Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

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.