Winix - AM90

The AM90 is AHAM (Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers) certified for 360 square feet. That means it provides 5 air changes an hour in a 360 square foot space. Putting the device in a larger room will result in fewer air changes per per hour. If you look up the association that I mentioned there’s a directory that allows you to filter air purifiers by the square footage that they clean, among other things. Winix is a great brand! I’d choose them over Cuisinart when it comes to air purifiers.

I live in the US and have a 1,500 sq ft home with 2 cats and a severe dust mite allergy. Particle pollution is also a concern living close to NYC. I got the house covered by 4 Winix air purifiers. I have some ancient first gen 5500 that still work but are a bit louder and lack the mesh filter that's a necessity with pets. I bought three 5500-2, a D360 and an AM90. Only one 5500-2 works fine. One of the other two makes a ticking sound that I know can be fixed, and the other one, the newest one, rattles. The AM90 developed a bad bearing right after the warranty expired and is out of service. The D360 also developed a bad bearing, thankfully within warranty. Winix sent me replacement D360 a couple months ago. Now the new D360 smells like burning plastic. Winix used to be my go-to air purifier. What would be a good, reasonably priced alternative to Winix? It seems like bad bearings are a common issue with other brands, including the really expensive ones. Has anyone tried Sans? They claim that their purifier is somehow different and can draw in air from the whole house, but it seems more like a marketing gimmick and not plausible to me. But it is FSA eligible, which is a bonus.

it’s been about a year and a half since installing a Winix in every bedroom and living room of my home. I should mention that we have hardwood floors throughout the rooms and every room is vacuumed daily if not every other day. Bought 2 to test out when they were on sale and noticed my husband coughing less and his allergies inside were improving. Put one in the main bedroom and the other in the living room and after about 2 or more weeks on Auto Mode (it’s on 24/7 and adjusts is filtration strength as needed) I peeked in and noticed that it was actually physically working. The actual filters are said to last a whole year and the dust cover/collector that goes over the 2 filters was sucking up and collecting the dust and dog hairs. The easy access to the filters makes it easy to vacuum and maintain. So we decided to put one in every room with absolutely no regret. Not sure how the others perform. I purchased during allergy season and Winix was highly recommended talked about a lot on this sub at the time. We really love the WiFi connectivity and the easy to use phone app that allows us to remotely control the devices when away as well as synch it to work with our Google home devices.

You want a HEPA filter and actual activated carbon granules-sometimes the activated carbon is just a paper thin layer-not doing much. For cost, consider replacement filter costs not just up front ones. I also like ones that have a sensor so you can leave it on “auto” and it will kick on when you cook or air gets worse without you having to keep track of it. Also don’t splurge on plasma ion or ozone or whatever else-mixed studies show it can react with chemicals to form more dangerous ones at worst and generally not much better at best. Right now you may want to sacrifice optimality for actually having something going to clean your air since it’s a time of high uncertainty. What’s in stock at home depot may be superior to the “best” air purifier that arrives in 2 weeks. Those caveats-no one can give better advice based on “feel” than what’s tests show-and wirecutter actually tested performance https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-air-purifier/ . If you prefer anecdotes, here are some of my experiences: Winnix has been in stock at home depot. I evacuated with my air purifier and I needed something to leave during cleaning to try and detox my pasadena apartment. It was in stock and had hepa+carbon-it seems to be working. Oransi is the one I evacuated with, love the looks, it really seems to work well, lots of aftermarket filters available-downside is that sleep mode sets fan speed to auto, I want it to just turn lights off and leave the fan mode. But It has lasted at least 6+ years. Levoit is what was at the apartment I evacuated to. It seems a little less powerful per dollar spent than my oransi, but it’s night mode turns off the lights while still letting you set the fan speed. My roommate left a Coway going in his room and that thing worked very well to prevent any smoke smell from settling, and it’s highly recommended by wirecutter. If I had to buy right now and I could get one in a reasonable timeline, it’s how I would go.

Any filter with a charcoal filter layer will help some (Winix is one brand commonly available at Costco…I also have a more elaborate Rowenta)…my Winix came with multiple charcoal layer replacements. Dealing with total incontinence here, and not to criticize your MILs efforts, but you might want to look into the actual sources of the odors. Chairs, clothes that sit around waiting for wash, previously soaked furniture or carpet? If bedding or fabric furniture smells and you can replace it, do so. I use a combo of Depends on my father, and all his sleeping or seating surfaces have a first layer of puppy pee pads (Costco has large ones that work well and are cheap), and then a fabric layer on top (whether sheets or a chair cover or towel, tucked into the sides of the chair). Once he’s wet, after I changes his pants all clothes and chair covers and bedding goes in the wash (3-5 loads a day).  For the mattress you can find on Amazon washable mattress covers (the whole bed ones don’t work that well but that’s my base layer and then a thicker more absorbent one that I fit across the middle section of his bed, and on top of that layered dog pee pads).  So again, not sure if any of this advice helps but this method works for me.

I have 2 Winix HEPAs that have been running 24/7 for 6+ years. I clean the screen every week or so, replace the carbon every month, and the HEPA every ~8 months.