Side by Side Comparison of: Kaz vs Guardian Technologies

Honeywell 17000-S QuietCare True HEPA Air Purifier, 200 sq. ft., by Honeywell.Years ago, I had bought an earlier model of this medium sized air purifier at Home Depot. After many years, when the internal motor finally wore out and stopped turning the fan, I found out that Home Depot no longer sold this item, just a much bigger, heavier, and more expensive Honeywell model, -so I had to look elsewhere. Luckily, the problem was solved by a search on Amazon. The newer medium sized model is a little different in the outward appearance, but it has been doing the job quite well since June of 2016. I use it to filter pollen, dust, mold, and smoke from the air, and to provide some white noise to help mask distracting outdoor and indoor noises. The package description says that the inner folded HEPA filter can be vacuumed and should last 3 to 5 years, but my experience with Central A/C HEPA filters, and talking with A/C professionals, convinced me that that was not a good idea. A vacuum cleaner can remove the easy to see surface dust, but cannot remove the smaller particles of pollen, smoke, etc. that will eventually clog the HEPA filter and put a strain on the motor, causing it to wear out. The HEPA filter should be replaced when it becomes dark. The package description says to replace the carbon pre-filter every three months. I usually just vacuum the heavy dust coating on the outer black wrap-around pre-filter, and rinse it out under a faucet, before pressing it with paper towels to dry, and then reinstalling it. Since this simple, and relatively open black filter doesn't really remove any fumes and smells, I don't think that I am hurting it too much when some of the lightly applied carbon washes off. This is not a very dense carbon filter to begin with, so I don't know why they even bother with the carbon coating. This is an air filter, not a water filter. The carbon coating is probably just a marketing gimmick. Five Amazon stars for this Honeywell 17000-S HEPA Air Purifier.Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.Made by: Kaz USA Inc., 250 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772; © 2014 All Rights Reserved; Model 17000-S, 120V A.C., 60Hz., 0.75A T.P.; P/N: N. 0296-A; UL LISTED 3F49; phone: 1.800.477.0457; web: kaz.com; Honeywell info: HoneywellCleanAir.com; pre-filter purchases: replacementfilters.com; single item UPC Code: 0 90271 17000 7; EPA Est. No. 074417-MEX-001; Made in Mexico.

Burning eyes, stuffy nose, headaches... oh, the joys of owning a wood stove, right? This is the second year I've used the wood stove and boy howdy, I surely was not looking forward to the ever present smell of smoke all through my house. Not knowing whether an air purifier would be an effective solution, I decided to start out with a small unit for my bedroom. I've only been running it a few nights now, but HOLY COW THE DIFFERENCE THIS THING MAKES IS INCREDIBLE.This is how my experience has worked out so far: Get package, open package, set up purifier. It took longer for me to get it unwrapped and out of the box than it did for me to get it powered up. Plug in, stand there for a few minutes as the smell of smoke vanished from my bedroom. (Incidentally, it also seems to be cleaning the air of my scented wax tart aromas, but I can cope with that!)Things I have noticed so far: Sore throat gone, eyes no longer burning, I feel like my sinuses are... more open? It's beyond not being stuffy, but I feel like I am breathing better than I was even before the stove got started up again.So there it is. I wasn't sure if an air purifier would make much of a difference, but it makes all the difference in the world!

First purchased one of these almost 10 years ago as it was recommended by our allergy doctor. It has run almost 24/7 for 10 years and still works just as well as day one. Have replaced all filters once but otherwise you just vacuum them clean. Also makes a great white noise machine. We are so impressed with it that we just purchased another one for our baby's room. Highly recommend.

I researched many,many air purifiers.Most of the reviews pointed in the direction of Hepa type and not ionizers.In my opinion the air purifiers with that feature and the feature of clearing germs made no sense as most people turned these off.My research showed the one with the extra option of germ elimination wouldn't work in a home setting like those used at Hospitals where used keeping that kind of contamination at bay.This is working purifying my bedrooms.The noise factor is miminum but not silent as it is working after all.It's easy to move,easy to get to the filter.After thorough dusting surfaces and room the cough factor and breathing is improved.I plan on purchasing another.

We are so glad we bought Honeywell's Air Purifier. We had been looking for a purifier for sometime when we come across this one on Amazon. It has 3 different levels, low medium and high which gives you the choice of how you want to run it. Low is very quiet and medium just a notch above that. High, to us, has a louder noise to it, but no more than a fan would make. When you buy a purifier Always read the comments. I'm so glad I did because I learned a lot from one fellow in particular. If I hadn't learned that you should make sure that your HEPA filter says 'pure' or 'true' we would've ended up with a cheaper one that wouldn't work as well as this one does. This one also has a charcoal filter that wraps around the hepa filter that is supposed to help with odors, which our family isn't concerned too much with that. We bought this purifier because we have a 12 year old pomeranian that has a cough from collapsed trachea and its very important for him to have cleaner air in the home as dust and bacteria make his cough worse. We can tell a MAJOR difference with our little guy as he hardly coughs at all now. (of course we vacuum frequently also) And both me and my wife have such a time with sinus problems and we can tell a MAJOR difference in that department too. My wife always had streaks of blood when she would blow her nose and that is completely gone now. So we see a great difference since we got the purifier. When the charcoal filter and/or the hepa filter need cleaning a little light will come on to let you know. And then you just vacuum it clean. In the comments I learned also the hepa filter can last up to 5 years before you need a new one. The charcoal filter doesn't last that long-I think a year for that one. But you don't need that one unless you are concerned with odors. But I do think it also helps to keep the hepa filter a little cleaner tho. We are very, very happy with our Honeywell Purifier and would recommend this to all.

