Austin Air B450E1 Standard Plus Unit Healthmate Plus Air Purifier, Midnight Blue

I Live with a cigar smoker. Drives me batty but I love him!! While he is actively smoking this cleaner does not take the odour away, but I leave it on all night, and when I come down in the morning the air is clean and there is no stale cigar odour which is a real joy! Other family members have commented on this as well. VERY PLEASED! If it could remove the odour as it is being released into the air I would give it 5 stars, but maybe that is impossible

This is a sturdy unit and probably works fine for the average person. Unfortunately I have mcs and this unit offgasses something which makes me feel worse than I do without the air purifier. It is very frustrating to believe if you spend enough money an air purifier will help only to find out it makes you worse.

Fast shipping. Item packed well, arrived in perfect condition. Runs well, less noise than expected from other reviews. Low setting barely noticable. High setting is very powerful. Seems like a high quality machine. Working great so far, going to keep it running for a few months and update back.

I bought one about a year ago, and have since bought 2 more. They are really top notch. Quiet. Very effective at cleaning the air. The filter only needs to be replaced every 5 years. Very happy with my purchase.

Recently, I moved into a new apartment. I discovered after moving in that my neighbor is a heavy chain smoker and the smoke from his cigarettes was seeping into my bathroom and bedroom. I am a non smoker and found the smell hard to tolerate. I was also very anxious about the smell seeping into my clothes and mattress. The odor was making me cough and making my throat hurt. When I had friends over, they could smell it too.I bought this air purifier based on The Sweethome's recommendation as it apparently removes VOCs from the air better than other purifiers. The price is high but I justified the purchase as an emergency due to how anxious I was about the secondhand smoke exposure. Within a few hours of turning the purifier on, 90% of the cigarette smell was eliminated. I honestly have not smelled any secondhand smoke since using this purifier.I have kept the purifier on high during the day and have it in medium during the night. My apartment is about 800 sq feet and I feel that it does clean the air in the entire unit, even though there are a few different rooms. It sounds like a fan when it is running. I feel like it's a pleasant white noise overall, though the highest setting is a little too loud if you are trying to watch something nearby on a laptop.My only concern is how much the purifier will add to my electric bill. I have only had the purifier for a week, so I will try to follow up on that.To summarize: this filter has been so, so worth it for me. The price is high but if you are in a situation like I am, there is really no price you can put on your own health. Highly recommend.***UPDATE***1 month use***After one month of use, I haven't noticed any changes in my electric bill. I love this purifier!***UPDATE***6 months use***I still have this air purifier on all the time--on the high setting every day, and on the medium setting every night. It is still working great. I think that it has dipped a bit in performance since I first got it (maybe 5%). There is a significant difference in the air quality when the purifier is on high vs low. The low setting barely does anything, I never use it. I keep the purifier in my bedroom. Once, someone turned the purifier to low without my knowledge and I noticed a smoke smell in the other room--the smoke came from the purifier being on low and not high. Turning it back to high remedied this problem.For people in a similar situation to me, other interventions I suggest to reduce secondhand smoke exposure from your neighbors are to 1) never run the bathroom fan (it seems to suck in smoke from the neighboring unit) and 2) run your dryer as infrequently as possible as this will also suck in smoke from the neighboring unit.Our electric bill runs about $30-40 per month. Using the purifier does not seem to increase the bill at all.***UPDATE***30 MONTHS OF USE***Well after nearly 2.5 years I am moving out of my apartment and I am happy to say that the air purifier is still working well. We have not had to replace the filter during our time living here. The smoking neighbor still lives next door and is still smoking (I can smell it in the hallway) but it does not seem to enter our unit at all. For reference, our building is concrete (converted factory). I am planning to bring the air purifier to my next home just to help with dust and other odors in the air, but I am hoping to not run it on high every day any more. The noise has gotten more annoying over time but running it on anything other than the highest level does not seem to help as much.Another thing I wanted to update the review about is maintenance. Every week or so, I use the vacuum attachment to vacuum the sides of the machine. Dust usually builds up pretty quickly on the walls of the machine so clearing it frequently is important.Best of luck to anyone dealing with a challenging secondhand smoke situation.

