This thing is pretty straightforward, as far as air purifiers go

If you are thinking about buying an air purifier, be sure to read this review, it’s an honest take on one of the biggest workhorse air purifiers out there for home or office use.

After several months of deliberation, I decided to purchase an Austin Air Allergy Machine for use in my two bedroom apartment.

I have mild allergies, and also have 3 cats, so the notion of using an air purifier is something that has been on my mind for quite some time.

I often would wake up in the middle of the night with a stuff nose and sneezing, and all that other good stuff that goes along with that.

While researching air purifiers that would be effective in a 2 bedroom apartment I continually ran across Austin Air, and I like the look of their machines. I narrowed my search down to the Austin Air Allergy Machine and the Austin Air Pet Machine.

They both looked similar, so I emailed Austin Air to ask which might be better for my situation. I received a response from a customer service rep quite quickly, and she let me know that the allergy machine would probably be more effective for my situation.

Deciding to get the Allergy Machine

After deciding that I was going to get the Allergy Machine, I ended up ordering the item from a merchant through Amazon.com.

I received it in about 3 days, it showed up really quickly. The box was big and the unit was in perfect condition.

I unpacked the machine and let the cats play in the huge box.

After unpacking, I read the instructions and found that this was a rather simple machine to put into use. I basically just had to plug it in and let it rip, right out of the box. That was pretty easy.

This air purifier won’t need to have the filter replaced for quite some time, so I won’t have to worry about taking it apart for any reason any time soon.

Do you want to check out pricing for the Austin Air Allergy Machine? I bought mine from Amazon.com – good prices and easy ordering.

Click here to check pricing

What types of features does it have?

The Austin Air Allergy Machine is a pretty straightforward air purifier.

It has a dial on the front of the unit to activate 3 different air circulation speeds: low, medium and high. And that’s it.

Simple controls on this machine

There are no other options, no electronics. It’s just a basic machine with state of the art filtration capabilities.

This is exactly why I bought it. I felt that because it was a high-quality filtration unit with little electronic overhead that it would probably be a good “bang for the buck” purifer, and I was correct. I paid very little for this unit considering how capable it is of cleaning the air inside my apartment.

When I turn it on the lowest setting, it is pretty quiet. On the lowest setting, it will not interfere with sleep if you need a quite atmosphere.

On the medium setting, the Austin Air Allergy machine starts to make a little more noise, but it’s more just fan noise rather than mechanical noise. It’s not that loud really, especially considering the amount of air that you can feel going through the unit.

On the highest setting, this thing cycles a LOT of air. It’s also pretty loud. I tend to only turn this unit onto the highest setting either if I’m not in the same room that the unit is in, or if it’s an emergency air clearing situation.

For example, I’ll put the Allergy Machine in my bedroom on the highest setting for about a half hour before I go to bed. That gives the unit a chance to cycle the air heavily for a decent period of time. Then when I go to bed I turn the dial to medium or low.

Technical Specs?

As far as actual numbers, here’s a few bits of info I grabbed from the Austin Air web site.

It also has a 4 stage filter:

STAGE 1 – Large Particle Pre-filter
Removes particles easily seen by the
(e.g.dust, hair and pet dander)

STAGE 2 – Medium Particle Pre-filter
Removes small to medium size particles
(e.g.molds, spores and pollen)

STAGE 3 – 60 sq.ft.of Certified HEPA
Removes 99.97% of all particles
larger than 0.3 microns

STAGE 4 – HEGA Carbon Cloth
Removes chemicals, gases and odors
(e.g.sulfuric acid and ammonia)

And it also comes with a 5 year mechanical warranty and filter warranty. It’s amazing that the filter will probably last me about 5 years, unless I abuse it somehow. The warranty covers normal use. Basically, if you use this to clear thick smoke or use this thing to clear out the air in a heavily abused workshop on a consistent basis, it might be hard to justify getting the filter replaced via warranty.

Overall I’m pretty happy with this machine. My allergies are noticeably less annoying and it’s actually kinda weird to wake up in the morning with a clear nose. Just as long as I give this air purifier a chance to clear the air properly and consistently, it does a good job of helping me keep allergies under control.

Learn More or Buy

If you want to learn more about, or buy the Austin Air Allergy Machine, go to Amazon.com to get very competitive pricing and great purchasing security.

More reviews are also available there too.

Click here to learn more or buy the Austin Air Allergy Machine

Let’s face it. People love their cats!