All I can say is WOW!! This thing works! We have had it for 6 weeks, and just changed the wrap filter. It is a black blanket-style filter that goes around the car-looking filter (see the photos). All that stuff was going into our lungs from our master bedroom. I have asthma. I clean. We took out all the carpet in the house and put in tile. We don't even have throw rungs or area rugs. I dust and mop weekly.We noticed the room was easier to breath in the first day. We liked the white noise it makes to sleep with. When we still didn't know just how well it would work, but we felt better, we decided to order on a month until the entire house was as nice to be in as our bedroom. Now we know.All I can say is, "holy crap!"I also ordered more of the blanket filters. After reading the reviews I ordered a non-name brand. It really does look and feel like the one that come in the machine. I will order those again as needed.I knew I really liked these air cleaners, but I had no idea until today how much. I will be buying more of them.

Love it! I have noticed a HUGE difference in my houses air quality, having 2 cats and living in an apartment gets very dusty and heavy with dander. Guardian's purifier does a great job of collecting household dust, pet dander and more. It is slim so it does not take up much space. We move it around our apartment throughout the day, also we put it into different rooms that need "extra care"and close the door for an hour or two and after you can tell a major difference in the air quality, odor and my allergy symptoms have decreased. Side note: we do not use the UV light very often. I turned it on for the photos.

1st few days of usage was the expected plastic smell as people have stated on Amazon but it's not that bad. 1st night using the filter in our room made a world of difference in the air quality in the morning when we woke up. 1 we could actually breath through our noses. No more super stuffy noses from breathing all the crappy dust floating in the air. We move it back and forth between the living room and the bedroom because I wanted to see just how good this works before I bought another. And after seeing the improvement in the bedroom air quality and the living room during the day I will certainly buy another AC5000 for the living room and a smaller one for the baby's room. We are on the 3rd week of owning this GermGuardian AC5000 and it runs fairly quiet and the UV light is not really bothersome in the room at night. We are both happy I made this purchase as living in the dusty area this unit has made a difference in the household air quality. I would certainly buy another and recommend this to anyone suffering in the morning waking up all stuffy and congested from the crap floating around in the air. Best purchase I've made for indoors in quiet a while. Buy this unit it won't disappoint you.

Absolutely amazing. This air purifier not only removes odors, but it's FULL HEIGHT UV-C bulb (from the bottom to top of the entire unit) sterilizes the air, as well.

Our home has three cats. I used to be able to tell when one of them used the litter box (even all the way across the house, and our home is clean)....but we've got air returns in every room, so no matter where the cat boxes are, the odor is pulled into the air return and pushed around the house.

Also, we live in FL, where there are TONS of pollens every day of the year.

Ever since we replaced our old (8 years old) air filtration machine with "HEPA-Like" filters, and gave the Germ Guardian a couple of days to work, there are no more odors...none, no more dust in the air in any room where the unit operates, and the house smells like a Spring morning in the north. No exaggerating, no need to. This thing just works, and the number of sneezes and allergic reactions (even with the screen door open) has been reduced by about 90% when the unit is on.

I recommend keeping it on "low" or "medium", because the slower the air passes by the UV-C light, the more the air has contact with the UV light and the more germs it kills. The HEPA and Charcoal filter do a great job at eliminating kitchen odors, as well as other nuisance odors.

I bought two of these, and I'm considering buying another, because they work so unexpectedly well.

I'm not sure what others are saying about the "burning smell". Some odors, when they are filtered and then encounter UV-C light, can ionize and change a bit, so what smells like cooking fish going in, might come out smelling different, but I've had these running practically 24/7 for a month, and they simply make the house smell fresh and good.

Other brands and "Allergy Sites" want $400-$1,500 for their UV-C HEPA filters, and most have no odor control on them.

This may not be suitable for a severe asthmatic who needs a whole-house HEPA filter installed on their A/C unit, but it sure works well otherwise.

We read the reviews on Amazon & decided to give this a try. We live in a very open concept house with tons of windows. We hated to have company at certain times of the day because our air was so filled with dust particles. We also have 2 long haired cats. I seriously cannot believe how well this machine works! The air is no longer cluttered - you can really tell in the sunlight. It does exactly what's advertised to do - clean the air! The plastic smell did last about 2 weeks. I was encouraged by the company to run it on high with the light on for 48 hours. This did the trick. I was using the light sporadically & running it mostly on medium. The smell is now gone. The dust is gone. Love this!!

