BLUEAIR Air Purifier for Allergy & Asthma Reduction in Medium/Large Rooms, HEPASilent Technology with Dual Protection Filters, Removes 99.97% Pet Dander Pollen Mold Dust Viruses, Classic 480i, White

I hate math and so do you, but with a little calculation and a couple hours of research, you can do a great job picking an air filter and weeding out marketing nonsense.First, the government CADR rating always has three levels that represent different *size* particles. They name them Dust, Pollen, and Smoke to represent big, medium, and tiny particles (of any kind!). The smallest, "Smoke", represent those tiny HEPA particles such as many allergens. Therefore, if you are shopping for a HEPA filter, you should only focus on the Smoke CADR results.The second thing to know is that the government believes people with bad allergies need air exchanged in the room 4-5x per hour, and non-allergy sufferers 2x per hour, to make it worth it. Anything lower and the particles may fall to the ground on their own, or you may just not feel a difference. (Once they fall, I recommend a vacuum with a HEPA filter such as Miele). Their calculation includes an open door to another room, and results get much better with a closed door, but you still need fresh air so you don’t get overwhelmed with carbon dioxide imbalance so keep your door open a little.Finally, CADR is calculated on max fan speed. NOBODY uses their air filter on max, lets face it!! In fact, my goal is to run my air filter on low because I know I can totally live with it no problem.So now begin your shopping. Find the brands you trust or heard good word of mouth, and visit their websites and download their manuals. There you will usually find the CADR listed and the CFM output at different fan speeds. If only one CFM is listed it is for max speed, so you can look at the power use of the fan and calculate the CFM of different speeds proportionately. For example if the low power setting is 1/3 of the max, you are probably getting 1/3 of the advertised CFM on the low fan speed.Take the CFM output from Smoke listed in the manual and divide it into the cubic feet of your room. The blue air Classic 205 says low fan speed outputs 75 CFM for smoke sized particles. (Again, smoke size are the HEPA particles that matter). My bedroom is 12 x 12 x 8’, so I divide 75 CFM (low output) into (12*12*8) 1152, and I get about 15. This means it takes 15 minutes to clean the air. Per hour, I will therefore get 4 air exchanges. Perfect! I never have to go higher than low fan speed.Using this method, I discovered the Rabbit Air is totally useless on almost all settings. Of course people will say the low setting is quiet - its not getting the job done whatsoever. It needed a room so small nobody would live in. So make sure to use this formula and guesstimate or calculate the room you will use it in and the speed you will use. Don’t let them trick you! You may need to buy a larger air filter if you want the lower speeds to be practical. Some brands are pure marketing, and are useless on low speeds.Finally, the filter replacement usually follows the same rule of max fan speed and 24/7 use. Blue Air says I need to replace it in 6 months. Since I run mine 12 hours per day (overnight) on low, I can calculate the proportion. 75 CFM is 35% of the highest setting 220 CFM, so running it 24/7 would mean I don’t change the filter for about 17 months. Since I will run it half the day, I don’t change it for 35 months! Sounds right; if you google for when to change HEPA filters it says they “typically” need to be changed every 3-5 years. Boom. Saved myself a fortune.So far, the Blue Air is working great and has a smooth quiet sound. I will give it 5 stars if nothing goes wrong over time.Hopefully this helps you. Do your own due diligence and good luck--Update : After a year it is working the same as when I bought it so I moved to 5 stars. The app sometimes causes some trouble. I do not like companies that make you connect to the internet because they scrape your data. I believe the EULA says they upload your data to their servers which likely means it gets in giant correlative databases and sell it to unseen third parties, which is the basic business plan of Silicon Valley. For example, maybe people who live in Los Angeles who have their air filter turn on at bedtime who also recently bought fancy cheese are more likely to own a Tesla. This is the how Google and Facebook work and anyone who scrapes your data. I cannot be sure Blue Air does its well known companies are dying to get into your house (Google purchased Nest for this reason).I also wish I bought the smokestop filter because many times toxic smells came up such as weed killer accidentally used outside etc.