********************* 2ND UPDATED REVIEW ***********************I actually purchased two of these filters, and the second was given as a gift. Well, after about 1 year, the filter completely stopped adsorbing any smells whatsoever. The person was smoking indoors, so I'm sure they just exhausted the carbon. But given how expensive these filters are, and how cheap activated carbon is, this is not a sensible solution to replace the $200 filter every year. To be honest, I thought that 15 pounds of "activated carbon zeolite" should last longer than a year even when exposed to smoke. It would be preferred if the carbon section of the filter was separate and could be replaced independently, because the HEPA portion has a lot of life left in it. I'm still disappointed in the performance of this air filter given it's high cost. This unit should be around $200 total, and then it would be a fair value, with replacement filters costing $70-100. Truly, this is just a low-tech fan with a clunky 3 speed knob, steel frame, and a filter inside. At least it still catches the dust and hair.********************* UPDATED REVIEW ***********************This was an awesome filter for while it lasted. But after 1 year of use in a regular household, the air coming out of it STINKS like vinegar. At first, I though someone spilled some in the room. But after putting my nose to the air coming from the machine, I can clearly smell "sour" or "vinegar" coming from it.I have NO idea how this is even possible, since carbon effectively traps all smells. That makes me wonder if this unit has real, activated carbon in it at all??? I opened it when I first received it to check the filter, and it is indeed heavy and appears to be black carbon. But how is it possible for carbon to EMIT smell?Something is seriously wrong, and for $550 this is absolutely unacceptable, and a pure waste of money. The replacement filters for this are a few hundred each, NOT worth it at all.VERY disappointing to only last 1 year in a clean, non-smoking house.I guess I'll have to repurpose this machine. I'll probably try to turn it into a humidifier instead.BE WARNED!********************* ORIGINAL REVIEW ***********************The Austin Air is a no frills air filter. It has absolutely no smart functionality, no sensors to auto adjust, no scheduling, no timer. Just off, low, medium, and high (aka extreme).On low, I can BARELY hear it, while it still flows a considerable amount of air.On medium, its cranking really good and is still tolerable, but it can be a bit nerve racking as it makes you have to talk louder to hear someone in the house.On high, aka EXTREME, this thing is like a jet turbine. It blasts out so much air, enough to cover what they claim to be 1100 sqft, which is the largest consumer air filter, by filtration volume, I found on the market. However, you would not leave this on if you were in the room. Its as loud or louder than a large vacuum cleaner. But every night I crank it on high, and the air quality in my room has significantly improved. The AWAIR air quality monitor used to always say 65-75 for our quality score in the main room. Now it always reads between 88-94. That is a significant improvement. Less than 2 micrograms per cubic meter of dust.It would be nice if it wasnt SO basic though. A schedule would be amazing, and an "auto" feature would be awesome too. Best of all, there are ZERO leds so it will not make the room turn into a disco party with colorful leds, like other units do. And, I got this on super sale for only $296 and another for only $346, not sure how, but I snatched them as soon as I saw the price. At a normal price of $550, it would still be worth it compared to other models on the market.They are awesome, I gave one to a family member with cats and it has helped them so much. There are just clumps of cat hair sticking to it after only a week. Simply vacuum the sides and keep it running. There is a prefilter inside the unit which could be beaten/washed if you wanted to prolong the life of the primary HEPA filter before you have to replace it, since replacements are around $200 from what I saw online.I recommend this unit.

I'm using this for secondhand smoke coming from my neighbor in my building. This only worked for me once I go the smoke entry into my home to a mild level. This did NOT work to get rid of smoke smell or symptoms while the person was actively smoking next door and before we had sealed off most entry points. If someone is smoking in the same building as you and you have shared air this is not a magic wand that will make the smoke smell go away right then and there. This only worked after we finally found most of the ways the smoke was leaking into our apartment and sealed them off. We still have some minimal amount leaking into our place that is enough to make me uncomfortable and this does work at that level to get ride of the smell and itchy eyes. I do notice a difference when I don't have the machine running.We still have one room that no matter what we do, there is so much secondhand smoke wafting in that it's like someone is smoking right there in the same room. This machine only does anything in that room if the person who smokes is not at home and not smoking. It does help to dissipate the smell faster when the smoking has ceased. But considering the person if home most of the time and smokes constantly, it's pretty much useless in that room and we have just had to seal that room off and stop using it at least while the weather is so cold and we can't open any windows.In the rest of the apartment it does help keep the mild smell and symptoms from secondhand smoke at bay. I have to say I am disappointed overall because I really would have loved it to work even in the room that has smoke wafting in so badly and from some of the magical sounding reviews I had high expectations that it would. But it does not. It's so much money to pay for something that just does an OK job, but I'm keeping it because it's better than nothing.

They put an Austin Air HealthMate HM400 in a box that says it's the B402 Bedroom machine... Charging more than what the HM400 is worth but less than a B402/HM402... ALSO APPEARS THAT THE ORIGINAL STAPLES TO HOLD BOX CLOSED WERE REMOVED AND REPLACED! FRAUD!!

Cord is about 5 feet long; manual says extension cord shouldn't be used. Approximate sound levels: low is almost unnoticeable and quieter than any of the other three different sized fans I use in summer on their low setting; medium is similar in volume to the fans on their medium settings, and during the day I don't find it distracting above typical room noise; high setting I would compare in volume and quality of sound to the fans of the air conditioning/heating units of most hotels I've stayed in, definitely tolerable for an hour or so during the day, but probably not when trying to sleep (although at least unlike hotel air conditioners, this fan's white noise stays constant instead of cycling on and off). That being said, some articles I've read have indicated the activated carbon's functionality is greatly increased by the longer contact with the air achieved when running the machine on low rather than high, so the sound on high may not be much of an issue anyway (although the product manual does recommend letting it run on high for the first hour of use). When viewed from the front (where on/off dial is), cord is on the back side, and air exits to your right. The exiting air is directed quite high up, and also forward (in your direction and towards the side, but not towards the back). This flow is convenient for the locations where I'm able to situate the air purifier. The size and weight provided in the product description were very accurate, but I was still surprised when it arrived. It's not quite as deep as a filing cabinet, but about the size of a nightstand. I'd been considering placing it on a small table, but the upward directed airflow makes that unnecessary, and the weight may actually be too much for the table, and I'd have had to try to uninstall the wheels that come already attached.

