Report: Sharper Image purifiers actually make air worse
posted April 13th 2005 7:29AM
We wouldn't want to be in customer support at The Sharper Image these days. With the company's lawsuit against Consumer Reports thrown out by the courts, the purveyor of overpriced and uninspired gear now faces new charges related to the same product that led to the suit in the first place: its Ionic Breeze air purifiers. And this time, it's not just that the Breeze doesn't work, as CR charged in 2003. The magazine's latest study charges that the units actually make air quality worse, by releasing excess ozone into the air — something that can cause serious respiratory problems, especially for asthmatics or other people with breathing concerns (who, not incidentally, are among the biggest purchasers of air purifiers). Not surprisingly, Sharper Image's stock has plummeted, and it released a statement calling the report "an unfair assault." Meanwhile, we imagine the company is desperately retooling to come up with another hit product, and that we'll see their ever-popular electric nose-hair trimmer on the cover of their next catalog.
I never bought one of these because of the insane price. I always enjoyed standing in front of them at the sharper image stores though. I bet now I can get one at a resonably significant discount. I will just have to deal with the excess ozone.
CR seems to have their shorts in a knot over the Ionic Breeze.
Their problem, I am guessing, is that everyone who has an Ionic Breeze LOVES it.
Everyone I know who doesn't have one is skeptical - everyone I know who has one thinks it is fantastic. Yes, I have one. It works great.
What can I say? It does work. Sorry, CR.
Want a second opinion, how about the Environmental Protection Agency:
"When inhaled, ozone can damage the lungs...Relatively low amounts can cause chest pain, coughing, shortness of breath, and, throat irritation. Ozone may also worsen chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and compromise the ability of the body to fight respiratory infections."
from their report on ozone air cleaners:
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html
do you smell that??? hmmm...smells like a lawsuit to me.
Seriously; all you people who are duped into believing that air can be purified effectively without actually pushing anything through a cleansing unit at a certain CFM rate, are seriously succombing to a marketing spin like no other product.
I read the CR report that originally bashed the ionic breeze a few years back. The article didn't show some sort of bias against the I.B., it just showed that it flat out doesn't purify the air even close to as well as other purifiers on the market. Doesn't mean that some purification directly around the unit didn't occur, but it certainly wasn't purifying a whole house, or even a big room.
The Ionic Breeze is a joke, and everyone who dropped all those benjamins to get one have been seriously duped. I feel sorry for you...I really do!
Ozone is highly corrosive. Deadly in high enough percentages (which aren't much). It will eat away plastic and metal. Shortly after I found out that the IB released Ozone as a biproduct I was near a Sharper Image, I went in to inquire.
me: I have a question about the IB
SI: Yes, they are one of our highest selling products.
me: does it produce Ozone?
SI: well sir, any device that ionizes air has some Ozone as a biproduct.
me: can you tell me how much?
SI: all devices like this do it.
me: are you aware that it's deadly to humans and is highly corrosive.
SI: well, all devices like that produce Ozone to some extent.
me: are you aware your device can be deadly in small confined spaces?
SI: Any device will produce Ozone if it ionizes the air.
me: did they tell you to say this? Or can you give me a real answer?
SI: Sir would you like to purchase one?
me:goodbye.
Wasn't this stuff revealed to be dangerous YEARS ago?
This is old news. Sharper Image has had ionic devices back in the early 90s. I remember looking at them and and like Deadpan said, it was revealed many, MANY, years ago that it has the mentioned side effect.
This is what Richard Thalheimer, Sharper Image founder, chairman and chief executive officer, has to say on the matter:
http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/cust_help/consumerreportresponse.jhtml
is that what that black stuff is on the metal cartridge thingies? the metal having corroded and turning black, rather than "impurities from the air"? if so that'd be funny
"Q. How much ozone is too much?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires ozone output of indoor medical devices to be no more than 0.05 ppm.
Underwriters Laboratory's UL Standard 867 2 requires ozone output of household electrostatic air cleaners to be no more than 0.05 ppm."
"Q. How much ozone comes from the Ionic Breeze:
A. The Sharper Image strictly controls emissions of ozone from its Ionic Breeze products. Ionic Breeze air purifiers create trace levels of ozone as a by-product of their electrostatic technology that circulates air electronically. They are tested and conform to the UL Standard 867, which requires that output of ozone be less than 0.05 ppm (also shown as 50 ppb, or 50 parts per billion). This is within or less than the ozone level allowed by the FDA, OSHA, NIOSH and EPA's standards. Since the odor detection level of ozone is very low, an odor of ozone may be easily perceived, even though levels are well within acceptable limits."
