Airpura Industries T600 Air Purifier Specially Designed

EDIT 9-2-2012. Please read the comments related to this review.

Everything is great with this unit so far, except...

There's a noticeable penetrating hum coming from the unit at any distance.

The humming is very noticeable, it lets you know it's on, at any fan speed, at any distance.

I'm going to contact AirPura.

*Update, one week later: AirPura is sending me another unit. The rep said he thinks it's just one unit that had problems with some of the electronics.

EDIT: Airpura had to send me a second replacement unit. The first replacement also made a humming noise. This 2nd replacement doesn't hum. The rep said the original and first replacement most likely had a motor balancing problem. The units were fairly easy to box for returns. Fed-Ex picked it up at my door. They allowed me to keep the unit until the replacement(s) arrived.

I use this unit in my Living/Dining/Kitchen area (optimal 550 sq.foot space they recommend). It's the best smoke aircleaner I've tried so far, which includes BlueAir's top of the line Smokestop (see my review) and before that the no longer made Friedrich C90B. The air exiting the AirPura blows upward rather than straight out, which is good. From the picture, it looks as if air exiting out at the top band of holes would shoot straight out, but the exiting air has an upward airflow to it. The fan at lower speeds isn't as quiet as expensive particle air cleaners, but this unit is made to remove smoke. Higher fan speeds will get this unit whooshing air, as I expected, but medium speed noise is very tolerable by me. Variable speed is nice, but I'd be happy with 5 speed settings. I have to turn the knob a ways to hear a noticeable change in fan speed. I'll probably replace the TarBarrier prefilter and the filter cannister earlier than AirPura recommends in order to maximize effectiveness. I bought this particular brand because of the 26 lbs. of charcoal in the filter. I endure the hum, the return of the defective replacement, and the return of my originally bought defective unit because this brand aircleaner with its 26 lbs. of charcoal is the best out there right now at dealing with smoke and gasses.

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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.

Eureka AirSpeed Bagged Upright Vacuum

I accidently purchased the AS1050A as a second vacuum instead of the Eureka 4870UZ, which I had also recently purchased, to be used in our basement, where our cat and I office together. So, I thought I would provide a bit of a review/comparison of the two machines.

I will start by saying that I have finally donated the last of the three Eureka bagless vacuums that I have been using over the course of the last several years. This is not to say that the bagless machines didn't work, however, the cleaning of those types of machines was getting on my nerves. Moving on... and again, the basis of this review is more of a comparison to the 4870UZ (Air Extreme), which is a great vacuum.

Assembly of the AS1050A was reasonably simple, and no tools were required. After assembly, I fired up the machine and immediately noticed that weight and handling of the AS1050A was both lighter and easier to handle than the 4870UZ. This could be a result of the fact that the AS1050A is about two inches narrower and a few pounds lighter than the 4870UZ. My wife commented that the AS1050A, because of its narrower width, is easier to maneuver in tighter spaces. Another notable difference in handling is that the AS1050A is able to vacuum with the handle virtually parallel to the floor.

In terms of performance, both of these models are extremely powerful and work very well on all types of floor surfaces. A small consideration is that the 4870UZ roller brush stops when set to bare floors and while using the hose tools, and while locked in the upright position, and the AS1050A does not. While this means that the 4870UZ is quieter while using the hand tools, I didn't feel that the AS1050A was that much louder.

There are several other small differences. The hand operated power switch on the 4870UZ is located in the front of the machine, whereas the AS105A power switch is foot actuated and located near the foot switch to release the vacuum from the locked-upright position. Either seems equally convenient to operate. Perhaps a more noticeable difference was that of the operation of the foot switch to release the vacuum from the locked-upright position. The AS1050A's switch works as easy as anyone might expect, however, the 4870UZ's switch operates with a bit of difficulty. Again, this might be due to an additional mechanism which engages the roller brush when the handle is placed in the vacuum position. Both vacuums have a different bag and method of installation, and both seem as easy as the other. The dirt capacity of the 4870UZ appears to be a bit more, based on the size of the bag. The AS1050A has a full-bag indicator, where the 4870UZ does not. The cord is a little longer on the 4870UZ.

