Winix 5500-2 Air Purifier with True HEPA, PlasmaWave and Odor Reducing Washable AOC Carbon Filter
We live in a wood house. Zero carpet. 7 humans, 3 dogs, 3 cats. There are no words to describe the amount of hair and dust that I battle on a daily basis. I pretty much gave up. Started researching air purifiers..... Lots to learn about them. Anyway, settled on 1 and got it. It's been 4 days and we are simply amazed. Baby hasn't had a runny nose in 2 days and he has had a runny nose since he was born. He has eczema, which is pretty much controlled by the diapers and wipes we use, but he still has a small rash that never completely goes away. It's gone. My nose hasn't been an issue in 2 days and None of us have been coughing. We all coughed, all the time.
The dust.
It's gone too. Dusting twice a day still didn't help before. It's simply not there. In addition to a wood house, one end of the house is all glass....so even after I dusted there was always "glitter in the air" as my toddler called it. It's gone as well.
It might be all in my head, but I swear my mood and energy are better too. (Could be because the house appears clean, or it could be in my head...either way...I consider this a win!) If you have any issues with this kind of stuff, look into getting one. I wish I would have long before this! I posted this on social media and 5 of my friends have ordered it now too. We are getting a second one for the lower level of the house. We have an open floor plan and it covers a very large area. Homes with out open floor plans may want a second to rotate in sleeping areas.
***To date 6 friends/family ordered and love theirs too! Great Buy!!
**UPDATE** It's February 2019. We have 3 of them now...
I've been looking for a new air purifier for almost a year now, doing research here and there trying to find a unit that meets all the requirments I'm looking for. I need a unit that's for a larger room, has an auto feature, has good priced replacement filters, and looks good to match my home decor. A recent 80,000 acre fire hastened my research due to the thick blanket of smoke that blanket the area (and still is) every morning. With all things considered, the Winix 5500-2 met all my requiements.
The unit arrived promptly and unpackaging was an ease. I literally had it set up ans running in about 5 minutes. The body is a hard, matte black plastic that feels sturdy and durable. The front panel is easy to remove, and secures to the unit via a clever magnetic clasp that is secure, yet simple to remove to access your prefilter for bi weekly cleaning and hepa/carbon filter replacement. There are 3 filters in total, and they fit snugly inside the filter chamber, amd ate secured in with the prefilter that snaps firmly into place.
The control panel at the top is intuituve and user friendly. The buttons are clearly marked and visual ques explain what each button does taking out any guesswork as to what they do. A stylish indicator light bar runs along the bottom of the control panel indicating the level of air cleanliness with a 3 color scheme...green for clean, orange for okay, and red for bad. You can manually run the machine on 4 fan settings, or choose auto mode and let the machine choose the settings based on the data colected from the sensor. This means hands off operation. There's a night mode that will set the fan to its lowest setting to cut down on noise, and also dim all lights on the panel. This night mode will set automatically if you have the auto mode set on the unit, a light sensor will detect (or not detect) any light in the room and go into night mode. A filter change indicator light also is on the control panel. According to what i've researched, the hepa filter should last approx 1 year. It also comes with a remote control with a battery preinstalled. I dont plan on using it, but if that's your thing, it's there.
This is the quietest air purifier I've ever owned. On level 1, it's almost undetectable, and even on level 4 turbo mode, it's no louder than a standing floor fan on high. This was a very pleasant surprise.
It cleans the air well. I'm currently using it in my 350 sq ft bedroom. I don't have the equipment to test it, but per their website I should be getting at least 4 air changes per hour which is the amount of air exchanges you need for allergies and serious air purification. I've had no smoke smell AT ALL in the bedroom when I run this with the door shut to the rest of the home and it was initially startling to walk from the bedroom into the rest of the home after the first night of using it.
This unit has more than exceeded my expecations ans meets all the things I was looking for in an air purifier. I plan on purchasing 2 more of these when money permits for my combined kitchen/dining/living room area that totals 700 sq ft. I can place these at opposite sides of the area and get more than ample coverage. I would highly reccomend this unit. For the price and the feature list, this just can't be beat. The cost is low, the replacement filters don't cost an arm and a leg, it covers a large area, and you get a lot of features.
After carefully reviewing several models I chose this one and I've been very happy with it. I love the auto mode and how quiet it is, even when the fan is 3/4 cranked. The backlighting is very nice and I'm happy with the styling. It blends in well. I would say it's more quiet than my fridge, PC, or laptop. Hasn't been a bother at all.
Being of seemingly simple design, I did worry that it wouldn't detect and couldn't filter small particles. Boy was I wrong! My teenage daughter and I were sitting on the couch when she suddenly let loose with a fart. Maybe 1, 2, seconds later the purifier went from blue to orange. We about died laughing! It filtered that fart for about 10 minutes or so, then went back to blue. An hour later she let another go and this time it went quickly from blue to orange to red. We completely lost it! Hilarious. So if you're wondering whether this thing really does pick up and filter what is in your air, trust me. It does!
