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Comment by acgourley | Hacker News Reader

I'm still trying to reconcile the $300 price tag of yours with the price tag of a carbon filter (5 on amazon) HEPA filter (70 on amazon) and box fan (30 on amazon). Is there really 200 dollars worth of plastic, assembly, marketing and IP in the the whispure? Or is there one important element I'm not accounting for (perhaps fan power, fan noise, some kind of PID, or sensors to check filter health)

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a quote from the movie with the mock history of dr kellogs:

health is the easy way to a fool's wallet.

that said I have 3 expensive of those filter at my home. not that one, 3 other different brands. The main factor for my purchases were silence. and ironically the only one that was silent is a discontinued sharp model that sold for $150. all the $300 models are awful. specially the blueAir one that focus all it's marketing on being silent.

> health is the easy way to a fool's wallet

No it's not, especially with a preemptive health solution (solving a problem people don't feel they have).

You seem to be suggesting that pre-emptive health solutions are a very considered purchase, but isn't fear a major driver of such purchases? Perhaps not unwarranted fear, but fear is also not very conducive to completely rational purchasing behavior.

How do the three compare on size? I suspect that the blueAir has the smallest fan and the Sharp has the largest fan.

interesting assumption. The blueAir the largest one, by far.

and i wrote wrong! i don't have a sharp one. the silent one is from sanyo! it also has the ONLY truly silent humidifier included, though very low volume as it is only used for the ionizing shenanigans.

The site states RMB which stands for Ren Ming Bi, aka Yuan, aka PRC currency. It looks like a very specific market and I can see what they put together a DIY kit to drive the cost down given the market.

There is not 200 bucks of anything in it.

http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Fox-W1746-Fine-Filter/dp/B000QD7Y... is a good choice if you want a single large room done.

Hmm so I wonder if one should buy the carbon filters and tape it to the intake side. It's a cheap upgrade. A wire mesh in front of that might be good for the very large particles like hair or dust balls.

I have the same air filter and it works great. There wasn't anything by a reputable brand for less. So yes, there's a lot of valuable plastic and a quiet and reliable motor.

one reason might be that the market is much smaller for those then for fans or filters separately (smaller order quantities for the manufacturer = higher costs)

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