Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsSafe levels of Ozone? Not for me it wasn't. Maybe we all have different tolerance levels for ozone. You've been warned.
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2016
A: I write long to be helpful & because electronics fascinate me & because I hate having my time wasted by low reviews that are all about someone complaining about UPS being rude or some such B.S. totally unrelated to product function or quality. *So save your wisecracks about my "book" or whatever you have to say about how long this is - you're an idiot if you can't just stop reading & move along.
B: All units that contain any kind of air cleaning electronic system built in, regardless of whether or not you can disengage the technology & end up with a mere filter.
There should be an Ozone warning with this or *Before you buy an air"cleaner" vs a simple filter which is just a box-hepa filter through which dusty air flows in one side & largely dust free air flows out the other side, any electronic of varying types are made to play with the natural pos/neg charge on airborne particulate & there's a nearly indefinable line of what can work for everyone and what can cause irritation in the bronchial system of others, whether it's allergies such as to ozone if that's even possible, I'm sure it is. Or whether it's simply a matter of an artificially created, uncontrollable mass per litre of air of a constituent of electron charges that occur in nature. There's a lot more to study here than just reading reviews because at this point with all of the filter/cleaners I've tried & either had success with vs those I had to abandon like this.
I believe either scientists can't make a blanket statement about how much is good or poisonous to everyone or that we're all different & just as some can take in substances with no trouble, even foods, others can drop dead from what's in our air, water, food chain. I love that smell you get in the air just after a brief lightening storm or sun shower & that is clean air & the smell is as I understand, any scientists out there by all means correct me please if I'm wrong. I seek it in air cleaners because the first I ever had which was a Bionaire that had two metal pins that caused static electricity like sparks if you were nuts enough to stand there long enough & see them in the dark (sure I am) & they needed to be cleaned of a build up of powdery dust with a Q-Tip dipped in alcohol periodically or their effect would cease.
Everyone would comment on how my normal house (as all of our homes have a unique scent to strangers) disappeared replaced by that sun shower fresh, clean scent. Up to the last I owned after trying literally 7 other brands & models ended up yet again with a very similar Bionaire some 14 yrs later, albeit this time one that had but a single "Negative Ion producing" Pin but also a small, straight thin UV-C bulb in the back between the back end of the Hepa Box filter & the fan that blew the air out the top. I Never had any problem in a small 12X16 room I spent most of my days & nights in with that thing on medium speed during day & high when I slept (noise issue, not bad just such that you'd have to turn the TV up on running it near you on high) & Never turning off the "Cleaner feature which was the static pin and UV bulb [I think it turned both off I could look up that unit & be sure but so could you) Bear in mind before reading this. I NEVER unless somehow something in electronics I am buying is least expensive new, fail to buy what I seek: Refurbished/Recertified/Reconditioned as my Dad taught me, you get a better price & you know that whatever manufacturer flaws that got through quality control will have been caught & fixed so it's actually stupid to buy new retail. I've never regretted that IF the "Refurbishment or whatever they called it was certified "Manufacturer done" not "RE-Seller 'Refurbished'
So long story longer I this time got a good price $92 something on Amazon & it's a big fail for me. Though as quiet as you can expect with nothing but a varied degree of whooshing sound of air being sucked in & blown out [and not nearly enough for my experience sucking in nor blowing out given the claims of the manufacturer. Obviously I have a long history with air cleaners in the early 60s Mom who had severe dust allergies used to have to sleep b4 full house AC in the summer with this fascinating box that glowed with an UV bulb inside that sat on a bridge chair next to her bed & gave out "that smell". I as an adult with allergies started using these in my early 30s living in NYC with soot laden air & trees & flowers all over the city during spring. I've tried plain filters & seen nothing but less dust in flares of visible sunbeams shooting straight through windows & I've had ones that made the place smell great but started me with a scratchy throat that led to chronic cough.
Even these so called safe levels of ozone units causing me bronchial issues. I had this in a central area of a 500 sq' Apt where it got good circulation fr the 4 main rooms, set it on high with UV on figuring I'd see how long it took to make a difference. By the 1st morning I had a scratchy throat, 2nd day I sounded like I do after weeks of hacking coughs of bronchitis & by day 3 my voice literally disappeared. Total laryngitis as with every time I've been exposed to major ozone generators in workplaces.
I had a large Bionaire for years with a uv light right next to my bed for allergies & it kept the air smelling like just after a sun shower & I never turned the UV light off in it but never had a problem with my throat or any bronchial issues.
Further, I will say I think this thing is amazingly quiet even on high. It's nothing but the sound of air being sucked through all those folds of the Hepa filter, no mechanical sounds or electrical sounds so those who complain about the noise, have either bad units or are nervous wrecks.
However, even on high I was very disappointed in the amount of air that came out while on high because you shouldn't have to keep it on high but on low, you can barely feel anything coming out.
I'm going back to a certified re-conditioned Bionaire, & if they still haven't a model like my last without a washable Hepa extending pre-filter, I'll do as I did with the last - put a cut to shape, nylon AC screen filter cloth between the air intake & hepa filter & keep that clean & the hepa lasts for over a year, the largest table top models move a lot of air & there is no ozone, the UV bulb is very very small but you do smell the freshening effect.
* Something else I didn't mention is while you can express your breathing or throat issues, your babies and pets cannot. So keep that in mind.
In my opinion this thing is dangerous to anyone with respiratory issues & I sure as heck wouldn't leave a baby or ANY pet in a room with one of these unless the light is off.
Little point in spending the money if you can't use the UV light which is the only sanitizing element in the thing. I moves so little air on high that running nearly four days there was barely any scent when walking into the apt as I would've had from my past successful but not cough inducing negative ion producing units.
I don't want just a fan blowing through a filter as I know for me I believe there is some little air cleansing benefit to be had if you find a company that makes a unit that doesn't fudge their numbers or declarations of safety about parts per million of ozone etc etc.
Read - I love when I read the idiotic questions on Amazon that scream "I'm a lazy ass who wants you to Google this for me" no one writing these reviews or answering questions on these boards knows what they know from any greater arena of learning than search engines & just look at the totally opposite answers some people give that prove to be dead wrong but they're the first to jump & answer some product related question & say no you can't or yes you can about a product a person is shopping for, affecting their decision only to have another well read non-moron give the opposite & correct answer next.
Just read people - non of us are experts & some people just love to give opinions who are too lazy to get out the product box or manual to answer a question some idiot could just contact the manufacturer site instead of asking a question here or that's answered here in reviews if they'd take the time to read some.