ClearFlite Air Purifiers -  Newsletters - Volume 2

News from ClearFlite
on Clean Air and More!

Loyalty Discount: Our Most Popular Idea Ever

Since 1996, ClearFlite has been selling portable room air purifiers online. Although we've had many promotions over the years, our customers particularly like the one we have continued on an ongoing basis. That's the Loyalty Discount. Once you have purchased from ClearFlite, you may receive a 10% discount on all future orders of filters and air purifiers, as well as our Bosch vacuums, forever!

Here's how to make sure you receive it:
Online Orders: In the Special Instructions simply write: Loyalty Discount. The discount will not automatically show on your order, however, we will process your order and send an invoice reflecting the discount.
Call-in Orders: Simply tell your sales rep that you are an existing customer and you want your LD!

Why pay more? And as always take advantage of our free shipping on all continental U.S. orders.


What Do All These New Words Mean?

The complaint we hear most often from customers who are looking for an air purifier for the first time, is that there is a new language which they must learn to make sense of it all. Unfortunately, they're right. Not only are there many common words, acronyms, and phrases that all manufacturers use, each one also has a language set of words that influence sales! In order to make it a bit less daunting, we combed our website for words that may be unknown to the first time buyer and have listed “non-salesy” definitions. In other words, “just the facts, sir (and mam).”

Adsorption and Adsorption – just to confuse you right off the bat, we begin with these two words that differ only by a letter. Although we use the commonly known word “adsorption” throughout our site (which Webster's defines as “to suck up, to take in and assimilate,”), the more technically accurate word for what air purifiers do is “adsorption” which means the “adhesion of molecules to a surface.”

Activated carbon – used in the aquarium industry for years, this is the very absorbent carbon that you get from heating granulated charcoal to eliminate its gases. It comes in a powdered or granular form and in an air purifier absorbs the odors and chemicals that bother some people.

Air Cleaner – a device typically powered by electricity, which filters the air that passes through it removing pollutants and exhausting clean air.

Air Purifier - a device typically powered by electricity, which filters the air that passes through it removing pollutants and exhausting clean air.

Allergy Air Purifier – an air purifier that is primarily designed to absorb the allergens that bother allergic people, rather than one that focuses on chemicals or odors.

Allergy Arresting – this refers to air purifiers that can absorb the allergens that bother people.

Allergy Symptoms – reactions your body has to allergens (things it doesn't like), usually in the form of a runny nose, eye itchiness, watery eyes, itchy nose and/or sneezing.

Carbon Mat – activated carbon that has been pressed into a thin mat which can be easily inserted or removed.

 
Carbon-Zeolite Mix – a blending of activated carbon (described above) and zeolite (a mineral with a porous structure).

CADR – Clean Air Delivery Rate, a rating system established by the AHAM (Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers). It lists three CADR numbers for an air purifier - one for tobacco smoke, one for pollen and one for dust. The CADR number indicates the volume of clean (filtered) air delivered by an air purifier. The higher the numbers for tobacco smoke, pollen, or dust, the faster the air purifier cleans the air.

CFM – Cubic Feet Per Minute. This rating is the volume of cleaned air (measured in cubic feet), that the air purifier can put back into the room. We don't know who came up with it. It's the volume of air that can pass through an opening in one minute.
Charged Plates – these are used in electrostatic technology, using two sets of plates. One set charges the air flow and the other collects the particles that were charged by the first set.

Dustmites - microscopic “mites” or nest-building insect-like creatures that thrive on discarded skin cells in damp, dark places like bed, cushions, mattresses, pillows, and carpets. The enzymes in their fecal matter trigger allergy symptoms. Because they dwell in places that move a lot due to human use, they easily become airborne.

Filterless – this term refers to air purifiers that have washable filters only. The Friedrich C90B is sometimes referred to as “filterless” because the main “filter” which is the electronic plates can be washed and do not require replacement. However, the carbon mat in the C90A does have to be replaced. All air purifiers using HEPA technology have filters which must be replaced.

HEPA – this is the one that always confuses people. First of all, HEPA is a technology or more specifically, a type of filter. It is not a brand name. There are many companies that make HEPA air purifiers. Some brand names have the word HEPA in them. HEPA is an acronym for ‘high energy particulate arresting” which comes from the U.S. government (thus it's difficulty to understand  ) and has been around for many years. HEPA refers to a type of paper, also called “media” used in making a filter for an air purifier. The HEPA paper is a very finely meshed paper that can absorb particles. To make a HEPA filter, the manufacturer puts pleats in a very large piece of HEPA paper so that it can be compacted into a filter small enough to still fit in the machine, but without losing the capability of absorbing a great amount of pollens, dust particles, etc..

