Customer Reviews

Holmes HAP412BN-U HEPA-Type Mini Tower Air Purifier

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

 

 

This unit cleans a surprising amount of filth from the air and is suitable for a small room.
I wish the unit accepted washable filters.

UPDATE Aug. 2010: I have knocked the unit off the shelf onto the carpet several times and it still functions. Still amazed at the amount of particulates it traps.

I've used this for about 6 months now and it does a decent job, with a noticeable change in the smell of the room (this is due to the ionizer i think). Hasn't eliminated dust buildup on surfaces but dust buildup has reduced as far as I can tell.

However, now it is time to change the filter and I'm considering just getting a different purifier. Right now, a 2 pack of filters for the HAP412 are going for about $31. Considering that's almost the cost of the purifier (with 1 filter included), I'd suggest trying a purifier with a reusable/washable filter.

It's quiet enough on the lowest setting and seems to do an OK job purifying but ultimately the filters are way too expensive.

Small unit but powerful! We first tried it out as a loan from a neighbor and noticed an IMMEDIATE change in our baby's room air quality. After doing research to purchase our own we went with the same one for various reasons: Very affordable, small unit, powerful, quiet with adjustable settings(just like a pedestal fan), and finally and most importantly, does it's job (evident in our baby's cleared sinuses)! We are extremely happy with it.

Works great in my room; especially in the desert of Iraq. Noisy at first, but after a few minutes, it quieted down.

I love this air purifier. It was suggested I get a hepa or hepa type air purifier for my allergies. This has made a HUGE difference. In fact I plan on purchasing another one for my son's room.

As stated I'm using this in a house with 4 big dogs who have a doggie door to come and go as they please from our very dusty sandy yard in the desert of northern Arizona. I finally had it with the dust the sand I was having to wipe down the computer table every day from junk and my allergies had gone nuts. I set this unit up earlier this morning and sat down at my computer to work for a while. I left the room for a while and came back in and shocked. After just about 3 hours of running on high there was less dust viable in the air with the light coming in the window and breathing seemed better in the main room where it was running compared to everywhere else. My husband who didn't know I'd bought the unit went into the dogs area after work and said he noticed a huge difference and he asked me to stop and buy another one on the way home from work because he wanted one for another room in the house. I'm going to have to wait and see if it helps with my huge dust problem but my nose is much better already.

Very cheap, very easy to use. Its not too noisy as others, the little noise it does produce helps me fall asleep faster (works for me, not sure about other people). I got about a year ago, haven't changed the screen yet.

Bought this a year and a half ago to air out a small guest room in our house (we sometimes have a problem with neighbors'secondhand smoke). I used it rarely - less than 10 hours total. The first few times, it seemed to work well and I was happy with it.

But when I used it again recently after a long break, I noticed that everything in the room was suddenly covered with a fine grey/black dust! Yuk!

I replaced the filters immediately, but then I noticed a strong chemical smell coming from it that gave me headaches and a bad metallic taste in the mouth.

Unfortunately it's too late to return this. I hate to throw things like this away, but I wouldn't give this to anyone else, so it is getting tossed.

How does HEPA - and the companies who design products that rely on their filters - stay in business, if not for us desperate allergy sufferers who need a cheap air purifier and fast? But the long-term (and by long-term, I mean 3-6 months) cost doesn't justify the moderate to minor help these HEPA-style purifiers provide. It seems like a good investment, doesn't it? Under $50 and all. But wait, in 3-6 months comes the time you need to replace that HEPA filter that's been meticulously designed to be unwashable, no matter how innovative you try to be in extending its life. That new filter you need will be around $25 (at least at all the stores near me - or get them cheaper online but pay shipping). So will the next one you'll need a few months after that. The larger, tower version of this model requires TWO filters. Easy math - up to $50 to refresh that machine.

The logical person quickly figures out it's cheaper to throw the machine away and buy a new one rather than replace those filters more than once or twice. What crap. Companies need to stop encouraging this "disposable" mentality. Stop manipulating consumers and forcing them to increase the mass of waste in landfills. Stop treating us like idiots, offering low-cost machines that require expensive parts that need to be constantly replaced. We all need to stop putting up with this.

OK, but how well does it work? I once had an electrostatic air purifier. (It was from a wonderful company called EnviroResearch, that sadly isn't around anymore. I got that model for around $80. Oreck has since apparently stolen or "adopted" the same design and now sells a very similar machine for $349! But the EnviroResearch one brought me almost immediate relief from my allergy symptoms. I use that as my comparison.) I can see the filters in this purifier are trapping a lot of particles and dust. Yet for some reason, I experience no alleviation of my symptoms when closed up in a room with one of these. No reduction in dust building up around the room it's in, either. Time to break out the HEPA-filtered vacuum for the 7th time this week. I am a clean person, so it's pretty easy for me to determine how quickly dust is accumulating and these filters don't seem to slow that one bit. They just, as one reviewer cleverly pointed out, seem like a placebo.

One other thing. They cause drafts. The air doesn't come out straight out the front, but at what seems to be 45-degree angles on either side of the front. So it makes it hard to position these units anywhere where you're not getting a direct line of air blowing on you. Nice in summer maybe, but not so nice in winter.

Works extremely well. Highest setting can be a bit loud, but mid settingis very quiet. Compact and un-noticeable. I would definitely recommend.