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Biohazard Filter Option on Primes?

Discussion in 'Prime Main Forum (2017-2022)' started by Shaunius, May 14, 2020.

  1. Shaunius

    Shaunius Junior Member

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    Tesla’s Model X offers this shouldn’t Toyota start offering this? I would pay for such a filter seeing as Wuhan still isn’t back to 100% by any means.


    iPhone ?
     
  2. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    Basically, you would be looking for a charcoal and HEPA filter.
     
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    the larger problem is the amount of fresh air bypassing the filter, when set to recirculate.

    toyota put a special recirc in early gen 3, but later dropped it due to cost.
     
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  4. Elektroingenieur

    Elektroingenieur Senior Member

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    For Prius Prime cars, the Mode Position and Damper Operation diagram in New Car Features (more info) shows that the clean air filter (cabin air filter) is downstream of the air inlet control dampers, so both fresh and recirculated air are filtered. Some air may bypass the filter, anyway—it’s designed to remove “pollen and fine particles,” not as part of a collective protection system (PDF) for CBRN defense.
    There is a charcoal filter available from Toyota, but I haven’t seen anything claiming that it is a HEPA filter. The part numbers and Japanese substitutes are the same as for fourth-generation Prius cars, with two updates since that posting: in the U.S., Toyota now offers a discounted “MVP” version of the charcoal filter, 87139-YZZ37; and the HVAC Odor Maintenance bulletin is now T-SB-0010-20 (PDF).
     
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  5. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    My take is if you live in the area where the viable airborne viral particle load is so high that you need a special filtration system in your car, you are much more likely to get the virus before or after you enter the car. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that you get infected by SARS-CoV-2 in the open air outside. If you are in a closed, crowded, close proximity space with infected people, that would be different story. But if that's true, you would not be in a car, I would think.
     
  6. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Literally one car out of the hundreds of models that have it.

    Why don't you just cut out a piece of HEPA filter (make sure it's snug so air can't bypass it) and install it yourself?

    Biohazard filter is literally a marketing brand thing. Just like "Autopilot". He's good at picking names/labels that sit well with the general public who can't be bothered to learn what it actually does.

    From wikipedia:

    Filters meeting the HEPA standard must satisfy certain levels of efficiency. Common standards require that a HEPA air filter must remove—from the air that passes through—at least 99.95% (European Standard)[4] or 99.97% (ASME, U.S. DOE)[5][6] of particles whose diameter is equal to 0.3 μm; with the filtration efficiency increasing for particle diameters both less than and greater than 0.3 μm.[7] See the Mechanism and Specifications sections for more information.

    N95 masks must filter, with 95% or greater efficiency, particles that are 0.3 microns - so slightly worse than HEPA.
     
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  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    agreed. i like good filtration for diesels, construction dust, fires and etc.
    viruses, not so much
     
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  8. kenmce

    kenmce High Voltage Member

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    You might be better off cobbling up a free-standing filter unit and set it on the floor somewhere. There's not a lot of room to retrofit stuff into the existing system. If all you do is change the filter, you have to consider the increased resistance of the new filter material, and if it would slow down the climate control to the point where it didn't work well.

    Charcoal filters are normally used for odor control, not particle management. An air ionizer might be shoe horned in without much change to air flow, but you need to access the filter periodically to wash it, and I don't know how they are with virus sized particles.
     
  9. PT Guy

    PT Guy Senior Member

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    1--it is very unlikely to find a sufficient virus load to cause infection in open air.
    2--It is very unlikely that the car's HVAC system set on recirc will filter enough air rapidly enough to catch many virus particles inside the car. The resistance to flow due to a much more restrictive filter may significantly decrease the air flow rate.
    3--A HEPA filter is tested with .3 micron particles. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is about .1 micron in size.
     
  10. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    No other person gets into my car, and I do not get into any car with another person. Also, I always recirculate the air, unless I'm going down the highway at least 50 mph that is nearly empty of cars.

    That method for avoiding the virus is better than any filter.
     
  11. m8547

    m8547 Senior Member

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    0.3 microns is the Most Penetrating Particle Size. Filters are actually better at catching both smaller and larger particles than that. This video explains it well around 5:57
     
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  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    yeah, just get one of these when driving, no worries :p
     
  13. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    Remember the good old days when threads about Cabin Air Filter replacement were dominated with pictures of filters covered in bits of leaves, unidentifiable dirt and dust, and sometimes chewed sections with rodent feces?
    We didn't care. -Some people shook the filter out right in front of themselves, vacuumed, replaced and continued on.

    Corona Virus 2020, and now we look for HEPA and Bio-Hazard approved filters.

    I'd like some feedback as to what the risk of contracting Corona Virus through my vehicles ventilation system actually is.
    If I drive and go grocery shopping, I'm more concerned right now about all the surfaces I might touch in my vehicle after returning, than whether my ventilation system filter is "Andromeda Strain" approved.

    Hey, I wouldn't tell anyone to NOT do something that is protective, or even makes them just feel safer. Do it, embrace safety.
    But I'm somewhat skeptical as to risk and benefit of these suddenly available Bio-Hazard filters.

    If this is the now. and the future? Show me some figures on risk and real benefit.
     
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  14. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I got the impression the thread was mostly about whether our car was buzzword-compatible with a Tesla.

    And the Tesla buzzword was blogged four years ago, not just recently.
     
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  15. mistermojorizin

    mistermojorizin Active Member

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    I guess it depends on what you mean by "open air", but there is this study: http://www.urbanphysics.net/Social%20Distancing%20v20_White_Paper.pdf

    I notice a lot of people seem to think it can't be spread outside at all. But that study suggests that it can, and from a longer distance if the carrier is in motion. So i could see that situation where someone has their window down in a fast moving car and it passes by your car. I agree it's much much less likely than getting infected in a crowded indoor space though.
     
  16. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    most experts agree that social distancing outdoors is very eefective, and there isn't anything to worry about.
    is the chance zero? nothing is ever zero

    coronavirus in moving outdoor air disperses enough to make vial loading almost impossible
     
  17. mistermojorizin

    mistermojorizin Active Member

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    do you have a source for that? generally, expert opinion is considered the LOWEST level of scientific evidence. that's another thing that a lot of people seem to have misconceptions about.

    [​IMG]
     
  18. mistermojorizin

    mistermojorizin Active Member

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  19. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    That pyramid is a nice graphic.

    In the spirit of crediting sources, it seems to be from here.
     
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  20. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i read that study, it wasn't outdoors, much less driving in a car with the windows up