Side by Side Comparison of: Winix vs Hamilton Beach

Best air purifer I have ever bought, I've had numerous other machines, but none came close to this one. purchased two GermGuardian AC4825 An Amazon best buy, but they didn't help very well. I suffer very bad allergies, and my other machines would help about 25%, however, this Winix Wac9500 completely removes all the allergies 100%. its so good I just bought another one from Amazon, now our bedroom and living room has these formidable air purifiers.

I received a $50 energy efficiency rebate from ComEd my electric company. The odor detector is extremely effective. I cannot really judge the degree of effectiveness at removing odors. It supposedly breaks down harmful chemicals in the household air. That was a large selling point to me. On low, it only draws 6 Watts of power. My HEPA filter can come anywhere near that efficiency. The prefilter is cleanable. The ones on my HEPA filter must be replaced monthly. It works as specified. Highly recommended.

I love this air purifier. I wanted to wait to write a review to make sure it continued to work as well. I bought it because we bought a house that had a old smoke smell. After washing, painting and replacing everything, this was my last hope of getting rid of the smell. I really feel it has worked! The room smells fresher and I haven't noticed the smell. I also have a Bulldog (and anyone who has had a bulldog knows it can have a bit of gas) The purifier kicks in high gear when she has the toots and we are all relieved. The purifier is quiet while running and isn't intrusive in the room. I love it and would highly recommend.

I loved this air purifier before it arrived, I was so excited to get it. The reviews are great and reliable. I bought this air purifier based on the reviews. It really does remove odor from the air. I read about several other air purifiers before deciding on this unit. The plasma wave technology makes hydroxyls and uses them to change germs and pollution in the air into harmless molecules. It is an ion purifier, of sorts, and does produce a very negligible amount of ozone. It produces about a tiny amount, basically a fraction of a fraction of the super stringent regulations from the EPA. It produces the least amount of ozone compared to other purifiers that use ionic-type technology. There is a little smell that the machine produces. Many HEPA filters and ion filters produce some smell. It is a slightly clean smell. The air is clean, so it smells clean. Most gases have a smell to them, including oxygen, if you've ever smelled pure oxygen from an O2 canister or tank. It might not reduce odors that are essentially cured into a house and furniture (IE cooking smells). It might also not reduce smells immediately, if they are particularly strong (most strong noxious odors it can reduce in minutes, but probably not in seconds- again cooking odors). I keep a litter box in my bedroom for my cats, and I can't smell it any more, not even when they use it. With in hours, the room smelled fresh. I have terrible, terrible allergies that really became dangerous after I contracted Lyme disease. I am allergic to pollen and mold and I actually break out in hives when allergen levels are high enough in the air. I happen to live in the worst area in the United States for allergies. I live outside of DC. DC is a swamp, so there is always mold in the air. It is also in a VERY pollen-rich region. My allergies are much less of a bother with using this machine. I haven't broken out in hives and I definitely would have if I weren't using this air purifier. I have had it for about 6 days. My husband's asthma is better also and his snoring is much better. I think this purifier, especially since a new model is out, is completely worth the money. This particular model is about half the price of other air purifiers. I like the features of this model and don't think the new model is necessary. The new model is almost $400. The filters do need to be replaced annually. I prefer this style of air-purifier to one that has a clean-able filter cartridge instead of a replaceable cartridge. It produces a good spectrum of white noise, it is whisper quiet on the first setting and makes enough noise on the turbo setting to drown out my neighbor's noisy Chihuahua. It does not require any assembly. The filter cartridge is sealed in plastic when the purifier arrives. So all you need to do is remove the plastic from the filter cartridge and snap the cartridge into place. It takes about 6 minutes to set up the machine. 1 minute to install the filter cartridge and 5 minutes to let it run an automatic cycle. It's size is very convenient for how much air it can clean. I have it in my master bedroom. My husband wants to buy a second one for the living room. I absolutely recommend this air purifier.

The wife and i found out we were allergic to our cat after adopting her. We played with her in the shelter for over an hour. Once we got home it was another story. Itchy nose and sneezing. Bought a cheap air filter for $50 at local store. That didnt help, so found the wac9500 and after reading all the reviews we took a chance. The results were amazing next day we have no issue at all. Actually wake up feeling more refreshed.I run this guy on high 24/7 and was curious of power consumption. I took some pictures of how much power it pulls using Kill-A-Watt. The result were very surprising. this thing barely consumes any power.I check local power company kWh rate and did the mathhttp://www.energysavings.com/energy-consumption.html15.4 Watt x 24 hours = 369.6 Watts a Day369.6 Watts / 1000 = .369 kWh.369 kW x $0.12 per kWh = $0.044/day$0.044 x 7 = $0.308/Week$0.044 x 30 = $1.32/Month$0.044 x 365.25 = $16.071/YearPower consumption with Plasma Wave On:Low: 3.5 WattsMedium: 10.5 WattsHigh: 15.4 WattsTurbo: 65 Watts

