Austin Air - Healthmate Plus

Austin air purifier. Filter change every 5 years. Recommended by my doctor. It's still working after 19 years.

I use Austin Air. I did a lot of research and went with the Healthmate Plus. (I have the full size for my main floor and a junior one for each bedroom.) It’s got two kinds of filters: medical grade HEPA and it’s got like 15lbs of carbon… the most carbon of any filter on the market. I wanted something with a good carbon filter because that’s what traps VOCs. (If you’ve painted or done work on your house, have new furniture, use your fireplace, or have neighbors that have a ton of outdoor fires like I do, or are affected by wildfires, you want more than HEPA.) It also is made of steel and powder coated for coloring, so no plastics and paints to off-gas and make more VOCs. And made in the US. They’re not cheap, but totally worth the money. The filter can be good up to 5 years, depending on how much it’s filtering. Cheaper brands usually have to have frequent filter changes, which adds up quickly. I’d rather pay the money up front for a good machine and not have to worry about it. Oh and they don’t produce ozone, which some others do. Definitely check to make sure whatever you get doesn’t use electronic or ionizing technology to filter. Edit to add… I reread your post again after I commented. How I know it works? It can last up to five years in normal conditions… Mine saturated in about 9-12 months. I do not fault the air purifier at all, that just tells me it did its job. We had just moved into an older house that had some updating, and new furniture, and our neighbors light a lot of fires. This was also during the Canada fires when it was coming down the US coast and making our air quality over 400. It was kind of a bummer to buy a new filter for it (they give discounts if you need to get one before 5 years) but it was nice knowing it did its job and kept us from all of those toxins.

😂 I totally understand! I did the same thing. I spent so much time looking and kept going back to Austin. I ended up ordering the main one directly from them. At the time they had a discount code and I think I got $100 off (Healthmate Plus is $800, I think.), but not sure how often they do sales. When I got the juniors I did some shopping around because they didn’t have a code then, ended up finding a site called Natural Linens that is a distributor and was having a 20% off site sale, so I got them for $488, originally $610.

I personally use Austin Air. I like the chunk filters they use that last a very long time. Think like 5 years between replacements. I also have a 5 inch thick HVAC filter that I run MERV 13 filters on. The pressure drop on a 5 inch filter is minimal as long as you replace them every 6 months to a year.

I have the Austin Air Healthmate plus amd I will swear by it. Definitely one of the (very) expensive options, but they guarantee the filter for 5 years. Plus it moves a massive amount of air!

Austin Air. Spendy, but the filters last five years and have more active charcoal than any other out there. The company is an offshoot of Smokeeaterz, the companh that builds filters for cigar bars. Great warranty. Good customer service. Dead simple machine. No lights. Has a fan speed control and that is it.

If you are looking to filter primarily VOCs I would look into the AustinAir Healthmate line. They come with 15 lbs of activated carbon filters. Most regular air purifiers don’t have that much carbon in them that you will have to replace the whole filter much more quickly to work against VOCs.

I have a couple of models: Immunity Machine, Healthmate Plus, bedroom machine. There have been some reviews stating that Austins are slower at clearing a room of particulates. My main concern is VOCs and since I run 3-4 filters in each room that isn't a concern for me. Am now testing the immunity machine. Seems to do a much better job with VOCs, although final results will take a while. What is your concern with IQAair?

For VOC removal the generally recommended manufacturers are Airpura, Allerair, Austin, IQAir all of which have filters with 10 or more pounds of carbon. The AirDoctor 1000 has a relatively small Carbon filter which would have to be replaced more frequently than the others. This is reflected in the cost of the replacement filters which run \~$72 where replacements for the others run in the 100's. Doubt that it is as effective due to its small size. I use Austin and IQAir GC Multigas units. Just replaced the Austin filters with Immunity machine filters and saw significant improvement, but at the cost of \~$700 per filter. They are supposed to last 5 years. If you have to replace before that they reduce the cost. Consumer Reports (subscription required) has extensive discussions about air filters and reviews for filters without Carbon.

Austin filters for the full sized machines are interchangeable. I had a couple of healthmate Plus and bedroom machines whose filters had reached the end of their lifetimes. Replaced the old filters with immunity filters.

I have 2 Austin Air HEGA units and they’re fantastic. I bought the first one in 2008 and it’s still running at this very moment. I generally find that filtration media needs to be replaced every year or so (more like 16 months in our case). When you receive a replacement filter, you can register it with their website. If it needs to be replaced in less than one year, they will give you a pro-rated refund. I had to replace mine ater 4 months one year because we enclosed one of our old porches to add a bedroom and there was a lot of extra dust and VOCs, and it was cool to get that refund!

I have 3 of these because I have Mast Cell Activation Syndrome & they have helped so much.

Austin Air makes good ones.