Cheap Air Purifiers

Great Air Purifier
Four years ago, I suddenly developed allergies. The allergies caused severe breathing problems (I couldn't draw a full deep breath without effort) and because of the allergies, I also has chest pains whenever the breathing issues started. While I did start daily medication, I found that the symptoms frequently overrode the medicine. My allergist recommended an air purifier for my home. A friend recommended Oreck, and I went to a local Oreck store for my purchase. I ended up buying the silver tabletop model and a tower floor model. I have a two story home, and I use the tower model on the first floor (1800 sq ft) and the table top on the second floor (800 sq ft). Both units covers their respective areas without problems.

The units come fully assembled and ready to use. Just take them home and plug them in. I purchased them one evening, and by the next morning, I could tell a huge difference in my breathing within my house. The models are quiet and unobtrusive. You can hear them running, but its background noise like your refrigerator or air conditioner would make. They're sleekly designed and don't stand out, however, the table top models are large, so they do take up some space. I use my tabletop model in my bedroom, and it sits on top of my dresser and pretty much covers the whole top.

Both units contain what Oreck calls a Truman cell, and this cell is what cleans the air. The air passes first through a screen, then through the Truman cell, and finally, through a carbon filter. All three of these parts remove easily for cleaning. The Truman Cell should be cleaned with Oreck Cell cleaner. One can of cleaner will set you back , but you can clean your cell five times with it (I spray one end of the cell, let it set for five minutes and rinse, then turn it over and spray the other side and let it set for five minutes, then rinse the whole cell thoroughly, then I set the units in front of a table top fan to dry). The units comes with a red indicator light that shows when the unit needs to be cleaned. The unit usually averages needing cleaning every two to three weeks.

The units are so easy to clean and disassemble. The Truman cell lifts out, the carbon filter lifts out and the screen lifts out. All of that filters the air before it blows through the motor and out the top of the unit through the adjustable fins (tabletop model). If you properly clean the Truman cell and the screen, you can blow out the carbon filter with canned air, and the unit will run perfectly until it needs cleaning again. I also take a damp paper towel and wipe the unit down as it does get covered in fine particles (almost like a powder). Once a year, I take both units to the Oreck store for cleaning. My tower model came with five free yearly cleanings, and my tabletop came with none. Last time I checked, the cleanings cost , and they replace the carbon filter when they clean the unit.

Oreck guarantees all their units for years (different periods of time for different units), but anything that goes wrong they will fix without question during that period. I've had both of my units for four years now. The tabletop model has been totally problem free. The tower has had the Truman cell replaced once and has one wire on the Truman cell replaced...both times without charge or fuss.

These units saved me, literally. Once the purifiers started running, all, and I mean ALL of the symptoms left. Yeah, the machines have to be kept clean, and the cell cleaner costs a lot, but being able to easily breath in my own home is worth it.

Just bought this unit yesterday...
I purchased my Oreck XL Pro tabletop air purifier from Costco for less than [...]. So far, so good, but we have only had it running for about 24 hours. Within about 30 minutes of starting it up though, I could feel a difference in the air of our bedroom. We have 4 small dogs and live in a very small house and now that our 3 year old daughter is in preschool full-time, we were looking for something to help clean out the air indoors. This way, she's not being inundated with pollutants at both school and home. When I say "help clean," I mean exactly that. I'm not naive enough to expect miracles from this purifier, or any purifier for that matter.

Now, I really like the fact that the Truman cell is able to be cleaned with regular soap and water. One review I watched on YouTube was complaining about how the top is too difficult to remove. Seriously though? I have not had that experience at all. In fact, the unit is incredibly easy to COMPLETELY disassemble, not that I would recommend doing so. In reality though, that reviewers inability to perform a simple task like opening the lid leads me to believe his negative perception of this product is more indicative of his ineptness (is that even a word?) and less of the product's actual performance. Bottom line is that, if you have unrealistic expectations about a product in the first place, it's unlikely that you will be satisfied with its performance.

Another common negative comment was regarding the drying time of the Truman cell after cleaning. Patience is a virtue, and if you're like me and don't have that specific virtue, find a way around it or close your trap and deal with it. My work around for this annoyance will be compressed air. Hopefully, it will work as planned and I will be able to dry the cell more quickly.

Well, I will be sure to come back and update this review once we have the unit longer and I can make a more informed assessment. I have read online that many users need to clean it a couple times a week (or even daily in some cases), so we'll see what happens with that. Although, I have to admit that my first instinct when hearing that is, how dirty are those homes anyway? LOL. Regardless, so far my review for this unit is as follows:

PROS -- Very attractive style, compact, affordable (remember, I got mine at Costco for less than half the price of what most paid), convenient settings, the OXYGENATOR feature.

CONS -- Loud when on high (but that's not really a surprise to me, I pretty much expected that), you have to remember to switch the oxygenator back on whenever you change the settings), independently-unverified effectiveness of oxygenator.

So, all in all, I am thus far impressed with the unit... It looks great and is working well. I wish I had the capability of personally confirming the effectiveness of the oxygenator though. I really love that feature and it would be nice to know for sure that it works as it's supposed to. Ozone accumulation indoors pretty much defeats the purpose of an air purifier, after all.