Overall, the AS1050A is a great vacuum, and, after having used the 4870UZ for several months, my wife immediately chose the AS1050A over 4870UZ, mostly for its ease of handling. However, both of these models have received many great reviews.

I've tried to highlight the differences that are apparent to me, and I hope this review helps anyone who might be contemplating between these two models.

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Indoor Air Conditioner Cover By Twin Draft Guard

I'm glad I purchased this product. It was a little tricky to put on but will definitely keep out the dust and help block the draft from outside this winter.

The supplier did a great job getting me the product. I suggest pulling the ends fairly tight before attempting to place cover on the air conditioner.

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Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator

I bought one of these on a whim when the product launched just before Christmas, 2006. It seemed like a perfect if unnecessary stocking stuffer for my wife, since we're both wine enthusiasts. I never really felt these "gimmick" aerators did much that a solid 1/2 hour decanting couldn't do. Boy was I wrong.

The device itself is attractive, compact and solidly built. It appears to be a simple oblong plexiglass "funnel" with a rubber grip. There are two small channels in the center of the funnel, which look like "cracks" in the plastic (I've read product info that assures worried buyers these cracks are proper and unavoidable). Wine is poured through the top of the funnel, and immediately a suction sound is heard as the pouring draws air into the wine before it escapes out the bottom of the funnel. The aerator is easily held, and I've never had a problem with spills.

Now on to the "effect" of the Vinturi. I've been using the Vinturi for 5 months now, on a variety of wines ... from a bottle of "Two Buck Chuck", to a nice '98 Vietti Barolo, to a bottle of 97' Phelps Insignia. In every circumstance, with every wine, I've noticed a significant improvement in the quality of the wine when poured through the Vinturi, as opposed to tasted directly from bottle. The flavours are more blended, the finish is less acidic, and frankly, it has made most of the wines I drink a more pleasurable experience, from sniff to swallow. I've conducted several "blind" tastings with friends, and we all agree this thing works.

If you're a serious wine drinker or shopping for a wine drinker in your life give this product a try. At $40, it's about the price of a decent California Cabernet, and will yield results for decades to come. I plan on picking up a few dozen this Christmas and giving them out as gifts to business clients.

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Frigidaire FRA18EMU2 18,500 BTU Window-Mounted Median Air Conditioner

I will start by saying that finally, after installing two of these units in my 1500 sf workshop, I am very happy with them. They cool and heat very efficiently and quietly and there are not many units on the market which have the power and features of this one.

However, it was a long road getting to the happy point I am at now. I initially ordered two of these from Amazon, and they arrived quickly but both turned out to have been damaged in shipping. This is partially the truckers fault but a good deal of the blame must be laid on the manufacturer who does not package this model with sufficient protection to withstand the typical abuse which cartons endure in truck freight. There is is only about 1/2" of styrofoam between the front and top of the unit and the inside of the carton, and no crush space whatsoever. So both units arrived with bent case frames and one also had a cracked front grill piece and bent interior pieces.

Amazon offered to replace them but were out of stock so after some discussion I agreed to keep the least damaged one (I was able to bend the case back into shape) of the two for a discount, ship back the other for a refund, and order a third unit from TheFactoryDepot, one of amazon's resellers.

Well, guess what? The third unit arrived damaged in shipping as well. After much more discussion, this time with TheFactoryDepot, they agreed to allow me to go pick up a replacement at their warehouse which was luckily only about 30 minutes from my home. This unit was undamaged and so I installed that one as well.

We weren't through with our troubles though because the 2nd unit I installed (the one we picked up at the warehouse) soon started displaying a trouble code on the panel and stopped cooling. So we had to call Frididaire to have it serviced under warranty. There 3rd party service company came to the house and repaired it but they had to order a part so this took about another 10 days. Finally, about 6 or 8 weeks after our initial order, we had two working units installed and they have been cooling and heating nicely for the past 2 to 3 months. The remote is great it has all the controls to change modes, and control heating, cooling, thermostat, fan speed, energy saver, timer, etc. This is important to me because my units are installed 7 feet from the floor (to the bottom of the unit), and I have never needed to actually get up on a ladder to fiddle with the front panel once you get the airflow louvers pointed the way you want there is no need for that.