Updated 12/18/14: I recently had one of these units die after a little more than 7 months of use. The unit would mysteriously turn off after being on for about 5 minutes. This happened out of nowhere. The unit was operating perfectly fine for the prior 7 months and I have a good deal of experience with these units. I contacted Winix since this unit was under warranty and one that I personally purchased. Their customer support advised me to send an email with all of my information and the unit's information and they would issue an RMA. It took about 3-weeks from the day I contacted them with ground shipping back to them and return ground shipping back to me. The consumer has to pay return shipping charges. Depending on your distance from their facility, this can be a costly endeavor since the item fits inside of a large Uhaul box, if you are missing the original packaging. Winix replaces bad units within warranty with brand new units. The rep. I spoke with had no information on the specific issue I was having other than to say that they sell 1000s of these a day and there is bound to be a bad apple. Just beware that these units DO die (even within warranty) and you will be stuck paying shipping to their facility for a unit within warranty. So far, 1 out of 4 have died on me. Interestingly, the original unit, which this review is based on has been running flawlessly 24-hours a day for 3.5 years now.******************************************Updated 8/5/14: Vine sent me a new Winix U300 Signature Large Room Air Cleaner with True HEPA 5-Stage Filtration, PlasmaWave Technology and AOC Carbon to review. This is essentially a newer/updated version of the WAC9500. I now recommend the U300, since for almost the same price, you will get a slightly better purifier. My review of the U300 can be found on the product's page.******************************************Original review of Winix WAC9500:Over the past several years, I have been on a search to find the best reasonably priced bedroom air purifier - one that works but doesn't cost a small fortune. I will give you the basics on my experience with the Winix WAC9500 and then you can see how I rank it against other purifiers I have tried. I have tried the Winix WAC9500 for only one week before writing this review, however I will update this review as my experience with the purifier proceeds.A little background about the environment where the purifiers were used:I have had a little more than 4-years of experience with four other purifiers besides the Winix WAC9500, all shown below. All of them were used in a medium-sized bedroom in a dusty environment. Except for the Whirlpool, which I used for 3 years in a downtown city-environment with a busy street outside my window, all of the others were used in dry, dusty, desert-environments with the grand title of having nearly the worst air in the country. Plus there is a cat living in the house (mostly the bedroom where the purifiers have been located). If a purifier can control my allergies (sneezing, very watery eyes, sometimes a sore throat) from the bad air and eliminate any odors made by the cat, I know it is working.Winix WAC9500*My overall grade: A*Replacement filters: $$$*Replacement needed: Annually*Overall annual cost of filters: $$ (Update April 14, 2012: We got 322 days [46 weeks] of use before the change filter light came on. Based on the current replacement cost on Amazon.com of $98.00, the daily filter cost comes to around $0.30/day.)*Effectiveness: A*Deal breaker: Includes a remote, which is a really nice feature. The most effective, quietest, and cost-effective purifier I have found. Consumes only 15 watts on high. Filter and Plasmawave feature are very effective at cleaning the air and neutralizing odors.*******************************************************************************************The Winix WAC9500 purifier is superior to almost any other air purifier I have tried. The closest comparison I can find is to the Surround Air XJ-3800 Intelli-Pro Air Purifier. Both of them have pretty good odor control, however I think I found that the Winix WAC9500 has superior odor and dust DETECTION. While both do pretty much the same with the odors once they are detected, the Winix WAC9500 was better at detecting odors and kicking up the fan speed in "auto mode" to eliminate them. I think I have found that the Winix may have the slight upper hand at eliminating the odors more quickly, but this advantage may come from the better and faster odor detection.As for noise, I think the Winix is slightly better than the Surround Air XJ-3800. The "high" setting on the Winix, which is less powerful than the "turbo" mode available, is quieter than the highest setting on the Surround Air XJ-3800, yet it seems just as effective at cleaning the air. The Winix WAC9500 has better fan settings. For me, there is barely a noticeable difference between the "low" and "medium" settings.One area where both the Winix and Surround Air purifiers lack is in the "auto" mode. In "auto" mode, the purifier detects dust and odors and adjusts the purifier to handle the smell or "contaminated" air. But there is inherently a defect in the way that this is designed. The purifiers automatically move to the lowest setting once the air cleaned. This by design reduces the amount of air that is moved. This affects how quickly the purifier can draw new "contaminated" air to determine that it needs to kick up the fan speed to handle the new "contaminated" air and clean. The result is dirty air in one part of the room until the purifier can draw enough of it over to the purifier to detect that it needs to increase fan speed. It takes a long time if the purifier moved to the "low" setting in "auto" mode. It would be a much better if they allowed you to set "auto" mode to the "medium" speed and it would kick up a notch or two when it senses dirty air. Because this is not possible, I have found that we tend to keep the purifiers on high, except for nights when peace and quiet is desired. Set this way, the purifiers are most effective at cleaning the air, but they consume more energy than the "auto" mode - it's a trade off.The energy efficiency of the Winix WAC9500 signficantly outperforms the Surround Air XJ-3800. The high setting on the Winix (which I believe is as efficient as the high setting on the Surround Air) uses only 15.5 watts versus 45 watts. These numbers came from a Belkin Conserve Insight F7C005q Energy-Use Monitor:Setting/ Winix WAC 9500 / Surround Air XJ3800Low/ 6 watts / 31 wattsMedium/ 10 watts / 35 wattsHigh/ 15.5 watts / 45 wattsTurbo/ 64.5 watts / 55 wattsPretty amazing that the high on the Winix WAC9500 only draws slightly more than a 60-watt equivalent CFL.If you consider that the WAC9500 uses ~15 watts on high, at $0.106/kwh, the cost to operate this purifier 24-hours a day is $13 for a year. Over 5 years (assuming that is an average lifespan for an air purifiers), the cost to operate on the high setting (which is not the highest) 24-hours a day is $65. However, if you look closely, many purifiers in this class use a minimum of 35-watts, some as much as 112 watts in turbo modes (like the Electrolux Oxygen Ultra Air Cleaner, EL500AZ). Over 5-years at 35-watts for 24-hours a day, that is $153, assuming the same electricity cost above. The difference between 15-watts and 35-watts over 5-years is $88.There is an "auto sleep" feature on the Winix WAC9500 that I was never able to get to work correctly. Once activated, it is supposed to set the purifier on low mode when the room is dark and return to the previous settings once the room gets light again. However, every time I activated the "auto sleep" function, the purifier just went to the lowest setting regardless of how much light was in the room (I removed all of the plastic films from the front of the purifier). I think it may need a better light sensor for it to work as designed.After all of these air purifiers I've tried, the winner for me is the...Winix WAC9500. Even though it is not perfect, it is the best I have come across so far. The light sensor may not work correctly and the "auto" feature may lack, but I found that it is better than all of the other alternatives I have tried. It is quiet, the filters only have to be swapped annually and it's energy-star rated consuming only 15 watts on high. I would recommend this purifier.Update August 27, 2011:Everyday we are impressed more and more by this air purifier. It has honestly exceeded any expectations I had. And it still outperforms any air purifier we have tired before. The only maintenance we've had to perform is to vacuum the pre-filter occasionally. This purifier does miracles cleaning up after our smelly cat. And on days when the air quality has been in the unhealthy range, it has made such a difference in the room where its located. I still can't recommend this enough.Update April 14, 2012:Just two days ago, our change filter light came on. Based on my calculations, the filter lasted us 46 weeks. This has pleasantly surprised us and we have not noticed an negligible difference in air quality over the life the filter. We regularly vacuum the filters, however, we have never washed them even though I know it's possible to wash the carbon filter. When I last checked, Amazon.com is selling the replacement filter set for around $98, which makes the filter cost a little over $2 per week, or $0.30 per day.Update November 28, 2012:This purifier is still going strong. In fact, I am on here to buy another for the bedroom. I've been shopping around to see if there is any new, good competition, but I am going to stick with this one because it has been such a reliable workhorse over the past 18-months. The Surround Air XJ-3800 we have in the bedroom just doesn't cut it any more. I have noticed an improvement when I have moved the Winix WAC9500 into the bedroom. The Surround Air CJ-3800 doesn't do anything with the dust or cat hair. It's hard to believe the mess that accumulates in a week. In fact, I would downgrade the Surround Air XJ-3800 to C- if I were to write my review again today. It is not awful, but it is not nearly as effective as this Winix WAC9500, at twice the cost to operate. The Winix WAC9500 been such a pleasure to have. It might be overkill in size for the bedroom (175 square feet), but it will be perfect on the medium setting.Update December 17, 2012:I ordered a second unit a while ago and it's been running about for a little more than two weeks now. The second unit definitely has a slight sound when the Plasmawave feature is engaged. I now know what the other reviewers have mentioned. The original unit makes a much less noticeable sound. Now, since I have two units to compare, I notice a very, very slight sound too from the first (quieter) unit when I turn the Plasmawave off and on. The sound of the new unit is very slight and since it is not in the bedroom, it is not bothersome. I now have the quieter original unit in the bedroom.Out of curiosity I called and asked the manufacturer in Chicago what they thought. They told me the sound is normal, but they did not have an answer why one unit would be louder than the other. They informed me that the sound is partly determined by the quality of the air. I do not believe that has been my experience. The second unit has been consistent in the sound that it produces, whether the air is clean or contaminated. I am sensitive to noises so I think the sound would bother me if the louder unit was in the bedroom and I was trying to sleep. However, we barely notice it in the living room. It seems the noise does not affect the performance of the units. They are both equally good with cleaning the air. If you are sensitive to noise (and I mean it is very, very slight), you might not want the Plasmawave feature on when you are trying to sleep. The feature can be turned on and off using the remote control (only).Update January 28, 2013:Now both units are quiet. Something changed with the newer unit that we received, but I am not sure what. Whatever happened has caused the noisier unit to quiet down. Maybe it just needed a "breaking-in" period? We love these purifiers. They are about as "green", earth-friendly, as you can find while being very effective. We don't notice any change in our electricity bill with the addition of another unit. We still get some dust, but not nearly as much. This will not magically solve all of your dust problems, but it helps tremendously.

