Customer Reviews

Friedrich C-90B Air Cleaner

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I bought this pricey air purifier because it received the highest rating in a Consumer Reports field test. It may be expensive to purchase, but it's worth it. This model works by drawing air through a series of filters using a powerful 3-speed fan. A prefilter removes large particles/hairs, then an ionization chamber clumps the smaller particles, allowing them to be easily removed by the final stage carbon filter. This combination seems particularly effectively at removing dust, cat dander, pollen, and other odors. It also greatly reduces the odor of cigarette smoke that wafts into my apartment from a chain-smoking neighbor downstairs. The filter also proved effective at removing the odor of cat urine/feces near a litterbox.

Like all air purifiers, the big downside of using one is the energy cost and the cost of replacing the filters. Surprisingly, this unit users much less electricity than cheaper models and costs less to maintain since the filters are washable. Only the carbon filter needs to be changed every 3-6 months since it slowly loses its ability to absorb odor.

The ionization produced by the unit leaves a slight but noticable ozone smell when the unit is running. This may be irritating to some, but it actually smells pleasant to my wife and I since we know that the unit is working. The smell disappears in an hour or less after the unit's been turned off, even if it's been left on for a night.

I would highly recommend this air purifier. Since an air purifier needs to run almost constantly while one is home if "fresh" air is also coming in through an A/C or fan, it's important to pay more attention to the maintenance/electricity costs than the initial sticker shock.

My wife and I bought two of these 18 months ago. They both run 24/7 with the exception of several hours down-time to clean the ionizer and pre-filter (hose-off - they're too big to fit but one inoizer in the dishwasher). One sits in our bedroom, and the other on our perpetually wet and moldy enclosed patio, just outside the cat door.

It is incredible the amount of matter (blue-lint, cat hair, dun-colored mold spores) collected in the pre-filter, alone. Running as often as these do, the one on the patio needs to be cleaned every two-four weeks, while the bedroom fouls in eight days. When the prefilter fouls, it bulgestowards the ionizer and eventually pulls out of its framing.

This filter gives me, a chronic allergy sufferer, and oasis of fresh air in the room where it operates. I would rate its cleaning ability as absolutley the best I've had in 20 years of trying to find an adequate machine.

Against the Honeywells we had, this uses relatively little power. And, despite what the other reviewer stated about the carbon filter, ours still work after 18 months!

The drawbacks I've found are minor, but I'll provide them here just as an FYI.

Cleaning is not fun. Yes, one just has to pull out the prefilter and ionizer, hose them down, and let them dry. However, one MUST EXERCISE CAUTION. First, the "blades" of the ionizer are VERY SHARP, particularly on the more numerous side, and I've suffered a score of deep, paper-cut like wounds on the tip of a finger or two. Second, the ionizer is VERY FRAGILE (aluminum alloy?) and *VERY* expensive. In cleaning, I dropped one from the height of maybe 12 inches. It landed on a corner and through the ionizer out of alignment. It cost $160 to replace.

Noise is an issue. Even on low speed, the fan/airflow is audible, though regular (Hey! it's the fan that gets the circulation going and gave this the clear advantage over the Shaper Image machine that CR actively recommends against, even in the face of a (succesfully defeated) lawsuit by SI!). When a portable radiator heater we have comes on, the drain in power tends to make the fan hum. I can ingore it, but it bothers my wife, if she's awake. Honestly, by putting the radiator a safe distance ahead of the cleaner, it augments the heater by circulating the heated air. Minor rattles can occur, too, so I keep a beach towel on top of the (large, 2-cubic foot?) unit, and several weighty books. This seems to have done the trick for more than a year.

Overall, I still say this is the best one can get, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy another.

Owned this unit for 2 months and has been working Great! Easy to clean with or without a dishwasher. By far the best money can buy compared to other Ion cleaners. Some customers have complained about noise on TV screen from the unit, I have had none of that.