What if you have multiple units in your household? Does this double the amount of Ozone produced? The FDA and UL's levels are acceptable for humans, what about pets?
#1 (chris) - so after hearing that the Ionic Breeze not only DOESN'T work but also discharges toxic ozone, you've decided that now would be a great time to buy one?!? "I will just have to deal with the excess ozone." Are you serious? That's akin to saying "hey, this broken gas heater does a great job of heating up my office, i'll just have to deal with the excess CO gas it produces."
#2 (snowpuff) - "Their problem, I am guessing, is that everyone who has an Ionic Breeze LOVES it." God forbid that a magazine called "Consumer Reports" should say anything bad about a bad product that does the opposite of what it's trying to accomplish. I'd like to know what thorough scientific tests you conducted to trump CR's findings.
all i can say for the ionic breeze is that it did remove the smell of cigarettes from a friend's new apartment (after he'd tried candles, febreeze, open windows, the whole deal - couldn't wash the ceiling as they were like 12+ feet up) - how that worked i have no idea, but i also doubt the amount of ozone this thing produces isn't enough to do any real damage (shit, isn't car and truck pollution 10000x worse? and isn't it things like that that make people buy ionic breezes in the first place??)
The thing is: ozone doesn't bother me, but pollen does. The Ionic Breeze fixed my recurrent allergy problems, and it does a nice job of getting all that cat hair and dander that floats around.
"Introducing the new Ironic Breeze. Not only does it not purify the air as well as other products, but it actually pollutes it."
Whatever happened to the Cool High Tech products Sharper Image sold? I remember when you could by the first Palm Sized PC's there (WinCE with clamshell keyboard) and many other HIGH tech stuff. Last time I went in ours, right before it closed, they were a complete and not as good ripoff of Brookstone. I remember a time when there were NO healthcare or hygiene products therere.
New York State (or City, I forgot) was handing these out, for free, as some sort of air quality improvement campaign about 18 months ago. All you had to do is to fill up a form, send it in, and a nice delivery person would bring one at your home a month or so later.
My wife filled the form and we've had one of those things sitting in our living room for more than a year.
We never got to fill any surveys about how our quality of life had improved because of this wonderful gadget, nor were we given any devices to actually monitor the air quality in our apartment.
Whoever the sales person from Sharper Image was that sold the concept and the gadgets to New York has to be a pretty happy camper right about now.
What's wrong with you people claiming that the article says the IB, and other ionizers, don't work. You can read, but can you comprehend? They say they work to a lesser degree then HEPA. But they do work.
As for people saying that the IB, or other ionizer is great, well how dumb can YOU be? Jesus, yes it works to some extent, but are you to daft to see the possible problems this article should trigger for you?
I find it odd that CR would fail the IB for their room test, when it came in BELOW the federal standard they were using as a pass/fail point. Ok, 48 ppb is pretty damn close to 50 ppb, but it technically passed.
What the article fails to mention is the dimensions of the room and exact ventalation. What if you have no, or poor ventalation with an IB? How long does it take for the ozone to disipate? And obviously, if you have multiple IB's you are definitely over the Federal limit in that room.
The article also doesn't take the further step to criticize the government. SI had to get a patent for this, no? Why are ozone emitting devices not governed if they are do hazardous?
At the very least, SI and other resellers, should be required by federal law to note the possible dangers due to multiple units, inadequate ventalation, and room size.
We own two of of them for our bedrooms. WHen it's on a sleep better and wake up with out allergy congestion, when it's not I wake up feeling like a truck rolled over me.... Straw man sample but it's doing something and it's good for me, perceptible so. Long term is it killing me quicker then cigarettes would (I don't smoke) sounds like there might be some reason to be wary but I still rather sleep without allergies.
I think Beck said it best: "Don't believe everything that your breathe"
Incidently, any device that produces an electrical arc or spark produces ozone. Electric motors, like in vacume cleaners and hair driers, produce ozone. I have not read the CR test, but I'm certain the other air purifiers produce some ozone.Hybrid cars emit some ozone
Sounds like the IB owners never heard of the placebo effect.
I used to work as a sales associate for Sharper Image a few years back.
When Consumer Reports first stated that the Ionic Breeze didn't work as well as other air purifiers, the company gave us the following information to address customer's questions about the consumer report's article.
Sharper Image seriously questioned with their testing methods. Apparently, consumer reports only ran each air purifier for 5-10 minutes for each test. So it made sense that units with large fans would move/clean more air in that time frame, while the IB, which is fanless and meant to be continuously running, would clean much less air in the 5-10 minute time frame.
