Review of LightAir ionFlow 50 Surface Air Purifier : Is it worth the price?

 Bought a LightAir IonFlow 50 Surface Air Purifier cheaply online.  Here is what inside.  This is the first time I am using a IonFlow air purifier.  After almost a day of operation, there seems to be very little dust collected.  Also because this is a used IonFlow, the corona discharge needles are rusted and there is reduced ionization.  It does operate very silently as there is no fan.  Although LightAir call the IonFlow a air purifier,  it actually operates more like a negative ions generator. The use of a high voltage positive collector cylinder,  neutralized any ozone produce. So it is quite a good negative ions generator. Negative ions actually does neutralized pathogens in the air and is good for human heath. The chief draw back for this relatively expensive air purifier is that the corona needles use to generate the negative ions are easily rusted from prolonged use. This will over time make the IonFlow being ineffective and almost become useless.  LightAir could have gold plated the corona needles or use some other corrosion resistance metal or metal alloy for the corona needles.

Although every air purifier maker will say they have proprietary technology etc, the electronic high voltage generator circuit is very much common engineering know how.  LightAir right to charge a high price for this air purifier is the industrial design for an ionizing air purifier.  The IonFlow technology is based very much on the know principles of negative ions being accelerated and moving towards a positive charge object, in this case the cylinder attached to the low part of the machine. It does create an ionic field around the machine, in this case with the enhanced corona discharge needles, a 360 degrees negative ion zone up to 1 meter around the machine.  The positively charged collector can effectively collect very fine particles, larger particles will simply fall off or swirl around in the air.  As small particles of PM2.5 and below are most harmful as they then to go deeper into the lungs, this can be a good thing.

The main assembly in the LightAir IonFlow 50 Surface Air Purifer. 

 This is where all the electronics are housed.

The core electronics module is the high voltage generator, seen here as a large encapsulated module.

The negative high voltage is connected to 3 corona discharge needles at the top of the assembly. The positive high voltage is connected to a spring  loaded clip which then connects to the aluminum cylinder.

A look at the circuitry of the high voltage generator can be found at https://fccid.io/YJ550-STAND-MODEL/Internal-Photos/Internal-Photos-1316399

The corona discharge needles for electrons. These ionized the air and particles in the air with a negative charge,

The blue LED module and 12V DC power inlet

The corona needles are quite rusty due to long use, resulting in poor electrons emission.

Considering the price of LightAir IonFlow 50 Surface Air Purifier, LightAir could have gold plated the corona needles to prolong its service life.

See later in the post how the strength and reach of the electrons is increased by first cleaning the corona needles and then attaching carbon fibers emitters to them.

The aluminum cylinder is connected to positive high voltage and collects negative charge particles. These are very fine particles, like soot and traffic emissions, large particles do not seems to collected, either they are not charge negative enough or they just fall to ground around the IonFlow 50 Surface Air Purifier.