I haven't had this long, but I've seen no issues. It seems to be working, as my chronic cough (resulting from the combo of living in a semi-arid climate and having pets) has dissipated slightly. My primary reasons for purchase: 1) chronic cough, 2) dust; DUST everywhere! and 3) smell (I have a puppy who is struggling with the concept of potting training).I have to say I am super skeptical about whether all the fancy sensors do anything at all. The odor sensor seems super backwards most of the time, but I just keep it on high all day and crank it to turbo at night (I like the white noise when I sleep, but if you don't than turbo may be disturbing). I anticipate I'll have to clean the filters every couple of months at that level and replace them every 5-6 months. I checked the cost of filters, and it's very manageable compared to some others.

Does the job and most of all, I LOVE that it has a light sensor. I use this in my bedroom so at night it automatically drops to low speed. Then during the day, it goes back into high speed.I think the 'automatic' fan speed function is a joke. If I left it in auto, it would stay at Low speed which barely moves any air at all. This would do little good removing dust from my bedroom so I set it to High and sometimes Turbo then at night the light sensor drops it to low until the sun comes up and I open the curtains to let the light in.I have another Winix room air cleaner but it doesn't have the automatic night feature so it's in my office. If your buying a Winix air cleaner for your sleeping quarters, this is the one to get.

