Winix 5500-2 Air Purifier with True HEPA, PlasmaWa
Price:
(as of – Details)
Winix 5500-2 Air Cleaner with PlasmaWave Technology. The Winix 5500-2 Air Cleaner replaces the wildly popular 5500 model. It is designed for any home environment and ready to capture dust, pollen, pet dander, smoke, mold spores, volatile organic compounds, and household odors. This unit is best used for medium to large living spaces, kitchens, or bedrooms. The WINIX 5500-2 uses a 3-Stage Air Cleaning System, featuring a Washable AOCTM Carbon Filter, 99. 97% True HEPA Filter, and Winix PlasmaWave Technology. True HEPA filter captures of airborne pollutants and allergens, while carbon filter traps offensive smoke, cooking and all other household odors. PlasmaWave Technology attacks pollutants at a molecular level to neutralize viruses, bacteria, chemical vapors, odors, and gases in the air. Air Quality Sensor offers Set-and-forget convenience by automatically adjusting your air cleaner settings to meet the needs of your environment. CADR Room Size Rating: 360 square feet – Suitable for bedrooms and living rooms Materials: Abs Dimensions: 14. 9″L x 7. 8″W x 23. 6″H Weight: 17. 5 lbs
True-HEPA filter captures 99. 97% of airborne pollutants; dust mites, pet dander, pollen and other allergens as small as 0. 3 microns.
Washable AOC Carbon Filter, made from activated carbon granulars for removal of household odors.
PlasmaWave acts as a permanent filter to safely break down odor, allergens, chemical vapors and other pollutants – with no harmful ozone.
Smart Sensors gauge the air and our Auto Mode adjusts the fan to filter the air as needed; with a sleep mode for silent night-time operation.
CADR rated for 360 sq. ft. room size. Suitable for medium and large rooms; kids bedrooms, family rooms and kitchens.
Mevo F. –
Best Investment We Made!
If you are here, I’d be willing to take a bet that you did your research and saw this air purifier recommended across the internet. I’m here to say, the research you did led you to the right place.TL;DR:Amazing, cut down on airborne pet hair, but a bit loud (when running on high) and may need multiple for a living area. Great value for your money. 5/5 ⭐️UPSIDES:This air purifier is simply amazing. Me and my wife purchased this due to our two dogs (Husky mix and a Shiba Inu) constantly shedding to the point you could visibly see hair floating through the air. While running one of these in our living room (which exceeds the 360 sq. ft. rating of the purifier) is not the end-all solution to the shedding, it has drastically increased the air quality, and after just 8 hours of running, it decreased amount of hair floating around. I had my doubts as air purifiers don’t particularly work to eliminate pet hair, but this puts in the work to bring it back to a manageable amount.We have identified “hot spots” of where the dog hair tends to conglomerate due to fans and the A/C, and decided to place it in one of those areas. Within a half hour, the air quality was NOTICEABLY cleaner and easier to breathe. Me and my wife would walk in the area of the fan, then go to another room and physically feel the difference in air quality.Around the 8 hour mark I opened the front face and removed a significant amount of pet hair that had been built up on the mesh screen. If you plan on using these to cut down on pet hair, I personally believe it would be beneficial to identify those areas where the hair tends to build up to position your air purifiers. I’m not saying that this has eliminated or even cut down on the amount we have to vacuum and sweep, but it has helped with the floating dust and hair that accumulates in the air.DOWNSIDES:Noise. (Potentially)So if you’re expecting this to be super quiet and unnoticeable, I’m sorry to say this may not be it if you’re running this on turbo. If you only need to run this on a low to high settings to help remove small amounts of particulates from the air, it will be quiet. However, for our pet hair removal needs, we keep it on Turbo, leaving it sound a little louder than any average fan you get from the store. If you are okay with a bit of white noise running in the background, you will be fine. The noise is much quieter (borderline non-existent) when running on sleep mode to high fan, which could be enough based on your needs, but is not enough for us.Rated Area. (Potentially)This fan is rated for a room 360 sq. ft. While that is large enough for most bedrooms, it may not be enough to satisfy a living area, especially if your house is open concept. I would recommend considering investing in two fans for a larger room (but keep in mind how loud the fan is). If you think you need multiple for a single room, consider investing in one to start so you can hear how loud it is, if you like it and want another for a second room and a second for the same room, only get one more and see how well you can manage the noise of two running at the same time in the same room.Air Quality Light:The purifier has a built in light indicator to indicate air quality which is nice, but not super informative, as there is no guide to tell you what it’s measuring or what the measurements are… honestly it could just be a light on a timer schedule for all we know, as the manual only says it indicates air quality in “red (poor), Amber (fair), and Blue (good)”VALUE:If you can continue to find this around $150 dollars (how much I was able to purchase it for), the value for the amount you’re spending is perfect.I will try to update this review when we purchase a second system and have it running in the same room as the first.