Home Air Purifier – many customers want to know the difference between an air purifier advertised for the home versus a commercial air purifier. The primary difference is that home air purifiers are typically portable (except for whole house units which require installation and are considerably more expensive) and commercial air purifiers require installation usually in a ceiling. All of the lines we carry are appropriate for the home and some, particularly the IQAir, Austin Air, and AllerAir lines are appropriate for some commercial applications.

Humidification – sometimes our customers get confused between air purification and humidification. They think that the air purifier will also humidify. It will, but only if the unit is a combination air purifier/humidifier like some of our Air-O-Swiss models. Generally speaking, air purifiers take in dirty air and exhaust clean air, and humidifiers put moisture into the air.
Ionic – this word refers to air purifier technology using ions and chemical reactions. A "positive ion" is an atom that has fewer electrons, and a "negative ion" is an atom that has more. Ionic air purifiers (also called ionizers) emit a negative ion which attracts the positively charged dust particles and they clump together, then the air purifier absorbs them. So that proves the old adage “opposites attact.”.

Impregnated Mats - this is the same as “carbon mats” listed above. To absorb odor, some air purifiers have thin mats of fibrous material that are impregnated with activated carbon (it's woven together). Typically the mats don't include enough carbon to absorb odor for an extended period (years). Other units (like Austin Air's) have many pounds of carbon that is integrated with the HEPA filter.

Media – in air purifier terms, media refers to filters or materials used to hold the toxins absorbed.

Microorganisms - living organisms like bacteria, viruses, and mold spores that typically cause disease.

Mold – although everyone knows what mold is (and how smelly and disgusting), when it is discussed in terms of air purifiers, it refers to the airborne spores that fly around in the air. Air purifiers, of course, cannot remove mold that has adhered to surfaces.

MCS – Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. MCS is medical condition in which a person has adverse physical reactions to certain chemicals. When exposed to chemicals like formaldehyde, people with MCS can have a whole range of reactions from nausea to respiratory difficulties. Air purifiers with high capacity for absorbing chemicals are helpful for persons with MCS.

Ozone- this term also gives people a lot of trouble when first shopping for an air purifier. They hear about ozone being bad on the television news, but also hear or see ads about air purifiers that clean using ozone. Is it bad or good? The ozone referred to in the weather report refers to unstable oxygen, O3, that is either formed naturally in the ozone layer of the earth, or produced by the photochemical reaction of certain pollutants in the air. It is bad for your health. Air purifiers that use technology which generates ozone to clean the air may be bad for your health, depending on how much is generated. Air purifiers whose primary purpose is to clean via ozone generation are particularly bad, however, models which emit only a microscope amount but use other technology to clean such as electrostatic plates or HEPA are not.

Particles and Particulate - these mean the same thing. In air purification, they refer to the tiny pieces of matter floating around in the air (skin flakes, dust, pollens, etc) as opposed to gases and chemicals that you can't see (formaldehyde, ammonia, etc).
Ultraviolet Purification – some air purifiers have an ultraviolet light in addition to their other filters. The UV light works by rendering bacteria, viruses, and mold that come into contact with it incapable of reproducing.

Product Spotlight – the New Blueair 201

Blueair fans will be delighted to know that a small unit is finally available. The new Blueair 201 cleans rooms up to 200 square feet, so it's ideal for home offices, the bedrooms of children and infants, and any other small rooms. Available in white or silver, the 201 carries on Blueair's sleek, simple European styling. As with other Blueair models, the 201 runs serenely quiet. It's price of $299 is easy on the pocketbook as well.


Austin Air Prices Going UP!

No manufacturer has held back price increases longer than our great partner, Austin Air Systems. We love our American-made Austin Air products because they're such workhorses and require so little maintenance or upkeep. We've had customers call in a panic saying “my Austin has been going non-stop for 8 years and I just realized I should probably change the filter!” But even Austin Air has finally decided that it is time to raise prices slightly. If you're leaning toward an Austin Air air purifier or will need filter replacements this summer, buy soon! Prices go up July 5, 2005. ClearFlite looks forward to many more years as an authorized Austin Air Dealer.

Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter.
ClearFlite Air Purifiers was established in 1990 and selling online since 1996.
Standing by to serve you!

 
Terri M. Zajac
President
ClearFlite Air Purifiers