Customer Reviews

Guardian Technologies AC-4000 Hygia Complete Air Purifier Cleaning System

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

We recently moved into a home with some mold issues. They were minor, but they were there none the less.

From day one in the home, I began waking up every morning with a migraine. After about a week straight of this, I decided I needed to try something to alleviate what I suspected to be the issue. I began researching products that killed mold and mildew in the air, and with a limited budget and after a LOT of research, I settled on the Germ Guardian Tabletop Air Purifier. I am hooked! Hooked, hooked, hooked! I cannot tell you for sure that it was this item, but it has been over a week now with no migraine - not even a hint.

Furthermore, I have been taking nasal medication for about 4 years to keep me from snoring at night. Even with the medication, I would wake up most mornings with at least one of my nasal passages plugged or partially plugged. I'm 5'10" 175, so it's not a weight issue. Since we plugged in this machine, I have woken up clean and clear. I even slept last night without my nasal medication just to check, and I slept great.

I will be the first to say that it has only been a week, but I am amazed at the results...so far. I will say that this unit is a little noisy, but for me, it is a no brainer trade off: health vs. a little noise - I'll take the noise! We run the unit 24/7 with it on low during the day and on high during the night. We also run our ceiling fan on low to keep the air in the room circulating so that we are sure that the unit has a chance to cleanse the entire room.

I hope this helps someone. I'll try to update this at the month mark and then the year mark as well. I hope to continue the good report.

Like another reviewer here said, you can't find replacement UV Bulbs for this model. It's a great Air Purifier otherwise. Works wonders in my bedroom. Keep the air nice and clean. My only regret with this model is the aforementioned UV bulb. With no way to get a replacement and countless google searches turning up nothing, I'm left with two choices:
1. Return the unit to manufacturer and get an entirely new unit.
2. Call Germ Guardian and see if I can't finagle a replacement bulb out of them.

I've only had this product for a week and the UV bulb burned out. If it wasn't for that I'd have given this air purifier 5 stars.

I purchased the Germ Guardian tabletop purifier because I was looking for a small unit for my bedroom. Compared to most other air purifiers this unit has many more levels of filtration than other units of this size and in this price range ($50-$75).
The machine is well built and fits on a small nightstand, (or any smaller sized room in the house). You have a fan speed choice of high or low. I was surprised to find this unit very quiet at both speeds. I have the unit a few inches from my head at night and can sleep with it set on high. You also can turn the ionizer on and off.
After running the unit for just a few hours I noticed a dramatic difference in the air quality of my bedroom. The air smelled fresh and clean. I leave the unit on low all day and turn it on high when I am in the room and it has performed great!

If you are looking for a reasonably priced unit for a single room with great filtration then I would recommend this unit.

I bought this air purifier after moving into a new house with old carpet and trying to improve the smell & allergies for my family. I have 2, 1 in the bedroom and 1 in the living room, and noticed within a few days the amount of dust in my home had really decreased as well as the musty smell disappearing. Now almost a year later, I have replaced the filters once, and am still loving them. The house no longer has carpet, all new hardwood floors, but I still have two dogs and the dust issue is almost none exsistant. I almost never have to dust and my air always smells "clean" without air freshners. Highly recommend this purifier, it says it covers 100 sq foot rooms but honestly I have them in a 15 x 17 bedroom and a 17 x 35 living room/kitchen and it cleans them well.

There does not appear to be any UV ionizer replacement bulb for the AC4000 model. Only the filter is listed as a replacement part in the small brochure which came with the unit. Furthermore there is no listed model number of a UV replacement bulb which one might buy separately. Eventually the UV bulbs wear out and have to be replaced.

I loved this thing for my dresser, it kept the air nice and clean. But after about a year, it has just suddenly stopped working... press the power button, and nothing happens. For the amount of time that I used it, I would say that I didn't get my money's worth. I only turned it on occasionally. I might contact the manufacturer and see if they will replace it, or at least troubleshoot the problem for me over the phone. If not, I would say that it's not worth the money. I'll come back and update with the results.

UPDATE: I contacted the manufacturer last week. I had trouble getting customer service on the phone, I kept dialing the extension and got caught in an endless voicemail loop that wouldn't even allow me to leave a message. I called again, got through to an operator and explained the problem, and she told me it was because they were getting a high call volume. I explained the issue to the operator, and she very helpfully did some troubleshooting with me on the phone. She told me to open the unit and see if the safety switch was bent. I did that, made sure it was straight, put in a new filter (the old one wasn't very old, but it was maybe a little warped), and voila... the thing is working again just fine. And not a moment too soon, because my allergies were keeping me up all night.

I love this again, and would buy another. I have it sitting on my dresser, and it keeps the air in my room nice and fresh. Instead of waking up congested every morning, I now am waking up with unencumbered breathing.

