Customer Reviews

Sharper Image Ionic Breeze 3.0 Compact Silent Air Purifier (SI397)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I purchased this after an informercial. My warrenty was for 3 years. Lucky for me, since 14 months after receiving the unit it died with no warning.

The manufacture made me return it AT MY OWN EXPENSE and then they sent me a new unit. Took 2 months.

Well, the new unit arrived 8 days ago. It died an hour ago. I called the customer service and refused to pay to send it back AGAIN.

They ARE sending me out a new unit (again), but it will take up to 10 business days to receive. They agreed to send a pre-paid shipping label this time too. (Could take a month though.)

Meanwhile, I have nothing. After reading the reviews below, I could have kicked myself. I subscribe to the online version of Consumer Reports so did what another did...looked it up. Consumer Reports says this Ionic Breeze only "removes a few particles from the air", nothing else. They also did the test, as the infomercial showed, of putting the Breeze in an enclosed space with smoke and turned it on. It did NOT do what the infomercial said. It did not "power through smoke". It did nothing.

I am taking the advice of Consumer Reports. I am refunding my money on the Breeze and purchasing "the high-scoring Friedrich C-90A and Whirlpool AP45030HO models" which DOES work...and work well.

Avoid the Ionic Breeze unit, for the home AND/OR the car.

I bought it, took it out of the box, plugged it in and turned it on. I was very happy! At first. Then the thing stated to make hissing noises as if to indicate it was not happy. I turned it upside down as the instructions suggest to free debris from the wires. It went silent for a day or so. When the machine worked It was great, my home smelled fresh and clean -sort of the way my favorite shirt would smell after leaving it by a swimming pool all day in Palm Springs. Clean/nice smell. The bad news; just after the warrenty expired the thing just died! This consumer was NOT happy with the "ionic breeze." I have no Ions nor breezes just a worthless piece of plastic sitting on my living room floor. My opinion would be they're too fragile or poorly made just now. DON'T WAISTE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY.

I have a problem with most air cleaners. As a light sleeper, the fan noise will wake me up in the middle of the night and I find it hard to get back to sleep. I went through a number of filters and ended up giving all of them away. The Ionic Breeze had the selling point of no fans so I tried one. I also live in a small apartment so the fan noise is much more noticable then in a house.

It's absolutely true, the unit makes almost no noise. That's until it gets clogged with dirt or lint and starts to hiss, pop and whistle. Then it's as noisy as the fan powered filters. And sometimes cleaning the unit makes no difference, you just have to live with the noise until it goes away on it's own. Also some very small moths seem to be attacted to the collection plates, get electrocuted and the bodies stick to the plates.

The dirt it captures is very fine not the fluffy clods of dust you get on ordinary filters so it's probably not capturing as much. It doesn't do much for cigarrette smoke but lighting candles will cause a film of wax to adhere to the collection plates. The wax can destroy the plates so it's recommended to not run the filter while burning candles.

I have three units and am just barely satisfied with them but since a regular air filter will cause me sleep problems I guess they are better then nothing. Until someone invents better silent air filter, I'm sticking with these.

The machine was great while it worked. Just after the warranty expired my "Ionic Breeze" completely stopped working. For [the price] I expected quality!

I acquired three of these units between 1999 and 2001 from my American Express Rewards program. My significant other read all of the ozone concerns, so we bought the $10 ozone guard a year ago. The guards seem to be dishwasher safe. Cleaning the main units is still a pain. The collection grids can be removed and I carefully run water over them directly. However, do not reinsert them into the main unit until the grids are completely dry!! I still haven't found a great way to clean the main unit. One time I tried using a Q-Tip soaking in rubbing alcohol to get in between the slits. Then I realized that life was too short for such work. Now, I use a feather duster and force it through the slits. It's still not easy, but if I do it every month, then the unit seems to stay and look somewhat clean.

I did have two units stop working. In one instance, it was my fault. However, I was able to take both back to my local Sharper Image store and had new units instantly. The clerks never checked my receipt nor asked any questions. I have also heard that clerks will sell you an extended warranty for $20 and then replace your broken unit on the spot. This seems a good avenue for customer service. So if you have problems, try this approach before calling the company on the phone.

Finally, I will comment that this unit worked spectacularly when we lived next door to a smoker. The smoke would seep through the walls (no kidding) and we had no solution that worked. Finally, I put the unit near the wall and left it on "Hi" all the time. Within a few hours the lingering smoke smell left forever. We also left a few months later. These units have made SEVEN moves! I am a loyal user.

It really does work, though it's not a miracle air cleaner or anything. Over time, it picks up noticeable amount of dust and you should be able to notice about less dust collecting on your items. However, it costs way too much and would be a marginal recommend, even at half the price. If you have major problems with dust, especially in a computer room, and you have a nagging cough for whatever reason .. give this a try and use it for many months, and you should be able to look back and say .. "yeah, it did help".

My wife and I really enjoy our Ionic Breeze 3.0 air purifier. We own a fairly small condominium downtown in D.C. and this unit seems to clean the air in the entire house. The air that flows from the unit smells really good, like the air after a really good thunderstorm, very clean and fresh, and ionically charged.

We used the unit in our bedroom initially but the green light is a little bright for when you are trying to get to sleep. It is very quiet *until* it needs cleaning, then it sounds like a blank LP/EP vinyl record - it hisses and pops!
Cleaning was easy.

The only thing that I wish was different: you cannot burn candles at the same time you are using this unit. It will ruin your Ionic Breeze - the particles of parrafin or beeswax will melt onto the electrically-charged plates and you won't be able to use it anymore.

Other than that, we like it.

I agree that longevity is not in the design specs. I bought one and it worked for less than a year, got a replacement, and that one died even sooner. Didn't bother to replace that one. I also had two of the mini ones that plug into the outlet and have a light. One still working after quite a few years, the other, dead. 1 out of 4 is not very good. One note - it does seem to take odors out of the air. I have 4 cats and I think it helped somewhat, but not at the price they want for them. I would give $30 for a floor model if I thought it would keep running. As for cleaning the air - I don't think so.

I love this thing! I couldn't imagine life without it. I originally bought it over a year ago, because I was pregnant and already having children with allergies wanted to do what ever I could to eliminate these issues. First, let me say.....I wondered if it was working at all. The blue light was on, but no sound at all. After a week it started "hissing", thus telling me to clean it. I could not believe the stuff this thing sucked out of the air. I was totally embarassed! I never want to go without it again. There is one complaint that I have, the little blue light. It is so bright it actually lights up the living room, so if you need total darkness to sleep don't use this in the bedroom. I would definately recommend this to anyone, and have recommended it to my mother!

I have had two Ionic Breezes to help with family allergies for over a year and for the most part they work great. One stopped working and they sent a new one without my having to send back the broken one first! My complaint is that I have to clean the one in the living room at least weekly, rather than monthly as the company says. This may be because I live in New York City and keep the windows open, bringing in lots of dust. And I have a cat. Clean up is pretty simple and fast. The machine is indeed silent, it removes lots of dust and is inconspicuous. I think it improves the air quality quite a bit, of course, more when the windows are closed. It has helped a LOT with our allergies.