bigskeptic's Full Review: Blueair 501 Air Purifier
Two years ago, I decided to research room air purifiers to put in our sub-basement. This is our laundry room, where our dogs ate and also where my husband worked out. Because there’s no heating down there, the door is mostly kept shut. So there’s no air circulation. The air was pretty stale down there.
One important thing I learned in my reading is that many of the new “Ionic” systems, like you see on TV, can actually create harmful OZONE! In addition, although ads claim the metal collection grids are easy to clean, the must be completely dry before replacing into the unit. With my allergies and dogs, I’m sure we’d be cleaning something like this constantly.
The bottom line for us was that we didn’t have thousands of dollars to spend either. A HEPA filtration or hybrid system was the best option. But, I also did not want to buy and change pricey HEPA filters every month. Also any filtration system needs to be able to deal with pet hair.
Blueair 501 Air Purifier
I first learned about the Blueair 501 Air Purifier through Epinions. After following up with further research, I decided this HEPA-hybrid would be best for us. The best feature about the Blueair 501 Air Purifier is the ion brushes that negatively charge particles to maximize the effectiveness of the three HEPA filters. No harmful ozone is generated.
The Blueair 501 Air Purifier has four fan speeds: “HEPA Silent”, low, medium and high. The maximum, and noisiest speed, is only recommended for a room’s initial cleaning (1-2 hrs) or very polluted air. At all other times I keep my Blueair on the next-lowest speed. There is some fan noise. But we find this minimal. It’s more like a “white noise” in my opinion.
When we first used the Blueair in our sub-basement, we immediately noticed a difference after the initial 2-hour high-speed cleaning. The air purifier definitely made the air down there fresher. And we did not detect any masking odors many other “air purifiers” put out.
The Blueair 501 worked so well, that during hayfever season I decided to move it up to our bedroom. It’s been there, helping reduce my allergies ever since.
Maintaining the Blueair 501 Air Purifier
I find the Blueair 501 easy to maintain. Whenever I vacuum our room, I make sure to vacuum the exterior grills. Mostly, again, to keep the holes free of Golden Retriever hair.
The three filters only need to be replaced every six months. A pack of three Particle Filters can run about $75 online including the shipping. That is $25 per filter. But if you break it down monthly, it’s under $5 a month per filter. In my book this is a good value considering how well these filters work.
Replacing the filters are easy. Simply lift off the top grill. Then slide out each old filter. After vacuuming the inside grill, slide in the new. Blueair is also smart in that they mark on the filters which sides need to face IN towards the fan and OUT towards the exterior. No confusion!
Blueair also offers “Smokestop” filters. These use “enhanced active carbon to trap cigarette and cigar smoke and other organic pollutants such as household paint fumes. A set of three I believe runs about $10 more than the standard Particle Filter Kit. Since no one in our house smoke, we’ve never used these.
Final Words
I have had the Blueair 501 for a couple years now and have had absolutely no problems. Blueair also offers a subscription plan for filters, which I haven’t used. When we purchased, our Blueair came with a 10-year limited warranty. This covers just about everything other than the HEPA filters.
The Blueair 501 runs about $500. This includes a set of filters. Although it was a lot of money to spend initially, it was well spent. Not only do I have less allergy problems, we’ve surely gotten that money back from the reduction in doctor’s visits and medications.
Before using the air purifier in our room, I had been waking up in the middle of the night with painfully swollen, watering eyes. This stopped the first night of 501 use and hasn’t come back since. I definitely sleep better with the Blueair 501 Air Purifier.
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Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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