Side note, it's a little scary thinking of what all goes into your lungs in your own home 😉
Surprisingly quiet and definitely helps clear up the room! I bought this because my wife has been struggling lately with allergies. She had difficulty sleeping through the night and she was limited on what allergy meds she could take because she is pregnant. We placed this in our room (just under 300 sq ft) and let it go to town on full blast about an hour before we were ready for bed... closed the room door and went back downstairs to enjoy whatever was on TV.
sidenote: i'm the "suck it up", "it's mental", "you'll live" type of guy
Coming back upstairs and opening the door, there was a definite difference in air quality, but being the guy I am, figured it was a mental thing and still had my doubts. We set the purifier on auto and went to sleep (btw - it has a light sensor so when it's dark, it'll turn off the display led lights on the purifier... doesn't seem like much but a very nice and thoughtful touch). 7 hours later... the wife and I woke up confused. We felt renewed and neither of us woke up throughout the night. My nostrils were clear of large pots of gold and she said she slept through the entire night. It worked!
Other quick pros:
- after we cook something, we leave it near the kitchen and it clears up almost all of the smell in a matter of minutes
- super easy to assemble and clean
- simple layout
Semi-pro:
- not as large as it looks in pictures... so it's much more portable than I thought
Wants:
- another one that covers a little bit larger of a surface area, so i can leave it in the living room
I'm apparently the only person writing a review for this that's not a Vine free product review, but it looks like they have the product pretty well summed up!
Compared to other air purifiers I've used, this one easily takes the cake.
* The filters are stupidly easy to swap in and out (Initial setup was around two minutes to peel off plastic protective films and put everything together).
* The unit is nearly noiseless. On low or Sleep mode, I couldn't hear a fan at all over the ambient noise of a home. I've caught myself on multiple occasions actually waving my hand over the unit to double check that it's still running - it's that quiet. I've spent four nights now with it on Sleep mode inches from my head and it's so quiet I'll hit it getting out of bed.
* Medium has about the same noise as a normal desktop computer - it's something you can barely detect, but it's a soft whirr that quickly blends into the background.
* High picks up the noise to a detectable level, but if it's behind a corner or otherwise not in direct earshot, quickly blends into the background.
* Turbo, as called out in other reviews, is fairly noisy, but I'd put it at about the level of a standard HEPA unit on Medium. You'll easily hear it, even in a different room. I keep Turbo mode to setting in a room when I leave the house or will have the doors closed.
* The remote control is nifty, but a bit unreliable. I've found I have to hit buttons several times before it "wakes up" and starts controlling the unit.
* There's a great little carrying handle on the top of the unit, and with the sleek boxy shape and low weight it's very easy to move from room to room
* After a spring cleaning, the shower had a very pungent chemical odor from cleaning agents. Setting this down on Turbo and shutting the door to the bathroom for a few hours did an excellent job of clearing that up.
Downsides:
* The cord is fairly short - I'd say about 5ft? This could be considered a pro (less to manage), but if you plan to have it anywhere but near an outlet you'll need to run an extension.
* Remote is a bit finnicky and doesn't always work, you may have to mash it a bit before it starts sending commands
* Sleep mode only lets you run it on Low, so if you don't mind the slight extra noise of Medium (or prefer it as a white noise generator), you'll have to put up with the bright lights or find a way to cover them up.
Things I can't comment on:
* Filtration quality: It certainly -seems- to do a good job, but I don't have a suite of tests to run, and I'm loathe to generate a bunch of noxious vapors to see how well it handles them. My last HEPA unit still smells like bacon from having to use it as an impromptu range hood, and I'm not ruining a second one.
* "Plasmawave" : I couldn't say what, if anything this does. I don't smell any ozone or other negative signs, and don't notice any difference in having it on or off. Perhaps it's more apparent in a situation where you have strong vapors, but I've only had it running in an otherwise relatively clean house.
Overall:
I'd say this is a very solid air filtration unit. My primary use-case is to tamp down everyday odors and pet hair/dander. The charcoal filter does a good job on odors, and the loose mesh pre-filter is FANTASTIC for pet hair. Easy to clean and replace, and prevents hair and dust bunnies from clogging up an expensive charcoal or HEPA filter.
If it wasn't so expensive, I'd keep one in every room of the house on Low or Medium. As it is, I've settled for carrying it to whichever area is most needed. The handle and light weight makes this pretty quick to do.
Feature Product
- True-HEPA filter captures 99.97% of airborne pollutants; dust mites, pet dander, pollen and other allergens as small as 0.3 microns.
- Washable AOC Carbon Filter, made from activated carbon granulars for removal of household odors.