Dust removal:I've only had the unit a few days, so I'll defer to others on it's effectiveness, but the professional reviews all rate this model highly for dust filtration. I have no reason to believe that it isn't filtering to the high standard claimed.Noise:I'm very sensitive to noise, especially in the bedroom at night, so this was my top consideration. I'm happy to report that this unit is satisfyingly quiet on the low setting (not silent, but quiet enough that you might not notice it running), and nearly inaudible with the additional "sleep" feature engaged. The Plasma (ionizer) function can also be turned off, in case you are bothered by the squealing noise that some people report on this model and it's cousin, the Fellowes AP-300PH. The only downside is that it really isn't filtering all that much air when it's turned right down to it's ultra-low "sleep" setting. But if you do need to turn it up, it's still fairly quiet, even on high. Turbo setting is much louder than high though - I definitely would not call it quiet, but it won't drive you out of the room either. So for most people this will be a trade-off depending on how much air they need to move. Note there are actually 5 fan speeds: "sleep", low, medium, high, and turbo.If you are sensitive to noise, consider upsizing to a larger unit than is needed for your room, and just run it at a lower setting. A bigger unit can deliver the same amount of filtered air (CADR) at a low fan speed (less noise) as a small unit running it's fan hard (louder).Cheap Replacement Filters:Since I only just bought this, I haven't had to replace any filters yet, but I did research carefully to make sure I wouldn't get nailed later with overpriced replacement filters. There are a couple of options: 1. Buy the Winix "size 21" replacement cartridge 119110 with carbon granules. This is the pricey option, but people say it's a better filter for odor and VOC removal. You could also buy the Winix 115115 HEPA filter & carbon pre-filter, which is not as good as the Ultimate cartridge, but if you're going to do that then you may as well go straight to option #2, which is the same filter at a much lower price. 2. Get the Crucial Air HF-300 replacement filter set: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MMO0XTK/ These are designed to fit the Fellowes AP-300PH air purifier (which is a stripped-down and rebranded version of the Winix 9500). For 1/5 the price of the Winix cartridge, you get the main HEPA filter and 4 carbon pre-filters. These won't handle odors or remove VOCs as well as the Winix Ultimate cartridge, but they will take care of the dust and pet hair just as well. You could also buy the Fellowes brand HF-300 plus CF-300 filters, but it's the same thing as the Crucial Air filter, at a much higher price. 3. I guess if you're *really* cheap, there's a third option, which is to get a 3M Allergen Filtrete furnace filter (16x25") and cut it in half. Stuff some foam or paper towels along the cut edge to seal it, and viola, you have a HEPA grade filter for lunch money.Ionizer Function:Another reason I bought this model is that the ionizer can be turned on or off. I'm undecided on the benefits of ionizers vs. the risks of low-level ozone (which is unavoidably generated to some degree by all ionizers - some are better than others). I have read lots of reviews on the Fellowes AP-300PH (which is nearly the same air cleaner) complaining about the ionizer making a squealing noise. Some people go so far as to take their air cleaner apart to disable the ionizer. Well I don't want to be taking anything apart to 'fix' it, so the extra few bucks for this model is worth the ability to just shut off the ionizer with a press of a button if it turns out to be an issue.Other Features:- Dust & Odor sensors: these seem to be a bit of a gimmick (the odor sensor on my unit goes up when I increase the fan speed) but thankfully it doesn't matter - you can ignore these and just run the fan on a manual speed setting.- "Auto" mode: tries to measure the dust and odor levels, and change speed accordingly. Pfft. This feature doesn't seem to do anything - it just goes to the low speed and stays there. In theory this is a nifty feature, but in practice it doesn't really deliver. I just end up manually setting a higher speed during the day to get good air turnover and cleaning action while I'm away. Then at night I manually set the sleep mode so the noise won't bother me.- Remote control: handy sometimes. The Fellowes AP-300PH does not have a remote. One nice touch is a little recess on the top of the unit to hold the remote so it won't get lost. 2x AA size batteries seems silly - this remote could have been made much smaller if it used 2x AAA size cells. Maybe they designed it for AA batteries because the remote gets used a lot (see front panel controls below)- Front panel controls: These really suck. They are not very intuitive (e.g. you have to hold down the power button to turn the ionizer on / off, and there is apparently no way to set it to sleep mode, only auto-sleep mode which uses the light sensor), so you pretty much end up using the remote for everything.- Dimming display: in 'sleep' mode, the display dims, solving a common complaint with the Fellowes AP-300PH - namely that the display is too bright in a darkened bedroom. Shut off the ionizer function, and the little animation goes away too, for even less nighttime annoyance.- Light sensor (auto-sleep): This is supposed to go into the ultra-quiet 'sleep' mode and dim the display automatically at night. Unfortunately, the sensor doesn't really pick up the ambient light in room which isn't brightly lit, so it tends to go into sleep mode prematurely when it could otherwise be cleaning at a higher fan speed. This feature is a good idea, but in practice I end up manually setting the sleep mode. It needs some kind of sensitivity adjustment or calibration so you can set it to operate correctly in your particular environment.- Style: Meh. It's not bad, but definitely lacking refinement, especially the controls and display, which look really cheap with the fake chrome, and the totally uninspired rectangular display bezel. More companies need to take some cues from Apple or Band & Olufsen and get their industrial design up to scratch. Winix has some new models with improved styling, like the U300 (which has almost identical features, but has a lower CADR than this one on the low/quiet setting and is noisier on the high setting), and the P300 (like the U300 but uses the lower-tier filters instead of the "ultimate" series).- Fit & finish: Not bad for a pile of plastic. :) No serious fit issues, squeaks or rattles... it feels pretty solid overall.

When there are over 250 reviews for a product, there is often little one can add. Certainly not when some of those reviews seem to take up volumes. Everyone should know the caveats of evaluating Vine reviews, so I won't go into that either.What I would like to point out is a matter of price. I have been watching this air cleaner for quite some time for use in a room with three parrots. For months the price has been about $250. Recently the price dropped, and I purchased one. About a week later, the price dropped to under $180. Soon after it jumped to $330. So, if you're considering purchasing one, you might want to monitor the price prior to placing an order. Amazon customer service graciously adjusted my charge to the lower price.But product reviews are not meant for vendor ratings or delivery issues, so here's my product review.This unit seems to do an admirable job with both odor and particle removal from the air. However it is not designed for huge spaces, so don't expect it to handle them. I would say it is fine for 150-300 sq ft rooms. That's what I have, but my room has cathedral ceilings, so it doesn't, nor do I expect it to, remove all the dander that my three parrots are capable of producing.It does a good job and when set to lower speeds, is almost silent. It also has sleep settings. An included remote control fits comfortably in the unit or to control it from across the room. The sleep setting dims the display so as not to be annoying at night. It's also a lot more attractive than the Kenmore air cleaner it replaces.Filter replacements are not cheap, but any decent HEPA filter with reasonable surface area won't be. The unit also has dust and odor sensors, which might seem useful to some, but won't make your air any cleaner.Fellowes makes an air cleaner that looks identical, although they may have many identical parts, the Winax has more functions. I'm not sure, but I don't think the Fellowes has a remote, or the ability to shut off the plasma wave function.Quite satisfied with this purchase, and although not pertinent to a product review, with Amazon for honoring the reduced price I ended up paying.

