Winix - T800 WiFi (AT8U457-NWE)

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 Sans and Shark. Both are mediocre at best and use deceitful marketing. Blueair performs and is reviewed well. However, all of their units feature an always-on ionizer to charge the mechanical filtration media. Some people want to avoid this as there could be changes in air chemistry or possible negative health effects. Clean Air Delivery Rates (CADRs) are an important metric gauging cleaning effectiveness. For rooms in meters, ceiling height is very important. CADRs should be *at minimum* 3 times the room's volume in m^(3). I'll assume a height of 2.4 meters for calculations. * Room 1: 108 m^(3) × 3 = minimum 324 m^(3)/h CADR * Room 2: 66.48 m^(3) × 3 = minimum 200 m^(3)/h CADR For each room, you could buy the [Winix Zero-S](https://winixeurope.eu/en/air-purifiers/air-purifier-winix-zero-s/) (top CADR: 390 m^(3)/h) or the [Winix T800 WiFi](https://winixeurope.eu/en/air-purifiers/air-purifier-winix-t800/) (top CADR: 500 m^(3)/h). Both models have PlasmaWave, which is an optional bipolar ionizer. If you have pet birds, keep this off as it could harm them. Note: PlasmaWave turns back on after a power off/on cycle. Keep in mind the CADRs listed for purifiers apply to the highest airflow speed/setting only. Lower settings have lower CADRs which reduces cleaning effectiveness.

I love my Winix. Quiet and effective. Also great for smells and smoke. I have large one in the main room and smaller ones in the bedrooms.

Mine has no specific setting for smoke. I have both the larger model with plazmawave (zero idea if that makes any difference) and the smaller models without that added feature. They all will filter outdoor smoke, including wildfire, quickly.

I rent with all hard wood/laminate floors. And a long haired cat. And I have sinus allergy issues. I have an air purifier in the main room and bedrooms. Couldn't live without them. I have Winix. They get me through wildfire season too.

I have 3 air purifiers in my house and my sinus/allergies are still exploding this really bad this year.

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.

Air cleaners/purifiers (I have one in every single room, 2 in the open living dining kitchen area). Some brands offer pet specific filters (I use Winix plasma waves in larger rooms, and Levoit for smaller rooms, both the cylindrical and the rectangular). Regular vacuuming. Blankets on furniture that can be put in washing machines. If you have hardwood, minimize your area rugs and mop once a week, if possible. If you need area rugs, try washable rugs you can toss in the washing machine. I have three dogs, a breed that is notoriously difficult to house train. I keep an armada of enzyme cleaners and a black light on hand. They are also a breed that loves blankets, so I use specially formulated enzyme cleaner in the washing machine when I wash their blankets. The washing machine runs daily here.

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.

It makes sense for air purifiers for the same reason it makes sense for face masks- you want the air to be purified in one go. The misconception that some people have is that air purifiers are supposed to reduce the concentration of particulate matter in the room and hence the highest CFM takes priority. In reality, the actual goal is to reduce the concentration of particulate matter that people breathe in, which sounds similar but has a different meaning. A non-HEPA purifier may theoretically succeed at the former, but it won't succeed at the latter; the mechanism of purifying the air through multiple passes with a weaker filter intrinsically means that particulate matter will be blown across the room and into the breathing space of someone before it can be purified. This why CDC/WHO and many other public health will generally recommend HEPA purifiers and suggest non-HEPA purifiers as a temporary measure for emergencies (I.e forest fires). Some good HEPA filter options are Winix, Smart Air, and Jafanda.

Thirding air purifiers! I finally gave in and traded my two big winix HEPA guys for a gigantic corsi rosenthal box made of four 20x20x4-in home AC filters. It's much louder but the performance is out of this world, and the filters last forever now. My two 1,200sq ft rated filters struggled in my 500sq ft space with even monthly changes (desert life, lots of animals, massive grading project nearby, endless dust), but this one box handles it no problem, and for many months now.

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.

I got annoyed when my winnnix developed a noise, but then I realized it was the unit I’ve been running almost 24/7 for ten years. Bought another refurb and I’m going to attempt to take the ten year old one apart and see if it can be fixed. I imagine there’s buildup at the parts you can’t regularly clean.

I double checked and it’s my 2019 era one that has the noise! The 2015-ish one is still fine.

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.