As far as people complaining about the charcoal filter... Pipe down! It's an optional filter purely for odors. If you don't want to pay for a new one and loathe Oreck enough to refuse to buy the scent cartridge accessory, buy yourself some soy candles instead and stop whining. The charcoal filter's presence, or lack thereof, has zero effect on the functionality of the Truman cell, which is the main filtration. I would hope that anyone with half a brain wouldn't buy into all that 6-stage filtration hype. It's called marketing people. All companies do it and we as consumers need to be informed about purchases BEFORE we make them. Perhaps then, there wouldn't so many people complaining after the fact. If you get burned (myself included) on a purchase, it's your own fault. Caveat emptor!

There will always be deception in sales and marketing. The goal is sales and very rarely does a company, or individual care about how those sales are achieved. Do your research and don't fall prey to false claims. If you do end up getting a product that doesn't live up to its expectations, learn your lesson and be more careful next time. We can't always point our fingers in every direction but our own when it comes time for blame. Maybe then we wouldn't need such a huge and inefficient Government overseeing every aspect of our lives. Individual responsibility is paramount! Okay, sorry for the rant, but I get incredibly annoyed by this on a daily bases, hehe;-)

Like an Oreck Vacuum cleaner for your wallet
I have one of these things and I am extremely disappointed in it, and the main reason is that it is
truly impossible to clean given the design of the product. It is designed to generate money
for Oreck, not to clean someone's house of dust or filter air.

There are filters included in the unit that say should be replaced, but they are so small I don't
think they are very useful so you pay a high price for a replacement filter that works effectively
only for a short time.

One thing that really bugs me is that the "truman cell" is supposed to be completely dry when you
replace it into the unit after "trying" to clean it. The problem is that there are so many cavities and
nooks and crannies that you cannnot dry it, yet they say it will ruin the unit to place a wet one back
into the machine.

I have washed and left the cell out to evaporatively dry for over a day, and still pick it up and there
is water droplets falling out of it. I tried blasting it with air from the vacuum cleaning, that does
not work. Maybe a hair dryer might work ... but hey, why not design a truman cell that the
designer knows is going to need to be cleaned to be EASY to clean, and dry, instead of
virtually impossible? Why not Oreck?

I suppose this is so that the customers will have to buy two truman cells too, so they sell more of
them.

So, after you run this for so long and it collects dirt and dust, that is fine, I submerge mine in the
sink and swish it back and forth and then replace the soapy water with clean water. That sort of
works for dust and loose dirt, but anything that sticks to the plates that are about 3/16 of an inch
apart - there is no way to remove. They sell special filters and tools, but the effectiveness of
everything about this product is that it is slightly crippled to force you to buy more Oreck
products. But as others have mentioned if you are a smoker (I am not) or have oily substances
in the air, maybe near a kitchen or something, there would be no good way to remove the oil
or tarry substance.

The unit does pop and crack when it is dirty. I have not had a majoy problem with that. I get
about one crack day when the unit is dirty, but my environment is not that dirty, I got this
mostly to pull dust or junk out of the air, and it "seems" to work OK at that in a relatively
clean room to begin with.

To me, this product is downright criminal, not to mention the high price for what is just a glorified
plastic fan with some transformers inside it.

One of the worst product I have ever come across, totally designed to suck money out of your
wallet, and of dubious effectiveness to boot.

Oreck should be forced to take back every one of these things. I would never think of buying another
Oreck product because of the way this is sold, marketed and priced - it is indeed a scam.

poor filtering
Bought this reconditioned from Oreck. After about 3 months I should have returned it,the air quality had not improved and I'm not impressed with it. Had originally thought I'd buy a brand new one for my bedroom but after my experience with the first one I decided against it.

I caution any buyer of Oreck products to be very careful about believing the sales claims, If you get it and don't like it you'd better return it in less than 5 days. I bought a power scrubber never opened the box and went into the hospital for several weeks and was unable to return the unit. When I called their customer service department they said I gone past the 30 day return time and although I could (and will) return the unit I will have to pay 0 "restocking fee" plus return shipping at my expense. A very costly return considering I was in the hospital and never took the unit out of the box. All they have to do is stick on a new address label and off it will go to someone else.

I will (personally) not buy any more Oreck products, I only encourage YOU to be very careful and not wait very long before returning the product if that's what you decide to do. Customer service is not very friendly, nor helpful nor understanding. It's horrible being 65 and living alone with no one to do the calls and returns when you're incapacitated.

Truman Cell CANNOT BE CLEANED!
I bought 2 of these at the same time, one for each floor of my house. Paid top dollar also, as these units are expensive.

Problems:
1. The cells cannot be cleaned no matter what you do. I 1st tried the soap/water.....cells still dirty. I then was scammed into buying their foam cleaner......2 bottles of it. Still didn't clean the cells. Then I tried soap/water, then cleaner, then soap/water. Didnt work at all. On top of that, the foam cleaner bottle is empty after a few cleanings. Extremely expensive!!!

Here is an easier way to imagine these cells. If you've ever had an Ionic Pro, or something with blades that needed cleaning, you know that you have to put manual force into them, along with some serious household cleaners. Now imagine trying to clean them with NO manual force. Impossible.

2. When you give up and put the 90% dirty cell back in. It will snap/pop/crackle after a day or two. And it is extremely loud! Enough to wake you up or overpower a movie with surround sound.

This is an extremely flawed product that should have never been on the market. I'm surprised that an authority on business practices hasn't looked into this.

When I saw a few of the good reviews, I had to speak up. I'm not going to allow sockpuppets mislead other people.