Winix 5300-2 Air Purifier with True HEPA, PlasmaWave and Odor Reducing Carbon Filter

If you need to rid the air of dust, pollen, smoke, or other particulate matter: this is the purifier for you thanks to a large fan and true hepa filter.If you need to rid the air of odors: you're going to need something else - preferably with 15-20lbs of activated charcoal in it. HEPA filters capture particles - not gasses.After buying this thing, I found out that many air quality problems can be abated by deep cleaning and controlling humidity - if you've already done those things and still need to get rid of dust or don't regularly or seasonally have humidity indoors above 50% then this is a good move.After a little bit of research I found that dust mites and mold flourish in humid environments both of these things are major causes for allergies. A HEPA is still a good idea because dust contains other toxic chemicals like flame retardants which are pretty bad for you. Lowering humidity kills dust mites and mold so they can't release allergens but HEPA filters will capture particles of that size if they're a problem - I just think humidity is more important than purifying.On to the review:The Winix 5300-2 is a little friend that comes in a box. When you plug it in he (or she) plays you a tune, samples your air, and cleans it up by sucking it through a true hepa filter.This purifier is the Thor's hammer of air quality control. It moves a lot of air, it is almost silent, and it is adorable. I think this machine is the best value on Amazon for air purifiers and here's why:It covers a relatively large area, it's well made, has a strong recommendation from Allergy Buyers Club, and one of the other reviewers measured its effectiveness with a Dylos air particle sensor and stated the results were excellent and far better than the Sharp Clustersomething.So here's what you need to know: If you push air through a Hepa filter it will remove particles from the air. You can achieve an effective result by taping a 20" house fan filter to a box fan and get a 90% reduction of air particles - and perhaps more if you use a better filter. It's an ugly and kind of ratchet solution but it's something I'm still considering for my studio space.This machine has a true hepa filter so it will work. The problem we run into in the design of these machines is size and noise. This machine is bigger and has a lot of surface area compared to smaller units and so the fan can be larger and draw more air in at a lower speed which means it's not as noisy - at least that's how I think science works. Either way the little guy is dead silent on sleep mode and is not a problem even at level 2 - after that it sounds like a little fan is on and if you put this sucker into turbo it sounds like a small aircraft - it's great for initial cleanup but not necessary to run it at that speed all day.Now lets set some realistic expectations about what this thing can and cannot do. I saw one lady complain that she lived with 5 cats and she ran it for a week and still had cat hair everywhere and none in the machine.There are dedicated machines for pet hair and they aren't cheap. I think they're also huge and they probably sound like a commercial air scrubber if you turn it on. This isn't going to replace vacuuming your house or brushing your cats - and having lived with one cat I can tell you that they're nasty creatures and 5 of them stuffed into an apartment is probably way too many cats for one person or 1 Winix air purifier to handle.If you want to use this to clean up cat hair here's what you do:Step 1: Obtain a gas powered leaf blower and some ear protectionStep 2: Turn on your Winix 5300-2 - set to TurboStep 3: Turn on your gas powered leaf blowerStep 4: In a circular orbit complete passes around the room making sure to get all of the cat hair airbornStep 5: Repeat step four until all cat hair has been sucked into the Winix 5300-2This machine was designed to remove fine particles from the air. It does that. Every time you turn on your vacuum, walk on your carpet, open doors or windows, sit on your dusty furniture, or turn on your air conditioner you kick up dust. That's what this is for.Ok so Plasmawave: YES it creates ozone but only a little bit. So little that in the People's Republic of California I can still buy one. Ionizing air purifiers have been banned by order of the Government here - and so this is not that. Other things that create ozone? Your hairdryer and microwave. Also you can turn plasmawave off if you don't like it. I'm not exactly sure that it is useful but I leave it on while it's scrubbing the room on turbo and then I turn it off when I'm actually inhabiting the room.So here is the bottom line: you breathe about 3000 gallons of air per day. How much water do you drink per day? Do you filter that? So now that we've decided you need one of these machines do you pick the 5300-2 or the 5500-2?The 5500-2 has lower maintenance costs because it comes with washable filters. As far as I know - that's the only difference. I chose the 5300-2 because I want my air and house to be cleaner, I don't want to open up the chamber , pull out this dusty filter, drag it over to the sink and ring it out or whatever.All in all you decide! But when you get one, I think this is the best one. I'll update it after a bit of more use.**Update 1 week in**Definitely loving this little guy, and have noticed that the air is definitely cleaner and I feel noticeably better. If you're going through the hassle of getting one of these, do yourself a solid and do a deep clean of your house. Wipe down the walls, vacuum under your furniture, change your air filter in your furnace or air conditioner, vacuum the drapes, wipe the mildew off of your windows.Main complaint: It has a sleep mode and it's dead quiet, but I am comfortable with it blowing at level two while asleep. You can't run it out of sleep mode and still turn the blue air quality indicator light out. The light is super bright and illuminates a room to a disturbing level. Eventually I'm going to put one in my bedroom and just put tape over the light and leave it at two while I sleep.Other than that, it cleans the air as advertised, no strange smells that I noticed, except the smell of a fresh air filter. It's well built, the buttons look and feel good, and I feel better after using it. So far it's still a highly recommended product. I'll update down the road.Update 2/8/17I think it's been about a month. No problems so far. Emailed Winix and found out that the air sensor measures gases and temperature - not particles. I've noticed of my wife paints her nails the air quality quickly goes to red, it will also do that if you burn something on the stove. It does have a carbon filter but that filter is not very good at removing smells - they make machines for that and they use 18lbs of activated charcoal. The best one I've seen is $700. Basically the air quality sensor is kind of useless because in auto mode it will only kick on if you do something smelly to your house and not if say your heater kicks on and blows out a lot of dust. Auto mode is pretty pointless just use the manual controls - takes 2 seconds. I will definitely be buying another unit from Winix - probably a 5300-2.Update: 6/24/18Still going just fine and while I’ve needed to clean the first screen every few weeks, the carbon filter only needed to be replaced once and the hepa still looks like it’s 65% of new. I’m tempted to replace it just because the manufacturer says to do it about once a year.

