Your Mileage May Vary

My parents, especially my dad, has always had severe allergy problems. Growing up as a kid, I witnessed firsthand the pain and the suffering. We never had a cat because my dad was allergic to one. We did have dogs, and they never seemed to be a problem, but we always had little shorthaired dogs, not the big ones that shed hair. I prayed that I wouldn't inherit the same allergies as my parents. It seemed like they just suffered constantly, but never tried any products like air cleaners or allergy medication to alleviate things.

Low and behold, my allergies finally started to develop at the age of 25. It seems that whenever I clean my apartment, the next day I am just dieing. That would be "dust allergies" as my doctor told me. I finally had to hire a maid, because the dust from cleaning was too much for my allergies to bear.

Then, about 9 months ago, I got myself a purebred Golden Retriever. I knew what I was getting into before I got the dog, but I got him anyway! He sheds hair like crazy, and it requires vacuuming 3 times a week, and combing him daily. He's worth every minute of the work, and all the discomfort in the world could never convince me to get rid of him! Unfortunately, dispite all that, my allergies were at an all time high.

So, I did some research, and decided to get a Honeywell air cleaner. I found this model for a GREAT price at Costco, I believe I paid $100 for it. I brought it home, plugged it in, and wala, the soothing sounds of the air cleaner.

Unfortunately, the sound was a lot louder then I expected, when on the high setting. I now have to turn the TV a lot louder to be able to hear it over the air cleaner. Sometimes when I'm on the phone I have to have people repeat themselves. On the plus side, I moved the air cleaner to my bedroom, and I find it easier to fall asleep - the "white noise" as they call it, actually drowns out any other surrounding noise, and because it's a constant whirring sound, it actually puts you to sleep easier. It does take a while to get used to it, but I grew up around computers in my room being on 24/7, so the noise didn't really bother me as far as sleeping goes.

So how did the thing help my allergies? It's really hard to tell. I think if I didn't have the dog, this thing would have done wonders for my dust allergies. It does seem like the coffee table collects a lot less dust with this thing in the room. The air in the apartment does smell much cleaner when I walk in, and even when I cook something in the kitchen, this air cleaner cleans the smell out rather quickly, without opening any windows. However, I don't think this thing has really helped my allergy to the dog. Just this morning, I woke up with a huge allergy attack, runny nose, itchy eyes, and I asked myself why I even bother wasting the money this Honeywell filter costs to run.

Yes, that's right folks, not only will you have to pay $100 dollars for the privilege of owning one of these bad boys, but you also get to have a higher electricity bill, and pay the expensive costs to replace the filters. My electricity bill runs $10 a month more since I bought this thing. I unplugged it for a month, just to make sure it was the air cleaner, and sure enough, my bill dropped back down to its normal level. Of course, we pay about 20-25 cents/kwh in Southern California, so that might have something to do with the high cost of running this unit!

The filters are also very expensive to replace. The prefilter runs about $20 bucks, and it requires FREQUENT replacement. I have found that the lights on the front are wrong; my prefilter is completely caked in dust after 2 weeks and needs replacement. After going through all 4 of the included prefilters in a 2-month period of time, I decided to just vacuum them and reuse them rather then replace them. Can you imagine spending $40 a month on the prefilters?!?! And then spending $70 once or twice a year to replace the HEPA filter? And $10 in electricity! That amounts to $670 dollars (for 1 hepa replacement) a year to have an air cleaner running in your home! I'm sorry, but there has to be a better way!

Overall, I would have to say that this unit is too expensive to operate, it's too noisy, and it doesn't work as advertised. Now, if I didn't have the dog, I'd say for people suffering with dust, mold, pollen, and other allergies, this unit can be a godsend, but I think there are much cheaper and more efficient ways to take care of those allergies then buying this expensive monster.

I'm going to shut her down for a month and see how my allergies do. If they get worse, I'll at least know this thing is helping me a little bit. But if they don't change, or they get better, I'm throwing this unit in the trash and getting me a lifetime supply of Zyrtec instead!