Honestly, when my Doctor recomended we get one of these things i was very dubious, we read all the reviews and i am pretty amazed at this technology. When the dog farts, it smells it and neutralizes it. I know this sounds odd, but it really works. When i get home from a workout, the fan goes up, the red light comes on and says "you stink, time for a shower"the cleaning lady has even noticed that she has to dust less. I am pretty impressed. Besides it making the room smell less from human or dog odors, being less dusty its super duper quiet in the low auto setting.Only complaints are: Dang the thing is bright at night. i wish the auto mode had a feature that dimmed the display to nothing when in night auto mode. Also the manual lacks a bit of information. I could do without the remote and more real world features would be swell.

Got this because of all the dust I could see when the sunshine came through the windows. We live in SoCal which is dusty and we also have 3 dogs. This thing needs to be on high or turbo to really move the air IMO for a larger room(Living room). It is fairly quiet until you kick it into turbo mode. It has dust and odor sensors and they actually work pretty well. When my dogs and kids are playing around the unit and kick up the dust the sensors shows the high dust and if a dog (or a child) happens to pass wind it actually picks it up too. It does seem that if I leave it running in our living room we can get away with dusting less now and my nasal congestion is improved. But like I said we run it on high and turbo most of the time and only when were in the house. The pre-filter is definitely showing how dirty our air was. I think this is the best bang for the buck if your not looking to spend a fortune for a air purifier. And yes with the plasma wave on the air actually has a cleaner refreshing smell coming out the machine.

My 8 yr old daughter conned us int getting her a cat. She's always had me wrapped around her finger, and though I put up a good fight on this one, she got her kitten. I am allergic to cats, so we got her a bald cat thinking it would be better for my allergies. It was fine until the seasons changed and the air dried out. Then my allergies started letting me know we have a cat. In an effort to manage these allergies I bought this air cleaner.First of all, a little information on the type of house we are using this in. We live in a moderately large, three-story house with about 1500 sq feet on each floor. The cat spends the majority of the time in one room on the upper floor which consists of bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. this floor is not very open so I put this purifier in the room where the cat and we spend the most time as that is where my allergies were the worst. I figured our central air would cycle air from the rest of the upstairs through this room and get filtered.After about a week, I have learned a few things. This unit is very quiet on low and medium speeds. On high speed it is audible, but not loud. This is the speed we have it running on all the time. In turbo mode, it is louder than I could tolerate all the time, but good for when vacuuming or fusing or if you just need to turbo clean the air in the room.As far as effectiveness goes, this unit didn't help completely like I was hoping. It definitely helps, but doesn't solve my allergies completely. Which is why I gave it 3 stars. I know I have a larger space and that it is unfair to expect one unit in one room to solve all my problems, but I was expecting it to eliminate my allergies when in the room where it is running ( about 200 sq ft).So, while it didn't work quite as well for me. I do think it is a good unit for the price and I think it is helping. Maybe over time this will help more as allergens are kicked up and removed rather than just settling somewhere else.If that is the case, I will certainly update this review.

To be frank, I'm not entirely sure what this does better than the other less expensive model since both have HEPA filters, etc. I own three units in total; one of these and two WAC5500. This one has a washable filter, and lights on the front that remain in motion. In a bedroom, the light can be really annoying. So much so, that I took this out and put it in the living room and put the WAC5500 in the bedroom. Even then, the green lights are annoyingly bright. There is a "sleep mode", but even then the green light is on, and at such a low setting, it is doubtful that this unit does a thing. You need to keep it on "High" or even "Turbo" to see results. I will say this, it is quiet...much quieter than the WAC5500.

Wanted to love, needed a solid HEPA - this is just not it. In comparison to other air cleaner/filters this had the added bonus of an auto detect feature which of course came at a premium and came highly recommended by other reviewers. The auto feature did not work...I inadvertently tested it with an oven flare up - butter from a pie crust while blind baking - a smoky mess - the fan speed never increased. Of course with my curiosity piqued, I began testing unit with various indoor pollutants - a friends cigarette smoke - foul diaper pail - polyurethane - maybe not very scientific but no change whatsoever. I returned and purchased a different HEPA unit without the auto function and at a substantially less cost and am satisfied with the results.

This air filter is definitely quiet, but after over a month of use, the air coming from it has a very distinct odor. It's artificial-smelling, almost like plastic. I called Winix and they said this is typical of new machines but should be gone after a few days. They recommended washing the carbon filter and while it helped some, there's definitely still a smell. What's the point of running it to clean my air if my air then doesn't smell clean? Not satisfied with my purchase at all...

I think I was really expecting too much out of this purifier. It does an OK job. I think it does a better job of controlling dust, hair and dander than it does pet odor. The only way o do that is to have a purifier that has at least 15 pounds of embedded carbon. A little filter s really not going to do the best job. My dog has passed gas right in front of the purifier and the fan didn't kick in. However when I cook fish the fan kicks in. So I would say its average on odors but does better if you continually run it on turbo.The product was easy to set up.Bottom line, it is good at removing dust, hair and dander, but I think I will move it to another part of the house and purchase another purifier like the Austin Pet with a lot more carbon for pet odor.