Update: 10/10/05 Recived portable TV (casio EV-4500) TV has moderate to high RF interference from 0 to 20 feet from C90A. as far as I can tell certain itams my be affected by unit.

Pros: very quiet on all speeds. Very easy to clean and filters are very cheep compared to other brands e.g. Oreck. Consumer reports top pick. Very low O-zone level output. Moves lots of air. light on top showing that Ion cells working correctly.

Cons: this unit is very Big and ugly about 30lbs

AHAM Clean air Delivery Rate Certified

CADR numbers
Closed room up to 465 Square feet
Tobacco Smoke.............300
Dust......................325
Pollen....................370

I have owned this guy since it came out and am very happy with the product, but the manual could use some improvement.

Used properly you'll get years of trouble free, cheap and clean air. The chief concern with a unit of this type is ozone production. Ozone is *bad* for you. This unit is *the* best rated unit for ozone production and its ozone levels are very safe -- *IF* the unit is properly serviced.

What the manual doesn't tell you -- if you smell ozone you need to clean the element. You will need to clean the element a lot. If you cant/won't do that, this is not the air cleaner you are looking for.

The second problem with the manual is the cleaning directions are frankly harmful. The manual says to use dish detergent. The dish detergent will react with the aluminum and over a long enough time line turning the element black. This deposit will act like a dielectric (just like the dirt the element collects naturally) and the thing will spew out ozone. Once this had happened I could not get the element clean again and had to replace it.

I suggest you clean the element in your dishwasher, with *no* soap and no jet dry. Fill the soap bucket with pure white vinegar and do a light wash. It will come out sparkling clean and so far mine has not changed colors -- sometimes simple is better. Vinegar is a natural aluminum cleaner. Do *NOT* add cream of tartar or baking soda (this is a common aluminum cleaning recipe) -- this will get baked on to the element and it will *never* come off. Ask me how I found out? :-)

Lastly, the element is a very standard Honeywell element. You can purchase one for around $125 from online HVAC sites should yours become soiled or damaged (the part # is stamped on the side of the element).

We've bought 4 of these for use throughout our home ahd have had to return half of them (50%) due to quality control problems and "snapping". This is ridiculous for a product of this high rating and price. We've been seemingly through the trenches with these, dealt with dealers AND the factory and here's the result of our research.

Now, here's the deal re "snapping". There is appropriate snapping and inappropriate snapping/rubbing noises. Like bug zappers, large dust and dirt particules drawn into the cleaner are ionized and charged, sticking to the metal filter elements and may create a sharp electrical, bug-zapper type snapping noise. We've noticed that and can discern it. This is good and we have no problem with it.

The other snapping noise we've had is the fan blades hitting the inner plastic appliance/fan housing, especially when run on high. This is NOT good and we've had repeated problems. Our current crop of 90-B we can run the one in the basement on High and its quiet. The living room one we can only run on Med; on High in a short time we hear this rubbing/snapping-type noise. Both sit on level hard floors.

I let one of these run a while snapping/rubbing and upon examination of the inner plastic fan housing (you can look when you clean the filters) noticed black skuff marks where the fan blades (black plastic...that can flex on higher rpms?) rubbed the bottom of the housing. Taking coarse sandpaper I rubbed the scuff area repeatedly, over time eventually removing enough excess plastic, and the fan stopped the rubbing/snapping.

I called another high volume allergy product retailer in the area and asked if they had any problems, the clerk responded "You mean like parts rubbing? Uh...no. Never! Never had any problems". Well, the disingenuous answer and tone told me this was something they had heard before. I described the problems and types of noises to the Factory and they suspected the fan may have gotten misalligned, hence rubbing, in shipping to the distributor...told me to return it immediately. My retailer in Delaware had a good return policy, I kept all papers and documentation and conversations and actions on our part, worked with us and we were eventually able to weed through poorly performing units and do Frederich's QC research for them.