I wouldn't recommend this model at all if there were a lot of alternatives, mainly because of the poor packaging, but if you need a heating+cooling unit this size and you are prepared to potentially deal with returns and repairs then this is the unit for you. I don't say that entirely facetiously once we got all the startup problems solved these are very nice units. If you can find it locally or can pick it up from a warehouse I strongly recommend that as the packaging is very poor. That's the main reason I didn't give 5 stars.

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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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SPT SF-608R Portable Evaporative Air Cooler

First off, this is NOT an air conditioner. If you expect your room to be freezing cold, this is not the product for you. It's a COOLER, and it does its job very well. It works by evaporating water. Try soaking a T-shirt, wringing it out, and putting it on wet to get the effect. It doesn't work very well in humid areas, but it works GREAT where the air is dry.

I'm in southern California, where the humidity varies pretty widely. I place the cooler six or eight feet from my chair, and on the hottest days I'm quite comfortable.

Benefits:

* it's about 1/5 the cost of an air conditioner

* operating expense is a fraction of the cost of air conditioning

* neat features! (timer, sleep function, etc.)

* remote control

Drawbacks:

* it's not freezing cold like air conditioning.

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04712 Hamilton Beach True Air Replacement Filter

I bought this for my Hamilton Beach True Air model 04381,which is discontinued. Nice product. 2 filters at a low price. Shipped quickly. Recommends to others.

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Hunter 30067 Hepatech Air Purifier

Shortly after adopting a cat from a local humane society, my son developed asthma as a direct result of an undiagnosed cat allergy. An allergist advised us to remove the cat from our home (some friends adopted it) and as much of the cat hair and dander as we possibly could. I did some online research and decided that an indoor air purifier would probably help us out and relieve my son's asthma and allergy symptoms. I purchased this Hunter air purifier #30067 and model #30251 also made by Hunter and placed this one in my son's room and the other one in the kitchen. Within about an hour of plugging the air purifiers in, my son's itchy/red eyes and sneezing and coughing were almost gone. On two different occasions, my older son turned the purifiers off and within a short time, my allergic son's symptoms returned!! These two units have been wonderful for my son's allergies. I have had the purifiers for about a month and I just cleaned the pre-filters with the vacuum cleaner. I was amazed at the amount of dust and cat hair I could see on the pre-filter. The replaceable filters are looking a little gray in color, but I don't think they need replacing just yet. I have found several online companies that stock the replacement filters. My only complaints with the air purifiers are that they are a little loud. You will get used to the sound after awhile. And, I am having trouble figuring out what replacement filters to buy. This isn't real clear. But other than these two minor complaints, I am very pleased with the price of both Hunter air purifiers and the job they are doing in easing my son's troublesome allergy/asthma symptoms. I would highly recommend this product!

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Frigidaire FAD301NUD 30-Pint Dehumidifier

Greetings,

I paid $163.17 for this item on October 4th, 2012. First of all, the majority of the reviews here are outdated. One of the biggest complaints was that when you hooked up the hose in the back the water would not flow out. Then you have to call the company and get an additional item to get it to work. BUT they have fixed any and all problems, so order with out fear. I got this item with the full knowledge that when I got it I would be calling the manufacturer to get it working with my hose, but when I called they said my unit was a 2012 model and it was good to go.

I live in coastal texas, in a 1200 sq/ft apartment that was unbearable with out the AC running all day. I'm more then ok at the temperature set at 80, with the dehumidifier going in the kitchen, small hose cut to fit running into the sink.