Trying to research air cleaners is very, very time consuming. I spent a week doing it. I recommend you google "air purifier power". A second source is to google "allergy buyers club". The first source does not compete with Amazon because they do not actually sell anything. But Amazon still wanted the www address deleted. One important thing to note, if you google "air purifier reviews", please be careful. Many so called review websites are really owned by one particular company brand and they are pushing their brand over all others. But they try to disguise their web store as a place to check out reviews and ratings. Some websites do sell a variety of brands, but if you ask them for assistance, of course they are going to point you to the brands they sell and they are not going to mention other, better brands they do not sell. It was difficult finding unbiased assistance.The Feedback of the first site ultimately led me to purchase this machine, even though they did not recommend it as the absolute best choice. They actually preferred the Rabbit BioGS and the Sharp I talk about below, in this price range. I think any of these 3 would work, but you will still benefit from reading the below points.Most Important Things To Know Going In:1) COSTA really good air purifier is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000. I cannot afford that, so going in I know I am not buying the very best here, I am going for a good compromise on price and ability. Most air cleaners in the $300 range will have some flaws, so you are really looking for what you can live with. When I started searching I thought I could get a top of the line cleaner for $300. That is what you might think if you shop at Big Box stores, like me. Doing the research opened my eyes to the truth about how much an excellent air purifier really costs. This is my second air cleaner purchase. Just like most consumers, my first purchase was an air cleaner in the $50 price range. That unit was fair, but left me wanting much more and I started reading about air cleaners.2) PLASMAWAVE, GREAT TECHNOLOGY, BUT DON'T EXPECT MIRACLESIf you want to see how Plasmawave works, go to the Winix company website, which is WINIXINC. One of the links is about the technology of Plasmawave. They have a nice informative video lasting about 4 minutes about the technology. Before watching, just be advised that they are of course overly optimistic about the capabilities of the machine. But I like the information presented. What customer reviews and professional reviews have said about plasmawave.....A) It kills viruses and germs that it comes into contact with, but it won't sterilize door knobs, sink handles, etc. In other words, it helps but isn't a miracle worker.B) It neutralizes VOCs and harmful chemicals in small, reasonable amounts. However, you cannot paint a chest of drawers and then put the Plasmawave in there and expect it to neutralize the huge volumes of chemicals in the air. In fact, one reviewer warned you might get a hydroxy radical mess as the machine tries to bond with the VOCs in the air.C) Plasma Ion technology has had some critics who say that it's process may dry out the air somewhat. At worst, it may make your nose stuffy if you sleep next to the machine. Everyone seems to agree the Winix is not as bad at drying the air as the Sharp. The Sharp's positive and negative ion maker is rated as stronger than the Winix machine. I personally cannot sleep next to my Winix 9500 on the night stand, because it will make my nose dry and stuffy. Maybe just because of the circulation of the air over my face as I sleep. However, I sleep just fine if it is 6 feet away from the foot of the bed. So it is not a problem. I am actually testing it now, just for fun, using instruments that measure humidity, to see if the humidity in the room with the Winix 9500 changes at all.The Plasmawave technology was started by Sharp in Japan. Years ago, when people said the Sharp Plasmawave dried out the air, Sharp addressed the issue by adding humidifiers to their Plasmoclaster machines. This website posed the question that if the plasmawave needs water vapor to work, does it work poorly in low humidity environments. I don't know. The company does not list any minimum levels of humidity that I have found. Go to air purifier power website mentioned for more explanation.D) You will see many reviewers saying they want to be able to turn off the plasmawave part of the machine at times and just use the HEPA and other filters. Winix 9500 does have the option to turn the Plasmawave off, which is nice. However, the owner's manual suggest that you should leave it on at all times.3) SLEEP MODE You have to know that many people seem to have issues with the automatic sleep mode. The light sensor does not seem to work well. This goes back to my first point, you are in the price range where you cannot expect perfection. I ordered one knowing the automatic sleep mode is flawed. Most manufacturers seem to miss the point that people don't want a huge glowing readout that is going to light up a dark room when you are trying to sleep. So, if this is important to you, make sure you purchase a brand that offers the ability to turn off lights or dim them. Most units do not offer this, especially in the less than $200 arena.4) ANNUAL REPLACEMENT FILTER COSTS ARE WINIX $90 VS SHARP $150 VS RABBIT BIO GS AT $60, ALSO CONSIDER FUTURE AVAILABILITY OF FILTERS THAT YOU WILL NEED FOR YOUR MACHINEThese Winix units are made by a Korean company who used a very similar technology to the Sharp Plasmocaster made in Japan. I wanted the new Sharp model Plasmocaster FP-A80u which is $300. I had a hard time finding one to buy, Amazon only carries the cheaper models that don't have an automatic mode, as of March 30,2012. The Sharp models are supposed to be better quality than the Winix, but Sharp has had issues with not stocking replacement filters. One website warned that about the time you need a replacement filter, Sharp has discontinued the model and the filters you need. This was a big concern for me, since I was having trouble finding the unit to purchase, what are the chances I can get a filter 2 yrs from now. The sharp replacement filters are supposed to cost about $50 more per year than the Winix filters, so there was an additional annual cost to the Sharp Model also.Almost every major online seller of air cleaners carries the Winix models. So I feel like finding replacement supplies should be much easier 2 yrs down the road. But there are really no guarantees. That is why the website I mentioned recommends some brands that have a really good customer support and are located here in the USA.5) ROUGHLY 180 SQ FT AREA IS MAXMost websites dedicated to allergy sufferers say that any air purifier needs to change air 6 times per hour in a room, to be effective. Of course manufactures of all brands don't like using this standard because it shrinks the amount