- PlasmaWave acts as a permanent filter to safely break down odor, allergens, chemical vapors and other pollutants - with no harmful ozone.
- Smart Sensors gauge the air and our Auto Mode adjusts the fan to filter the air as needed; with a sleep mode for silent night-time operation.
- CADR rated for 360 sq. ft. room size. Suitable for medium and large rooms; kids bedrooms, family rooms and kitchens.
Description
The WINIX 5500-2 Air Cleaner replaces the wildly popular 5500 model; designed for any home environment and ready to capture dust, pollen, pet dander, smoke, mold spores, VOC (volatile organic compounds) and household odors. With a CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) rating from AHAM (Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers), this unit is best used for medium to large living spaces, kitchens, or bedrooms. The WINIX 5500-2 uses a 3-stage air cleaning system, featuring a Washable AOC (Advanced Odor Control) Carbon Filter, 99.97 % efficient True HEPA filter and WINIX PlasmaWave technology. Features: 360 sq. ft. room size, VOC Smart Sensor, air quality visual indicator, light sensor, auto & sleep mode, remote control, CUL Listed, AHAM CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate) certified, CARB certified (California Air Resources Board), Energy Star certified. Wattage - 70 W
As a Safety Engineer, I know how important it is to keep the air in your house clean. We breath 20.9% oxygen, 78% nitrogen and the rest is just "other stuff." That being said, a HEPA filter is the only way to go when trying to mitigate the junk we breath. This not only has a HEPA filter, but also a carbon filter, and even a third filter/screen just to keep the other filters clean from debris; meaning if something nasty is in your air, this will take it out.
Once the air flows through the filters, it is redistributed cleanly through the vent on top of the unit. What I really like is that you can adjust the fan speed to four different speeds (low to high), and you even have a sleep mode to shut off the lighting and drops the db lv to almost nothing. Even with the fan on high, I don't find the noise all that loud.
The coolest feature about this purifier is the three light system. If you put this unit on automatic mode, the fans will adjust themselves automatically depending on how dirty the air is. For example, if I vacuume near this, the red light comes on indicating that there is a high concentration particulates in the air, so it will automatically turn the unit on high, but if there is a low about, it turns orange. The fan will lower to a medium rate, but if the air quality is good, it stays blue. This also happens when the dog walks and/or stirs in front of it.
The plasma wave technology can also be turned off with a push of a button. I was first concerned of ozone, but what this unit puts off is far below what the EPA recommends for this type of unit. It also comes with a remote which is very handy, and not to mention, it really looks nice.
If you have allergies like me, smoke or just feel that your air quality is not at its best, I 100% recommend this product.
The reason for purchasing this air purifier was for my mother. She has severe allergies and to top it off, we just rescued a cat. I am willing to try anything to reduce my mother's allergy.
I first went to Costco looking for the Dyson Pure Cool air purifier. It was no longer being sold but they did have the Winix C535. I purchased that as I was desperate. Took it home, pulled it out of the box and removed the plastic covering the filters. That's it. Turned it on and it cycled through the air quality colors for about a minute and it started cleaning.
My wife noticed that the air quality had improved a couple hours after I set up the unit. She said it seemed clearer and cleaner. I also noticed that my mother's allergic reactions had reduced but not completely.
I then purchased the 5500-2 from Amazon. It's the exact same thing as the C535 from what I see but may have a stronger fan (based on sound) and one of the filters is washable. Other than that, both have remotes and the onboard controls are the same. The front cover is a different design. I placed the 5500-2 in the living room and the C535 by my patio door.
We currently have many fires going on around here 20 miles away. The smoke can be smelt while walking outside. When my mother opened the patio door, both purifiers turned red. It was able to detect the change in air quality.
That being said, from what I have read, it is best to keep doors and windows closed when using purifiers in general so that they don't have to work extra hard at filtering the outside air along with the air indoors.
My mother still has her allergies but I feel that the air is better than before and that's what matters to me. I also combine the purifiers with the Dyson Animal 2. I vacuum at least once a day but try to do it twice. We have carpet and dander and dust love to accumulate there.
I give this product 5 stars for improving our air and for the ease of usability. It's a light weight unit that can be moved with ease.
UPDATE 2/25/19
Still running strong. Run it all day every day at full speed. Haven't cleaned or changed filters yet. Testing the efficiency of the purifier with a Temtop LKC-10005+ and it still makes the air a lot cleaner.
The manual states to clean the pre filter every 14 days for the C535 so I have adopted this for the 5500 as well (verify yourself). Picture attached showing what 3-4 months worth of not cleaning looks like.
