What benefits do you feel from having four filters? Not hating, genuinely curious. It's just never occurred to me to filter the air in my home aside from burning something on the stove or similar
It depends greatly on your climate. I didn't need one in the midwest, where air quality is pretty good and there's a lot of humidity in the air, but when I moved westward I definitely noticed the difference in air quality (my asthmatic symptoms came back which I haven't had since I was a child).
Especially in autumn when the wildfires start up - even if it's many miles away there is a very noticeable degradation in air quality.
I have asthma and mild allergies triggered by pet dander and sometimes seasonal pollen and such. It's a 3 bedroom house. 7 rooms total. And we have pets, because we're dumb.
Ideally we'd have one filter for each room, but they're not the cheapest things, so we just keep them in the rooms where we spend the most time.
Do they work? They've had a positive impact on my asthma/allergies. Not a magic cure, but nothing is. Obviously, it is a part of a comprehensive strategy that includes vacuuming and so forth.
Side benefits of the filters are that they also cut down on dust accumulation on surfaces, and are somewhat effective at reducing odors in general thanks to the swappable charcoal filters.
(FWIW they used to go on sale for like $119 once in a while, in pre-COVID times. That's when we got ours...)
It's just never occurred to me to filter
the air in my home aside from burning
something on the stove or similar
Yeah, I don't think this is some sort of thing that everybody needs to do.
If you're currently doing fine, then this doesn't seem like something you need....
I have one in the bedroom and one in the main living/office area. They were essential in California during the past few years of fires. The indoor air quality was maintained consistently while outdoors was horrendous.
It's not a necessity if you have the window open to move around the air, but that's typically not as much of an option in the winter. You'd be surprised how much dust and particles a purifier picks up.
If you take a look at the photos for the Blue Air 211 on Amazon, you can see how much it picks up. Mine was exactly like the photos. The pre-filter was completely covered in dust, and the inner filter was completely dark after 6 months of use.
Mine run 24/7 on low for a few years so far, one is going on 3 years and the other is about 8 months. No issues other than periodic cleaning and filter replacement. Main hint: keep a spare filter before California fire season.
I check my indoor air quality and I only have to raise them to medium/high when air quality is bad outside (winter temperature inversions, summer fire season) or when cooking (often don't bother but I'm not as sensitive)
Especially in autumn when the wildfires start up - even if it's many miles away there is a very noticeable degradation in air quality.