Customer Reviews

Holmes® HAP242-UC HEPA-type Desktop Air Purifier

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I've owned mine for about 5 years, and I love it. I was surprised to see so many negative comments from other reviewers. If I may add my two cents to the discussion:

* This machine works great as an air purifier for small/medium bedrooms. It is designed to remove dust and other allergens from the air, and it does so quite well in my opinion. It's not meant to clean the air in the whole house. It's not meant to remove strong odors like stinky pets, dirty diapers, etc. That's what an odor eliminator is for. (I use a Hamilton Beach 04271R TrueAir Plug-Mount Odor Eliminator next to the litter box, and I can't complain.) An odor eliminator contains a carbon filter than neutralizes bad smells. A HEPA air purifier contains a filter of thickly folded fibrous paper that strains tiny particles out of the air. The two devices have completely different purposes and methods.

* Yes, you do have to replace the filter periodically. I run my unit continuously on the low setting and have to replace the filter about once a year. Target usually sells them in two-packs or three-packs for a good price.

* It needs to be wiped down with a damp cloth every couple of weeks because the outer casing gathers dust and lint. In my experience it does NOT, as other users have commented, get filthy. I supposed it might if you never cleaned it. The fact that it attracts dust means it's working.

* It's almost silent on the low setting. Medium is audible but not intrusive. The high setting is almost as loud as a dust buster. I've found the low setting to be sufficient for small bedrooms.

I hope this helps.

from new york, new york
there are 2 major things wrong with this (and every?) holmes product i have been 'duped' into using. it is much like when you buy a printer, the initial unit is a mere downpayment for all the cartridges you'll need if you use it 'normally.' the holmes air purifiers i have been intermittently stuck with do help clean the air and thanks to the standardization of the hepa filter (and no thanks to holmes), work fairly well. the downside is they are extremely difficult to clean (i think i used an entire package of qtips) and you have to take the damned thing apart yourself to do so (hence i cleaned mine once and dumped it) if you like cleanliness, after using it a few months, once you look inside the thing you'll be prompted to do likewise. the reason it's popular seems attributable to one factor: it is cheap. seems like a good idea at the time. then u start buying the filters (approx $15 or more each) and attempting to maintain it and realize what a poorly thought out piece o' junk the actual unit really is. be smart, spend more and get an air cleaner from a company that cares whether or not the unit can be cleane (slantfin, bionaire, honeywell). hope this helps save others from a dirty business.

It's affordable, does what it's supposed to (clean the air) but in the process gets itself filthy. It's almost impossible to clean, so unless you don't care about having a dirty appliance in the middle of your room all the time, I would suggest finding an easier to clean model. Also, the filter seems to get glogged up pretty fast.. maybe I just live in super dusty conditions or something, but plan on spending just as much on filters every 3-6 months as on the unit itself.

After returning my Honeywell hht-081 purifier because it was louder than living next to the airport, I'm very pleased with this one.
It's exactly what I needed... a quiet opeating, effective, small air purifier. It's not going to get your whole home fresh, and it says so on the box, so don't buy it in place of a larger purifier if that's what you need.
It WILL reduce allergens in the home, but works best in smaller rooms (i.e. 11' x 10')

Regarding filter replacement... People, get over it. That's how any (good) purifier works. The ones with "permanent" filters that you're supposed to vaccum... Yeah, a vaccum is going to get it good as new every time, isn't it? *shakes head* You just have to take into consideration that in order to operate this you will have to buy and replace the filter on occasion. Just like when you buy a car, you have to buy gas to make it work.

I dont have this model, but I have a larger Holmes Air purifier, and agree with the other reviews - they get themselves very dirty very quickly. I have found though, that if you put the front cover (the part hardest to clean) in the dishwasher & run it on a light cycle, it comes out perfect. Wiping the rest down with a cleaning cloth does the job as well. I wouldn't recommending buying a Holmes product, btu if you already have one, hopefully this cleaning tip will help.

I don't know what it is, but this air purifier just doesn't seem to work worth beans. I've got another, slightly older Holmes purifier (HAP-240) that for some reason seems to work a lot better, although significantly louder. With this one, the air goes through the filter and comes out the other end as designed, but you just don't get a sense of cleaner air in the room -- there's almost zero odor removal. The filter appears to fit tightly, so it just doesn't make much sense. Could be this model uses a different, less effective filter than the aforementioned model.

Either way, I don't recommend this product at all -- despite the fact that it runs very quietly on its lower settings -- it just doesn't really do what it was designed to do. Very disappointed.

We have this product in all the bedrooms in our house. We all have allergies and really needed to do something besides medicate aggresively. I wonder how much such a small unit can do, especially since I have been reading websites which state that tabletop size air cleaners do not have much impact on air quality. I also find the noise level rather high, given the small size of the unit. Sometimes I can hardly hear my children when they need me in the night, the fans are so loud. The grilles on the front also collect a lot of dust and have to be cleaned periodically. Overall I would say that unless the area to be cleaned is the size of a large closet or an office cubicle, I highly doubt that this air cleaner is big enough to be effective.

I purchased this air cleaner for a med. sized bedroom. This worked great! Kept me from having problems with dust and related allergy symptoms.. Filters last a long time. Especially when you use a booster filter in between the two and wash it out in hot soapy water every other week. Also this air cleaner cuts down on so much dust, as we have carpeting all over the upstairs and the dust isn't good for anyone with dust allergies. Never had a problem with this air cleaner and the filters are not that expensive. It only takes about 5 minutes to clean up with a little hot soapy water each time you change out the filter to keep it clean.
I recommend to anyone who has small room etc.. and allergy problems.
With regular clean ups of the pre-filter, the filters don't have to be changed out until about 6-8 months. Purchasing replacement filters in pairs you really save money!! :)

Like many others who have reviewed this air "purifier" & I use that term loosely. I should have done my homework before purchase. I bought 1 of these for around $30, and 2 "Tower types" which were $60 apiece. I don't see much difference in the air quality in the rooms these are placed in. I leave them running 24/7.
The filters are $15 each or $25 for a 2 pack in my area. I have dogs and these filters need replaced at least once a month.
I'm tossing them out and springing for a decent one with a removeable and reusable filter.

I bought this air purifier for my nephew as I already own two myself and am very happy with the product.