Earlier this year, I really dug into air scrubbers. Our last unit had finally bitten the dust, and unfortunately the manufacturer had gone out of business, leaving us filterless and high and dry when it came to replacement parts.
There’s not a huge difference in purification between air scrubbers equipped with a pre-filter and a main HEPA filter. There is, however, a wide range of sizes and airflow. I found portable units with cfm ratings ranging from 500 to 1,000, as well as larger units going all the way up to 2,000 cfm.
What I needed was a unit that one person could easily load and unload from a truck and that could fit through access holes when needed. Another key consideration was filter price and availability, as well as access to repair centers if the unit ever needed servicing. Lastly, I wanted to make sure the unit sealed up for transportation and had some sort of cord storage. I landed on the Dri-Eaz HEPA 700 air scrubber. It weighs 42 pounds, making it easy to load and unload, though it’s a bit larger than I’d like at 23 inches tall, 26 inches wide, and 17 inches deep. Still, that was not a deal breaker. Otherwise, it checks all the boxes and then some.
Jake Lewandowski
Cord storage is easy and the rugged unit has a built-in carry handle. The Dri-Eaz 700 has a digital readout that shows the status of the filter at a glance. With its built-in GFCI, users can gang multiple units together onsite.
The Dri-Eaz HEPA 700 is not the cheapest unit out there, with prices varying by supplier, but it’s sold all over the country and filters are readily available. I purchased mine locally and paid $1,200 plus tax, putting it at just over $1,300 out the door. I can also get the filters locally, and their cost is more reasonable than that of other units in its category. Pricing for the filters, like the unit itself, does vary by supplier. A box of five 2-inch MERV-8 pre-filters cost me just over $90, or about $18 each, and the main HEPA filter costs just under $180. That’s cheaper than what I was paying before, and I don’t have the additional cost of shipping on top of it.
Dri-Eaz also offers, for the HEPA 700 air scrubber, a 1-inch activated carbon filter that you use in conjunction with a 1-inch pre-filter. It is designed to remove the smell of smoke along with other odors, which is ideal for us when field-welding inside someone’s home or business.
The unit has a variable-speed fan ranging from 275 to 700 cfm. Even at full blast, the noise it generates is dwarfed by the sounds of an active jobsite. Operation consists of an indicator screen that shows the unit’s filter status and current fan speed, along with an on/off switch. There is also a mobile app available that allows you to monitor and fine-tune airflow. Dri-Eaz offers two styles of ducting: a semi-rigid inlet or outlet duct that is wire-supported, and lay-flat ducting, which is what we have been using. Lay-flat ducting is a roll of 14-inch-diameter plastic that you cut to length and use only as outlet ducting. Like all available air scrubbers, filter life varies greatly from task to task, and you might easily need to replace pre-filters daily if you’re demo-ing plaster or removing an abandoned chimney, for example. That said, it seems to be comparable to air scrubbers we have owned previously.
The Dri-Eaz HEPA 700 air scrubber is a durable, professional-grade unit. The exterior shell cleans up easily, filter changes are simple, and its cost to operate is lower than most. Drieazz.com
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