FANTASTIC air cleaners. I have one from a previous Woot several years ago. I am a smoker and smoke in my home office, but with this thing going next to my desk, you cannot smell the smoke in the kitchen (next room over). If you are not a smoker, the HEPA filters will last you much longer than they do me, but you can find the replacement filters for about $15 each or less when you buy several.
I am buying another to keep in the box until the one I have is just too stained to stand looking at.
Not sure if it’s a typo but the descriptive text says HEPA filter “99.99% True HEPA, .003 microns” ,Other websites say 99.97.
It’s $ 145.5 at home depo. Why buy here?
Where are you seeing $15 or less replacement filters? I highly suspect they are not genuine filters. If you’re going to spend money on a HEPA filter, I would be very careful where you source it from as they are certainly not all equal. Project Farm did a great review on cheap filters and showed how off-brands are terrible.
–
5500-2 is my favorite box store air purifier. Sure it’s not as effective as a home made Corsi-Rosenthal box for the cost but it’s certainly a lot more refined looking. The carbon filter is effective but personally I use a standalone carbon filter that most people would utilize in a grow room. I do this since it’s far more filter media and I can unscrew it and replace the activated carbon when it’s effectiveness becomes questionable. Bang for the buck the 5500-2 is my favorite hepa /carbon filter package. I disable the plasma wave technology as it’s gimmicky and I don’t trust any of the technology involved and find it unnecessary at best.
–
@ixie
I’m seeing just under $180 at home depo for the 5500-2; you’re looking at the 5300-2 which is cheaper on woot by a $5. I agree this isn’t much of a discount and Amazon pulled these from their stock about two months ago. I was wondering when it was going to come back in stock or if they were sending them to Woot. I’ve been following their price for years waiting for them to go on sale. Cheapest I’ve ever seen them go was $99 but nothing close to that since sadly. If they ever went back down to $99 I would probably buy a ton of them.
Model 5500-2 only rates 3.5 stars on Amazon where it has sold new for as low as $165. Currently $149 direct from Winix and also at Lowes for $149. Model 5300-2 is $145 at Home Depot.
Link to the listings you’re referencing? I am not seeing what you’re seeing.
I believe you’re mixing the 5300-2 up with the 5500-2 as it is $149 at lowes and $145 at home depot but it’s $139.99 here. There 5500-2 has not been in stock at Amazon for over two months and only third parties have it listed for a ridiculous price over $200
@ThunderThighs - Is this the best price we are going to see from Woot on the 5500-2 or is there wiggle room here?
This time last year (June 2021) these were $112 on Amazon and $118 on Target. I assume Winix tends to go on sale around this time of year given previous price history.
Ok, you got me…
Years ago I had a bunch of the Sears branded version of these… figured Sears would have filters for years to come… though didn’t know they’d cease. But, the Winix filters and later aftermarket cheap ones kept these working at cleaning the air in my condo… it had to deal with the cigarette smoke and other substances that would come from the neighboring units.
But, then I had to move and they got left behind or did they… so I’ve been getting other air purifiers from woot, Amazon or eBay… ‘cause I’m on a fixed income now…
So, now into my second move starting over from scratch…. I went over budget, but couldn’t pass on this…
Like I said, you have to buy a quantity.
Here is my latest: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B09FQDW6KC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Not seeing any lower prices. Can’t add to cart or see a price on Lowes.
I don’t disagree, was just hoping for a better deal. Fully understandable.
I see what you’re saying but those are not legit OEM filters. The company that made them is a called Skymechy. I personally wouldn’t trust an unknown company with something trusted as being the intermediary between air borne particles and my lungs; but to each their own.
When the vendor who sells it has zero online presence or any type of company publicly available you can pretty much guarantee you’re getting a subpar product that is not regulated or tested. The entire purpose of filters would be defeated if these aren’t up to par. Of course SOMETHING will end up in the filter as would putting a piece of tape hanging from the ceiling.
Let’s say the filters contain something that causes cancer, you wouldn’t even know who to contact to dispute it. Amazon won’t help you outside the 30 day window. These companies make up names and will have a new name in a few weeks. Anything to keep themselves from being trackable or accountable. Also one of the many reasons you’ll see items on Amazon for sale where the reviews don’t match the product.
Somifilter and Skymechy are the same company, they’ve changed their name depending on where they are selling the product. Wouldn’t trust them for something as important as your health.
If you try and review the product as having an issue Amazon will pull the review down stating they’re the ones that provided the shipping so it doesn’t count against the storefront. I assume they chose the name SkyTechy because they were selling SkyTech desktop computers before Chinese filters and wanted to appear to be the actual OEM manufacturer of the computers known as Sky Tech Gaming which is a Canadian company that does not manufacturer filters.
Project Farm did a great review on the different qualities of filters and how name brand filters like 3M and OEM totally out perform offbrand chinese fly by night companies by a great deal, especially on Amazon. Best Furnace Filter Brand? 3M Filtrete vs HoneyWell BestAir, Nordic Pure, Flanders EZ Flow - YouTube
Thanks for putting the work into this and sharing. I’d never really thought about performance differences between different “HEPA” branded filters. I’d always considered HEPA the gold standard regardless, so this is good to know.
Thanks for the kind words mate!
Generally speaking if the filter is an OEM filter from WINIX it will most definitely have the word HEPA printed somewhere on it. I would bet money on the fact that these off brand filters aren’t branded HEPA anywhere on the filter itself. Best case scenario someone sticks a sticker on it with the word HEPA. Even if it is labeled HEPA I would bet it would fail during testing but in my experiences these off brands don’t bother to put the word HEPA on the filter. I believe some reviews even draw attention to that.