I purchased this unit based on Consumer Report's review of Blue Air products. They are the highest rated brand and in my opinion, comparable in price to competitors. I read a ton of consumer reviews in addition before purchasing. I've been running this unit in my living room for about a week and it's probably a little too soon to tell if it's helping my allergies. I have both seasonal and winter allergies (dander, dust etc...) when the house is closed up. I live in SW Montana so the house is closed up tighter than a drum all winter. Plus, we use wood heat due to the low cost.I started noticing changes in my breathing every winter a few years ago, I was diagnosed with asthma and I am pregnant now so I can't take the usual medication that helps. I'm stuck with Tylenol and other decongestants that are safe but not as effective as I am used to. I basically have my inhaler and a combination of baby safe stuff that doesn't work well. I am so desperate for relief that I just spent almost $1,000 on air purifiers, special bedding etc... to try to get some relief. I basically struggle with sinus headaches, postnasal drip, a constant cough to clear crap out of my throat and chest plus sneezing...a lot of sneezing. I am already sneezing and coughing less but correlation does not prove causation even though it can make you hopeful!As far as noise, literally 0 reviews were useful in helping me judge the actual noise level to expect. While even Consumer Reports dings this unit on high speed for noise, it did the same for almost every other unit as well so apparently it's a "thing" you have to live with. The most helpful thing for me would have been if someone would have used other sounds to compare for each speed so that's what I'm going to do.Low: indiscernible, especially during waking hours and normal household sounds. It's basically silent for all intents and purposes, I can't think of something to even compare it to it's so quiet. I'll probably start running it on low after running it steady 24hrs a day on medium for a week or so. We're doing construction in the house so we have extra dust in the air.Medium: Seriously, my microwave is louder than this unit. Think of an oscillating fan on low. You can hear it but it's not distracting by any means. Honestly, it fades away when I'm working. I'm finishing up my end of semester papers in the living room and the unit is in the dining room and I find it easy to tune out.High: Yeah, you're going to hear it. To me, it sounds like a big ole box fan. Which, yeah...it basically is. However, I can't really think of a reason to run it on high unless you're like me and you set something on fire in the kitchen. It would probably be useful on high to air something out or get rid of a pungent odor quickly. Otherwise, I can't imagine running it on high. Perhaps if you're in a high fire activity area during the summer in which case I'm sure the relief it provides would be worth it. We have our fair share of fires here and I guess I'll find out then if I need to run it on high.As far as effectiveness, when you walk by the unit and it's on medium, you can feel the air moving around the entire unit. I'll take this as a sign that it's working, taking air in and expelling clean air in the process. This unit is ridiculously easy to set up. The filters are already in place you just have to plug it in. If you don't feel like using the app right away, you can run the unit with the hidden controls. I easily set my unit up on my phone with no issue and it appears to be working fine.It is large, be prepared to make room for it. The casters are super easy to roll and the unit isn't overly heavy as much as it is awkward. Once our renovations are finished I'm sure I'll find a nice hiding spot for it. You can't put anything on the top of it though because the top is part of the ventilation system.Like I said, I'm still waiting to see if my breathing improves but so far I'm encouraged. We live in a home built in the early eighties, we use wood heat all winter, the air is notoriously dry here in the winter and we own two dogs that are outside/inside dogs. One is a hypoallergenic poodle and the other is a slightly neurotic, shedding monster aka mini Aussie. The house can have moisture issues in our master bedroom and bath in the winter when it's closed up which we try to manage the best we can. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there is mold present at times in the winter. I've never been allergic to animals in my past nor have I been diagnosed with anything besides seasonal allergies and difficulties in the winter.We experienced no odor issues as other reviews have mentioned. Perhaps they have something present in their home that is reacting with the carbon filters to create the odor? It's hard to say but I'm thankful we have no odor issues with our unit.Hopefully this review is helpful!

This is a large, well built, and capable air purifier that works well, is relatively quiet at lower speeds and doesn't require constant intervention. I live in a ~1600 square foot house that is two stories and I run the air purifier on the first floor. This purifier sucks air in one side and blows it out the other which I love compared to previous purifiers I've owned (Blue Air 211+, Medify Air MA-25, etc.) which suck air in from 2 or 4 sides and blow it out the top or another side. Since you only have to worry about two sides having enough clearance it makes it easier to place this air purifier near "stuff" and you can set items on the top if you have to.The item works very well, even on "low" and keeps the air in my house pretty clean according to both the readout of this unit itself as well as another air quality monitor I own. I still keep a smaller unit in my master bedroom (the Medify Air MA-25) but given how much air this unit moves it's really not necessary. I have not had the unit long enough to need to replace the filters yet so I can't comment on how long they last or whether they're expensive for how long they last.I would absolutely recommend this unit to others and buy another one if I needed an air purifier for another location.I have owned several air purifiers including the Blue Air 211+, the Medify Air MA-25 and a few other very small purifiers I've long forgotten the make and model of.