Since then, I don't know if any of the tests from Consumer Reports accounted for this.
ok, now CR releases a report saying they are actually harmful. Wow, I think that they are just getting back at Sharper Image for the lawsuit (thrownout or not, it was a pain for CR). CR, you already proved they don't work, lay off of SI, you've already done your damage to the company.
I don't own an IB, nor do I plan to, but I have to say: Jadon, i agree with and like your point.
I am a fan of CR, but even i've found that sometimes their testing methods don't make sense. I do market research for a living, and the way these guys setup studies for some things just isn't practical.
My boyfriend and I live in the most dusty apartment I've ever seen. You can dust and in about a day there ia a noticable layer of dust back as if you never even attempted to clean.
This being the case and that I have bad allergies my boyfriend bought two IB's in an attempt to thwart the dust demon.
1) It does do something. Overall how effective it is I'm not sure but it helps.
2) If you own one and didn't notice that it emitted ozone I think there is something seriously wrong with you. I usually can't smell anything because of my allergies but after 5 mins of having the IB running I could smell the ozone.
I'm probably going to die of cancer anyway because of continual use of my cell phone. I live in a city so all the exhaust is destroying my lungs. I avoid the doctor because I don't want to be put on some drug that can cause kidney failure or any other failure. Most people own microwaves and laptops.
My point, we are industrialized. It's not like we can truely avoid health hazards. Especially not if we want our creature comforts.
Hahahaha. That commercial is on this very second.
I have the biggest, baddest IB they make, I'm a smoker, my IB is in my smoke room. It has minimal effects on the constant dusting or removing airborne particles. However, it does what I bought it for: It ABSOLUTELY kills all noxious odors and completely hides that the room has ever been smoked in. I've been sleeping in the same room with this thing for a year and a half with it on full blast and have had NO adverse health effects whatsoever. If you stay in a room with one of these things without opening the door for days and days, you MIGHT generate enough ozone to harm yourself, otherwise, it is nothing to worry about. Didn't one of the 'darwin award' nominees kill himself by staying in a stagnant room with his farts? Who knows it that's a true story, but you get the point, eh? This thing is not the health hazard they make it out to be or I would have ozone induced pulmonary edema from sitting in a tiny room with the largest ib they make on it's highest setting. Consumer reports are great, but you have to take it all with a grain of salt and form your own opinions.
it was a scam from the beginning. what animation they showed in the tv ads and the goodness of their products. it is sad that it took too long for it to go public. but some peeps are so stupid they will pay $20 for a penny, if they see it on tv.
http://www.torkhum.com
Not one negative comment here has been from someone who bought one. I'm not saying every owner has sang its praises, but for some reason, this topic makes some people NUTS. Like frothing vitriolic angry.
Whatever. So many scientific precepts change every decade - rock solid unquestionable known facts - that the anger over this is just weird. No one even knows if we'll all have brain cancer in 30 years and the cell companies will be the next Big Tobacco in terms of lawsuits.
So if you don't own one of these, why do you care? People who have it like it.
Can anyone recommend a good air purifier that costs less than $400? I'm currently in the market for one.
Throw a few million of these up into the atmosphere, and say goodbye to global warming!
I bought one of those Ionic Breeze GP air purifiers (the one with UV light) and it does seem to clean the air but you can really smell the ozone in a closed room where it's been running. In fact, the ionized air knocked the crap out of the inkjet prints I had on the wall. So I did a controlled test. I printed ink samples onto plain paper and also photo paper. I cut the sheets into two, taped half onto the front of the IB and put the other half in a plastic bag. After just less than two months you can see the results here: http://www.mediabaron.com/test/fade_test.jpg
The UV lamp tube was removed during this time so the fading was not from UV light, it's from the ionized air. I chatted with an HP engineer and she said they do archival tests by blasting inkjet prints with ionized air.
If you own an IB put those prints behind glass or spray a sealant over the prints. God only knows what else the ionized air is doing to people and or things like the dyes in clothes or other fabric in an apartment.
I have another brand of air purifier so I hope that it does not hurt me.
It is important to remember that ozone (03) is an extremely aggressive oxidizing agent. In plain terms, oxidation is essentially the process by which tissues in our body age and eventually die. Now it's still unclear the amount of ambient ozone that is produced by IB machines, but know this, OZONE IS POISON. So while your enjoying the "fresh" air in your den bring a vanity mirror so you can appreciate the accelerated rate at which you are aging. Remember, wrinkles make you look distinguished!