In summary, an incredible air cleaner when it works like its supposed to that I'd love to rate high but recommend to purchase only after reviewing your vendor's return policy (definately NOT mail order!!!) ...and don't modify the unit like we did to fix the problem as it will likely void any warranty. BTW, we've also not noticed any odor problems or anything else.

Friedrich C-90A Air Purifier is a 3 stage air cleaner that operates mainly on electronic filtering of indoor air. Very high marks by noted product review magazine. In use for one month, reliable so far.
Prefilter removes large dust particles.
Electronic filter removes almost all other particles.
Final carbon filter is for odor control. It must be replaced (quarterly?) to control odors. But unit will remove all dust etc without the charcoal filter.
Clean electronic filter weekly with water. Dry completely before using again. No other maintenance.

In comparison to many air filters which use disposable (and expensive) HEPA filter units, this Friedrich uses an electrostatic filter element to collect and trap dust particles. This is far superior to the electrostatic filters sold by Sharper Image because the total surface area for collecting dust is MUCH greater. The Friedrich C-90 (A or B) has an internal fan that draws air through a pre-filter, then through an aluminum element with many electrostatically-charged plates that capture dust particles, and finally through a carbon filter for cleaning up odors. Filtration has 3 stages: 1)an outer filter to catch hair and large dust particles, etc. 2) the main inner filter element and 3) a final charcoal filter. Each are removable to clean. The main filter element can be cleaned in a dishwasher; the pre- and carbon filters can be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner brush. I've never bothered replacing the carbon filter - but have no strong odors in the apartment. I've never noticed any "ozone" smell noted by other reviewers. Friederich after-sales support is terrific.

NET: The unit is well-built, American-made, solid, but fairly large (like a small college-dorm refridgerator). The fan has 3 speeds. I have no problem with the noise level, (a low hum from the internal fan even at the lowest setting) but it bothers my wife. Prices vary widely; I've owned mine for 5+ years and would consider buying another/the same unit again.

ONE CAVEAT: the plates on the main electrostatic filter element are extremely fragile, and easily bent. Once bent out of alignment, the unit will continually pop and crackle as sparks jump between the unaligned plates. A replacement filter element is costly, but not when one considers the first one lasted over 5 years.

I recently purchased one of these after extensive research. Since we have a two story home, I find myself moving it back and forth. The only downside is the size. It's about the size of a medium dog carrier. But the fact that it is so quiet and works so well, make it worth it. My husband and I both smoke and our house smells fresh and clean for the first time in several years. His mother, a non-smoker, is even amazed. Next year I will definately be buying another one. You don't even know it's running on low and when I turn it up, it's still fairly quiet and non-distracting.

This really is an outstanding air cleaner. It eliminates almost all my allergy symptoms. I've had mine for four years now, and it's as excellent as the day I bought it. I've run it 24/7 the entire time, and even put it on an A/V cart so I can easily move it from room to room occasionally.

I replaced the carbon filter once a couple years ago, but I really don’t notice one way or the other on it. A room just doesn’t smell any more if you let the cleaner run a while. Even when the carbon filter is depleted, the cleaner still makes a tremendous difference in a room’s air.

This is a great air cleaner and has beaten all other room air cleaners in many tests. I'm amazed at all the crud I clean off the collector plates every week. I can smell a slight ozone odor sometimes but it's hardly noticeable. I was leery about getting an air cleaner that uses an Electrostatic Precipitator because of the ozone concerns. After much research I found that ozone can be a big concern with many Electrostatic precipitators like the Sharper Image Ionic Breeze, Oreck and many others but not with the Friedrich C-90B. The FDA has set a safe ozone limit at 5 ppb and the C-90B was tested at 1.4 ppb by their own tests and 4 ppb by Consumer Reports. Sharper Image Ionic Breeze tests at 18 ppb by Consumer Reports and others tested as high as 28 ppb. The C-90B is one of the few Electrostatic precipitators to pass Underwriters Laboratories ozone test, so I'm not worried.