Seems to help with my allergies. I use the timer feature and shut my door after I leave the house. I'll let this run for 4 hours while I'm away to clear up any stuff floating in the air. This isn't designed to pick up pet hair or heavy dust. This really is just going to help cut down on smaller items like pollen floating in the air. Don't think that by leaving this running all the time you'll have a dust free environment in your room... you definitely won't. Level 4 (high) is a tad noisy but seems to really move the air. Levels 1-2 seem almost pointless to ever turn on. I usually leave mine on 3 so it's not overly noisy.
Compared to Winix U300 Signature, this is more affordable, it is also quieter with more practical user panel, it has a more convenient magnetically-held front cover, and its PlasmaWave generator is completely silent whereas U300 has a bit of constant ticking noise going on. The only benefit the U300 has is it has a bit nicer glossy outside (but curved body wastes space and the plastic feels kinda less sturdy) and 99.99% HEPA filter, whereas the Winix 5500-2 has a quite utilitarian plastic body that optimizes space usage and comes with a 99.97% HEPA filter.
The Winix 5500-2 looks like it was engineered and designed with function as most important. No space is wasted since body shapes around the air filters without any design accents. Airflow is optimized by taking air in not just from the sides but also the front. The fan is even quieter by a good amount and seems to be able to blow more air at high setting than the more expensive U300, and most importantly, the sound signature is VERY PLEASANT at fan speeds 1-3 (4 is quite loud). It also comes with remote like their Signature series.
Fan speed 1: Silent from 1-2 feet for a 30 year old, quite limited airflow, feels like ~10% of airflow max, I think only useful for super small rooms or if you just need this kind of almost complete silence to sleep.
Fan speed 2: Silent from 15 feet away, very very quiet and relaxing whoosh from 5 feet away, feels like 25% of airflow max, I could sleep just fine with this 3-4 feet away from me.
Fan speed 3: Very pleasant hum from 5 feet away, would keep me awake from 2-4 feet, feels like 35-40% of airflow max, could sleep just fine with this 5-6 feet away from me. This is definitely the sweet spot for 24/7 use unless you got a very large room. To reduce noise while sleeping, you can position it towards your feet while laying down (vs. positioning to left or right of you while laying down), so less noise directly reaches your ears for the same given distance.
Fan speed 4: Annoying volume 1-6 feet away but still good sound signature, 7-12 feet away or so I could probably phase it out of my mind for the entire day for a long time, but would not be able to sleep continuously if this was in my bedroom. The amount of airflow is really great considering how little noise is made at fan speed 4, I believe the fan motor may be almost totally silent, and 90-95% of what you hear is just the sound of air moving with very little obstructions. A lot of engineering goes into improving air purifier acoustics up to this point, we won't see significantly better noise/airflow ratio in tower style air purifiers for a very long time.
My only real complaint is there could be 2-3 more fan speeds in between fan speeds 3 and 4, and to be honest, I don't think it's right for them to call fan speed 4 "Turbo", it is like a polite turbo sound a 30 year old could actually put up with all day long if positioned ~10+ feet away.
Tip: Almost all HEPA air purifiers under $500 don't attempt to have zero air leakage. If you don't want any particles bypassing the filter, you have to do something like use gaffer tape (designed to be removed without leaving permanent residue) to tape up the gap between the perimeter of the carbon air filter and the face of the air purifier after you remove the front cover and remove the pre-filter. This is very easy to do since the face of the air purifier is along the same plane of the carbon air filter, just takes four long pieces of gaffer tape and you eliminate, or almost eliminate, particles going around the HEPA filter. If you do this and like to run at fan speed 4 continuously, make sure to clean the pre-filter once every few weeks or as needed and change the HEPA filters annually or as needed, otherwise you may overwork the fan motor and shorten its lifespan. Don't worry about that issue with fan speeds 1-3, these are significantly slower fan speeds that can deal with any amount of clogged filters and lack of filter bypassing.
I’ve had this for about a week. It works really well. It’s really quiet on the first 3 speeds and gets really loud on the fourth speed. I feel like it should have 5 speeds and have a speed between high and turbo because it’s a huge difference. We have one cat and a dog and I’m already noticing the pre filter has tons of hair on it. The auto setting works really well too, you can open nail polish near it and it instantly recognizes it and changes speeds. I keep it in turbo or on high at all times though and don’t even bother with the plasmawave which is just an ionizer. Another thing is the air doesn’t exhaust perfectly up, it has an angle, so if your facing the front of it the air aims up and to the right (I’ll include a picture with illustration) so I had to put the purifier somewhere other than where I wanted to put it so it’s not blowing air into the hallway when we want the clean air in the living room. Even with the few negative things I’ve noticed it’s still the best air purifier I’ve ever owned, and for the price you can’t do much better. It moves a lot of air, especially on the turbo setting. I’ve bought the 5300-2 to use in my bedroom, because I don’t need the remote and I don’t mind having to change out the charcoal pre filters instead of cleaning the one in the 5500-2. Either way both are a good value.