of square footage that their particular machine can clean. Using this standard, one website who shows their math on how they figure out the air change rate per hour, adjusted the Winix 9500 to 180 sq ft max. Don't get the idea that only Winix overstates its square footage ability, this seems to be common to all brands. Manufacturers will use 2 or 3 air changes per hour, instead of the 6 per hour that allergy specialists recommend.6) CADR RatingsThe Ultimate Pet 9500 is AHAM certified with CADRs (Clean Air Delivery Rates) at 182 Dust, 194 Smoke, 183 Pollen. The higher the number, the better. The Sharp model advertised a Pollen CADR of over 300! The Rabbit Bio GS was very similar to the CADR numbers of the Winix.The review website I mentioned said the CADR numbers for the Winix 9500 were slightly suspect and may be better in real life. He based this on the fact that the CADR numbers for the cheaper Winix 5300 are actually much better than the top of the line, Winix 9500. We know the Winix 9500 has a better filter system. A lot of people with the Winix 5300 buy the replacement filters for the Winix 9500 and try to use them in their machine. AHAM certified CADRs (Clean Air Delivery Rates) for the Winix 5300 are 248 Dust,235 Smoke,251 Pollen. Doesn't seem to make sense, does it?7) NOISEThe over all noise of the machine is very quiet, except on turbo. The low setting is so quiet that I keep turning it up to Medium or High, because I don't feel like it is circulating enough air.The plasmawave technology does make a little bit of noise that you may not hear at all, depending on age and high frequency hearing loss. It is a very unique sound. It reminds me of those electric pest control devices that are supposed to operate on a frequency humans cannot hear, but you can hear a little high frequency chattering sound. Again, if you don't hear it, you probably lost that part of your hearing range. I don't notice it unless it is sitting on the nightstand and I am trying to fall asleep.8) SHORTEST WARRANTY IN THE $300 PRICE RANGE--ONE YEARThe parent company is Korean. They have a short warranty period of only one year. Many units in this range offer much greater warranty periods. You kind of have to balance that with the great reviews here on Amazon. I would have liked for this unit to have a better warranty, but I bought one anyway. It wasn't a deal breaker for me. I liked that the unit had been out a few years and had a proven track record.A note on the Rabbit Bio GS, the original Rabbit 421a was supposed to be made in Japan. However, noticing all of the recent complaints on Amazon about quality control problems with the Rabbit Bio GS, I wonder if they have not started making this unit in another country. It seems like the overall quality has declined from the customer complaints. However, their warranty is good and their customer service is supposed to be great.CONCLUSION: After a week of research, I don't know that there is really a "perfect" unit in this price range. If you want to drop a $1,000, you can get a unit that seems to have little, if any, flaws.In this price range, competition is fierce among many companies who are bringing cheaper units out of China or Korea to rebadge and rename and then sell here in the USA. If you don't like the Winix 9500, try the Rabbit Air BioGS. Rabbit Air BioGS annual filter replacement cost is lower than these Winix units. However, they have their flaws too. You can read those in the reviews here and at other websites. Like I said, the Sharp FP A80u for $300 was supposed to be great, but I could only find it at Best Buy Online and talked myself out of it because of future availability of supplies. It was just introduced in the last few months, so it is possible that the Sharp FP A80u is not fully on the market yet. You may want to check back later. The fact that Amazon carried the cheaper, manual mode only, Sharp FP A60u, did make me worry somewhat about what happened to the A80U which adds the much needed "automatic" clean mode.In the end, as one Review Website put it, as long as you don't buy a cheap air cleaner that pollutes the air through one of two methods, you should see some improvement in purchasing almost any air cleaner. The 2 methods of polluting are units that CREATE ozone, which you don't want. You will see most units claim somewhere that their unit does not do this. The second is in cheap units that let dirty air slip around the edges of the Hepa filter. This creates a problem where small molecules of dirt and bacteria can build up inside the unit itself, causing the exhausted or returned air to actually be dirty, possibly carrying bacteria, etc. That is why I chose the Winix 9500 over the cheaper Winix 5300. Most websites seem to think that having a filter cassette, while increasing cost of filter replacement, may help avoid the leaking of air around a bent or damaged air filter. Some other brands, like Orsani , have addressed this by using a magnetic gasket to hold the filter firmly in place and avoid air leaking around the filter.I hope this review saves someone a week of valuable time, that they can then spend with the person they love. I felt like after the time I invested, I needed to write something!ONE MONTH UPDATEAfter a month with the Winix 9500, I think I could have been happy with the Sharp FP A60 U, which is manual mode only. I am not really using the fancy automatic modes of operation. I haven't even turned off the Plasmawave. I pretty much run it in manual mode on HIGH most of the time. Just because I want it to move as much air as possible and I tend to move it around each day, to different parts of the house. On the medium and low modes, I just don't feel like the machine is circulating enough air to help.I like the machine, but truthfully, it is hard for me to really tell if it is helping. I just have to hope that it is. Other than getting rid of immediate odors, who knows if the negative, positive ions thing is working? I keep checking the prefilter and I don't really see as much dust and dirt as I would have hoped. I thought it would be coated by now, but it still looks relatively clean. If you don't have to have the fancy automatic modes, purchase one of the cheaper models of Sharp or Winix that still allow the deluxe filters to be used in them. The reviews I had read before I purchased claimed that you really did want automatic mode. But I just haven't used it at all, because in automatic mode the unit runs at a very low setting until it senses a need to rev up. This might be great if you have a pet and the unit kicks on when they pass close by. Just understand, it is mopping up the immediate threat in a 6-8 foot circle and then cutting back off. I want it to clean the whole room and remove all of the dust in the air. So I leave it on the high setting all day. I could have done just fine with a "Manual Mode Only" unit, as long as I was still getting the same quality filter.

