And you thought the Ionic Breeze worked. Look for the receipt.
Written: Jan 10 '02 (Updated Jan 15 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Effectiveness: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Very quite and not an eye sore.
Cons: DOES NOT WORK per Consumer Reports Feb. 2002 issue!
The Bottom Line: Hope you saved the box and receipt for you need to return the Ionic Breeze and stop watching the Sharper Image commercial.
|
|
|
| bear_theo's Full Review: Sharper Image Ionic Breeze Quadra SI637 Air Purifi... |
I have updated my review.
First of all, http://www.epinions.com/about/ states "Epinions helps people make informed buying decisions. It is the source for unbiased advice, personalized recommendations, and comparative shopping." Therefore, Epinions is just not a place where people provide their description of the product and their personal experience. But also a resource where people can obtain information to make an "informed buying decisions". And by me informing people of what the Consumer Reports Feb. 2002 article "Portable room air cleaners" mentioned about the Sharper Image SI637 Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier provides information to help them make an "informed buying decision" and do "comparative shopping".
I did buy the Sharper Image SI637 Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier in November 2001, because I have asthma and allergies. Unable to notice any differences and upon reading the Consumer Reports article, I returned the purifier on January 12, 2002 and provided Sharper Image a copy of the Consumer Reports article.
The bottom line is that my review evaluation of the Sharper Image SI637 Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier is by observation only. Unless others specifically stated in their reveiw that they have done controlled lab tests, they too are just evaluating the purifier by observation. Where as Consumer Reports actually performs tests on the product. Hence, the reason why I subscribe to Consumer Reports and share that information in my review.
For those people that are truely only looking at my review to consider wether or not they should buy the Ionic Breeze Quadra, I will save you the time from reading a long evaluation. I Very Highly DO NOT recommend that you buy the Sharper Image SI637 Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier. Check out the "Portable room air cleaners" article in the Consumer Reports Feb. 2002 issue, which states:
1. The other electronic precipitator model, the Sharper Image SI637 Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier, proved unimpressive in our tests. Ads for this unit tout its silence and miserly power consumption. Both are attributable to its lack of a fan. But so is its disappointing performance; we found almost no measurable reduction in airborne particles.
2. One works, one doesn't. The Friedrich C-90A and Sharper Image SI637 Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier both use similar technology. But the Friedrich performed well, while the Sharper Image removed very few particles.
For those people that are truely only looking at my review to evaluate the review without any consideration of buying the purifier here is my "personal experience/observation" of the purifier.
As stated above I bought the Sharper Image SI637 Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifie in November 2001 and returned the purifier on January 12, 2002. I placed the purifier in my bedroom, which is about 12' x 14', along side my bed. Per the SI637 Instructions, the purifier needs to be placed at least 6 inches from the wall, if placed near a wall. Upon plugging the purifier in I set the setting to high and did not hear anything, which made me wonder if the purifier was on. By placing my hand inches directly in front of the purifier, I could feel air movement. Notice I did not use the word "working" for I can not really tell if the purifier really works unless I do control lab tests. At high, medium, and low (the three possible settings) the purifier is very quite, but that is probably because the purifier does not use a fan. During the time I had the purifier, November and January, I kept the purifier on high all the time except during the time I cleaned the purifier's array. The array is the single piece that one needs to pull out of the purifier to clean just about every two weeks (depending on usage and placement of the purifier). According to SI637 Instructions, which came with the purifier, the purifier has an indication light to notify you that the array needs to be cleaned or the purifier will make a noticeable noise. Since I cleaned the purifier every two weeks the indication light did not come on nor did the purifier make any noise.
The SI637 Instructions contradictes itself about how long the array needs to dry before replacing the array in the purifier. On page one, under Important Information - Please Read, paragraph one states, " ... If water is used to clean the array, please allow at least 24 hours for the collection array to dry." Yet SI637 Instructions page four, under Standard Maintenance, under second picture states, "The collection bars may also be washed under running water, but must be allowed to dry for at least 12 hours before returning them the to the unit."
To clean the array you can use a damp sponge or paper towel to wipe the collection bars of the array. Or as the instructions stated "the collection bars may also be washed under running water". The array, which has three collection bars, could have been built better to make cleaning easier by allowing the collection bars to be removed from the array. There is about less than half an inch between the bars. Therefore cleaning the collection bars, at least for me, where they connect to the array was difficult.
Note, per the SI637 insturctions every little crevice of the array needs to be free of water before replacing back into the purifier.
I also found the following two contradictions on the Sharper Image website (http://www.sharperimage.com/ us/ en/ catalog/ productview.jhtml; $sessionid $GLLMZALAFA5PLQFIA2RSIIQ? pid=175300&pcatid=1&catid=101) (without the spaces, hand to place spaces do to Epinion error) for the Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier, click on "See More Pictures and Information" button and see "Frequently Asked Question":
1. Frequently Asked Question: "Why do I want to run my air cleaner continuously" states:
To be truly effective, ALL air cleaners should be run continuously. Our own tests, and those of others, confirm that indoor air pollution rapidly returns to pretreatment levels when an air filter is turned off. Air cleaners with noisy fans and big 250-watt power demands are rarely run continuously, for obvious reasons. In contrast, the Ionic Breeze Quadra is DESIGNED to run 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
If "the Ionic Breeze Quadra is DESIGNED to run 24 hours a day, every day of the year" then how does one clean the Ionic Breeze Quadra without turning off the unit and waiting at least 12 or 24 hours for the collection array to dry? Hence, the Ionic Breeze Quadra is DESIGNED to run 24 hours a day, every day of the year, except when drying the array for at least 12 or 24 hours.
2. Frequently Asked Question: "How often is cleaning required" states:
(NOTE: Because smoke and other airborne residue from burning wood, wax logs or from candles is so substantial, we recommend wiping the blades clean as soon as possible after enjoying a fire or candlelight.)
Yet:
1. SI637 Instructions page one, under Important Information - Please Read, paragraph two states, "This unit should not be located near a fireplace, whether or not the fireplace is actually being used. Dust and soot from the chimney could be rapidly drawn through the Ionic Breeze and deposited on or around the unit."
2. SI637 Instructions page one, under Important Information - Please Read, paragraph three states, "In rooms where candles or oil lamps are frequently burned, the smoke from these products will tend to stick to the outside of the Ionic Breeze. Avoid placing the Ionic Breeze in a location where it will be subjected to smoke from oil lamps or candles."
I do not recall if the paid TV commercial mentions anything about the use of candles and fireplaces with the purifier.
After using the purifier for about 2 months, November 2001 through January 12, 2002, I was unable to notice any differences. I received my Consumer Reports Feb. 2002 issue in January 2002 and upon reading the Consumer Reports article, I returned the purifier on January 12, 2002.
As stated above, the bottom line is that my review evaluation of the Sharper Image SI637 Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier is by observation only. I Very Highly DO NOT recommend that you buy the Sharper Image SI637 Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 375
Battery Life: N/A
Noise Level: Almost noiseless
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
bear_theo
|
|
Location: CA
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.