Optimus AP-78 Air Purifier

I can hardly feel the air flow. The gauges told me to clean the filters but they were no way dirtier than with my Sharper Image Ionic Breeze Cleaner. I hate to return things so this one is a keeper for the price.

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Electrolux Oxygen Canister Vacuum Cleaner

I was quite confused when I first started doing research on electorlux. My mother, and her mother, have always owned electrolux vacuums. This electrolux is not the same company that has been doing business in the U.S. under the electrolux name in the past. The old electrolux has changed their name to Aerus Electrolux.

Electrolux is an international company that states on their website "Electrolux is the world's largest producer of appliances and equipment for kitchen, cleaning and outdoor use." In the United States they do business under the familiar names: Eureka, Frigidaire, Poulan, Weed Eater, and now thier upscale brand Electrolux.

OK, on to the vacuum. I bought mine after much research at Lowe's. While opening and putting the thing together, a small clip that holds the power head on the shaft broke off. I called the company and they said they would send me a new piece with out much hassle, but then got a call back 15 minutes later saying that since the product was so new, it might take 2 months to send me a replacement part and suggested I just return it for a new one to Lowe's. My over all experience with thier customer support leads me to beleive that I won't have too many problems dealing with them in the future.

My second vacuum unpacked fine and after a couple uses I'm quite satisfied with it's performance. The carpet powerhead does very well on my rugs, and even does ok on hard floors. The hard floor attachment is more than a foot wide and makes quick work of the hard wood in my house but is so wide you have to switch it for the corner tool to get around most furnature. I was impressed with the suction from the vacuum, even before I noticed that I only had it turned up half way :) So I'll try to sum up the pros and cons.

Pro:

Cool looking

Nice cord length and roll up storage

Wide reach on the attachments

Small size of the canister

Does a good job of sucking up small stuff

Bags are just more than $1 each (for the standard bags)

Easily turn on and off the roller on the power head

Both the hard floor attachment, and the power head easily go under beds and couches

Con:

Hard to deteach the hose from the canister for storage

Power head won't work on bath mats

I'll post again in a few months when I see how it's holding up.

NewAir AC12000E 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner

The NewAir portable AC definitely works. Lots of cold air comes pouring out of this thing, but it may not be exactly what you're looking for. It's good for some things and not so good for others. Let me explain.

I have an office/media room on the top floor of my house. It's basically an attic/loft that gets pretty warm in the summer. Central air is pumped into the room, but not much air comes through the vents. My homeowner's association will not allow window AC units, so I thought this would be an excellent alternative. The unit is portable and the window exhaust vent is not noticeable from the outside. The unit looks nice and is sturdy. I like the remote control and the digital thermostat on the front of the unit. It rolls nicely on it's casters. Hooking up the hose and exhaust vent was easy. However, my expectations may have been too high.

First, the room is about 150-200 square feet. The unit is not able to cool the room down much at all. The room is tolerable if you're sitting with the unit pointed in your direction as you can feel the cool air. That's about as good as it got. Also, the hose and exhaust vent got really hot during operation. Not sure if the heat radiating out from it canceled out the AC, but it was noticeable. To the unit's credit, the room has a skylight that acts just like a magnifying glass, so I'm sure some of the heat in the room is the result of it. Plus, there are three other windows with only blinds pulled. Maybe putting some opaque curtains up would help keep the temp down.

Second, the unit is very loud. Even on the low setting the compressor fills the room with a loud buzzing sound. If I'm working at my computer with headphones on, it's not a problem. But if I'm trying to watch a movie or play video games on the TV it's downright impossible.

Needless to say, I'm a little disappointed with the unit. I spent almost $400 on this thing and it doesn't really work the way I wanted it to. There are a few tweeks I can make to the room to help it along, but I guess I'm just going to have to get used to it.

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Hoover Windtunnel MultiCyclonic Bagless Canister

Pros:

Good suction power.

Long self retracting cord.

Transparent dust canister makes it easy to see when it's full.

Motorized brush head.

Easily detachable dust canister. Be sure to empty outside to minimize returning dust into the home.

Pivot head on vacuum head works well allowing you to orient in almost any direction.