(I'm currently working on about 500 reviews, I order pretty much everything from Amazon but I (until now) never review. So I'm going through the years of orders to catch up, and try and give back to the system. If your reading this PLEASE hit the button saying this review was helpful, it does help out the people that make reviews, and trust me it takes a lot of time... I try not to make long winded reviews, all of the specs are in the product description)

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Holmes HAPF30AT4-U Total Air Filter

I recently picked up 2 of these filters for our 2 Holmes HEPA air purifying machines. We have a dust problem in the house, and allergies as well. These filters seem to do a good job of making the air in our house cleaner, especially on the machine's medium and high settings. We do not use the 'ionizer' function, being that we have read conflicting claims as to whether this is healthy or not. The only downside is that the filters seem a bit costly, as were the older 'OEM' ones that from a few years ago that looked a little different than the current incarnation of the filter.

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NewAir AF330 Portable Evaporative Swamp Air Cooler

The AF-330 NewAir Evaporative Swamp Cooler with Special HEPA Air Purifier is a pretty good swamp cooler with just a couple of flaws. As with all swamp coolers, it isn't going to make your room feel air conditioned, but in dry climates, it is good to sleep with it blowing over you, or it is good to get raise the humidity levels somewhat. Now for the good stuff first about this unit.

For starters, the 13-liter water tank means that you won't have to fill it as often. Most portable swamp coolers I've owned only had a 10-liter tank which means they don't last more than 8-hours on "cool." There's also an ice tray to add ice for additional cooling effect.

Next on the plus list are the air filter system. In addition to the standard foam filter, it comes with a HEPA filter and a carbon filter. Combined with the ION setting, this really seemed to make an improvement in air quallity. After a month of use, I haven't noticed the normal "swamp stench" that swamp coolers usually get. I don't know if those filters are the reason or not, but there you go.

The fan is much more powerful than any previous portable swamp cooler I've owned. Even at the low setting, the fan works pretty good when sleeping in front of it.

The controls are pretty standard. You get the 1-8 hour timer, oscillating louver control, 3 fan speeds, "cool" function (to activate the swamp cooler function), and ION control. The unit comes with a handy remote control which handles all features, which is great for controling the unit while in bed. ^_^

There were two negatives. The biggest is adding water to the tank. The portable swamp coolers I've owned before have had a convienent port on the side of the unit were one can add a gallon of water to the tank in a few seconds. This unit has no such port. Instead, water has to be added to the top of the unit where a small section is partitioned off from the ice tray to add water. As such, it only holds a small amount of water and the drain into the tank isn't very large. So it can take a couple of minutes to empty a gallon of water into the tank. That's pretty tedious, especially when you are tired and just want to go to sleep.

The other problem I had was with the documentation. As you note, the product description proudly mentions the carbon filter. The box the unit comes in proudly mentions this. And a carbon filter comes sealed with the unit. Initially, I thought that maybe this was some sort of water filter since I've used carbon filters for fish tanks and for water pitchers. However, there is NOTHING in the documentation that says anything about the carbon filter. The regular foam air filter and the HEPA filter are mentioned, but that's it. Since it didn't seem to obviously go into the water tank (that is a bit of a pain to get to) and it did fit the back panel where the air filters are, I put it back there. But does it go before or after the HEPA filter? Some documentation would have been nice.

The final negative about the unit is purchasing replacement filters. I found none on Amazon's site. Air & Water, the company from which the unit actually came, has a website, and while ordering the unit directly from them gives you the option to purchase additional filters, their website has no place to just purchase replacement filters. That's pretty stupid if you ask me.

Bottom line: There are many good things about this swamp cooler to include the HEPA filter, carbon filter, larger water tank, ION feature, and greater fan power. The lack of a good water input port, no information about the carbon filter, and a lack of ease to aquire replacement filters weren't enough to stop me from giving this an overall "buy" recommendation.

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pureguardian FLTDC Humidifier Decalcification Filter

I know that ultrasonic humidifiers leave white dust. However, this filter is supposed to eliminate that problem. I've tried these types of filters in other ultrasonic humidifiers (Crane for example) and they work. But this one, does nothing. What a shame. We love the humidifier, but wish the filter actually worked. It's a lot of work to clean up the dust all the time. Especially on drapes, curtains, etc.

