I've been researching air purifiers for awhile and finally decided to try this one out. I had been waiting on Amazon's price to become a little more competitive, but they haven't budged in months so I finally gave up and unfortunately had to buy elsewhere; I prefer to buy from Amazon Prime though because quick, safe, and easy :). This little beauty is well worth the asking price though and had I known how much I would love it I probably would hit the "add to cart" button long ago.
The Winix 5300 on its lowest setting seems to be moving just as much air as my old air purifier (Bionaire) did on it's highest setting and the Winix does it whisper quiet (to be fair the Bionaire does have a lower CADR rating).
The Winix is quite loud on it's highest TURBO setting, however this is unavoidable as it is moving MASSIVE amounts of air (a VERY ADMIRABLE QUALITY in an air purifier). The Turbo setting is really only intended to be used when you are not in the room anyway, or if you are trying to do a "quick clean" of the air (like after an event such as cooking, dusting, etc.) The "auto" feature seems to work well, it increases and decreases the fan speed based on what it senses the air quality is in the room. I find myself just leaving it on "auto" most of the time.
The plasma feature is nice, you can hear a very quiet clicking sound while it is on if the fan is on the lowest setting (not the fan clicking but the plasma functioning), on higher fan settings it is undetectable. The plasma feature can be turned off and on with the press of a button on the remote. Another nice feature is the built-in remote control storage on the top of the unit.
The HEPA filter fits very snuggly in the unit, and is covered by a carbon filter. The unit also comes with 3 additional carbon filters which are replaced more frequently as they are mostly responsible for capturing odors, hair, dust etc. The filter was very easy to install and everything seems to be built quite sturdy no rattling or shaking parts (another problem I had with my old air purifier).
So far I am very impressed with this unit, I'll see how it holds up over the next year, and update my review accordingly. As for now I'm loving the Fresh Air!!!