I love having this! I got is for a gift for a relative as she is a smoker. When we visit you cannot even tell it is a smoker's home. This thing really does its job! VERY impressed and it is so quiet.

Not sure about the quietness of it but the effectiveness is without question. The air in Kabul is terrible and I use this in my room. It's keeps the air clean. I don't wake up sneezing and coughing in the middle of the night and with a prefilter change it helps with the smell as well. Only reason it didn't get 5 stars is because it's not that quiet

Initially, we thought ours was defective. It produced a terrible noise and vibrated a bit. It was the way the filter was installed. First, the directions warn you not to tighten the cover too much. Well, ours needed to be tightened more. Second, the filter needed to be wrapped around more carefully. It's just a rectangular piece (that BTW sheds a lot) that you wrap around a cylinder and secure with two loose Velcro tabs. Third, the cylinder with the filter needs to be placed just so into the side of the filter. After these fixes, the machine was fine. I'd expect installation to be able to tolerate more variance, but it works. As a side note, I agree with the reviewer who not odd the machine got louder after a few days. However, it's still an ok volume.

I really like this air filter. I have a germ guardian, but I like this much better. When I turned this on I immediately smelled fresh air It has a large filter and draws in air from the front and back of the unit, so its moving a pretty good amount of air. As far as noise level,to me it is pretty loud but on medium and low it is bearable, but I don't think I could recommend this if your sensitive to noise. It is a little bulky looking compared to the more sleek looking tower styles (which I have) but this works better, maybe because it pulls in more air and the filter is bigger.So, I recommend this if you don't mind a little noise. Also I chose this because this does NOT have an ionizer or UV which some say is bad for your health.

I purchased one to see if it would help my wife with her breathing problems. She said that it seemed to work for her and I noticed that she was not coughing as much as she was before I purchased the unit. Even thought it is light enough to move easily, which she was doing, I purchased another so she would not have to move it from her home office to the bedroom. Since the first of January of 2015 I have purchased 3 units and they are all being used. It is a bit noisy for me, but my wife said it doesn't bother her. I'm not a big handy man type, but I found it easy to put together and had it running in less than 10 minutes. If I was handy, it would have only taken 5. :) I feel that it was money well spent. I hope this is helpful. Paul sends

I've been using it for some time in Singapore (240V) with a step down transformer. I've heard horrors of such setups, but nothing has happened so far. My room faces a 3 lane main road, so it does get a lot of pollution from the street. I haven't felt the effects of using this air purifier. But maybe that's only because there's simply too much dust around in the first place. What I can say is that I've had other mini purifiers and the filter gets horridly grey after about a week. We'll see when I have to clean this filter out just how much dust it has removed from my lungs.It's actually pretty quiet on the lowest setting and doesn't bother me at all. When I'm really tired, I can even sleep with it on the highest setting, but I'm also a very deep sleeper. I'm giving it 4 stars because it's a little bigger than what I expected.Update: For whatever reason, the purifier has stopped working. I've been using it with a step down transformer, which I use with a fan and vacuum as well and both are still going fine. I literally came home one day, tried to turn it on, and the motor just completely did not respond. Strange. I wrote to Honeywell who said that they do not cover products used with a transformer since it was not designed to be used that way. I mean, fine, but I still believe that the transformer has done its job and it was the air purifier that blew. It could have been handled better.That said, I must say the purifier does an extremely good job. After maybe a month, the prefilter was stacked with pet fur (I have a Jack Russel) that I had to change it. My room also felt a lot less dusty and any odours (e.g. farts) seemed to dissipate much faster.

This air purifier works very well, and overall I am pleased with it.Noise - 8/10Its not very loud. You can hear it in the background, and as long as its not on the highest setting, it settles in as background noise. I think that it actually helps put our infant to sleep, and helps keep her from startling when small amounts of other noise are in the room. We don't have to play the TV very loud to hear it over the filter, which is helpful again if the baby is sleeping. Its not perfectly quiet, but it does push a lot of air though itself, so it's reasonable that it would make some noise doing so.Functionality - 10/10It cleans out smells and allergens really well. I have a stinky dog who sleeps under the bed. When I don't run the purifier, his hair keeps me up at night due to a congested nose and his smell is noticeable. When I run the filter, I can sleep and the smell is extremely diminished. It has a charcoal first stage filter and a hepa secondary filter, so I think thats how it can get both the smells and the allergens.Value & Maintenance / Operating Costs - 8/10This filter came in at $110 when I bought it. That's not a tiny amount of money. I think that if you need a functional small room filter, its worth the value.I run a pool filter a lot, so my power bill is off the charts already. When I dont run the pool filter and still run the air purifier, my power bill is a little under average. Its looking at it in an aggregate way, and I've never tested the actual draw, but I think its not too bad.The charcoal filter should be replaced often, especially if you have a hairy dog (more than the once per 3-4 months that I crack mine open). Every time I open the machine to change the charcoal pre-filter I am totally grossed out by the thick layer of dead skin cells, fuzz, and dog hair in the thing. That's good though, because its doing its job. They are available at walmart, and although the job of cleaning them is messy - you get a herd of dust bunnies and charcoal all over yourself and the area you are working in - they are fairly inexpensive.The hepa filter is not cheap. I don't replace mine very often though.Other - 7/10The newer model has this blue LED that professes, "Hey, I'm on!!!" It is way too bright. If you have it in a living room, and it runs at night, great, instant night light. If you have it in your bedroom, and you're touchy about light, then its a problem. We taped a blackout patch over the light so its not bothersome. If its on, we can hear it, so the light is sort of superfluous.Overall - 8.5 / 10I bought a second one recently because I like the way they work, and both myself and my wife are sensitive to allergens. I am familiar with a few different types of filters, and this one just really seems to do the trick for me.

