Fellowes AeraMax 290 Air Purifier Mold

**EDIT** After having owned this unit for a year and a half, I can definitely vouch for its odor eliminating prowess. If it detects any cologne, spray, food, or other smells and particles, it automatically kicks into high ear until the smell is gone. It's wonderful for that feature. It has also collected enough dust to warrant a new filter. This took about three to four months before a filter had to be replaced. The black carbon filter was nearly fully gray from dust that it had sucked in. So this unit works at removing dust free-floating near it. The amount of air it circulates is more than I first noticed, similar to a desk fan on high settings. However, it still does not help me with my allergies nor does it remove the dust particles and allergens from the air in the room. It only does a good job in the small area around it. Everywhere else had a build up of allergens on the desktops, shelves, etc. in my room. If you want to eliminate the allergens from a room, you'll probably need to buy multiples of these and put one in each corner. But I'm raising the review from 1 to 3 stars simply for the fact that it does a superb job at detecting allergens and removing smells. It's just not going to cut it for people who need to cleanse a room of allergens. **ORIGINAL** I moved to a new city recently, and I was fine for a couple of seasons; I never suffered form allergies until this Spring. It seems that staying indoors all Fall/Winter and running outside on the first warm day of the Spring made me develop allergies, especially due to the heavy pollen in this area. This is the first Spring where I suffer from puffy eyes, an itchy face, and heavy mucous production while I'm outside. My main reason for purchasing this air purifier was to help remove any allergens that may come into the bedroom, in order to help me sleep without the need to go through a box of tissues every night. I would first like to address a concern with this unit. During the first week of use, the unit emitted a strong chemical odor much like most other air purifiers with carbon filters. However, I also experienced trouble breathing during this time, which I attributed to the installation of this new air purifier. Unlike a regular mucous build-up, even if I wasn't suffering from a stuffy nose, I was having labored breathing. I wonder if it is due to the ozone that the unit produces: While the air purifier doesn't have elements to explicitly produce ozone, it is a by-product of the "PlasmaTRUE" technology that this unit uses to ionize air. Most companies state that customers should be vigilant of "labored breathing" during the initial month of use with their air purifiers if it has an ionizer built-in. This unit is sold as "asthma-friendly", but rather than taking the marketing line at face-value, I would make it a point to monitor myself or my child during the first few weeks of use. However, after the first week, the strong chemical odor was gone and I don't seem to have the compounded trouble of breathing. I cannot determine if it was due to any ozone by-products, but I was glad to find that I have the option to turn the ionizer off. To turn the ionizer off, hold the ionizer button (the lowest button on the panel) for a bit over five seconds; the light on that button will turn off when the ionizer turns off. The unit itself is slim, very light, plastic-y, and wobbly if it is placed on carpet. I was surprised at the construction. It is basically a hollow piece of plastic with lots of open room inside, with just a little board for electronics, what looks to be a 200mm fan, and two filters (a very thin carbon filter that needs to be replaced every 3 months, and a large HEPA filter that needs to be replaced yearly). Setting up the unit was as simple as sliding the filter tray open, removing the filters from a plastic bag, and then sliding the whole thing back in. Whenever the unit powers on, it needs a few minutes to "measure" the air and go into automatic mode. If the unit is ever powered off, none of the settings are saved so it always starts back up with the default auto settings. The most surprising thing about this unit is that it does seem to have a good PPM air sensor that not only measures physical debris (dander, dust, etc.), but also gas. It is very sensitive. Release of methane from the other side of a bedroom (if you get my drift) will trigger the machine to kick up to medium settings within a matter of 10-20 seconds, although the only reason it can react this fast is probably due to the ceiling fan that I run on "high". It also works great to notify me when allergens are present, and therefore, it works as a warning that I am about to suffer from a runny nose. When the central air kicks in, it sometimes circulates allergens in my home. I can be sitting in my bedroom with a clear nose for hours, when suddenly my allergies kick in (runny nose, puffy eyes, etc.) The air filter seems to detect allergens quicker than my body does; the Fellowes AeraMax 200 will go from its "low" automatic mode and kick over to "high" about 10 minutes before my nose starts running. The unit itself is very quiet and hard to hear on low settings (blue light). It's audible but not intrusive on medium settings (yellow light), and loud on high settings (red light). However, I worry that the "low" setting is useless. The unit itself doesn't have a very efficient design, as it only pulls air in from small gaps in the sides rather than having open access through the front. This is a clever design for one reason only: It gives the illusion that there is a lot of airflow. By limiting the opening to small gaps, the unit can pull in small amounts of air but it "feels" like a strong current. It gives the illusion of strong air suction, while it is actually pulling in a low volume of air. Bigger air purifying units have larger openings and more surface area exposed to the open air, but they run "loud" in order to move a higher volume of air and to give the customer a sense that there is a high turnover on airflow. On this AeraMax 200 at low settings, it feels as though someone is just gently blowing air past their lips. Hardly any air movement, and it's definitely not enough to circulate the air in a bedroom. Medium settings may be too low as well, as the medium settings is comparable to a desk fan on "low" setting. The advertised CADR and rating for a 200 Sq.Ft room is probably only achieved on the high setting. This device hardly ever cuts over to the "high" settings while it is in automatic mode. In addition to my concern about the airflow, I can see the fan is "wobbly" inside. It doesn't produce any odd sounds, but I'm afraid that this unbalanced fan will eventually go through extra wear and tear and start causing undue noise. So this brings us to the conclusion. Has it helped me with my allergies? I'm sad to say that it hasn't. I still suffer from a runny nose in my closed bedroom. I honestly can't tell if it's helped at all with removing allergens from the air. Perhaps if I switch it over to manual settings and keep it running on "high", I can get better results. But at that point, it may be better to buy a cheaper unit from a different manufacturer that has more airflow and bigger filters. Keeping it on "auto" only seems to help notify me when there are allergens in the air (since the unit kicks up from low to medium) and it definitely keeps the air "clean", but it's probably aided by the ceiling fan in my room since the unit itself isn't powerful enough to circulate air for the entire bedroom on "low" or "medium" settings. Now that the chemical smell is gone, I am amazed at how odorless the air is in my room. No more trace smells drifting in from the kitchen, no more BO, any cologne or spray is gone form the air after a few minutes... If nothing else, this is a $120 glorified odor eliminator. That alone may be worth the purchase, but it missed the mark by a mile when it comes to relieving my allergy symptoms.