MORENTO Air Purifier for Home

UPDATE (December 2024): (I've raised my rating from 4 stars to 5 just because the company seems to great. My little learning curves noted in the original review still stand, but the company makes up for the little insufficiencies in the manual.) I realized that much of the dirt in my house that you can write your name in is coming from ongoing construction across the street from my house where dirt and gravel dust is being constantly stirred up. That's obviously a gripe for a different forum. NOTHING can keep up with that amount of debris in the air, but this little machine is doing its best, and I DO believe it's making a difference. I just have to bang out the filters more often than the average person. LOL I've had two mechanical problems, which the company responded to promptly and efficiently. First, a few months after I bought it (and outside the return window, if I recall) there seemed to be a sensor problem because the because the light indicating high debris levels remained red 24/7 (which I mentioned in my original review) even in the middle of the night when neither dogs nor backhoes were stirring up anything. New filters made no difference, it stayed red. I contacted the company, and with minimal fuss after my explanation, they shipped me out a replacement unit, allowing me to keep the first one until the new one arrived. (It still ran, it just had a faulty sensor, so the Automatic setting caused it to run on high constantly.) The new unit is still going great. Second mechanical issue happened just recently (Nov/Dec 2024). The display lights were flashing weakly every 5-10 seconds, and the unit wouldn't turn on. I contacted Morento, since this wasn't in the trouble shooting guide. They answered quickly, and said it sounded like a power cord issue, and they would ship me one (at no cost to me). It arrived today, I plugged it in, and everything is back to normal again! This just seems to be a great company. Very responsive to customer issues, and looking to make things right rather than pass the buck. So rare today, and very much appreciated! Updates on functionality, etc... Still no hit to electric bill after running it 24/7 for the last 9 or 10 months. Yay! I make the filters last longer than my originally reported 6 weeks by removing them and taking them outside to bang the dust off every week or two. I do still recommend creating your own pre-filter as described in my original review below, in order to catch larger particles like pet hair (or backhoe dirt...). This little machine really should come with a pre-filter. It would only add like 50 cents to the price. LOL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ORIGINAL REVIEW--4 STARS (February 2024): I like the machine. It's reasonably quiet. We keep it in the living room, near the front door because I have 3 young pitties who have made a desert out of my formerly grassy yard, and drag in pounds of dirt every day after wrestling and running all day long. Before getting this air purifier, I could write my name in the dust only a day after cleaning... Revolting... W... T... F. Now, it takes a week to 10 days for that to happen. LOL My biggest disappointment is the filters. The instruction manual notes that there is a light that will come on when it's time to change the filters, but I have concluded that it's time-based rather than dirt-based. The running meter on the front has been red and in the several-hundred level for a week or two, and it took us a while to realize that it was at that level 24/7, not just during busy time periods in the house. And yet, the "change filters" light STILL hasn't come on. I have removed all the filters and pre-filters, and banged or shaken them off outside, and even vacuumed them. But the meter is still red and in the 400s. =O The filters are easy to install, but they won't last any 6 months for our dirt and dust level. I'm already replacing them after only 6 weeks, which seems kind of ridiculous. I bought a roll of foam to make my own pre-filters since the included filters didn't have them. (I don't know if links work properly in reviews, so the foam I used for the pre-filters is: "Cut to Fit Foam Pad Pre Filter, Air Purifiers Filter Replacement, Compatible with Most Air Conditioner, Trash Cans, Dehumidifier, 39 x 16 inch" made by Wintcomfort.) This pre-filter foam catches larger bits of dirt, pet hair, etc, so the expensive inner filter doesn't get clogged up so fast. It can be rinsed or vacuumed and reused indefinitely. So yeah... the instruction manual says to clean the filters occasionally, but I guess that will vary with your home. Some people might be fine doing this monthly, bi-monthly, or never, before installing a new filter every 6 months. With our apparently filthy house, when I replace the filters when the new ones arrive in two days, I will try cleaning all the filters weekly or biweekly. If I think about it, I'll come back in a few months and report on how it's going. I did want to report, too, that my electric bill has taken NO hit at all. I have a dehumidifier that raised my electric bill substantially when I ran it only during daylight hours during a particularly humid summer a few years ago, so I was kinda worried about this machine. But there's been pretty much zero difference in my bill and this thing runs 24/7 on the auto setting. So far, I like the machine! I only took off 1 star due to the filter stuff, lack of good instructions on how often it might need cleaning, lack of its own pre-filter and the cost of buying my own foam, and the fact that the "change filter" light seems to be time-based (e.g. 2000 hours) rather than gunk-based. It's easy enough to add "change filter" to my calendar app, so a time-based reminder light is kinda of useless. A gunk-based light would've been WAY more helpful. I guess the gunk-based reminder is when the meter stays red even in the dead of night when everyone's asleep, if you happen to notice it when you get up to hit the bathroom. LOL