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Vornado AC300 Whole Room HEPA Air Purifier

This product really circulates great on high & med settings although it's pretty loud on those settings I guess that can't be helped due to the very powerful motor. I noticed a difference in the room in about 10 min. Low setting is far less noisy & didn't have a problem sleeping (unit is in a bedroom). Very easy to set up & maintain. I am very surprised at the power of this unit being so small! I purchased this product due to reviews & experience with Vornado. The room I use it in is actually larger then the recommended room size & it does the job well. I notice I wake up without the sinus drip in the morning & would recommend this unit for anyone needing to deal with sinus, allergies, or just wanting to eliminate smell from animals & a smoker. I have cats & the cat litter box is in a bathroom connected with this bedroom. This unit has eliminated any smells from it. This unit also aids circulation from any air conditioner allowing better cooling throughout the entire room. I was amazed by the amount of pet hair trapped in the filter! A 'proof' that it will help people with allergies esp. to pet dander & hair. For pet owners in particular, I would suggest a once a week filter check to clean out the pet hair to keep unit running more efficiently.

Now that it's mid spring & constantly in the 80's here, I am more convinced this unit is helping a LOT with A/C circulation to the point of using less electricity as the A/C compressor is turning on less frequently. I have a temperature gauge that is telling me the room is actually cooler then the A/C setting is on so have upped the A/C setting when running this unit. I'm running the Vornado nearly 24/7 now & have actually seen a decrease on my electric bill.

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Hamilton Beach 04251P TrueAir Plug-Mount Odor Eliminator

I bought this little guy about 2 years ago for my husband & his allergies. About an hour after I plugged it in, I noticed a difference in the air quality. Our bedroom felt much cleaner than before. The dander & dustgone! You will notice a fresher "feeling" when you use this plug mount air cleaner. You can buy replacement filters for this item, but I rinse the filter out, dry it, & use it again. Also, this air cleaner provides a very small amount of white noisewhich we like when we're sleeping. Purchase with confidence. Strong enough for one room only.

CRYSTAL QUEST® Whole House Single 10" x 5.0" Water Filter System

I ordered this product because I had a tight space and wanted to fit a compact whole house filter under the kitchen sink to filter the cold water line to the sink. This unit appeared promising, having the right size and a reasonable price. This was handled by our GC as part of the work during a kitchen remodel. I am not going to get into the fact that CQ shipped the unit 1 week late even though they had promised me it would get here on time (which it didn't) and we had to juggle the remodel schedule at some cost to us.

The plumber that did excellent precise work everywhere else, spent 4 hours trying to get the nozzles on the unit to seal properly before he came to me and asked for the customer support number of the company. We both spoke with the support rep who claimed that there should be no problem. The issue appeared to be that the hex adapters that come with the unit were not sealing. The CQ rep insisted we just had to add more teflon tape and crank the wrench harder. I consulted with two other plumbers I know who concurred with the GC's plumber with the water pressure in our line there is no way that this would work because the threads in the unit head are NOT TAPERED! We ended up picking up another water filter locally that was pretty much the same. To make matters worse, CQ never responded to my subsequent requests for a refund and the unit is still boxed up in my garage.

All in all this was a very disappointing product and I would not recommend it or any Crystal Quest product.

14ALL Vicks Cut-to-Fit Replacement Carbon Pre-Filter

I have an enclosed cat litter box for my two cats and was looking on line for replacement filters when I ran across this. The filters in the store run $3 each where I live. With just one pack, I was able to cut out well over 20 filters well worth the effort of 10 minutes!

AllerAir 5000 EXEC

I am somewhat disappointed with the filter. It is very noisy, does not blow very much air. Also, the air does not smell fresh. I have Austin air cleaners and feel they are a much better buy.

Honeywell Replacement Filter

This Replacement filter works perfectly on my Honeywell HCM-6000. I found that the filter will last longer if you flip it every other water fill up. This will not allow any one side to stay in the water too long and turn sour.

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