Lennox PureAir® Air Purification System: User Review? Opinion?

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frigilux

frigilux

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I'm replacing a 30 year-old Lennox Pulse furnace. Due to asthma/bronchitis issues, am considering adding a Lennox PureAir® Air Purification System, which appears to cost around $1100 and doesn't produce ozone.

Do you have one of these, or know someone who does? Is it worth the added expense?

I'm expecting estimates from the heating contractor tomorrow and bracing for major sticker shock.
I'd much rather spend $5,000+ on other things (or not spend it at all!) but the Pulse furnace is running on borrowed time, and I don't want to replace it in an emergency situation in the middle of January. The potential damage to water pipes, etc., in that situation is not worth the gamble.

If you have a new/newer Lennox furnace, let me know what you think of it and if you've had reliability issues.

Thanks, gang!

frigilux++10-2-2014-07-14-50.jpg.png
 
I've got a dual stage Lennox 98% efficient furnace and love it. It's been running fine for 10 + years. I have it set to CAC mode and the burner only operates on the low setting 90% of the time. With Continuous Air Circulation the house is totally comfortable, no hot or cool spots and the sir is continually cleaned. The blower is very quiet and I'm only aware of it when it ramps up in speed when the temp drops or the air kicks in.

We've been though a lot of furnaces in this house, small, big this is the best. Properly sized it run economically and I'm totally sold on the CAC concept.
 
If it uses the 4' pleated filters, its going to cost a fortune to keep running over the course of its life, too.
The regular 1' filters I buy for our system (since they're way better than the cheap, washable ones I used) are bad enough as it is...

However, I understand that electronic air cleaners are popular these days, so this system should be fine if thats the case. Such a system is probably good enough to meet EPA mandates for "clean air," even with people smoking (or trying to cook something different) in the house :P
 
Air Cleaner

Had a Lennox furnace with electronic air cleaner, worked well for 4 years, tough to clean the cells, always cut my hands had to do outside and most times had to soak... they were to big to fit in a sink. Also had to replace 2 boards on the unit which ran a couple hundred bucks.. when it ran it was great, just a ton of work to clean and maintain....Not sure if I would get another one, the new high efficency filters if changed every month seem to do just as well...
 
You will have to decide with your best guess. EVERYbody selling these things will blather that they will solve all your problems. Surely you know better than that. It's like a beer or cologne or teeth whitener advertising it will get you laid.

Remember a short generation ago when the joke was 'pretty soon they will charge us for air'? Well gas stations started charging for air about the same time. And it's not even GOOD air! You have to pay the super premium for that, nitrogen. Which its marketers claimed would give you longer tire life (plausible), better gas mileage (dubious), and longer harder erections (??).

You know what I mean. Disregard ALL advertising claims and drill down to the actual physics. Since you have an actual problem, not a marketing problem-- meaning an ad campaign designed to sell you something you didn't 'know' you needed.

Consider that constant fan will cost you plenty in terms of humidity control during cooling season, if that's an issue. Consider that 'positive pressure' systems prevent ingress of irritants. That UV only controls mold (which can be a problem irritant). That only carbon filtering controls volatiles. That household vinyls exude volatile irritants (your boy could be allergic to your wallpaper or showercurtain). That the more things you DON'T want in your air cost you exponentially more in money and repetitive maintenance.

And that Lennox almost certainly spends more on advertising hokum than they do on research/development.
 
The Lennox carbon filter model, which costs only $150, is highly-rated by CR. The $925 PureAir® model has two UVA lamps, a carbon filter and a titanium dioxide catalyst. Together, these are supposed to handle everything from chemical/organic vapors (from furniture/carpeting/flooring/paint/etc.) to killing mold, bacteria, viruses...

This is not an electronic air cleaner with the metal mesh that has to be dealt with. Of course 10-15 years ago the ozone-producing electronic air cleaner was supposed to be the answer to airborne allergy issues. Then it turned out that all the ozone was actually bad for your lungs. Now they tell you to avoid them like the plague.

I'm leaning toward getting the simpler carbon filter model. The PureAir® sounds great, but the difference in $$ outlay looks so much better without that $925 tacked on. I want to make a decision today so the new furnace can be installed early next week.

Matt, your positive experience with a newer Lennox furnace inspires confidence in the brand.

Thanks for weighing in, guys!
[this post was last edited: 10/3/2014-09:53]
 
I have Bear Filters on both of my furnaces. They are good at trapping particles and I usually change them out once a year. Much better than the small 1 inch fiberglass or the multi levels of small filters. Much cheaper than the units you are looking at. Happy Heating.
Jon
 
Frig I have to agree with Arbilab on this.

