Maybe it's time to check your cabin pollen filter?

changed both of ours a couple of months ago and they both looked just like yours. Nice to see that all that diesel soot is in the filter and not in the bottom of your lungs. I checked Dave's when I was down in Olympia/Lacey in May and his was relativily clean compared to ours.

 

Electrostatic filter

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius\";p=\"100592)</div>

[font=Comic Sans MS:d4d65fd64d]Who makes an electrostatic filter? Is it active (powered) or passive?[/font:d4d65fd64d]

 

DaveG,

It looks like you have mostly Los Angeles in that there air filter with just a little Washington State and BC mixed in.

Magnified, the filter looks a lot like L.A. while on final approach into LAX. ukeright:

 

at $35 i am definitely not looking for extra coin options.

also, you might interested in knowing that ive checked mine twice and both times, it was dirty. the first time was after 9 months of ownership (thanks Frank) the 2nd time , a month after the first time.

but i simply took the filter out, rinsed it with the spray attachment of my kitchen sink, let it sit overnight to air-fry, then re-installed it.

i will continue this method until the filter tears or otherwise, starts showing signs of deterioration.

 

I clean mine at least every couple months washing it as Dave does. However I have an activated charcoal filter behind the paper element. Thus the large particles are taken out by the paper element and the charcoal shows much very fine stuff.
The charcoal filter is from a Honeywell HEPA filter unit, the round kind. The width is exactly right size and I cut several out of the length. Unfortunately I am not at my Washington home right now and do not remember the model number of the system. Go to a Home Depot and look at their replacement filters and measure to fit your unit.

 

Winnipeg city driving does that too. The filter stays fairly clean during winter, but with all the summer construction going on, it's already filthy.

 

Electrostatic filter

[font=Comic Sans MS:9f1b55f955]Well, if you can tickle your memory bone and recollect where you may have seen this electrostatic filter, I'd still be interested. I, too, put a charcoal filter foam element after the pleated, formed OEM element, mostly to remove odors. I'm one of those people who does not like a new car smell.

Washing the pleated filter may remove some of its effectiveness, though any filter is better than none, which most cars have. Typically, passive electrostatic filters are designed to be washable.[/font:9f1b55f955]

 

That's also great advice for odd-size furnace filters too.

When I built my home in the Burbs around 4.5 years ago, I had a Bryant HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilator) installed.

The HRV is used to draw in fresh outside air and exhaust stale indoor air, very important for tightly sealed homes. The heat core allows heat transfer so at -40 you're not dumping icy air into the home.

The standard "filter" was a chunk of foam, so that had to go pronto. It was actually drawing in dust and pollen that summer. The Bryant dealer wanted to sell me "special" Bryant media filters, like $60 each.

He had some in stock and made the mistake of letting me take a close look at them. It was hard to make out but they were stamped "American Air Filter."

I took along one of the foam "filters" to the nearest Home Depot and found a wonderful selection of high efficiency (MERV 8-12) in stock, in many different sizes. I went with a MERV 12 in 14x25, which was closest to one of the dimensions of the foam "filter."

It even had a charcoal/carbon prefilter. $18 Cdn and all I had to do was trim to fit, so $9 per filter. Compare that to $60.

 

I have friends that swear by the Ionic Breeze by Sharper Image. I see that there are a couple of models made for in-car use. Anybody have any experience with these (car or otherwise)?

 

Read Consumer Reports, last month I think, about Ionic filters.

 

consumers report trashed the ionic breeze so badly that ionic breeze sued them. ionic breeze lost btw

 

passive Electrostatic filter

[font=Comic Sans MS:dc9e1cab8e]Thanks, Tideland, for the link. I'll check into this.[/font:dc9e1cab8e]

 

Thanks! Won't be going in that direction... Makes me wonder what CU has said about hybrids and the Prius. Need to check that out too.