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Edited March 5, 2024
at 04:56 AM
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The best air purifier deal is back at Costco.
I have these Winix units all over my house.
Better performing than everything you can find on Amazon and it comes with 2 years of filtration and easy to control on a Wi-Fi app.
AHAM rated for 360 sq ft, but will cover up to nearly 1,800 square feet with one air change per hour.
My favorite feature is the sensors and auto mode. It gives you the ability to set it up and forget about it. The fan speeds will change automatically, the air quality sensor will change colors and let you know it's working and the change filter indicator will let you know when it's time to change the true HEPA filter (I usually set a timer/reminder for my carbon filter change as I do with my furnace filter).
These units have helped my air during wildfires, Covid periods and will be purchasing more as it's cheaper than buying some other units filters.
https://www.costco.com/winix-true...93012.html
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Shark states 1000sqft of air change per hour, Winix is 1800sqft
Shark is refurb with 90day warranty, Winix is new with (I want to say) 2year warranty, plus Costco satisfaction coverage.
Can't comment on reliability of Shark, but I've got 3 Winix in the house. One of them being maybe 6-7 years old at this point. We use it almost daily.
On the Winix, I did have to open it up and tighten the fan when it started rattling at about 5 year mark. But I think even if someone had to replace it at that point, it would be totally worth it the price paid.
If you're looking for one, highly recommended.
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Shark states 1000sqft of air change per hour, Winix is 1800sqft
Shark is refurb with 90day warranty, Winix is new with (I want to say) 2year warranty, plus Costco satisfaction coverage.
Can't comment on reliability of Shark, but I've got 3 Winix in the house. One of them being maybe 6-7 years old at this point. We use it almost daily.
On the Winix, I did have to open it up and tighten the fan when it started rattling at about 5 year mark. But I think even if someone had to replace it at that point, it would be totally worth it the price paid.
The Winix seems much better then, and supposedly the Shark auto sensors are useless
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Sensing VOCs is great for use near a diaper pale, if you rather frequently change your charcoal filter. (And the sensor is sensitive enough, I bet you could rig up a baby #2 alert triggered on the current draw when it kicks up to high.) But it's not for detecting dust, pm10, pm2.5, etc.
That's not a reason to not get this model — I have several and they're a good value. Just keep in mind what the sensor is triggering on. And perhaps have a standalone particulate sensor to test out what mode you need to run, for how long, to get the levels down to what you want for sleeping, for instance.
In our two smallish bedrooms with pretty well sealed windows, medium for 20 minutes and then low all night gets the already sub 10 pm2.5 to <3. (You can program the schedule in the app; you may need to switch your WiFi access points/router into 2.5ghz-only mode to get the purifiers to connect.)
My really old model was great for the first four years on auto or manually setting the speed to just below max. During the quarantining, I had it to always be set at 3 or 4 speed and then it developed a whine that I couldn't fix. That one has been moved to the hallway.
I already have two the 200m and love them but these pop up all the time so just curious.
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Have 3 and 2 developed whine. Had to move to room less occupied as well .. probably will move to another brand as a result . Lasted about 2 years.
https://www.costco.com/GermGuardi...ue
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https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutte...-purifier/
I had two others that I returned due to screaming whine. They replaced them with whiny little bitches.
No more Winix for me.
Basically, you cannot disable the light sensor in Auto mode. The light sensor automatically turns off the unit when the room is dark, presumably saving energy. Unfortunately, that means it won't automatically turn on at night or in a dimly lit area -- even if the air is heavily polluted by wildfires. The only way to remedy this is to go back into Manual mode. I've verified this with a rep who admitted that there have been complaints. This was a deal breaker because I like it on Auto while I sleep.
Other reasons I chose the Conway are: 1) It is the NY Times top overall pick. 2) It's efficiency and energy savings are incredibly high. On low, it uses about 4 watts and medium around 9 watts, I think. Yet the NY Times found that medium was good enough for most people. And it's incredibly quiet. High uses about 60 watts and sounds like a vacuum cleaner, but it has gone into High only 2 times, while i was dusting. 3) I found a brand new Open Box model on eBay for only $42! And shipping was free with free returns. That basically clinched the deal. YMMV. 4) I found cheap generic filters: $28 for 2 x HEPA and 8 x Carbon. Generic Winix filters are equally cheap.
Of note, the Conway is a very basic model but it does what I need perfectly. There is no app or Wi-Fi accessibility or fancy digital displays. The only "deluxe" features are an Auto mode and an optional Ionizer mode (which I love; the California board has certified it as Ozone-safe). If you need an app-controlled purifier then this Winix may be a better choice.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutte...-purifier/
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We also have a Levoit, two Medify MA-25s, and two Airmegas 1512.
1) When they are on sale at Costco, and there is a $50 credit from the energy company, it's hard to beat this, especially with the additional filter. It's cheaper than just buying two filters, and we have one in storage for the eventful breakdown.
2) I like the scheduling feature. We struggled to hook a couple of them up to WiFi but I think that was a signal strength issue. One of ours sometiems struggles to connect, but we've never had the problems others have had.
3) I do NOT like the default PlasmaWave feature that turns on whenever the unit is turned off and on. I never use it, but sometimes if one of our kids accidentally turns it off and back on, the feature will be on for a while.
4) I think the air quality feature is not especially helpful, so leaving it on auto doesn't quite do the job.
5) For heavy duty cleaning, like when I accidentally burned chili powder (it made everyone cough), I think the Airmega is better.
6) However, on a day to day basis, the Winix running at high *not turbo* speed clears almost as much air as the Airmega at full power and is much quieter. That's how we use them most of the time. I've read in several places that you are better off with multiple purifiers at lower speeds than one very large purifier.
I was hoping the filters would go on sale, becasue I'm sick of buying new units and not sure I'm eligible for any more rebates, but this is a good deal.