Lasko Air Flex Steel Portable Home Office 3 Speed Air Purifier Box Room Fan with 5 Blades, Manual Ergonomic Control Knob, and 6 Foot Cord, White

I own 4 of these now. I have used many different filters in the past 20 years, mostly 3M and Honeywell. The Lasko box fan filter is the most value for your dollar. Before they even made these I use to tape a 20x20 filter onto the back of my original Laskso fan.ProsThe design is simple and very easy to change the filter.You can use filters from many different companies so there is a huge secondary market instead of being pigeon holed into using a specific filter designed only for your model.Despite complaints about airflow, depending on the type of filter you are using, it moves a lot of air. I use a MERV 14 filter and leave it on low. No complaints.It's easy and convenient to clean, transport and store.ConsLoud, even when on the low setting. The higher the MERV rating of your filter, the louder it gets.It's not designed for cooling. Unless you remove the filter which defeats the purpose, this is not designed to provide a cooling effect. The airflow is weak and turbulent. You will get breeze from it but this is primarily for being left in corner to constantly clean the air.ConclusionIf you're looking for an inexpensive yet very effective way of cleaning the air in your home or office then this is the best value on the market. If you are looking to cool yourself off in the summer consider a regular Lasko fan or just removing the filter temporarily.SuggestionsFor everyday use and to get the most out of your purchase, use a MERV 14 filter.When cleaning your home or office, to effectively collect all the dust being kicked up, switch out the filter for a MERV 8 or 11 to significantly increase airflow.

I have owned other LASKO box fans before, some of them I have left running for years uninterrupted. I know them to be well built and long lasting machines. This is a standard LASKO fan with a built in cage for you to slot in a standard 20x20x1 HVAC filter.During the pandemic I rigged up a similar system with an HVAC filter and box fan with duct tape, but it was fragile and messy to replace the filter. This system is easy, filters are cheap to replace and easy to install. This system should last for many years with regular maintenanceHere in Washington State we get wildfire smoke in the air during the late summer. One day I woke up to find my AQI meter reading 100+, and I discovered there was was smoke in the air that day. I set up this fan and by the evening my AQI meter showed 20. I’m very impressed by the filtering effectiveness. Highly recommend

The media could not be loaded. Lasko Air Flex 2-in-1 20-inch Box Fan and Air Purifier in OneThis product fills a niche between ordinary fans and HEPA air purifiers.I wanted something like this for years, since I tried putting a pleated furnace filter on an old Lasko box fan but after a few months of use could smell the motor starting to burn up. Family members are allergic to pollen, so with this fan on cool evenings I can finally open the windows and use this fan to blow in cool, filtered air. I substituted a MERV 8 filter that's enough to filter pollen and still provide decent air flow (enough to still consider it a fan!) The MERV 8 filters ("FPR" 4-5), rated to capture 70 - 84.9% of 3 - 10 Micron particles, were 3 for $10-13 at a local home improvement store. You can't get more economical than that. After 3 years using it 2-3 hrs/day in the summer I'm still satisfied with the air flow (I do vacuum out the filter occasionally using a bagged upright vacuum with a high efficiency dust bag).I recently tried it as an air purifier by putting in a brand new 3M Filtrete MPR 2500 (MERV 14) filter. 3M rates these as removing 77% of 0.3 - 1 Micron particles (compared to HEPA 99.97%), but the air flow is very low. Low enough that it's not really a fan any more; with this filter I can barely feel any air flow 2' from the fan. Lasko says the Air Flex has a Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) of 42; they don't specify if this is for pollen, dust or smoke. 42 is very low which is why I can barely feel air moving through with the MERV 14 filter. For comparison a Honewyell HPA-200 has a CADR of 180 for pollen and 200 for tobacco smoke. The HPA-200 is about 2.5 times the price, but it provides a much higher rate of filtered air, though it's pretty useless as a cooling fan since it blows straight up.I also tried the MERV 10 filter that came with the Air Flex. I think the air flow is a little better with the MERV 8, and the price is definitely better. For reference, here are filter efficiency specs from several internet sites:_____ MERV ___Micron particle size_______#_____ 0.3-1____1-3_____3-10MERV _8_____ <20%___<20%___70-85%MERV 10_____ <20%___50-64%_>=85%MERV 14_____ 75-84%_>=90%__>=90%While the MERV 10 filter must capture more of something than the MERV 8, it's still not going to do much for smoke because "Particles from smoke tend to be very small, with a size range near the wavelength of visible light (0.4–0.7 micrometers)" (WILDFIRE SMOKE: A GUIDE FOR PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS, P. 12. EPA Aug 2019).HEPA air purifiers are overkill if you only have allergies and need to filter pollen. The cost of replacement HEPA filters in 1-2 years would be more than this whole fan. So if you want to save money, cool yourself off, and filter pollen, mold spores, and most dust, get this and put a MERV 8 filter in it. Once you have it, in a pinch if you need to purify a small amount of air because of smoke, airborne virus particles, etc. you can put a MERV 13 or 14 filter in and it will help a little bit. But if you really need to *purify* a lot of air, and don't need a cooling fan, buy a HEPA air purifier.I made two videos to try to demonstrate the difference in air flow, not knowing Amazon only allowed 1 video per review. The videos don't show the full effect you feel: with MERV 8 you can still feel a cooling breeze, not with MERV 14. I included the MERV 14 video, but you'll have to take my word for it that although the streamer (tissue) moving quite a bit, it's a wimpy breeze.P.S. if someone has had success taping a pleated filter to an ordinary box fan and it worked for years, please post the details (like which brand and model of fan & filter).18 Jan 2022 update: added MERV 14 info.4 Dec 2023 update: updated years of use and MERV 8 filter price. Increased rating from 4 to 5 because long term use demonstrates it still performs as it did when new. Reformatted the MERV 8,10,14 table for (hopefully) better readability. Also bought a 2nd one for my son, who requested it instead of an air purifier.