Neck is adjustable in length.

Weight is mostly in the base unit and not the head to facilitate maneuverability, though the head has some weight due to the electric motor that drives the brushes.

Most of the switches can be operated with your foot. The only switch that is hand controlled is the switch for the spinning brush head.

Cons:

Base unit is still pretty heavy for a vacuum and it is rather wide so you can't sit it on a stair when you are trying to vacuum a flight of steps.

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Roomaid Amaircare HEPA Air Purifier

I must have tried at least 5 different air purifier/filter units over the past few years. None of them really seemed to do much, whether they had a HEPA filter or not. None of them seemed to remove the odors from cleaning products, cat litter and various other household stuff. (No VOC filter, I guess.) Neither my wife nor I have particularly sensitive noses but we were often congested and could smell the various chemicals. We put plants in some rooms, which were nice from a decor standpoint, but we couldn't tell if they were being effective over time. We did NOT want to use the "air fresheners" sold at retails chains since they contain all kinds of werid chemicals including nerve deadeners. Yup, some of them "remove odors" by simply deadening the nerves in your nose. Others overwhelm nasty odors with a cocktail of their own "nice" odors. Awesome NOT!

We have a baby on the way and wanted something that worked in our small (11' x 15') nursery. After 1.5 days of solid cleaning it reeked of chemicals. Enter this little unit, which got good reviews on the web. Assembly was easy and the instructions were fairly clear. We left it on overnight. Next morning, we found a huge difference. The smells were noticeably milder. Within 2 days, the room smelt "clean", i.e., of little to nothing. We found having it at waist or chest height was most effective in terms of circulating air. Any odors in the room are from stuff we know about and can control. E.g., we just used wood cleaner on the a table so it smells of wood cleaner for a while. But that smell goes away quickly. Our noses literally clear right up when we go in.

The downside is that it is noisy on "high". Apparently babies like white noise so it might not be a problem for a nursery. But I can't really imagine using it much in, say, my office which has similar dimensions.

Overall, 5 stars for doing its job. I can put up with a bit of noise to breathe clean air. We liked it so much we got its big brother the 2500.

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InstaPure F5GWW3P-1ES Faucet Mount Water Filter System

For a month this filter result was good & as mentioned on the product. But it didn't live longer. From the 2nd month onwards, filtered water started to drip, eventhough we have used less than half of its lifetime.

However i have bought another same filter from the 'Instapure' manufacture website, which seems to run longer than this. So this _seems_ to be not original product.

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GeneralAire Humidifier Unit 81

Works OK. Could use a little better build quality. Lid pops off way to easy when trying to screw the bottom on. The lid top fits into a shallow groove that does not hold well. But the lid only gets removed a few time a season, so it isn't a big problem.

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germguardian FLT4010 Replacement Filter

Never any problems, a good fitting replacement filter. It's amazing how much crud is in the air and you can certainly see it when you replace the filter.

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Maytag UKF8001AXX PuriClean II Refrigerator Cyst Reducing Water Filter

You gotta hand it to Maytag they made replacing the water filter very simple. Took all of about 30 seconds from start to finish. And about 20 seconds of that was wiping up the water that dripped out of the old filter when I pulled it out, so the next change should go even better ;-)

We have a family of six and we drink water almost exclusively, so I went ahead and changed the filter at six months just like the owner's guide recommended. However, I could see no evidence that the filter was near its end of life and am convinced that I can get more use out of the filters than the suggested six months. I will try to keep an eye on things, but without a little window I really have no way other than flow to know what is going on.

And that is why I gave this a rating of four stars. The filter seems to work wonderfully and replacement is a breeze, but I would be happier if I could look at the state of the filter while it is in use.

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Homedics Ar-20 Hepa Air Cleaner 100 Cadr

I don't normally review products on Amazon; however, I just had to share with you how awesome this product is.

The Bad:

There is little bad about this air cleaner, but it is inconvenient enough that it does warrant one star being removed. First, it doesn't have any sort of handle. Sure, it has a few surfaces you could grab it by, but they don't seem quite sturdy enough. A good, built-in handle would just about make this thing perfect. Finally, the buttons light up. I mean REALLY light up. At night when you're trying to sleep, THEY LIGHT UP THE ENTIRE ROOM. And there is no way to turn these lights off (that I could find). We now have a folded up t-shirt dedicated to forever sitting on top of it so that we can sleep at night with it in the room. Something should really be done about that...