writersblock73 –
Keeps Wildfire Smoke Outside
We’ve had one heck of a fire season this year–and if you live in the Western United States, I can already see you nodding your head in agreement. That’s probably why you’re here reading this review. Thank goodness for air purifiers. Chances are you’ve already looked at tons of them. You might even be confused as to which one to choose. Hopefully I can help you out with that.In essence, all an air purifier has to do is filter the air and expel it in better shape than it inhaled it. Most units (including the Winix unit here) do this by pulling the air through a HEPA filter–and that certainly helps. If all you’re looking to do is reduce dust, you can stop here. Pick a filter, any filter. You’ll get the job done.But why stop with one layer of filtration when this unit offers you four?When the air enters your Winix, it will first encounter a cleanable dust screen. This screen is much like what you may have in front of your computer case fans. Large particles get stuck here rather than in your HEPA filter, meaning you won’t have to replace the HEPA as often. In fact, Winix recommends replacing the HEPA once a year; you may have noticed that other brands recommend changing filters every three months or so. That’s why, and it serves as Layer One.The next layer is a honeycomb filter which is filled with activated carbon. You see, HEPA filters alone won’t eliminate odors. Just like how activated carbon will remove odors from fish tanks when used as part of the tank’s filtration, it also removes odors from the air. Pet dander, wildfire smoke, a certain someone’s love of gassy foods… yeah, you’ll like this function. That’s Layer Two.Layer Three is the HEPA filter itself. Small particles you may not be able to see–but will still do a number on your eyes and sinuses–get stopped in their tracks here.Layer Four is a negative-ion filter that Winix calls “Plasmawave.” Without over complicating the science behind it, this feature will make it harder for viruses to spread and will cause smaller particles to sink where they can be collected easier. This feature can be turned off if you don’t see the need for such thoroughness or perhaps you’re skeptical of the process, but I strongly suggest leaving it on.When it’s time to change (or clean, in the case of your dust screen) your filters, getting to them is easy. The entire front panel is held on by magnets (better than plastic tabs which can break over time). The filters themselves are easy to find right here on Amazon, and they are reasonably priced. You’ll be switched over in minutes. Your biggest hassle just might be tearing your new filters out of its packaging.Now let’s talk about features. For the vast majority of the people, simply hitting the “auto” button will work. This unit has an air quality sensor, and it will automatically increase its fan speed when it senses that your air quality has declined. Once air quality improves, it’ll slow down its fans. It’s a set-and-forget type of thing.For those who are more hands-on, you can bypass the auto mode and choose your own fan speed. This is useful if you’re running this unit in a room that needs more “reach,” or if you find the white noise of the fans to be soothing. On maximum speed, the unit is still quiet enough to hold a conversation next to it—a box fan is far, far louder. The filtered air is pushed upward, where it can more easily circulate in the room without diluting the denser polluted air it has yet to filter. This helps the purifier do a more efficient job.The air quality monitor lets you know what your room’s air quality is by showing you one of three colors: Blue means your air quality is good; Amber means it’s… well… mediocre; Red means bad. Pretty easy stuff, and easy to see from across the room. The various functions and features are backlit, so even in a dark room you won’t have any trouble selecting what you want. For those who are bothered by the indicator lights, there’s a night-time mode which turns them off.The unit itself is well thought-out and constructed. It doesn’t draw attention to itself, and will blend with most any decor. There’s no remote control that you’ll never use, and the controls are so well laid-out you’ll very likely never need to go digging around for the manual.My brother-in-law owns this unit, and it was on his recommendation that we ordered ours. We liked our first one so much, we quickly bought a second unit to go in our daughter’s bedroom. The difference has been striking. Now we only have to deal with wildfire smoke when we venture outside. The dry eyes and sniffles have reduced dramatically. If that sounds like the kind of world you wish to create for yourself in your own home, why not place your order today?
Jennifer D –
Great purifier
I joined a thread online to help me decide on the best air purifier for me. This ended up having all the specs I wanted and affordable so I decided to give it a try. I use it in my bedroom and it does a great job. I feel like I suffer from allergies a lot less in this room specifically now. I would say to do some research to make sure your sqft is correct for this size purifier. The CADR is what you want to look at.Only downside is it turns off at night with a sensor. Which is great if you have it in a living room but like I mentioned mine is in my bedroom. My fix is to just put the 8hr timer on. There’s probably another way to bypass but this works for me. I got another purifier for my downstairs- a different brand because it’s a lot more sqft to cover, but I still like this one more. Simple and effective. My favorite thing is it’ll auto detect air quality and change speed if it detects poor air quality. I sprayed something the other day and it went red and turned up high within seconds. Size is great and design looks nice in our room.