Sincere thanks for all the kind messages. It is much appreciated. I will overcome and be back.
Sincere thanks for all the kind messages. It is much appreciated. I will overcome and be back.
Member since:11.06.2004
Reviews:265
Members who trust:66
The idea of an air purifier for home use is a good one. You will need to be able to quickly and easily replace any filtration units and have a machine that is not too obtrusive for any domestic use.
Way back in January 2006 I bought 4 of these air purifier units. I am a smoker but I like to keep my smoking to only one room of my house and I wanted to try to keep this from going into all the other rooms. This was not the only reason as both my wife and myself seem to suffer a bit with hay fever. I wanted to get a filter into several rooms of the house.
My wife wanted a unit that had a HEPA filter, I just wanted something that could keep the room air somewhat clean and be easy to use. To this day I am still somewhat unsure what a HEPA filter is and why it is supposed to be good. At the time the houses on each side of us
were both undergoing major structural alterations so there was a lot of builders dust in the air around us.
After over a year of using these I think I can now make a report.
Size Dimension: 10.75" D x 5.01" W x 26.5" H. HEPA type filtration efficient at removing airborne particles such as pollen, dander, household dust, smoke, and mold spores. Boxed-product weight: 3.2 Kg Product Weight: 2.39Kg Low energy consumption: 36W. Suitable for room sizes up to 34m2/clean air in rooms up to 180 sq. ft. (12x 15).
The machine is in a dual colour heavy duty plastic casing.
The machine has three speed settings and a separate ioniser button on the top. The ioniser can be switched separately from the filtration unit. I have no idea if this works separately from the filtration part as I never tried. Speeds are fast, medium and low. This last is for night use. I normally had my machine on medium speed and had the machine in operation for at least 10 hours per day.
This unit has two possible modes of operation. As per the picture with the grill parallel to the floor or rotated through 90 degrees where the machine stands vertically with the grill uppermost. The air is drawn in and expelled at 90 degrees to the intake, either vertically when the grill is parallel to the floor or parallel to floor when machine is vertical. The expelled air does not cause a noticeable draft that you might find uncomfortable unless you wanted to sit yourself right next to the machine. I did not notice any difference in operation when the machine was placed in the different positions, It would appear that this is a matter of choice rather than efficiency.
The sound produced in its operations is rather noticeable. More at the higher settings than the lower settings though it is not too outstanding. You can operate a computer or other audio equipment or watch TV or carry on a phone conversation with out it being too noticeable. You can even sit doing nothing and it is not too distracting.
Changing the HEPA filtration unit is very easy. Unclip the plastic grill from the front. Remove the black plastic mesh filter and slide out the HEPA filter. The new filter can then be slid in, the mesh replaced and grill replaced. All together a very easy operation. As I understand some machines have a light to indicate when a filter needs to be replaced. This will of course depend on the environment where the machine is used.
I would not recommend getting water into the electric parts so I have used a cloth dampened with water and common household detergent to keep the outside of the plastic casing clean. I have used a 1" paint brush to clean the slots in the front and upper grill work. The black plastic mesh can be washed by hand in detergent water and can then be reused when dry.
Does it work? Well I did notice some reduction in the atmosphere contaminants. The air was definitely clearer after I had had a cigarette. I did notice that there did not seem to be any reduction in the amount of dust I seem to generate in my room though.
But I have found some faults in the machine. After a period of use that could be several month’s everyday the power on/off switch fails. This has failed on three of the four machines I bought. This cannot be repaired as you cannot get at it. The company does state that there are no user repairable parts but I wanted to try as each machine failed one after the other.
Perhaps I was just unlucky with mine. Perhaps I over used them by using them every day. If you are going to get such a machine then perhaps a work room is not the best place for this compact unit. A bedroom or lounge where the machine could be used prior to your occupation perhaps.
The other difficulty was in obtaining the replacement HEPA filters. When I bought the machines I did a check for filters as I knew that I would have to replace them. I did not find ANY U.K. supplier. I had to go direct to Canada to get any and had to pay import duties on them. This is a major drawback.
I have noted that Amazon states that these are limited availability or are withdrawn now though they are advertised on Argos at about £50
I paid £49.99 when I bought mine then so the price has remained very stable.
I have not tried any other compact machine so I cannot compare like with like. Overall it did work as advertised if only for a shorter period than I would have liked. From my own experience I would not feel justified in recommending this but perhaps I was just unfortunate with my machines.
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Jul 8th, 2007
exceptional by (9%):
very helpful by (91%):