The Good:

I have had allergies for years, and I've always suspected it was because of the cats that live with us in our apartment (I was congested EVERY morning and my eyes itched all the time), but I've never really done anything about it. Then last week I had LASIK surgery, and I decided I wanted to at least try to ease my allergies post-surgery. So I purchased the AR-20 cleaner and set it up in the apartment the night before surgery. The next morning I woke up congestion-free for the first time in years. I've woken up every morning since then congestion-free, and my eyes haven't been itching any. I a SO glad I purchased this before having LASIK. It likely prevented post-op complications!

I highly recommend this air cleaner. Just pick it up at the base, and have an old t-shirt handy.

Aprilaire 45 Replacement Water Pad

• Fits Space-Gard/Aprilaire furnace humidifier models 400, 400A, and 400M.
• Space-Gard/Aprilaire furnace humidifier filters (evaporator pads).
• Measures approximately 9 7/8" x 12 7/8" x 1 3/4".
• 2 wick filters per pack.
• Honeycomb filtration to trap mineral pollutants found in water and help prevent them from entering your home.

This replacement filter fits the Aprilaire 400 humidifier and is cheaper (including shipping) than purchasing from aprilaire's website (even though they have free shipping).

That being said, this replacement filter is grossly overpriced for what it is. Clearly a profit center for Aprilaire.

I have ordered this part before and have had no issues with this seller. Product arrived quickly.

Oransi Replacement Pre

I have had my Oransi since the first of December and run it 24/7. The stuff this filter pulls out of my air is just amazing. I have two cats and a dog and I clean the pre-filter every week because it needs to be cleaned every week. When I think that I was breathing all of that before I bought the filter Yike! The down side is my experience thus far is the costly filters do not last a year. After 4 1/2 months of continuous use (and why would you use an air filter intermittently?), I am getting a 'check filter' light and the filter does look like it needs to be replaced.

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Honeywell 38002 Enviracare Universal Replacement Pre-Filter

Under the Amazon title are the words "by Honeywell". No. What I received was not "by Honeywell". It might be just as good. It might even be better. But, it is not "by Honeywell". One thing I noticed is the filter does not have the pre-cut lines for easy fitting to my particular air filter. It also seems denser which may make it pass through less air. Nice price, but I would have gone to Home Depot and bought the real thing had I only known the truth. So, be careful ordering from these Amazon merchants.

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Hunter model 30901, Universal Pre-Filter Replacement

I did receive charcoal pre-filters for use with my Hunter air purifier but was expecting the Hunter product. Instead I received a generic model with a note from the seller stating they were sorry but didn't have the Hunter filters in stock. I did not receive any credit to my account for this vendor substitution.

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Sunpentown SF-608R: Evaporative Air Cooler # SF-608R

• With remote control
• 10L water tank capacity
• Photocatalysis filter
• Three air speeds: H / M / L
• Sleep mode

The concept and design of this product are terrific. Controls are easy to locate and use. The system worked great for three days, for a total of about 20 hours. On the fourth day it would not go on.

Attempts to arrange a replacement were simple. However, an attempt to change this to a refund proved futile. The company provided no response to my request, even though I stated their product was inadequate for my needs based on physical ailements requiring air conditioning.

This product is not recommended.

Surround Air Multi-Tech Air Purifier

Has everything I want. cautionthey sent it in its own product box.

Comments: Fan pushes lots of air so its not that quiet. Great, large UV light but its so powerful that it glows through all sides still safe I think. Good at getting rid of chemical smells. Blue control light is bright but turns off quickly perhaps too quick for some. I've had good luck with most products from this company though they are a bit fragile.

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Eureka FilterAir Upright Vacuum

We are very pleased with the vacuum and it has very good suction. We would have liked the on/off switch to have been on the back of the handle like we are used to and the hose is a little stiff but that is being picky. I can really tell the difference in how much cleaner my rugs look than from the panasonic I was using.