I am contemplating whether or not this is a 5 star product. The full length UV bulb is necessary for filtration. Where the lower priced version only has a front facing UV on the exterior that won't do much for disinfecting. I have this running full time. I live in a one bedroom apartment but it doesn't do much to eliminate dust. A big reason for this is that my two cats track around a lot of dirt and shed a lot. The carbon prefilter collects a lot of cat hair an luckily you just have to blow it out quick or do a quick vacuum to remove the hair. I have the filter placed next to the cat litter boxes and I feel that this has significantly reduced pet odors from the boxes. I use a premium natural litter that has low odor. Arm&Hammer and other commercial litters just use perfumes for odor control that I am too sensitive to. Back to the star rating. I feel it does a great job for reducing household odors without using sprays that increases air pollution further. But I have not found a noticeable amount of dust reduction

Noise level on level 1 is whisper quiet. Level 3 will be a typical medium to high fan noise. It isn't obnoxious but it would be distracting during a tv program or having guests over. It is strong enough you will notice air circulation. So I might need to have it at that speed full time to get proper air filtration. so keep that in mind when considering this filter. Turn it on high when you are not home, low when you are home. I haven't had it long enough to see if it has influenced my utility bill.

Update. after 5 months of use. It is now due for a filter change. for a one bedroom apartment with two cats. The carbon filter traps nearly all the cat hair. This does need a a little vacuum to keep clear about once a month. The filter change light is now flashing red after 5 months. whether this is on a timer or from sensing restricted air movement. Im not sure. HOWEVER, this is my critique. I still have significant dust and hair issues throughout the apartment. I have a central air system and over each duct I have a patch of light duty filter material to capture initial dust from incoming air. With those and the filter for the entry air for the independent system for my apartment alone I should be capturing most issues. I am not. I still get lots of hair and dust on EVERYTHING. This filter does capture some stuff as the filter has become dirty over time. But the effectiveness is only par. You would really want about 1 of these for every 350 sq ft at bare minimum to keep clean air. I do notice though a reduction in odor from the liter box, which this is near, and odor reduction from the UV light is what this is intended for. But still I probably would need two of these for my place. Would I recommend it? Maybe. Would I buy one again. probably. but not definitely.

I've had this for a couple of weeks and am very happy so far. I'm doing some construction in my place and it has helped a lot, although it's not really designed for that. At low it's very quiet, yet still moves a lot of air. I sit to the side of it on a hot day and it's perfect. I'm thinking about getting another one for my bedroom. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I don't know how long it will last and its one of those things I expect to run almost all the time. I run it about 8-12 hours a day. We'll see what happens.

So far so good. Like some of the other review on here state, there is a slight smell that's being emitted by the filter. I bought the larger 5000 model and the smaller 4825 model at the same time. The smaller unit does NOT have this issue.

5000 series -
I put the larger filter in the living room of my apartment. So far i can tell you that the air is much easier to breathe as i have been having huge issues to due the dust. It's also impressed me as far as trapping food smells. I'm going to let it run for 24 hours to see if the smell goes away. It's not a huge deal to me. Some people say it's toxic. I'm not sure how accurate that is. This unit has a much large UVC bulb that stretches nearly the entire length of the HEPA filter. You can see the UVC bulb, when it's on, partially from the front side. The blue light indicating the UVC bulb is quite bright and i wouldn't recommend this filter for the bedroom unless you put some same over it.

1/13/16
I have allergies and slight asthma as well as a family, so this review will be based from that perspective.

4825 series-
This smaller unit did not have the plastic smell right off the bat, like the larger unit did. So far so good. I placed this smaller unit in my bedroom and just like in the living room with the larger unit, the air is much easier to breathe. The unit does have a MUCH SMALLER UVC bulb and i'm not sure how efficient it will be at killing off germs when compared to the larger version. The bulb is located at the top of the unit and is only a few inches long. The blue indicator is not as bright as the larger unit, so it didn't bug me while trying to sleep.