I'm never the eager one to go out and buy a product that purports to solve a problem I never knew I had in the first place.

You went over to the POD side. I'm slow accepting your choice but I will still do liquids and powder (when I can find it):)

But you should do your homework a bit more before taking the plunge. This is a lot of money and you want to be sure.
 
In our last house we had a Honeywell electronic air cleaner that did a good job. It is installed between the air handler and the ductwork. It had a rack with some bars on it that you removed the rack, took it outside and sprayed down. It caught a lot of dog dander from our dogs. We didn't have to dust inside the house nearly as much as we do now. We were amazed how much stuff was on the bars. We had to clean it every 60 days.
 
Decisions made! Prices include installation labor/materials.

Furnace: SLP98V (88,000 btu was recommended)
Price: $3915. ($850 in rebates from municipal utility, Minnesota Energy Resources, and Lennox bring price down to $3065)

http://www.lennox.com/products/furnaces/SLP98V/

Thermostat: iComfort Wi-Fi Touchscreen
Price: $350 ($65 in rebates brings price down to $285)

http://www.lennox.com/products/comfort-controls/iComfortWi-Fi/

Air Purifier: Carbon Clean 16
Price: $150

http://www.lennox.com/products/indoor-air-quality-systems/CarbonClean16/

Installation on Thursday. [this post was last edited: 10/4/2014-08:00]
 
Touch-screen thermostat?

I feel this is over-engineering on the behalf of the manufacturer... Hopefully it isn't anything like the "Nest Thermostat.."

William's Nest Thermostat Rant

A discussion of everything the Nest thermostat gets completely wrong.
greyghost.mooo.com
 
This is what sold me on the Wi-Fi touchscreen thermostat: It alerts you if there is a malfunction.  

 

For instance: It's the middle of January and the furnace fails to ignite.  Wham! You get an alert before the water pipes freeze and burst and cause a plague's worth of damage.
 
I Think You'll Be Very Pleased

Two years ago, I replaced a 17 year old Lennox Pulse furnace with a Lennox SLP98UHV and have never been happier. By combining it with the iComfort Thermostat, you'll also benefit from variable rate output (from 35 to 100%) - in 1% increments - both heating-up and cooling-down.  Most other multi-stage thermostats can only provide a maximum of four stages - and only in the heating-up direction.  If the unit is sized properly and your ductwork is solid you should enjoy even-heating with extremely quiet airflow.  (And if the diaphragm in your old Pulse furnace could get as noisy as mine often did, you'll really appreciate the ultra-quiet operation of their new design).

 

The iComfort thermostat is pretty slick and allows remote access thru your smart phone.  I would have to say the iComfort has gone through periods where it fails to communicate with Lennox's servers, and you're left with periods where you cannot communicate remotely with the thermostat.  Although its been very stable for many, many months, it does, on occasion, lose communication.  During the heyday of constant disconnects - and many complaints, Lennox refused to acknowledge the issue was at their end.  Way too many folks, with too many different home modems/routers, etc., setups experienced the same issues to allow Lennox to get off the hook.  Clearly the issue was (is) at their end, but they have refused to acknowledge it - or if a change should be made at the users end - has never indicated how users should change a router setting at their end.  Again - it's been very stable, so perhaps tweaking has been going on "behind the scenes". So you should be able to enjoy its benefits with little issue.  

 

Let us know how its doing once the installation is completed.
 
The Lennox SLP98V is installed.  It's quite a bit shorter than the old Pulse furnace.  

I am a little concerned about air reaching the far corners of the house with the low air speeds this unit has.  My ductwork is from 1963, and probably fairly leaky.  Guess I'll find out in a couple of months!

 

The touchscreen wi-fi thermostat is great.  It's a full-color little TV screen.  Installed the Lennox iComfort app on my iPad, and can control all functions of the thermostat from anywhere.  It also sends alerts if there's a malfunction.

 

Note:  I usually keep the thermostat at 65 degrees, but it needs to run a lot tonight in order to get rid of the smoky "first time" fumes.  It set off a fire alarm in the tuck-under garage (where it lives) and one in the family room on the lower level earlier this afternoon.

 

#1: The thermostat (as you can see, the date & time have yet to be set correctly, LOL)

#2:  The app thermostat on my iPad

#3:  The furnace

 

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The yellow gas line is CSST, and been used a lot in the last 10 years.

I have the 4" Honeywell media filter. Much better than the EAC that has a higher maint, and things to go wrong. I change the filter out twice a year, simple as that.

I run my fan on my Trane XV90 in the winter 24/7 and only in AUTO in the summer. Hooked up to a Honeywell IAQ stat that controls the stages.
 

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