We have an IB in our office, it sits next to my desk. I just love it, I am the only person that doesn't smoke at work and when they all light up outside the back door, the smoke floats in. In a few minutes I can't even tell they smoke. This past winter no one got the flu. Colds were down, which is great because we usually pass colds around person to person. The only thing I don't like about the IB is the sizzling noise it makes, and talk about gunk on the metal. If that stuff would normally be floating in the air, it sure has my vote for working great!
I think there is something to these reports about the effects of the Ionic Breeze. I sing professionally and have never had problems singing, until I purchased an Ionic Breeze about 2 years ago to clean the air in my apartment. Not being aware of all these warnings of what increased levels of OZONE can do to one's respiratory system in a small space, I continued to use it. Since I've been using the Ionic Breeze, I've had increased dryness in my throat that I can't seem to shake and I've been having problems singing. I never equated it to the Ionic Breeze until I started seeing/hearing these reports, and realizing that I DO have some of the symptoms. Needless to say, I've stopped using the Ionic Breeze because I fear it could (if it hasn't already) permanently damage my voice. Another side effect mentioned in these reports is choking for no apparent reason, which I have experienced. It did rid my apartment of normal everyday smells, but at what cost...my career?
It's definitely not worth the risk!
I have had an ionic breeze for several years and have gone through periods when I have questioned its effectiveness.
One thing that I have noticed and confirmed recently is that silver and silverplate items close to an IB "turn" extremely quickly. It took me awhile to figure this out and since then I have used my IB sparingly. I may not be the brightest bulb, but this just didn't sit well with me.
I only learned of the ozone issue today in "The Week" and will now use the IB rarely, if at all.
I bought several of these air ionizers a while back from a company named Zeolitedepot. They claimed that these devices were identical in functionality as the Ionic Breeze sold by Sharper Image. I put one of them in each room in my house. A few days later, I noticed that my voice was extremely hoarse, and my throat was very dry. My roommate, who hardly ever gets sick, suffered from throat problems and got sick. I am especially sensitive to anything that affects the lungs since I've had pneumonia about 12 years ago and never fully recovered from it. After I started using the ionizers, I started coughing a lot, and my voice pitch changed significantly. I read online on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website that ozone has a negative effect on the respiratory system. I promptly returned the devices to the company, and noticed that the negative effects we were sufferring slowly alleviated, but I don't know if we suffered any permanent damage to our respiratory systems. Does anyone know where I can write in order to complain about these ionizers so that nobody else gets hurt? I would hate to see that happen to anyone, especially the elderly and those with lung problems. Thanks for your help.
I had one of these for a very short time. Came home one day, pet bird was in agony, watched it die. Good-bye Ionic Breeze.
Bought one had it for two years, started to develop breathing problems, coughing all the time and dummie me couldn't figure out what was wrong until I came across a website putting IB down. I don't think my breathing will ever be the same. This product has done irreparable damage as far as I'm concerned. Do not buy this product if you value your breathing!
Well apparently not everyone who bought an IB was happy with it. It looks like the best way to purify air is still with the good ol' hepa filter.
My son has asthma and this thing has helped alot. He doesn't use the respirator at home as much anymore and the only times he does use it are after coming home from a more-than-1-day stay at other people's houses. I use it now in the kitchen.
I remember the first time I used it and that fresh smell was there, but I don't notice that anymore unless I put my nose close to the unit. Maybe I'm just used to it because it still works and I love it! For all those critics, do you own one? If by a miniscule chance that you do, give it to me then since its so dangerous.
I don't know what all the hype is about regarding ozone.
I have been building Tesla Coils for years, making up to 6-10'arks, you never smelled so much ozone in your life if you've never been around one of these babies... I love it and breathe it in deeply and have no lung damage to show for it.
You should try reading some of Nicola Tesla’s writings about ozone.
You only really create a lot of ozone when you burn the air with high energy electric discharges.
I don’t think the IB could be all that dangerous.
We had an IB in our bedroom for over a year.One AM woke up to black soot floating in air and attaching itself to everything and especially to the IB.It literally clogged the IB but was all over the room.We had a furnace man come to check if that was the source but he found nothing wrong.Has anyone else had this problem.We had to repaint the walls.
Have had the same problem as Bill, black soot all over the room where the IB is located. My wife was burning candles in another part of the house. Could that bee the problem?
We had burned candles many times including in the hall right outside our bedroom but never had a problem.I am sure you could have a problem with candles being burned in the same room as the IB.
Bill
Ionized air is bad. Haven't you learned this by now?
I am doing some research to this, because of the fact that everyone has them and the idea behind it even SOUNDS dangerous...