I will be running both units 24/7 for a few days to see how it does.

After noticing there's no moldy/musty smell in my uncle's super old house, my aunt showed me they've been using an air purifier for a while. The difference really is amazing and there's no dust. I live in an older house and while it doesn't smell moldy or musty, because I have dogs, it can smell like a dog once in a while. And the dust is out of this world. So, I really looked around for several weeks to find something I'd be willing to try and decided on GermGuardian.
After a month of leaving it on all day and cleaning the filter at least once, I'm impressed with both the change in smell and the small amount of dust I find on my wood furniture and electronics. The dust reduction alone is making me very happy.
The first one I received didn't work properly right out of the box. I set up an exchange with Amazon and shipped the bad one back. Within 2 days of arranging the exchange, I received the 2nd one. I was a bit disappointed that it was shipped in only the manufacturers box and not inside a larger box with some padding. I used to work for UPS and Fedex and know that none of these shipping companies treat our merchandise with any respect. But, so far, no problems.

We purchased two of these and one worked perfectly, but the second stopped working within a day. I returned the product, but unfortunately, the replacement is also having issues. I contacted the manufacturer today to see if I can resolve the issue without having to return the device.

That being said, the filter that does work is amazing.

We were happy with this product until yesterday when all of a sudden it was no longer quiet. Now we have to pay shipping and handling to send it to TN so it can be repaired!?

I'm not really convinced this product makes a difference. I ran it on high in my living room for 2 days and didn't really notive a difference. I'm going to use this product more often and will update this review if my opinion changes.

I bought this despite the reviews of it being noisy. I figured that was going to be a problem with any filter. When I pugged it in though, it was awful. It sounded like a playing card was stuck in the fan blades. I was go ing to send it back but decided that I would see if in fact there might be something in the blade chamber. Turned out, the manufacturing process ran the power cable through the wrong hole and it was rubbing against the fan blade. I fixed it and closed everything back up. I works just fine. It was an easy fix for me but most people might send it back because of this defect. If not for the bad wiring, I would give this four or five stars. It works great, and purifies the air joust great.

I find this HEPA fairly quiet, but I have to say as a longtime HEPA user who has had Honeywells with replaceable HEPA filters before, that this does not get the smells out of your environment the way classic HEPAs do. I use it in my daughter's room, and she has a new wool carpet that smells pretty woolly (for lack of a better term). This filter doesn't really get rid of any of the odor, unless I leave it on all the time, on high, with the door closed (this is in a medium-sized bedroom). With the other kind of HEPA (I had the tower models before), if there was a bad odor in a room I would just pop it on high and the odors seemed to be 'sucked' out of the room. With this one, it functions more for white noise and does decrease dust a little, but I wouldn't have much faith that it is taking chemicals or fumes out of the air, if it can't handle the smell of wool!

Purchased two of these just shy of two years ago. One is still going strong collecting dust, but the other died about a week ago. Sad it didn't have a longer lifespan considering the price. I consistently cleaned the filter and device when the light would warn me. It now only slightly blows on high but not at all on other settings.

I bought a Honeywell 17000 on July 30, 2009. I purchased it because I own another one and we love that one. This one came from a place called Warehouse Deals, Inc. and it was the last one they had available, as I recall. Anyway, it came in a taped up and damaged box, but the item inside seemed new, so we unpacked it and fired it up. It worked fine for a couple of months, then it started acting up by not working on the HIGH setting, at times. Then it completely died on January 20, 2011, so it lasted in total about six months.I want another one, because we really like this particular model due to our experience with the older one (18 years old) we bought and still use.It has a 5 year limited warranty, so I'll be out the shipping charge to their repair center, and I'll have to send in $10 so they can ship it back. If all goes well, I'll update this review.CONCLUSION: Don't judge the 17000 by this lemon I happened to get. I have one that works like the day we bought it over 18 years ago. I'm just hoping that Honeywell gets it back to me in tip-top shape so I can give a positive update later on.

I really did like this when I first started using it, December 2016. Now, after using it daily for almost 5 months it is rattling at times and louder than usual. I changed the filter as required, even early in case that was the problem. It wasnt. I was hoping this would have last longer for the money that I spent.

I bought this filter and have loved it up to this point. It looks very sleek and I appreciate the quiet operation in the lower setting and the smooth, white noise in the higher settings.

There are a couple issues with this product:

Filter life. I bought this in April, and had it running by about April 15. It is now August 15 and I have been running the filter primarily on low, but I already have to replace it. The item description says it would need this every 6-8 months, but it has barely broken 4. This could get costly if it continues to burn through them at this rate.

The blue light is very intrusive if you plan to use this in a bedroom. You will most likely need to turn off the UV filter. I also place a shirt or some other article over the green filter replacement light since I like my room very dark.

