GermGuardian HEPA Air Purifier, Large Room, UV-C Light

My toddler and I both have severe allergies and asthma. To the point that over the past month we have both been having major issues with the pollen and smog in the air, even with being home most of the time! I ordered this one after doing A LOT of research, and I decided this was the best for the money. With a true HEPA filter that you replace once a year (opposed to once a month) it would save money in the long run. I chose this one for the den in our house and over the coming weeks we will be getting smaller ones for the bed rooms.

This review for right now is 24 hours in to having it on in the house, and later I will come back and add to it.
Set up was easy straight out of the box, and I put it out of traffic areas in the house. I was worried with where I put it there would be trouble for good air circulation, but it is doing great! In fact with it on high I noticed a tag on the other side of the room (directly across) was moving on one of the toys yesterday as I was cleaning. Then I cooked fish last night (our den has an open doorway to the kitchen), and I couldnt even smell it cooking!! I decided to test it this morning, and sat on the couch painting my nails. Even using nail polish remover I couldnt smell it!!! (which astounds me b/c I hate doing my nails simple b/c of the toxic fumes!!) As far as noise, its not that bad. On high, with the tv and with kids running around it is a little white noise and thats it. I sleep with the bed room doors open, and having a tower computer on in the den annoyed me, however on medium I couldn’t even hear it in the den! It also moves a lot of air b/c even when the ac isnt blowing air, it feels like it is b/c of this tower! I am super excited at the thought of having better air quality in the house so we dont have as many issues, and I know it will take probably a good month for me to be able to judge that (and trust me I keep up with our flair ups b/c my son sees a specialist so I can tell you if it will make a difference or not). I also liked the UV light, since we have kids over to play all the time it makes perfect sense to have it to.

Also anyone that has lung issues, make sure to avoid any purifier that has the ion part (where you turn it on for a fresh smell) it actually causes lung problems (if you have underlying problems). Oh and check out the reviews on walmart . com for this purifier, it has hundreds of reviews and most are five star (which is one of the reasons I went with this model even though not everyone loved it on here).

Check back in August and I will add an update =)

****************************UPDATE****************************** 12/2/2012
Hi ALL! Sorry took me so long to come back and update =) Fortunately if you see below I did give a heads up three weeks in we still loved it. This unit is holding up well, and really does a good job! Since buying it (I guess going on six months ago now –WOW THAT WENT FAST!!) it helped with our asthma and allergies. Within the first month I stopped waking up with a stuffy nose, and it was taking particles out of the air so I wasn’t seeing as much dust. I still would love to have them in each room, but that is on the back burner. Make sure you have enough for the sq footage of your room. We have since moved to a larger place, that has more sq footage in the den, and also two open doorways leading to other rooms. As such, this unit is doing really well for how much air it has availability to; when I should honestly probably should have one more in here. It isn’t too loud, and I love the uv light. Within the first month of us having it we were exposed to someone (a visitor) that wound up having pneumonia. With the fact we have a higher risk of catching lung illnesses, I was really nervous. I think a big contributor to not catching it is because we had this unit running on high with the uv light. I highly recommend this unit, and I hope it helps! =)

***********************************Update 6/26/13
We just about hit the year mark! Still working great and going strong! Make sure you wipe down (inside and out) once a month (as the book says). Still going strong, and working well! =) Buy this one, and you wont regret it!

***********************************Update 11/13/13
Unit is still working great! We added a second one earlier this year, and pleased with both! =)

***********************************Update 06/29/14
Both units are still going strong with no issues. Still helping with our asthma and allergies.

I ordered two of these because I suspect I am allergic to something in my house. The first unit just arrived today, so I pulled it out of the box and plugged it in. It has a simple dial to control the level of air flow and a button for the AV light, so the operation is extremely simple.

I put this one in my Office and turned on the AV light since it won’t bother me in the Office anyways. Almost instantly the air smelled and felt much fresher. I do notice a slight plastic smell like others have mentioned but I expect that will fade away within just a day or so. The plastic smell is common to all new electronics (most just don’t blow air across it) and typically fades quickly once the item is in regular use. This smell is not very strong so it really doesn’t bother me much, I can easily stand the plastic smell for the otherwise much fresher feeling air.

One of the things that made me decide to try out these air purifiers is that I have been having a lot of problems with common allergy symptoms such as congestion, runny nose, sore throat, etc… After only having the purifier in the room for a few minutes I am already starting to feel better. My nose isn’t running at all, and the congestion appears to be fading, and my throat while still a little sore isn’t quite as bad. I just got the purifier so I’ll try to update this later after I have had it a while, but first impressions are positive.

As for airflow, I am just using the lowest setting right now and it seems to be moving quite a bit of air through, and it’s really very quiet (about as loud as a laptop running but not doing anything). I doubt I will ever have to worry about the high setting at all.

Pro:
– Clean air
– UV light
– Easy to use
– Starts working instantly
– No assembly
– light weight, so easy to move around

Con:
– Cost, though if it works as well as it seems to be, it should be well worth the cost
– Bright lights (bad for bedroom use, but does have an option to turn it off).

Update 3/20/2014:
I ended up purchasing 3 of these to try and address some health problems (allergies). Almost immediately I noticed a positive effect in the air around me (I had it very close and pointed towards me). After several days I was still noticing improvements in the air quality and my allergy symptoms while not gone were significantly better. This ultimately prompted me to hire someone to come out and clean my AC vents and install an “AirscrubberPlus” in my AC unit. It hasn’t even been 24 hours since the airscrubber has been installed and once again I am seeing improvements in air quality and symptoms. I expect at this current rate my symptoms will be all gone within the next week or so as the air continues to improve.

The air purifiers were a great help in determining what was going on an in helping to alleviate symptoms at a relatively cheap price point. With just the air purifiers I went from being constantly and severely congested to having very mild congestion. My throat is continuing to heal, as is my skin. I rarely cough now while I was coughing constantly before. The rashes on my skin from the allergic reaction are nearly gone, and my skin feels much smoother and better. These purifiers are a great step and testing and diagnosing the problem, and if you only have mild allergies it will likely resolve them. Just keep in mind this helps pull junk out of the air, but doesn’t prevent it from getting there in the first place. If you have severe problems like I did I would suggest picking up one or two of these Germguardian purifiers and see if that helps. If it helps but you are still having some problems you could then look into the “AirscrubberPlus” which seems to be working great for me.

I have literally spent years working with Doctors trying to figure out what’s been going on with me (Had no idea I was allergic to anything). I am glad to finally have an answer and one that is so easily resolved. I have spent significantly more over the past years in medical bills trying to figure out what was going on than these things cost. They are well worth the cost even if you just suspect you might be having problems. Even with my Airscrubber running I am still running all three of these. The air is great, it smells fresh and clean, and just feels lighter and better.