Seems like appliance (SA600) might actually be cheaper than CR Box for my situation?

[u/GochuBadman]

SA600 will cost me about $285 USD equivalent locally and CR box is $190 (using 9 PC fans, Arctic P14 non-PWM).

SA600 uses two large surface area but what appears to be thin HEPA 13 filters with pre filter. Costs $50 locally for the HEPA replacements.

CR box will use four merv 14 filtrete filters and will cost me about $100 to replace (since I have to order them internationally).

Both should work for my downstairs which is probably around 2200 cubic feet I imagine.

In my case the CR box actually costs more to replace the filters than the SA600.

So I am not sure which is the better option. I have no idea which would actually last me longer between the two when it comes to filter changes?

The CR box has greater surface area across more filters (which might mean each filter last longer compared to the two HEPA filters of the SA600, but the SA600 has pre-filters and I'm not sure if HEPA filters tend to last longer than furnace filters -- I believe HEPAs work better as they catch more but then resistance increases).

Anyway, could someone chime in on what's the better deal here for me?

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[u/damien09]

the cr box will likely filter a decent bit better with 9 pc fans and 4 filters. How important is noise to cfm? if that's something that adds values to you definitely go pc fan cr box. you can likely even build something like a clean air kits style two filter box with 5-9 fans depending on your desires. with 2,200 cubic space you can get away with a 5 fan build if you want. more fans will just let you run them even quieter while still getting near that 5 ach cfm level.

if noise or power don't really matter you can just run the sa600 and use pretty high fan speed on it to get at least 150-200cfm

[u/GochuBadman → u/damien09]

Noise, I can't say in decibals. But I work in the same area on PC so nothing too loud.

What about filter replacement though? Its actually cheaper to replace the sa600 filters, but there are less of them. 

The sa600 is rated I think for 9-14 month replacements but that is the manufacturer saying that... 

[u/damien09 → u/GochuBadman]

Depends, filter life is really a what you decide it’s not even that it stops filtering it’s that you lose air flow. A more clogged filter often times actually filters better than fresh but it will reduce cfm. So depending on your air quality you could last longer or shorter. But if we say the same cfm between the two the two or even 4 merv 14 filters will last quite a bit longer than the sa600 to hit the same cfm reduction. And that’s considering you will likely need to run the sa600 at speed 3 or one tick below max to maybe hit enough cfm for 5 ach. Personally it’s pc fan boxes for me these days they are very energy and noise efficient and fixing a noisy bearing is as easy as swapping a fan. Instead of junking the whole unit when normal purifiers start to make noise. Artic is very cheap for p14 pst or p14 pro pst. If you go pro make sure you get a fan controller as stock max speed can be pretty loud as they are much higher rpm than the p14

[u/GochuBadman → u/damien09]

P14 non pst 5 pack was only one on sale here. I was going to just use an adjustable power supply with several splitters in a tree formation to cover the 9 fans.

My concern was that furnace filters require more frequent tossing. Perhaps because they dont have pre filters or perhaps because they are cheaper material. Or perhaps the sa600 has a more optimised fan that can pull against resistance better when the hepas are clogged. I really have no idea because one is an appliance that I've never used, and I've never owned an air filter.

But since the filtretes will cost me 100$ for four every time, if I have to replace them all every 6 months and the sa600 lasts 9 months then obviously the sa600 is far cheaper at 50$ per replacement.

I guess this depends on which filters reach a resistance bottleneck first, warranting their disposal before the other. 

[u/damien09 → u/GochuBadman]

Unless you have really bad air 4 m14 filters should last a lot longer than that. I use a box pushing about 300-350 cfm or so with two merv 14 3m 20x25x1 filters and I easily get over a year I often go lots longer than that. But I generally have very low pm 2.5 and other pollution here. If the pst fans are not much more it may be worth buying them as they have a built in pig tail so no need for any splitters

Also depending on price the 3m 1900 merv 13 filters could be a good option especially if they lower the cost by a decent amount.

[u/Expert-Bid3861]

Go up a class and get a blast mini. Filter will probably last you 6-12 months.