I've had it going about a week. It was expensive and it's very loud on the middle and highest setting. I feel like the only setting that really works is the high loud one. Hasn't helped my allergies at all but has helped with pet smell when it's on the loudest setting. Doesn't work that great in a studio apartment (575 sq foot) but unfortunately this was the most expensive air purifier for "large rooms" I could afford. Supposed to only work for up to 200 square feet. If you have credit and can afford it, get a 500-600 dollar model if you have a studio apartment or a large room because this one doesn't really cut it. I'm only keeping it because on high during the day it does seem to help absorb odors from pets and I keep it near our area. We have 3 bunnies.

First of all, the one I received was not brand new. It was pretty obvious that someone had opened the box and returned the item. Also, it didn't have that brand new toxic smell.
I purchased this because I wanted a HEPA filter purifier that didn't emit ozone and didn't produce negative ions that caused particles to stick to everything like walls, furniture, rugs, etc.. What good is clean air if everything you live with is dirty?
I have a Honeywell AirGenius4 and although it produces the ions, it is truly a much better purifier and best of all, it's quiet even on the highest setting.
This purifier states it is for a large room but given how the air circulates, I don't think it would purify even a small room. The intake on the back is very weak on the highest setting compared to my AirGenius4. I tested it by lighting an incense ( on the medium setting) and I had to be within 3 inches of the intake for the smoke to get sucked in otherwise the stream of smoke was being captured by the air being blown out and hence, just circulating the dirty air around the room. That's the real deal breaker for me. The AirGenius will draw air into it from about 6 feet distance in a constant steady flow on the medium setting.
The GermGuardian is very loud on the highest setting, the medium is louder than my AirGenius on the high setting. The low setting on this machine is pathetic and worthless. I also have a Honeywell round HEPA 502?? and to compare noise levels, the low setting on that huge monster sounds just like this does on high. I can run my Honeywell on low in my living room during the day and it's not annoying at all and does a fantastic job but I wouldn't have it running with guests or if I was watching TV.

FYI, the air intake is on the back and the outflow is on the front. However, it exits only toward the right side because the vents must be angled to make it work that way. It does not blow straight out of the front.

For the money, I'm going to go back to the Air Genius4. It's expensive on here but you can find much better deals at other sites. Glad I didn't buy extra filters for this one.
BTW, you can wash the AirGenius filter and the only thing you need to replace is the carbon prefilter which is very inexpensive if you buy bulk and cut them yourself. Just use the original one as a template.

Loved the features on this unit and the reviews. Didn't read through enough of them but I did have some concerns after receiving and running the unit. It operates as described so no problems there. It is also quiet compared to my old unit. So that was nice.

1. The smell. After turning it on there was a strong plastic/electrical "new" smell. Somewhat offensive and strong. Others note it too. It's been running for a few days now and seems better or I've just gotten used to it.

2. UV Lamp. Thought this was good until my son kept looking at the bright blue illuminated light (probably fine but it got me thining). Is this light safe? Googled it and found a couple articles that say these lamps can use non-ozone omitting lamps but manufacturers don't specify so you don't really know. I'm not feeling good about this.

http://air-purifier-review.toptenreviews.com/mobile/ionizers-and-uv-lights-potentially-dangerous-tech-in-your-air-purifier.html

I bought this to be healthier, not to create Heath issues!

Might return or just not use the uv portion. Going to contact the manufacturer to see if they will give me more info.

We've had this for less than a year for use in our bedroom. The filter has been cleaned regularly but now the unit emits an unpleasant smell, with or without the filter. Disappointing especially because it's Honeywell.

Definitely not the quietest air purifier on the market, but I find the noise output to be completely acceptable. I consistently run this while I sleep. After a year of satisfactory use, I sought to replace the main filter, only to find that they're impossible to find. Keep that in mind as I did not believe air filter availability would be an issue.

Got this on January 24th and I vacuumed the filter on March 13th. The light has been on to check filter for a week and a half or so.'Put it all back and plugged it in. Doesnt work! My first one just died after about a year after using it. Thought I would try it again after a couple of years. This thing works great when it is working, but I am not having much luck with these. Bought another one two weeks before and still going but I am wondering for how long. Not real happy.2 stars because it does work really good and is prettyquiet.

I wouldn't call this unit "whisper-quiet," even on low. It is quite loud. Much louder than the box fan I keep in the same room, also on low. This actually would influence my purchasing decision if I had known the real amount of sound involved with this unit. And if I had known that all similar units are as loud, I would have bought a smaller one.Additionally I am annoyed because when I read the instruction manual it says more than once that you need to put the purifier 3 feet away from any large objects such as appliances or furniture. Essentially you need 9 sq ft to devote to this thing in the middle of a room. I never saw this anywhere on the product's description, and I had even read about this unit on a couple websites before I bought it. Again, I wouldn't have bought this had I known that it needed so much space.Other than these regrets I have with this purchase, it is quite a powerful fan, even when I leave it on low. However if I wanted a powerful fan I would have bought one. And it will never be very efficient because I don't have that much space to devote to this unit's required circulation area.Wish I hadn't bought it but I'm going to make do.

