Healthmate Plus

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

fellow austin user here- i just upgraded from the healthmate plus to the immunity machine. my HMP ran like a champ for six years non stop, through wildfires, terrible allergy years (SO much pollen), etc and probably could have kept running, but i wanted to change the filter just in case to avoid straining the fan. i've recommended it to a lot of people, and while it's pricy, i am doing what i can to protect my lungs.

I recommend Austin Air Systems. They are excellent, although somewhat expensive. We bought one for my mother who had COPD, and it worked great. I recommend either the Healthmate Plus or the Bedroom Machine. They have a 5 year filter and there is also a pre-filter. This system was recommended by my mother’s pulmonologist. It has been in use for almost 5 years. These systems have been used in schools and hospitals in California when they had to purify the air because of the wildfires. Go to their website to learn more. Even though rather expensive, it is worth it to get a good system that actually works. There are different machines and levels of purification, depending on one’s needs.

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 reasonable VOC removal there are only 4 players I know in the market which offer products which have the minimum 10 pounds of sorbent media: Airpura, Allerair, Austin, IQAir. Wildfires product a huge mix of chemicals - from the vegetation, contents of burned buildings, etc. There is no consumer solution that removes all VOCs. Each type of media is better at some chemicals, not so good or not effective at all with others. For the same reason there is no sensor that I know that will give you the level of all VOCs. These machines and filters tend to be expensive. I just upgraded my Austin units with Immunity Machine filters which cost \~$700 each. We were spared wildfire smoke this season but with AQI numbers breaking 100 I was able to keep my indoor values close to 0. I use Austin and IQAir VOC machines along with Honeywell and Whirlpool HEPA units, 3 filters per room.

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 had my Austin, IQAir, Honeywell and Whirlpool machines for as much as \~20 years and have had no problems with filter replacements.

Austin Healthmate Plus has the best carbon to price ratio I think. For $2400 you could buy 3 of them, and each unit has 15lbs of activated carbon which should last a few years. Obviously if you are having a lot of wildfire smoke, you should also buy a VOC/particulate detector and replace filters earlier if you are noticing degraded performance. It’s a bit loud on high, but with multiple purifiers you can probably run each of them on low or medium.

Probably Austin air get one with the most zeolite and carbon. They have the most carbon material in them

Yeah the healthMate plus does have a lot of carbon to absorb the odors and smoke. It’s really all about the filter choice on these models.

Thanks for the detailed response. I was looking at the Coway ProX too, but gravitated towards the Austin Health Mate Plus because of how much more carbon it has to fight gases. From my understanding, even though the Health Mate Plus doesn’t perform as well against particles due to the reduced airflow as others in that price range, it shoild still be able to handle the particles in a 500 sq foot studio, especially if I don’t have the windows open constantly. Do you disagree?

Interesting, the reason I gravitated towards the Air Mate Plus was because it does best against gases like nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and VOCs produced by highway traffic, which are harder to control. But the argument for focusing on particulate pollution makes sense. Based on my situation (6th floor in a new, modern building, apartment towards the back of the building and not facing the highway, my room specifically being about 300 feet from the road) do you think buying something like the Coway Airmega ProX and just focusing on controlling particles would be enough to get me to good air quality? Or should I still be concerned about the harder to control gases like nitrogen dioxide?

Thanks for the detailed response. The apartment is fully electric, so no gas stove or anything like that. With that being said and the other factors that work in my favor (6th floor of a newly built building, apartment not facing the highway) do you think nitrogen dioxide exposure from the highway is even a concern? If I get something like the Coway ProX and the others you suggested and just focus on fully controlling the ultrafine particles, can I feel confident that my indoor air quality is good?

Sounds like you're moving in the right direction!  I live in an apartment and I just only use the induction burner and I figure that's got to be like a 90% improvement vs actually turning it on.  The thing about the Austin Air is at least the Healthmate Plus costs like $900 with $400 for filter changes every 5 years after that.  Not cheap.  And it probably won't cover the whole space.  But you might consider it for the kitchen.  I wouldn't personally get enough to cover the whole place because they're so expensive but they do have wheels.  I just got mine like 2 weeks ago because I'm in an apartment and I can't control what happens in the hallway and neighboring units.  Hasn't been a miracle but it does seem to work.  But honestly I considered this for years before I finally went for it.   Anyway, food for thought anyway!  Hopefully someone else has some more concrete advice but I'd say those are some of the factors to consider.

In terms of “is the Austin enough”, the iqair fan is 275cfm vs 250 for the Austin, so in terms of volume of air through the filter it’s not that different. As particle filters these are terrible value by the way. Both are stupid loud on high, like you need to yell loud if you are near it, so you likely won’t run them at that speed anyway. Probably better results with 2 Austin’s over 1 iqair. That’s just a guess though. If I was you I would buy one Austin, use your monitor to see if it helps. Get a second only if you need it. But ymmv.

I own multiple Austin Air Healthmate Plus air purifiers. They’re really expensive but they last a long time and work great on smells and smoke. Highly recommend