Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was curious about what others have been claiming about this unit having a horrible smell. I was skeptical. Surely they were just being overly sensitive. My unit was manufactured on August 2016 and arrived on May 2017 direct from Amazon with an eye-watering smell. It smelt like a mixture of an cheap off-brand dryer sheets and plastic balloons! It actually made my throat scratchy and made me unplug the unit, and I have no appreciable chemical sensitivities or allergies. I've been repairing consumer and commercial equipment for over 10 years and have never came across this crazy smell before. Fearing that what I read in other reviews would've happened, I bought a Winix Replacement Filter in advance from Amazon. The replacement filter didn't smell at all when I took them out of the package but when I installed it in the machine, the smell was still as strong as ever. It was the HR1000's plastic AND the filter that smelled! I ended up taking the entire unit apart, removing all of the electronics, and washing the plastic housing in the dish washer. Shame on Winix because I shouldn't HAVE to go through such measures. After the dishwasher cleaning, the plastic no longer smells but the filter does. The filter aired out over a day or two, just like everybody else on Amazon reviews. Anyways, after addressing the smells, let's move on to the rest of the unit. TLDR: **Why would you buy this unit?** It's cheap. You can schedule times of the day when you want the unit to turn off, speed up, or quiet down via the smartphone app. This unit has a decent dust and gas sensor. Made in Korea, not in China. **Why wouldn't you buy this unit?** It isn't an IQAir HealthPro Plus or an AIRMEGA 400. The 6.5 oz. carbon filter might as well be tossed in the trash. Antimicrobial coating is a gimmick. PlasmaWave is a gimmick. On the cheap, the Winix U450 is quieter, moves more air, has better filters, and doesn't smell. I live in Asia, where there are very high PM2.5 and PM10 levels. Personally, I have tried two new Winix models (HR1000 and U450), an AIRMEGA 400, and an IQAir HealthPro Plus. I ended up selling the HR1000 and buying an AIRMEGA 400 for my living room to supplement my IQAir HealthPro Plus in the bedroom. The Winix U450 is upstairs in the playroom. Electronics: I was attracted to this unit because of the built in particle sensor. It ramps the fan up when it detects PM1.0 or larger particles (PM2.5 and smaller are the worst for your health because they can be absorbed into your bloodstream directly through your lungs' capillaries). The HR1000 uses a Sangshin SDPN-05Y particle sensor which is very similar to the Shinyei PPD42NS(PPD42NS) and Samyoung DSM501. These aren't true particle counters but rather a unit that measures light that is lost through the air due to dust causing optical scattering of light emitted from an LED. True particle counters cost thousands of dollars and this is a decent alternative. Good performance. When anyone walks by, stirring up dust, this unit responds within a second or two to clean up the dust kicked up. The plasma generator is a "Hanbang Plasma Doctor", model HB-303A1. A quick google search turns up nothing. The HR1000 also uses a Figaro TGS 2600 gaseous air contaminant sensor to detect low concentrations of contaminants such as hydrogen (1~30 ppm), methane, iso-butane, ethanol, and carbon monoxide. Not a terrible choice since the sensor lasts a long time. The fan is a brush-less DC motor which means you it is more efficient than other models with AC motors (i.e. some of the Blueair models I have taken apart). The HR1000 is only designed for 115-120v 60hz power. Do not try it on 220v or 240v or it will die very spectacularly. Design: Looks good. A little bit small on the rated CFM and thus recommended room size (CFM: Sleep 56.50 / Low 88.29 / Med 113.01 / High 162.45 / Turbo 286.05.). I prefer the extra capacity of the Winix U450 Low 78 / Med 148 / High 215 / Turbo 300. You can turn off some of the lights using the app, which is a nice touch but, for some reason, you can't turn off the fan speed light or the wifi indicator. A word of warning about the white plastic used on this unit. The white plastic is made of ABS which will turn yellow over time when exposed to florescent lights or daylight. They MAY have used UV stabilized ABS but it still will yellow and become brittle. They should've used ASA plastic instead as it will not turn yellow. ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) and ASA (Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate). Filters: The orange "anti-microbial" coating is a gimmick and is unnecessary. No other HEPA unit has this in the industry. Unless you are running your HR1000 in a dark sauna and never change the filter, you will never need an antimicrobial coating. Other than that, the HEPA filter works. According to my IQAir ParticleScan Pro, it reduces the dust particle count as it should. The carbon filter is a joke. It's a piece of honeycomb cardboard impregnated with a VERY small amount of type of carbon. The "carbon filter" weighs a PALTRY 6.5 ounces! For comparison, a carbon filter that has less than 5 pounds of activated carbon is pretty much useless in controlling odors and absorbing VOCs. As suspected, this unit does nothing to reduce VOCs (see attached picture for formaldehyde measurement). At least the pre-filter screen is a good design. The last plus about these filters is that they have a seal around that interfaces with the HR1000 body, ensuring all of the air coming out is filtered. This sounds like a basic design that should be in every unit by default but sadly my Winix U450 doesn't have any seals around the filters! PlasmaWave while not bad for your health like negative or positive ion generators, is a gimmick. FORTUNATELY, you can easily turn off PlasmaWave via the app or the front panel of the HR1000. This unit is certified to produce less than the EPA limit of 0.05 ppm of ozone, unlike other negative or positive ion generators. In theory, the PlasmaWave technology works (especially in small-scale lab testing) but in practical application, it is near useless. But again, it's not going to hurt anything leaving it on. The App: The app is buggy and clumsy. I wish there was the ability to modify the auto setting (i.e. disable low speed, as it's too quiet). The app gets the job done most of the time but still has connection issues, even if we are both on the same wifi network and only 3 feet away from the Router. I think from a practical standpoint, the app and wifi connectivity are useless. Who really is going to be sitting at the office and thing "gee, I should turn up my air purifier for an unprompted and unspecified reason"? The most practical approach is to have your purifier only run when you need it. An example would be to have it turn on turbo 2 hours before you come home so it can clear the air, then switch back to auto mode and quiet down. I personally have it automatically ramp two hours before I get home while my Roombas are driving around kicking up dust and vacuuming so that when I get home, everything is clean as can be. Good air purifiers will have scheduling at the front panel, with no need for wifi. And perhaps most importantly, there is the whole Internet-Of-Things security issue as well. I doubt Winix will ever put out any security updates on this unit. As we all should know, the "S" in IOT stands for security. I have not done any network analysis on this unit yet. Hopefully I will get the time! Specs: CFM: Sleep 56.5 / Low 88.3 / Med 113 / High 162 / Turbo 286 dB : Sleep 26.4 / Low 36.3 / Med 40 / High 45 / Turbo 61 (Measured with a calibrated Casella CEL-24X on hardwood @ 1m) Amp: Sleep 0.04 / Low 0.08 / Med 0.12 / High 0.27 / Turbo 1.06 / Standby 0.05 Amps (Measured w/ Fluke 381 with 10x AC Line Splitter) Watt: Sleep 5.0 / Low 9.86 / Med 14.8 / High 33.3 / Turbo 130.6 / Standby 0.6 Watts @123.2 volts Interestingly, Winix site shows a max Wattage of 83 W. The back of my unit shows max of 1.3A at 90 Watts, which doesn't make any sense (120V*1.3A=156 Watts). Are you paying attention UL (Underwriters Laboratory)?