I have enjoyed years of service from a Honeywell 17000 unit that runs 24/7 in my bedroom. When it is on there is a quiet rush of air, kind of like a white noise generator.I ordered another recently and the motor was defective - it made a squealing, thudding sound while operating. I returned it and got another - this one made a slightly quieter squealing noise, but still sounded awful - when I went upstairs to check on my old one i could still hear it squealing from the other side of the house.While the price is a bit lower than it was years ago it appears that the quality has dropped substantially, order at your own risk.I ended up purchasing the new honeywell mini-tower from a local store in case I needed to return it - it's even quieter than my old 17000, we will see how it holds up.

We bought this unit several months ago for our bedroom, hoping that it would improve the air quality. Several indicators of its effectiveness would be the amount of dust on the filter, reduction in nighttime congestion from allergies and a reduction in the dust that collects on our furniture. After several weeks of running it 24x7 we didn't notice any difference in our nighttime congestion or dust on furniture. The unit has some dust accumulating on the filters but apparently is so localized it doesn't matter. Creates a nice ambient noise for drowning out other noises!We quit using it as our regular filter and set it aside. I wanted to return it to Amazon, but the time limit had expired before I got around to doing it. Then we tried to use it at Thanksgiving as a noise generator for our sleeping grandson. No luck, it has stopped working.There were no sounds, lights or other indications that it was failing. Just stopped turning on. We are sending it back to the manufacturer (KAZ) for repairs, paying for shipping both ways after only several months of ownership.I would not repurchase!

I have problems with the UVC light working properly on all 3 of the air purifiers that they have exchanged for me. Otherwise I really liked the machine. Cleaned the air really well. Customer service has been very accommodating and have in every way tried to make it right.

I bought this in Oct 2015 mostly due to reviews on Amazon. In Nov 2016, it completely stopped working. No warning, no noises, no lights, no nothing, it just stopped. We had cleaned it regularly and put in new filters as per instructions. So, just had to throw in trash. It would seem to me that for the cost of these cleaners, they should last more than a year.

And to top it off, I had bought a second one just like this one 2-3 weeks later, also in Oct 2015, and yesterday, March 11,2017, it just died also. Again, no warning, no nothing, it just stopped working. So the second one went in the trash too, both just a little over a year old. I would be very hesitant to guy another of this brand.

Got this machine and in a few hours could tell the basement dingy smell was gone. I was so pleasantly surprised! A month passes and is still working great. I thought I had finally found a solution for the basement smell. We left for a weekend. I unplugged the machine. When we got home I plugged back in. Left for a few hours to come home to our house smelling like burnt plastic. Thought there was a fire. Coming from this machine. Called germ guardian. They are sending me a new machine. Going to try it. If I have the same problem I am making them refund me. Hoping I just had a dud. It does help with oders and smells.

I have been waiting with baited breath to receive these air purifiers as my family and I all suffer from ailments that are likely due to poor air quality. So I really needed these devices, and soon. I give this product two stars because, maybe it does work well to remove certain impurities from the air. But I don't see how it makes sense to put lead in the cords and cables attached to a device that's supposed to remove toxins from the home. Am I going to want to bring more toxins into the home? And especially when I have an autistic child who will, at some point, likely touch the cords. I will call the company to see if they can explain this, but I don't see how lead in the cords is acceptable. And it doesn't say, "may contain lead", it says it DOES contain lead or lead compounds.

I kept it in the bedroom and it worked great for only about 6 months. Then I noticed it was getting harder to breathe in the bedroom. When I took it out of the bedroom my husband and I could breathe better. This was the winter when allergens were low, not during the summer. I replaced the filter, double checked it was done correctly, still not working right. I just replaced the filter again last week and gave it another chance, makes the room worse. It also makes a lot more noise now than it did when we got it. Not a good long term product or solution.

This didn't even last 4 months. Bought at Thanksgiving and it is not not working. About a month and a half in it start clicking when you would turn in on and off. Now it is a constant clicking (like playing cards in a bicycle tire) like there is a broken wing in there somehow. Very disappointed and it's beyond the return time frame. That's one downside to amazon. If you want to try it go to walmart or Home Depot where you have a year to return.