Couldn't be happier. This works great! I keep it in my living room. Has a nice feature that turns off the lights on the machine when the room darkens. The sensors are sensitive enough that the purifier fires up higher if you "break wind" near it! haha I love that!! Now I do it just for fun! The picture shows the pre-filter covered in cat hair after about 90 days (my bad, you're supposed to clean it every two weeks, now I know!). This little unit works GREAT!

Solid 💪Looks professional 👍Pretty quiet 🤫Cons:The exhaust comes out the opposite side of the intake, which in most operations would just be blowing towards whatever wall its against.There is an upside to the "con" you can place it next to your bed so the exhaust can cool you down while you are in bed.

This is my 3rd winix unit. I still have all 3 because they do work well!**I’m actually ordering a 4th because they work so well. **BUTthey end up making a racket.The most recent unit i purchased only 8 months ago is doing the same thing all the others do. it’s starting to make an awful high pitched whirring sound.Yes i change the carbon and hepa filters (i even change the hepa filters more often than necessary because i have asthma, i hate dust, and we have cats in the house. )No i don’t use the highest setting.Yes i keep it running all the time.The automatic setting has a “night time mode” which means it wont run in low or no lighting. Which doesn't work for me. So i have to set it to run all the time. Usually on the 2nd or 3rd speed.If you search for this issue on reddit, there are countless others who have the same problem. It has to do with the motor. No amount of cleaning the unit will change anything (but you should still clean your unit!)The oldest winix i have is around 3 to 3.5 years old, and it is the loudest. I have to keep it in the basement because of how loud and jarring it is.I have sensory processing disorder and the noise that these make after a while is sometimes painful for me. But they do work well.So i don’t really have a choice.Like i said, these work really well. They’re great to put next to litter boxes too. They collect cat hair and dust, minimize odors, and sucks up everything else you don’t want breathing in.You do have to clean the mesh pre-filter that holds the carbon and hepa filters in place.I vacuum it, and then i stick it in the bathtub, spray it down with a mild cleaner, rinse it well, and let it completely air dry before putting it back.Same with the outer cover. It’s actually pretty painless to clean.Just be careful of the plastic tabs that hold the pre-filter in place. On of them started to break off of the unit i got only 8 months ago (i have not had* that issue with my other units, so it might just be a faulty piece, but be careful anyway).If it wasn’t for the high-pitched jumbo jet about to take off whirring sound that they all eventually start to make, i would easily give these 5 stars.I think i’ll bump the rating up to 4 stars since i literally just purchased a 4th unit.I have these all over my small home, but cannot put one in the bedroom because of the high pitched sound it makes.

Helps remove smells, dust, and other small items in the air. I got this to help my allergens and I've noticed some nice improvements with using this and cleaning regularly! Mine runs almost 24/7 and I have not noticed any problems with it. No problem setting this up and it sits not too far from my desk. The highest setting is a bit loud but I don't every really need to use it as the other settings work great too. Pretty happy with this overall. Bought it for $117.48.

This is the best investment we ever made. Our daughter suffers from bad allergies and this was suggested to us. We’ve had it for a while now and it truly works amazing. It’s not loud at all and when we change the filters and clean it you can tell how well it works. Very happy with this product.