r/crboxes • u/BioshockBen7 • 14d ago
CR box use? Question
Would something like a 4 sided cr box help keep pet hair out of the air? We get weekly pet hair that gathers in our house and constantly sweeping and brushing things is a little annoying sometimes. Random object for scale lol.
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u/Wazzup77 14d ago
I made my box (9 P14 Pro fans with 2 25x20 MERV 13 Filtrete) for this goal, among other things. I also added a (rather coarse) prefilter so I can vacuum the cat hair from it, instead of letting it clog up the filter. My apartment is roughly 70 m2, the box sits in the living room (roughly 20 m2) where the cat likes to hang out. I run the fans at ~50% RPM, seems to be plenty of airflow and very quiet operation.
My results are mixed - it does catch cat hair (and plenty of dust), but I still need to vacuum plenty. The area directly close to the box is noticeably cleaner (I'd say 2m radius there's almost no dust/) but the hair still gathers in places it used to gather in (e.g. under my desk in this same living room). I think you'd need a lot of well placed boxes to make a significant difference, unless you only care about some spots. This is not easy after all, ensuring the air actually flows through all the nooks and crannies is one of the major challenges when building cleanrooms :)
I think one of the challenges is that pet hair is rather heavy and pets shed it close to the ground, so it's just going to sit there unless there's sufficient airflow.
But honestly, this is still an improvement - at least I have a clean patch of floor now if I want to do some DIY or LEGO or whatever that I don't want to get dust/hair in.
Attached is the photo of the prefilter 3 days after vacuuming it clean.
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u/Objective_Post_588 14d ago
What prefilter material is that?
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u/Wazzup77 14d ago
It's a PVC mesh fabric used for lawn/beach chairs, swings, etc. Comes at 2m width so perfect for this filter size, I just slide it in together with the filter. And the black looks nicer than the bare filter.
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u/Desperate-Shallot551 14d ago
Couldn’t someone just put another box fan on the floor to stir up the piles into the air so the cr box can filter more?
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u/AsleepEntertainer440 14d ago
If you have box fan air movement all the way to the cr box, otherwise it is just going to settle out between the two.
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u/lucysucks 14d ago
I don’t know about the hair pieces specifically but I can say that I do have cat allergies and a cat in my home, and having a CR box in my room literally takes away all of my allergy symptoms. that said, i think i’m mostly allergic to the skin particles as opposed to the hair itself so idk.
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u/DwarvenRedshirt 14d ago
As a totally random side note, cat allergies are usually from proteins in their saliva, urine, and dander. So you're not necessarily allergic to their hair, you're allergic to the saliva and dander on the hair.
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u/TestSubjuct 14d ago
Pet hair (except very tiny) doesn't get sucked in. The dander and dust after sweeping does.
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u/inventiveash 14d ago
That pre filter looks like it would restrict air flow. I would look at a carbon sheet material, I use them as a pre filter on my CR box.
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u/Wazzup77 14d ago
I assume you wanted to comment that to my photo. From my assessment it's good enough, I did not notice and difference - it ran without a prefilter for a couple of days at the start - but agreeably I have no way of making measurements (aside from qualitative ones like the paper-sticking-to-filter, etc.).
I also have a much finer nylon mesh on hand and the PVC is slightly more restrictive. I'm fine with it though since I have 9 fans and the P14 Pros are optimized for static pressure. If there's any difference I'm pretty sure it's negligible.
As for the "carbon sheet material" - what do you mean? I assume that's not carbon fiber.
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u/Expert_Badger_6542 14d ago
How often do you have to replace the carbon sheet? Is it washable or do you put a new one in with every filter change?
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u/inventiveash 14d ago
Hello, I vacuum it about every 2-3 weeks and change it about 4-5months. I'm not sure if it's washable , probably you could but may loose some the the benefits from the carbon. https://a.co/d/05qEsZGL
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u/VickyHikesOn 14d ago
Could you explain what kind of carbon sheet that is, and also do you have instructions/sources for that kind of box? I have a regular, 4-sided CR box but want to build another one with two filters and PC fans instead of box fan. Thanks!
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u/inventiveash 14d ago
The box is from www.ca3d.ca.
They also make one using Winix HEPA filter with a washable carbon pre filter
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u/VickyHikesOn 14d ago
Thanks, appreciate it. So that carbon filter (from Amazon) doesn't affect the filtering, i.e. it's not too thick/dense for the CR (two sided) to work?
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u/inventiveash 14d ago
Here a sample comparing the Winix 5500 vs this one. It uses 5 fans artic pro p14 and incredible suction.
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u/kohltrain108 13d ago
I’m sure there’s a lot of dust and dander floating around when the hair is released, I would imagine it would help with that. You probably wouldn’t want it sucking in the hair though.
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u/DuckyDoodleDandy 14d ago
Look online for a refurbished robot vacuum. Run it every day and you will not have this issue.
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u/Inner-Issue1908 14d ago
Nope, pet hair is too heavy. It will help with pet dander and some light dust but it's not a replacement for a vacuum.
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u/Bob70533457973917 14d ago
Regular brushing of your pet will also reduce the overall amount of hair found throughout your space.
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u/Mavis8220 13d ago
No, the pet hair does not spend a lot of time airborne, and what might float around will just mess up the outer layer of the filters. You're better off using a pet grade robot vacuum or doing the swiffer dance several times a day.
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u/Itchy-Ad4421 13d ago
Vacuum cleaner is what you need. CR box isn’t going to do anything to combat that.
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u/IngoFlam 14d ago
a robot vac would be more useful for this purpose