This needs to be prefaced by a huge warning: you can no longer buy full size HEPA filters from the company, you can only find full size after market filters which are very shady (I purchased one and within a month the unit was telling me it needed to be replaced). The companies solution to replace the HEPA filter is to stack two "half" size HEPA filters which do not filter as effectively and can make a whistling sound. If you buy this unit understand that you are doing two things: first you are buying a legacy HEPA filter (these went on market around 2000 - there have been dramatic improvements in terms of balancing the sound of units with the effiency of the unit). Second, and more importantly, you are buying a unit that will basically have to be fully replaced at the end of one year because you can no longer obtain brand or full filters to ensure its working properly.I cannot recommend this unit as you will have to spend another $119 in a year to replace if you want to ensure it is still working at the level you expect. You will end up spending $238 dollars within 12-18 months if you are aggressive with your filter changing. Despite what the manual may say the life expectancy of these HEPA filters in the real world is much shorter then in the laboratory testing.My advice for you is that if you are considering buying a HEPA filter, move on from this unit. It's ancient technology (2000 or so), loud, and you cannot get full size HEPA filters (only two half size HEPA filters which you are supposed to stack) from the company so you have to rely on questionable aftermarket vendors for the filters.Please do yourself a favor and as someone who has breathing problems, here is my advice: it may be sticker shock but you will definitely get what you pay for with these units. If you are willing to spend $119 or this unit, I would recommend saving up a little longer so you can look at units around the $202 price point. The technology and quality is night and day, plus you can get filters for their units. This unit is just wasting your money.

This one gets 1 star for sure. Was shipped properly and in good condition, but the fan motor does not work on low at all. Medium and high are fine but low is as if it is unplugged. The instructions said contact KAZ, the seller at their customer service number. I did and they wanted me to box the unit back up and send it to them and then they would evaluate it and determine what to do and then ship me another one. I bought this unit to use now not in a few weeks from now. These folks have very poor customer service. Thank goodness for Amazon Prime. I have already printed up the return labels and will ship this back today. Now I will order another air purifier from someone other than these folks. Thank u Amazon Prime.

After just days of using this, it began to emit a smell much like a wet dog. We've tried thoroughly cleaning the filter (which looks very clean to the eye) but the smell remains - ick!!!! Returning it.I should note: I didn't go so far as to troubleshoot this because my experience with Kaz, the producer of the machine, has been so awful that I have no interest in doing work on my end to make their product function as expected. Returning and looking for a competitor's machine.

I have owned several of these air cleaners; counting the previous model I have owned them going back at least 15 years. I have been running three of them located throughout my house and they have worked great; sometimes after several years of service the motor would die and I would buy a new one. Recently one of my air cleaners died and I ordered a replacement, When I finally got around to running it I found that it gave off a bad smell even after running it for a few weeks. One of the older units I have needed a new HEPA filter; when I looked at the Amazon reviews of the replacement filters I found many complaints that these filters gave off a bad smell, plus the new replacement filter appears to consist of two stacked filters plus a foam gasket since the height of the two stacked filters is a bit less than the original filter. It appears the manufacturer of these air cleaners has ruined the design probably as a result of cost cutting. I'm now searching for an different supplier of air cleaners. What a shame that a great air cleaner has been ruined.

If I could return this item I would. I used it for 2 wks at 4 hours at a time. It still makes the bedroom smell of plastic and is much too loud for sleeping. Not too loud for daytime. I will not use it again due to the plastic smell.

I bought this Germ Guardian Air Cleaning machine for my garage to absorb all the fumes and odors from craftwork. It worked a few months, then the Air Filter light went off a few weeks ago. Ordered the new filter and now the machine stopped working altogether. I connected the power cable to different outlets and it refuses to turn on. Of course, I wasn't expecting to need a warranty this fast (6 months). What a ripoff!

We have ordered 2 of these fans to place in our bedroom for white noise as well as clean keep the air clean/fresh. We have had to replace both of them one time each already, with the newest ones which arrived just 5 months ago in October. The spinning fan inside somehow keeps getting off alignment, creating a constant rubbing sound when the fan is one higher speeds. We have replaced the filter, but to no avail. Considering that we have had 4 fans and all 4 fans have had issues, I am guessing there is a problem with the engineering of this product.

After about two and a half months I noticed a burning plastic smell in my basement where I was using it. After trying to figure out what it was I realized it was the air purifier. Something inside burned up and now anytime I try to run it just stinks as if some part melted. Had it lasted at least a year I'd be a little more happy but I'm disappointed in its short life. I ran it about 8 hours each day mostly on the low setting and up to the high setting if I was in the basement. It's not like it was on constantly. Prior to this, it did a noticeably good job getting rid of the musty smell in the basement. I also have a de-humidifier running but that does not get rid of the musty smell like the air purifier did.

I bought this item in May 2016. It was easy to set up -- I basically just had to unpack it and plug it in. It ran beautifully for three days, then started emitting an electrical odor (in the middle of the night, no less), and then gave a death rattle and completely died. I am now returning it, which is a hassle I apparently payed good money for. Obviously, I'm not recommending it, and even question whether it is safe or not.

I purchased four of these units due to my newly developed seasonal allergies. I placed two in my home and two in the office. It does look nice and is pretty quiet, no complaints there whatsoever. I'm not sure how much it has helped me. I didn't notice a big difference in my allergy symptoms, but in all fairness I don't know if another system would have done any better. This is all pretty new me.

However, I can say that after 45 days, I noticed the unit in my bedroom wasn't working at all. It appears that the system has completely died. It will not turn on whatsoever. Since it's beyond the 30 day return, I'm stuck with a $120 paper weight.