I have been wanting to purchase an air purifier for a long time. I did a lot of research, and I kept reading that this model was the best on the market. It's costly but absolutely worth it. I've been recommending this to my friends and family, and I plan to purchase more (especially the smaller bedroom version) in the future.I purchased this because I needed something to eliminate the odor from a cat litter box. I keep mine in my basement, where there is minimal to no air flow. This means the stagnant air just sits down there--and so does the smell. I have three cats, and even though I take great care of the litter box, there is still a smell. (Anyone who has tired to clean up cat urine from carpet knows what I'm talking about. It's almost as if nothing will get rid of those silent odors!) It takes A LOT to eliminate that ammonia smell from the air. I tried everything--air fresheners, essential oils in vapes, candles, fans, opening windows, and even strong incense. Nothing worked because it was all just trying to mask the smell.Finally, I did my research on air purifiers and learned I needed something with activated charcoal. Otherwise, I'd be right back where I started just trying to mask the smell. Maybe now is a good time to note that my sense of smell is exceptionally heightened, so the cat box smell just really go to me.I purchased this, and it removed the scent within a few hours. That's it! Incredible! When you walk into my basement, it literally smells like NOTHING. It doesn't even have that typical basement smell. It's just clean, fresh air, and I don't know how I lived my life without this thing.Some features:1. There are three levels. The lowest level is completely silent. The medium level only has a subtle noise. We have it on that setting all day, and it doesn't bother us at all. Our basement is finished, and the purifier is right by our basement living room. We watch TV and movies without any issues. Then there is the high setting. That's the loudest, and that's the level I leave the purifier on at night.2. It is a pro at clearing out the air. My husband blew his vape smoke into the air, and it sucked that smoke out is record time. As you can see, I was thoroughly impressed. And my husband is thrilled that I'm not always complaining about him polluting my air supply anymore. :)3. It has suctions on all four sides and a blow out area on just one side. So it is sucking in air to clean from all sides (360 degrees) and conveniently releasing fresh air on just one side. This allows you to strategically place the purifier for optimal benefit.I HIGHLY recommend this model if you're looking for an air purifier that also eliminates odors. It works fantastically and is well worth the cost.

I have always had cats but I had no idea I was allergic to them until I bought the Austin air jr. No more waking with headaches, no more itching skin and eyes. No congestion upon waking. Wow I was amazed at the difference this air purifier made in my life. I would highly recommend this air cleaner to anyone who lives indoors pets or not. Indoor air really is dirty. I’m so glad I found this unit.

I put this unit next to the air register for my central air/heat system in the living room so all incoming air would be filtered before it enters the vent to each room. My apt is around 1200 sq ft, with 3 bedrooms. This unit makes a big different in terms of air quality, as there is noticeably less dust around the whole house when it is on. We closed the balcony and windows to reduce smoke from the neighbors, and the HealthMate is very effective at removing any smell and all allergens. My wife and son has allergy, so this is a very helpful tool.The only complaint is the noise this makes. I can't watch TV with this unit unless it is at the lowest setting. But I need it at a med or high setting if it will serve the entire house. Its is fine at night, since it won't bother us when we are sleeping.

The product itself is good but reading through other reviews, it seems like it’s a hit or miss. I received mine fine and it really helped with cigarette smoke smell from my neighbor. I like it because it has a 15 pound carbon filter and it has a good air intake/output. It’s also convenient to move due to the wheels. Filters need to be changed only once every 5 years. Only downside is that the noisiest setting is very loud.My understanding from a tech support call is that Austin Air actually doesn’t sell these machines on Amazon but that it’s a different distributor. Maybe that’s the cause of the hit or miss reviews on this product.

I moved back into my home after spending a number of years in Colorado after leaving all my furniture, etc. to fend for itself. After 3 months of being home, I developed chronic cough, phlegm, etc. and even vacuuming and dusting wasn't cutting it. So I ordered two of these, one for the front of the house and one for my master suite, plus a Austin Air Healthmate Jr. for the guest room. I couldn't be happier with the products. They are the best at what they do for the money which is about half of what you'd pay for an IQ-Air unit. Of course I did have the carpets shampooed also. But, I would definately spend the money on these again. Highly recommend for quiet operation, sturdy construction, price, and followup costs for filter changes.

We live in a brick and wood building where the smoke from our downstairs neighbor infiltrates our apartment. We bought this to take the smoke smell out and it has been great too use. I was afraid that it would be too loud but on level 1 and 2 it is barely noticeable. We only turn it to level 3 when the smell is unbearable and it clears it up in about an hour (we have 13 feet ceilings and open layout so it would probably take less time if you have a regular apartment).Extremely happy with our purchase now that we don’t have to move!