Winix - A230 / A231

Check out HouseFresh, they do reviews and testing of air purifiers. https://housefresh.com/ Also make sure to check if your utility company does rebates on air purifiers. I was able to get a Winix A230 for $10 shipped because I got it through my utilities website.

I recently bought the winix a231 and t810 and my house smells so fresh and nice. I have 8 dogs. I am loving them definitely will get more for the rest of the house.

The Winix A231 for the main part of the house and a Bionaire Desktop True HEPA Air Purifier for my bedroom. They are cheapest at Walmart. I thought I might need a third one because my house is shaped like a U but the two together work fine. I didn't even have them turned on over the summer but now that the rains will be kicking in and doors closed I have them on again. Both have washable/reuseable filters.

Maybe the Winix A231. I have it in my office at work and it's loud in my opinion. It has three (technically 4 if you include sleep mode) settings and on the second setting it's louder than the 3/4 setting of my Winix 5500-2. It could definitely function as a white noise machine. The Winix 231 is Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers' rated for 230 square feet. In practice, it's best for an even smaller room but some air changes are better than nothing and if your main purpose is white noise, I think it would fit the bill.

AirFanta 3Pro. It's not the most aesthetic machine but it has great specs. Rated for a room around 500 square feet. They have a version with a carbon filter. I've been testing it and it cleans the smell faster than my Winix. To be expected with a higher CADR. The Winix will help a lot if you're in a smaller room, like 275 sq ft max

The A231 is loud. I appreciate white noise but the A231 can be a bit much. I can't speak to the Core 300 but I don't find my Core 200 to be loud. I believe the Core 300 has a small amount of pelleted carbon which will somewhat help with smells.

I mean.... I mentioned the part about them having no reviews and being at a sketchily low price point of 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of everyone else. There are really only a handful of air purifier brands that have demonstrated reliability, affordability, and effectiveness over several years, and don't dabble in post-apocalyptic/steampunk decor -- coway, levoit, blue air, winix. If you want to pay more, there's iq air, alen air, and a few others. For $110, you could have bought a blue air 511 and almost a 411, a levoit 300, almost a Levoit Vital 100s, or a Winix a231. The winix 5500, the coway 1512, levoit vital 200, and the blueair 311 are all at this CADR, but for closer to $200.

Freestanding air purifiers can't overcome walls and doors. You need one for each room or area. **Therefore we need each room's length x width x height to calculate Clean Air Delivery Rates (CADRs).** As for your questions: 1. Winix is good, but not the best. I'd generally say Coway is the best in terms of quality for consumer-grade units. 2. PlasmaWave is Winix's name for their bipolar ion generator. It can be turned on or off. PlasmaWave (in practice) seems to enhance Pollen CADR. I believe Levoit's PlasmaPro is also generates positive and negative ions. 3. HEPA vs. "True" HEPA is mostly marketing. What *is* important is listing the appropriate standard, the filter class (where applicable, like H13 or H14), and the filtration efficiency % at a particular particle size or sizes. 4. DIY Corsi-Rosenthal boxes can work very well, which typically use MERV 13 furnace filters. MERV 13 is a lower filtration efficiency than HEPA, meaning it captures fewer particles of certain sizes on a single pass. But... since MERV 13 is less restrictive, it can achieve more passes through the filter media faster which can result in higher CADRs. (Assuming sufficient airflow.) If you wanted to build a C-R box, I would recommend doing so with PC fans. Drawback: most C-R box configurations do not specify fine mesh pre-filters. Without these, the MERV filter media can clog sooner with coarse particulates such as visible dust and hair. 5. "Level of filter": I assume you mean filtration efficiency of a mechanical filter. Mold, fungus, pollen, and viruses are bioaerosols. They can be captured with HEPA, EPA, or certain MERV filters (generally MERV 13 and higher). EPA and MERV 13 filters are a lower filtration efficiency than HEPA, so it will allow more particles through on a single pass. But EPA and MERV 13 can achieve more filter passes and higher CADRs than HEPA with proper airflow for less money. 6. As for secondhand purifiers, that's up to you. Sometimes you can find items that are barely used. But it's also possible purifiers were used in highly polluted environments (e.g., lots of mold or post-fire remediation) or could have bed bugs inside. 7. The blue box looks like an air scrubber. These are meant for more challenging and large environments, e.g. during renovation, fire remediation, or serious mold remediation. Air scrubbers tend to be quite loud.

Avoid Tailulu, it's a garbage rebadged brand. Winix 5500-2 for the living room. Winix A230 for your bedroom. Keep in mind: Clean Air Delivery Rates (CADRs) apply to the highest airflow speed/setting only. Lower settings have lower CADRs. In all likelihood, disabling PlasmaWave (the ionizer) will decrease Pollen CADR. The Built Environment Research Group showed the Winix 5500-2 showed an 18% decrease in Pollen CADR during their testing: [https://www.built-envi.com/wp-content/uploads/IIT-CADR-Testing-WINIX-5500-2-October-2021.pdf](https://www.built-envi.com/wp-content/uploads/IIT-CADR-Testing-WINIX-5500-2-October-2021.pdf) Another note: the Winix 5500-2 is being phased out. But... filters will be available in the years to come. That would be [Filter H – 116130](https://www.winixamerica.com/product/filter-h-116130/). The genuine Winix filter is cheaper on Amazon.

I wished I could vacuum twice a day!! I have the C545 and the A231. Definitely planning on getting another C545 later!

Ah, just ordered. Got a Winix A230 for $50. Hopefully that'll work.

I’ve been really impressed by my Winix. I have a huge one that really seems to do the job. I change the filter once the year but vacuum it all out more often than that to keep it running really well.

Both of my Winix air purifiers started smelling like smoke, they are different models, cleaned weekly and filters changed regularly, I don’t recommend them.