Would buy it again. Also plan to buy some of their larger models.

i purchased this unit at lowes and have been running it for about a day now. i am in the military and am heading back to korea for a year and wanted to take this unit with me. i decided on this little thing because of the small size and the uv feature. as of right now i plan on returning this thing tomorrow. for the small size i wasent really expecting a huge amount of airflow but some would be nice. on low the air flow is non-existant and on high there is air movement but its still not great. the air coming out of the unit does smell extremely clean though. the biggest problem i believe is the filter, i have other hepa filter units in my house and the filter in this one looks and feels like its solid paper and is extremely restrictive. i took the filter out and bypassed the safety switch (not recommended) just to see what the max airflow would be like. i was extremely impressed with the airflow coming out, if this thing even put out half that amount of air with the filter installed it would be worth keeping. i would recommend this small unit if you were planning on using it in a 5'X 5' walk in closet, i think it could handle that size room. larger rooms i would get something bigger. note: UV lamp inside is not replaceable for the average user, the inside label is incorrect stating its a uv-b lamp, its supposed to be a uv-c ccfl lamp, i spent about an hour looking online to see if there are replacement bulbs, i did find them but not any prices. germ guardian dosent even list it, so when its done its done. i'm going to try the therapure 101m instead.

I purchased this for my office and even after a mere 2 hours since I first plugged it in, the air quality in my office is so much better. After walking around the building, I come in to a clean air office. I was able to tell the difference from walking around for an extended period of time. I finished an entire box of tissue in one day last week due to allergies and I think this just about solved my allergy problems. I turned it on High for 2 hours and have reduced it to the Low setting. It has some white noise but it just sounds like a regular fan to me. I'll take the white noise over allergies and airborne viruses.

Hello everyone. I just received this tabletop air filter and sanitizer today in the mail from Amazon. Initial impressions are these:

1) Great size, will fit any table-top, even night stands.
2) Solid Build quality in the molded plastic housing and electrical cord.
3) SUPER QUIET blower fan with or without filter installed.
4) *Perfect* Air Flow Rate. **Too fast of an air flow rate and there is no way the Germicidal action will occur as it takes time for the DNA Base Pairing of Germs to be disrupted, which is the core of Germicidal UV Technology.
5) Incorrect labeling of the UVC Germicidal lamp (it says UVA, but is CLEARLY UVB at worst**).
6) A common problem with an easy fix... "My bulb isn't turning on!!!" SEE BELOW;

UV Basics; Mercury Vapor Tube lights produce 4 distinct peak UV outputs of light:
Near-UV - "Black Light" - Causes Fluorescence - Peak output at Mercury's H-Line @ 404nm. 400nm+
UVA - "Black Light" - Causes Fluorescence - Peak Output at Mercury's I-Line @ 365nm. 315nm to 400nm.
UVB - "Invisible" - Causes Fluorescence in only special materials not used for "Black Light". 280nm to 315nm.
UVC - "Invisible" - Causes no Fluorescence - Germicidal - Peak output @ Mercury's Line @ 253nm. 100nm to 280nm.
Vacuum UV - "Invisible" - Absorbed by Air and Glass - Requires Quartz Envelope - Creates Ozone - Peak Output at Mercury's Line @ 184nm. 100 to 200nm.

This unit produces no ozone. So from that we know that the bulb used inside is a UVC bulb not in a Quartz Envelope. It should appear lit up as a sky-blue color to the naked eye (you have to depress the safety switch to the top left of the bulb for it to turn on) and will not cause much fluorescence at all compared to a "Black Light" bulb. It is a Coated Glass UVC Low Pressure Mercury Vapor 6 inch Lamp rated around 4Watts. These bulbs last an exceptionally long time and rarely burn out.



This Unit get a lot of bad reviews for the bulb being irreplaceable and often not working...

Common problem: "My Bulb won't TURN ON/LIGHT UP!!!";
When I received my unit, my bulb did not turn on. However after a few minutes of being on I noticed a very very faint glow on the left corner of the bulb. These kinds of bulbs are low-pressure mercury lamps and they run on high voltage. High voltage causes faint glowing even if only one side of the bulb is connected because some of the current still affects the mercury gas inside. These kinds of bulbs VERY VERY RARELY Burn out unless physically broken/destroyed. They do not even burn out from prolonged use, they just get dimmer as time goes on. So; there is a faint glow, thus the bulb is not bad. This leaves an electrical connection problem. Clearly high voltage was present from the faint glow - the circuitry must be OK. This leaves mechanical connection problems; let's open 'er up and see what's wrong...

1) The bulbs is held in with a plastic cap on each side held in place with two small philips screws. They are easily removed, but be sure the unit is OFF AND UNPLUGGED. Be sure not to damage the fragile bulb. Just remove the plastic caps and screws. You'll see there is nothing holding the wires of the bulb in, they just sit on tiny metal trays. Here is where the electrical problem is - a weak connection!!!!

2) Carefully remove the bulb with clean dry hands, and very very gently bend the wires a very slight amount so that they are held against the metal trays when the bulb is placed back in. You want the silvered tips of the wires to sit flat on the trays making good contact. Hold bulb firmly but gently in place in a position where it makes good contact to the trays and replace the plastic covers. Carefully put the screws back in and be sure the bulb does not shift position. Do NOT over tighten.

3) Plug unit back in, depress the safety switch with a non-metal/non-conductive object, and turn the unit on. The bulb should now light up fully.

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I recommend this unit to anyone who understands how to unplug it and use a philips screw driver since it seems the majority of the time the bulb shifts loose during shipment.

We take it with us to hotel rooms to get rid of scented toxins floating in the air. Use at home. Could not live without it. Very small and convenient.