The replacement "cassette" cannot be purchased on Amazon and costs $120 from WINIX. NO other Winix product will fit this unit. They SAY it will last a year....I highly doubt that.

We LOVED this air purifier at first but after about 15 months it just stopped working - wouldn't power on or anything. So I ordered new filters, etc, to no avail. I called Winix and spoke to someone named Lindsay who didn't know what it could be but asked that I email her my invoice. I told her (and wrote in email) that I was more than happy to buy whatever part(s) I needed. Never heard back, couldn't get help when I called again. Then it was too late to send all the filters and such back.

Brief background: I am a physician living in a very polluted city, study the effects of industrial and traffic related air pollution since 1995, test different air purifiers, filters and air quality monitors, have PURCHASED most of my equipment from Amazon and publish some webpages about air pollution. I am very sensitive to air pollution and usually detect spikes several minutes before good sensors detect them.I purchased two Winix WAC9500 almost 2 years ago.1- It comes with the best VOCs detector I have ever seen (see pic). Note: It also comes with a PM detector (on the left) that is completely useless for monitoring air quality. You see it working if you forget to clean it2- It cleans the air from PM, VOCs, virus and bacteria. I would not bet for the last but they say it does itIf you are an amateur on Air purifiers this device will help you a lot: Good air purifier with the best VOCs sensor.How it cleans the air:1- True HEPA Filter for PM captures 99.99% of airborne pollutants as small as 0.3 microns. ORIGINAL FILTER NOT AVAILABLE NOW2- Washable carbon filter that removes VOCs (odors) NOT AVAILABLE NOW3- Washable true pre-filter that captures larger airborne particles4- Plasmawave technology that neutralize viruses, bacteria and more important: it breaks VOCs molecules neutralizing its harmful effectsSadly, it lacks of a handle but you can use it as a portable device. It comes with the best remote you can find. It even lets you deactivate the plasmawave tech if you wish.Forget all automatic modes to clean air. Do not use the sleep mode unless you do not need any air purifier. For clean air, use it on high. For Air Quality for VOCs, use turbo mode because it gets more air, improving sensitivity. Forget the PM sensor. It is useless. I have yet to find a good air purifier that comes with a good PM sensor.Good for small and medium rooms. For bigger rooms you will need more air purifiers according to your needs but the Winix 9500 is a must to monitor Air Quality.Update 2017-04-29PROS:* You can purchase it from any country, warranty included, what speaks well about Winix. (Yes: There are a few companies selling THROUGH THE INTERNET here just to the USA and Canada. Too many returns I suppose)* Best VOCs sensor considering display and sensitivity* Best Air purifier remote control* Automatic mode does work (forget sleep mode. It is useless)* Clean PM and VOCs* True Pre-filter* Not noisy unless you use turbo mode* excellent designCONS:* PM monitor almost useless. It works once in a while* Washable Carbon Filter not available now* Relatively expensive good filters over $100* It lacks a real handle* Fake spare filters* Useless support if you want to purchase the original filterThe device is really great but take care with the filters. They are selling filters with carbon components that are not washable. The original frame is made of plastic. This fake ones are made of pressed paper or similar. I include comparison pictures. I have not been able to purchase original filters here. That is why I gie it just 3 stars

This is a great unit until you need to buy a replacement HEPA filter. I ordered the one specified and it just didn't fit. In fact, when I placed the new filter I bought over the old original filter, the new one was larger. To make it fit would involve crushing it in such a way that air gaps would exist around the sides, a less than optimum solution which defeats the purpose of having a filter in the first place. So after loving the unit until the replace filter light came on, I now hate it because there doesn't seem to be any way to replace the primary filter. One doesn't spend $300 plus on a HEPA filter to have to discard the unit after a year.

I bought this because a lot of people said it would help with sneezing and result in an obvious difference in air quality in a bedroom or office. I live downtown so this seemed to be perfect to clean up some of the dust and smog that gets in. Well after months of ownership I can say this thing seems to be a big ugly brick sitting in the corner. I'm really disappointed in it. I can't tell any difference in the air and it occasionally senses a "smell" and starts buzzing at the highest power for a few minutes but this is usually when there is no obvious smell. It seems to have a mind of it's own.I wouldn't spend the money on this if I had the chance to go back and rethink it. Money better spent elsewhere in my opinion.

I bought this after reading on the raving review. I agreed that it does seem to clean the air of dust & smell fine but a few annoyances.* Auto sleep mode is utterly useless, it will always run at the lowest setting (at least for me) regardless of how dirty the air is. When you turn on the filter, it'll go to auto sleep mode by default until you change it.* The only way to disable the plasma feature is from the remote control (Or as some user pointed out, by holding the power button down for 3 seconds). I don't know why all the air filter maker are pushing this plasma technology crap. I just want a filter that suck in air and filter it, not adding any hydroxyl radicals into the air. The annoying thing is again, every time you turn on the machine, plasma is enable. If they can add a plasma on/off button on the remote, why not add one on the filter unit itself? More on hydroxyl radical (the so called Plasma Technology from Winix produce Hydroxyl radical which is reactive, it go in the air and attached itself to pollutants), while based on my reading, it's inconclusive whether hydroxyl radical is harmful to human health but until it is scientific proven to be a non-issue, I rather not have "extra" free radical in the air I'm breathing. I said "extra" because hydroxyl radical does exist naturally. Remember the old air filter that produce Ozone? back then they claim it's harmless too.Winix, if you're reading this, make it so if you turn off the filter and turn it back on, it go back to the last setting and add a button on the main unit control for plasma on/off. Better yet add a permanent on/off switch for plasma feature. Not all your consumer want this feature.

Doesn't work to great for smells. It sits right next to the litter box and it's still always smelly. And the litter dust still gets layered over everything that is nearby. Just got to the point where we stopped using it.

this makes weird noise - the fan is not running at constant speed. even at soft it sounds like, woo WOOO woo WOOO woo WOOO woo WOOO very disturbing. probably defective. but I have purchased a few winix and honestly, their products vary by each unit. very difficult to find a well QC product.

First, this is an excellent air purifier, with all the good points one could want. It is quiet, it automatically changes the filtration speed if the air is especially dirty or smelly, not too heavy to move, etc. The problem is the price of the filter. Filters used to be about $50, high in price but not unexpected for a true HEPA filter and this one has 3 stages. Pricing is now up to $100 each, and they are not in stock at the Winix website. Almost half the purchase price of the purifier is higher than I want to go, and if Winix isn't stocking them it is possible they will discontinue the line. Either way, I will be looking for some other brand. Too bad.

Iam a retired TV repairman , had to take it completely apart and dust ,clean this unitwith industrial cleaners, was not maintained ,packaging was just as bad causing more scraping front panel. we are keeping this unit because inside it is sound I did some miner repairs to it {cleaned plasma sensor Q tip diluted Vinegar}installed new filters now it working fine sorry can't Recommend is seller this product is great Winix WAC9500 Ultimate Pet True HEPA Air Cleaner with PlasmaWave Technology

Used the thing for 2 days. Already stopped working.

The first unit that I ordered stayed on high for days with the dust sensor never changing from red. I returned for a replacement. The second unit switches to Auto Sleep mode (low fan) every time I turn it on and never switches back to normal Auto. It then started to change settings on its own. I was in the next room and started hearing this beeping noise. I went to the unit and it was cycling through the different timer settings. I would not buy this unit, or any other Winix product, again.