Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I didnt buy this from Amazon, I bought it directly from Oreck about 3 yrs ago. The main reason why I think you should not buy this is because of the trouble cleaning it. It is practically impossible to get it clean of tar. I bought this primarily to clean the air of cigarette smoke. The late night commercials I saw before purchasing this showed people just rinsing it under water and they were done. WOW I wish! I paid full price a few years ago ( I think I actually paid 500$ and was supposed to get a free small vac with it, I never received the Vac). I have tried just about every thing to clean the tar out of the collector cell, for example bathroom cleaners of all sorts, laundry detergent, oven cleaner, degreaser. I have tried soaking the cell all day in hot water and with full strength cleaning products, and even tried washing the cell in the dishwasher, but nothing works very well. And you cant use a cloth to clean between the fin's of the collector cell because of some hair thin wires and the very close spacing of the fins. This air cleaner works ok when brand new, but cleaning this thing is a major pain, because you also have to completely dry the cell(as mentioned in the manual or you could damage the unit), I use a fan to help dry the cell after cleaning, and it takes all day because there are places on the cell where water gets in that are covered. As other reviewers have mentioned the cell HAS to be cleaned OFTEN, or else you get the very loud bug zapper noises(and sparks) that get worse and worse the dirtier it gets. Humidity also affects the unit, the more humid it is the more it makes the zapping and electrical buzzing sounds. I actually came here to the Amazon website to look for a new air cleaner, and I saw this model for sale, and I felt I had to give a review. I dont usually bother giving reviews(I think I am going to start giving more reviews because of this thing), and I hardly ever return items but I wish I could return this, it was a big waste of money and TIME trying to clean it. I have learned to always look at product reviews by other customers (like this one) before making a purchase if at all possible. Hopefully this helps someone else with making a decision between products.