Customer Reviews

Hamilton Beach 04160 TrueAir HEPA Air Purifier with UV Germicidal Light

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

 

 

I really liked this air purifier, and I noticed that it did make a quite noticeable difference in the number and severity of my husband's and my allergy symptoms (despite the fact that neither of us have truly severe allergy problems) when we let it run in the bedroom at night while we slept.
Unfortunately, about nine months after we bought it, despite regularly changing filters, it started to sound as if it was struggling and then is stopped working entirely. Fortunately, it has a three-year warrenty, so the customer service rep is sending me a shipping label, so I can ship it back and have a new one sent to me. I don't know it this is atypical of the product, but it is a bit of a hassle for me. Hopefully, the new one will last longer.

The Editorial Review (above) is incorrect. Model 4160 does not have an automatic setting. If you are interested in that feature, you'll need to upgrade to model 4161. Since the unit is noisy on the higher settings, I would recommend rarely using anything other than the Whisper (somewhat of an exageration) setting anyway. It's built well though, and seems to work.

I purchased this filter a month ago. I love it. The UV light is awesome for the price and best of all this is a fairly quiet filter. I love the quick clean setting and use it after the dog has been in the room. It has made a huge difference and my husband and I are both sleeping much better. Highly recommended. You can't get a better filter for the money.

I got rid of my Sharper Image Ionic Breeze recently after reading an EPA warning saying these ozone creating filters are potentially bad for your lungs. So I found this at Amazon for $60 on sale. Good deal. This thing works great! Much better than the Ionic Breeze, although you will have to get replacement filters with this. This HEPA filter has a 'whisper' mode. Compared to the Ionic Breeze made no noise, this made the equivalent noise of a small electric fan. This UV filter is supposed to kill bacteria, virus etc. The manual says not to put your face next to it or look into it, or else you risk eyesight damage or even BLINDNESS! Scary. Well don't look at the light then. For far as those who have allergies, this thing really helped clear up my sinuses. Come allergy season I always get a stuffy nose, preventing me from getting good quality sleep. I leave this on the 'whisper' mode in my bedroom and well this helped improve things a lot. HOWEVER, both my girlfriend and I have noticed it does cause the air to become dry in the room. I live in Los Angeles, so the air here is already dry to begin with. So perhaps ventilation or a humidifier would be a nice companion piece to have with it. Another thing, this air purifier was much bigger than I thought. Ohterwise, all said, I'm happy I bought this. Good value, good function.

I had this unit a little over a year when the fan motor died. Worked perfectly until that happened 24x7. I think for someone who need ocational air cleaning it would be good, but if you want a unit to run 24x7 look elsewhere...

Filter works great, kills mold, eliminates dust, cat hair, etc. This filter really works. The fast clean is great to start your room and then the medium setting will maintain. However, I agree with the other review: If you are sleeping and there is outside noise bothering you, turn it on high and it makes a great noise filter too. It has a pleasant fan sound while filtering your air. 5 stars all the way!

We use ours in our finch room. These little birds can create quite a smell and this model did WONDERS to clear that up. They also seemed healthier and I suspect that the UV light had something to do with that. After about 6 months we started to get fan squeak at lower speeds and this gradually got worse over the next 12 months at which time the motor just died. I couldn't find my receipt so I threw it out. Admittedly I found a great deal on one on clearance at Canadian Tire and bought another one. I'm hoping the first one was a fluke.

UPDATE - much later. The second unit lasted a few months and burned out too. This unit is discontinued and I can't say I'm surprised. If you find one around, even on a great sale, just leave it there.

I bought mine last april and I have had no problems at with mine... on the higher settings, there is some noise but not enough to bother me. I have a lot of allergy problems and during the time that I had it, it really helped. My little granddaughter has recently been diagnosed with allergies so I gave mine to my daughter to put in her bedroom. Since I gave up mine.. my allergy attacks have been horrible. I'm here at amazon.com to buy me a new one. Just can't do without it! I'd recommend it to everyone!

I'd had sinus problems for many years,

which had been getting into my lungs

recently. No relief from anything

else, but this air cleaner finally did

the job. Presumably the infection was

from mold or fungus, so with all the

mold removed from the air, my body

was finally able to clear itself.

What a relief!!!

Agree with other commenters that it's

moderately noisy, but it's a calming

kind of noise, good for background.

Also agree that the control knob is

a very bad design, impossible to grip.

I wrapped it with many layers

of duct tape to make it usable.

I wanted to like this, really I did.

I just got mine last night and have been running it for about a day. Thus far I'm wholly underwhelmed. I had fried up some burgers for dinner last night, and the living room (where the purifier is) still has a lingering smell. I've had it running on varying settings, including max for 3-4 hours. While I think Hamilton Beach does say it's not good for kitchen use, I know from experience my Holmes machine (roughly the same square footage) would clear up the odor within an hour or two.

The knob on the unit has three settings. Whisper is a touch annoying for a bedroom. It's fairly quiet, but not really a steady "white noise" type of sound. The middle setting is loud, and the max setting is very loud. I don't understand the design of the knob itself, as sometimes it's hard to get a good grip on it.

I've only ever had one other air purifier so I don't have much to compare this with, but so far it just seems like a waste of money. Also I can't speak for the allergen reduction, as I wasn't really having problems in that regard.