Customer Reviews

Honeywell HFD-135 Permanent IFD UV Antibacterial Air Purifier

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

With only 90 days of use, can only say 'so far ,so good'.
Pretty much as advertised(with the exception that it is fairly noisey.)
If you have need for ultra-violet germ fighting light(which you can turn off&on),washable ionic filter then this will fit your needs..
Considering its barreled/odd shape & rather large size, placement is a minor issue.Small complaint but assume necessary to design..
Be aware that is does deposit some dust etc.on adjacent walls.
However:Filter washes nicely..
Ease of maintenance.
Now if it gives long term service would say it deserves 5 stars.

I own the other Honeywell air pufier that looks similar to this unit but it is in white and LOVE it. So, when this upgrade came out, I decided to give it a go...esp because it had UV as well. I leave it running all day and night and it keeps the air feeling pure and clean. It is quiet and smooth. I am now considering buying a 3rd (an addition HFD135) for my family room. Highly recommended!

The difference in the air quality is noticable. I haven't tried to clean it yet, but it looks like it shouldn't be too difficult. One gripe is the blue led's. Would be nice to turn them off but still use the functionality (especially since they are purely for decoration)

The unit works ... but it is advertised as being quiet and being able to work for rooms of the described size. Well, it is either one or the other. If you set it to the recommended speed for a larger room, the is very loud. If you set it to the quietest setting, it only circulates the air in the recommended room size every couple of days.

I normally leaving it running on high when I am not home to scrub the room, but as soon as I come home, I put it back on low because it makes too much noise.

Live in Southern CA where Spring brings me terrible allergy symptoms. Unit greatly reduces my symptoms - as effective as medication. My wife also indicates less snoring - cheaper than surgery! Writing this review as I order our third unit. Highly recommended.

I got the Honeywell HFD135 one year ago for my studio apartment in New York City, shared by two people and a cat. The apartment faces a street and has no central air-conditioning. We also cook in the kitchen. The improvement in the air quality was amazing in the first few days after the purifier was installed. The air felt "clean". Just like tasting bottled water (after)against chlorinated tap water(before), the difference was evident.
The filter has reduced the smell from the cat litter. My allergy symptom to pollen was reduced in the spring time. The air intake on the bottom of the unit traps a layer of cat hair and dust that can be vacuumed away. The effectiveness of the UV lamp cannot be seen, and it was manually switched off anyway. The fan noise can be heard at night even at low setting, but I understand the filter won't work without sufficient air flow. For people who are very sensitive to noise, this can be a problem. But for people like me living in NYC, the street noise is much louder so I don't mind the filter at all.
The IFD filter can be easily cleaned periodically by either vacuuming, or rinsing in water and dry. The only problem is that after a few months of use, dust began to gather around the bottom area of the unit as well as on the fan. The fan grills cannot be removed, so these places are not easily accessible and regular vacuum cannot reach. When the bottom air intake is blocked, the filter would become much less effective.
The air purifier works really well. The only flaw that I can tell over time is the difficult cleaning above and below the central filter. Still five stars for the improvement of the air quality.

I have had this unit for a year now and I can say that it does nothing for dust removal. I have gone through 3 cycles for cleaning the filter and there is nothing in the water when i rinse it out. There is a lot of dust on the unit fan blades which are AFTER the filter which tell me that the dust is going straight through the filter. It is in my bedroom and there is always dust on my furniture. The uv lights on the top of the unit can be annoying if you don't like your room lit up like Vegas when you sleep.

It doesn't work well. I've followed the instructions exactly, and made sure all electrical contacts on the filter unit were clean (wiped off carefully with a slightly moistened cloth, let to dry for several hours), but it has almost no effect with large clay-like dust particles or dorm-room smells in a 130 square foot room. We get virtually no air circulation- radiator heating. It's ineffective on smells even on High after continuous usage for several days. There's almost nothing visible that washes out when the filter is cleaned (by vacuuming AND then water washing-no soaps) within three days of when the indicator suggests to do so. It is allowed to dry for several hours, per the instruction manual. I'm very picky about following instructions.

It's loud. I'd forgive it if it worked at filtering, which it doesn't. However, I can hear it (on Medium and High) easily through a solid-core wood door and fibreglass insulated walls, which blocks almost all dorm-sounds (which are significant). And it almost drowns, out (on Low settings) rather loud computer fans.The sound is only that of loud airflow, so I can't imagine that the fan itself is broken.

However, I have confidence that the germicidal lamps do work. That's something. The fan is reliable, so I can probably salvage that for some DIY project. And it really looks kind of nice, considering that it's an air purifier. I give it two stars for that.

I replaced it (after giving it 6 months to work itself out) with a Honeywell 18155 SilentComfort (which has no germicidal lamps). That one got rid of the smells all in less than an hour, and on High it's much quieter on High than even the Low settings on this HFD-135.

Overall, thumbs down.

This is my second unit, the first being replaced under warranty. I cannot determine if any allergens or dirt for that matter actually are trapped with this unit. Kaz told me to return the first at my expense which I did, UPS $50. The telephone conversation with tech support indicated she was very surprised and found it unusual for this unit describing that her cleaning found a lot of trapped dirt in the cleaning water, and said to send it in for a replacement. The first one's behavior was the same as this replacement unit.
Actually more dust and dirt accumulate on the internal fan and pre-filter than on the charged honeycomb section. The washing instructions indicated to wash this section in water and detergent to clean out all of the trapped particles. From what I see after more than a month of continuous running, the "dish water" is as clean as it was before I began the cleaning procedure and counter to what tech support had described.

So now I'm out over $300 plus $50 return shipping and have a new unit purchased at half the cost of this unit, is silent (no fan) and does a far superior job collecting all sorts of airborne junk, an Ionic Pro.

Update Feb 23, 2010
I've decided to give this unit another go. I have disassembled the unit as far as the hidden screws and cleaned the entire unit with compressed air. It was really dusty on the inside plastic case material and fan blades! The fasteners are Torx 15 size and somewhat difficult to get at. I reassembled the unit with new UV lamps at a cost of $40 at Home Depot. I won't do that again as the plastic smell is made much worse while they are operating. The lamps are housed in what appears to be a closed plastic box not much larger than the lamps themselves, read, I don't get it. What good does that do other than heating the plastic and producing the smell? I intended to see if any power was getting to the filter media but found no way to do so. Possibly on the next go round.
So this morning I fired it up with the UV lamps turned on and the plastic smell was awful, so I turned the UV lamps off and the smell improved somewhat. I'll be back to report on my "progress" in my attempt to actually capture any dirt/dust or anything at all.

Update June 16, 2010:

Well I've thrown in the towel on this one. After running the second unit again for a few months, there are no changes. UV lamps still smell like burning plastic when turned on and nothing is collected in the powered media. I have an ozone generator (Living air) so I know what ozone smells like. So I've donated it to the local waste management company to send it on its way to our land fill, (picture above). Unfortunately we do not have a recycler company in the area to recycle this kind of equipment. No more Honeywell for me. Sayanara!

Feb. 2011 I see that Vertek is selling this thing for $89.95. That's $89.95 too much.

I love this product! My husband and I both have allergies and asthma, and 2 small dogs. We have the filter in our bedroom and I could tell a difference right away. We own two other Honeywell filters as well and this is my favorite one by far because there is no expensive filters to buy. For those of you who think this product is loud, you haven't had many air purifiers. It's not extreamly quiet but this one rates as one of the quietest even when on high!