Holmes HAWF3095-U Dual Blade Twin Window Fan

Buy this fan if you want something unobtrusive that will easily fit in a window, and if you like the "Acu-Temp" feature. If you live in a climate where you sometimes want a little extra cooling but don't really need AC, its ideal, especially if space is at a premium.

It puts out a good solid breeze and its nice and quiet. It is still a fan of course so I won't say its silent. Another reviewer complained about airflow, and I will say its not a heavy duty blast like you get from a big fan... but... its not a big fan, is it. High on this fan is more like medium on a big heavy fan. I like a cool bedroom and this fan has plenty of air for me. In fact I only use 3 (high) to cool the room down intially, then sleep using 1 or 2 (low, med) except on the hottest days. We have a another honkin' big fan we can move wherever we need it for the rest of the house. We love this quiet more gentle fan in our bedroom.

We replaced our old "Cool-Breeze" window fan with this one, and first off I was thrilled at how much easier it was to securely install it into the window. It is a really good design. If you choose to use them, the baffles on the sides allow the fan to fit across the whole width of the window. It was an unweildy job when I installed the old fan, but with this one it only took a minute to get it in and I didn't swear at all. The fan is nice and sleek so it easily fit into the window without interfering with the screen.

Using the "Acutemp" thermostat feature, you don't have to get up and turn off the fan and/or get a blanket in the middle of the night (the old one was so loud it kept me up so I was awake anyway). You choose your airflow level and temperature at which you want the fan to turn off, so you go to bed when its still warm and you want that fan, but then it eventually cools down (at least here in the Pacific Northwest it does, thank the goddess) and the fan turns off. Likewise, you can set it to turn on when it gets above a certain temp in the room.

Of course you can also just turn the fan on to low med or high (1, 2, or 3) without the automatic functionality.

The one thing that wasn't apparent when I ordered it, is that the darker control panel area that appears gray in the picture is actually a grayish olive green. Its fairly neutral though, kind of a pleasant sage color. Not a problem for our bedroom but I suppose some people might not like it.

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Frigidaire FRA08PZU1 8,000 BTU Cool/3,500 BTU Heat Compact Window Air Conditioner

I purchased this unit in May 2012. I used it to cool my apartment for almost four months. I started using the unit's supplemental heating feature in September 2012. At that time, I noticed that whenever the temperatures outside plunged BELOW 45 degrees Fahrenheit, a BURNING SMELL would come from the unit while operating in the supplemental heat mode... and when that happens, the unit provides little to no heat whatsoever! The unit indicates that its supplemental heating feature provides you with an additional heat source "when needed." But what it SHOULD indicate is that its supplemental heating feature provides you with an additional heat source "only when the outside temperatures are 45 degrees Fahrenheit or HIGHER." When I brought this issue to the attention of the manufacturer of this unit (Electrolux Major Appliances), the manufacturer completely disregarded the issue! I had to contact a DIFFERENT air conditioner manufacturer (Friedrich Air Conditioning Co., Ltd.) in order to find out the TRUTH about this unit! This unit is a HEAT PUMP heating unit, rather than a STRAIGHT ELECTRIC heating unit. STRAIGHT ELECTRIC heating units can operate efficiently EVEN WHEN OUTSIDE TEMPERATURES ARE BELOW 45 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. This unit is NOT a STRAIGHT ELECTRIC heating unit, but is instead a HEAT PUMP heating unit, which means that the outside temperatures must be 45 degrees Fahrenheit OR HIGHER in order for this unit's heating feature to operate. According to Friedrich Air Conditioning Co., Ltd., attempting to use HEAT PUMP heating units when outside temperatures are below 45 degrees Fahrenheit will OVERWORK THE COMPRESSOR and can cause a BURNING SMELL to come from the unit while operating... essentially shortening the lifespan of the unit. So if you are looking for a unit that can provide supplemental heating IN MORE EXTREME COLD TEMPERATURES, then this is NOT the appropriate unit for you!

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Dyson Vacuum* DC-07* Washable

After looking all over at various big-box stores for this filter, including where we bought the Dyson, I checked up here on Amazon and found one. Purchased this filter along with another accessory, and was exactly what we were looking for.