It can be assumed that cat owners more than likely are very fond of their pet cats and more than likely look at them more as part of the family and not so much just a pet.

What is one of the stigmas that surrounds cats and ownership of cats as pets? Allergies. Many cat owners battle allergies and still want to keep their cats. This is where air purifiers, more specifically room air purifiers can come in handy. A good room air purifier that uses HEPA filters will allow you to control the level of cat dander and allergy causing substances in the air.

Most cat owners that have allergy symptoms related to their cats can probably consider the allergic sensitivity as mild, as stronger allergic reactions would prevent most people from wanting to be around cats. But there is a certain part of the cat-owning population that suffer from mild allergies related to their cats.

Where does the air purifier come in to play?

Fel d 1 is the specific allergen that is found on cats that cause most people their cat-related allergy troubles. Fel d 1 is a protein that is excreted through the cats saliva or sebacious glands. It gets on the cats fur when they are licking their fur, and when it dries it ends up in the air as a particle that is breathed by humans.

That is where a good room air purifier with a HEPA filter comes in handy!

HEPA filters are perfect for removing these particles from the air, along with any other allergy causing particles that might be floating around in your indoor air. Filtering the air in your home will remedy all kinds of compound effects of allergens that are in the air by clearing the air of all the allergy causing stuff.

Cats won’t be offended by an air purifier

You might have a hard time bathing your cat, or doing other things to keep the cat clean free of allergy causing substances. But… your cat probably won’t mind if you have an air purifier running in your home. Even though it is probably a good idea to bath and brush your cat regularely if you have allergy problems, an air purifier can help pick up the slack if you cat hates baths or you can’t find time to brush the cat as often as you’d like.

Brush your cat in front of the air purifier

If you have a room air purifier, it works quite well to brush your cat near the intake of the air purifier. This way any particles that are sent into the air during the brushing process might get forced through the HEPA filter on your air purifier much more quickly than normal.

All in all, it’s hard to deny the benefits of keeping an air purifier running in your home if you suffer from cat allergies. You’ll be able to keep your lovable feline friends in your home and the effects of cat allergies will be greatly lessened if not eliminated completely by employing the air purifier and other cat allergen reducing techniques.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ranks indoor air pollution as one of the top five environmental risks to public health, wow! Indoor air pollution can sometimes be two to five times higher – and some of the time more than a hundred times as high – than outside air pollution levels. Poor indoor air quality is one of the top five risks to better health.

One of the best ways to improve the indoor air quality is the use of an air purifier with a HEPA Filter.

What is a HEPA Filter?

HEPA filters are an effective way to capture particulates of smoke, dust, asbestos, actinolite, bacteria and other pathogens, radioactive dust and mold spores. HEPA filters are designed to trap pollutants and particles by trapping or sticking these elements to the filter fibers.

HEPA filters are best for people with allergies and asthma because they offer the fastest way to remove airborne particulate from the air. Many people with allergies have a freestanding HEPA filter in the bedroom, a HEPA filter-equipped vacuum or both.

HEPA filters remove contaminants and purify air

HEPA filters are also used in other places such as hospitals and manufacturing rooms where clean air is absolutely vital important to the well being of the location and people within it.

HEPA filters are critical in the prevention of the spread of airborne bacterial and viral organisms and, therefore, infection. Typically, medical-use HEPA filtration systems also incorporate high-energy ultra-violet light units to kill off the live bacteria and viruses trapped by the filter media. HEPA filters are the only way to remove these types of contaminants.

Definition of a HEPA Filter

True HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filters are those that are regulated by the Institute of Environmental Science as filters that capture 99.97% of air contaminants at the 0.3 micron size.

HEPA filters are usually of multiple pleated construction. The nature and relationship of the pleats may vary but the filters are commonly comparatively bulky and of generally box-like form. Air purifiers that use HEPA filters will vary in the size and construction of the HEPA filter that is actually used in the unit.

Filtering odors

A HEPA filter usually won’t combat odors as effectively as it will filter fine particles out of the air. For this reason, if you wish to filter odors as well as particles out of the air you will want to find an air purifier that also employs activated carbon to filter odors along with a HEPA filter to filter out the particles.

Activated carbon is the most effective type of filter against chemicals and odors. (dust, pollen, dust mites, dander, mold spores, asbestos fibers, droplets, etc.).

In conclusion

The HEPA filter is the best type of filter available to keep air clean. If you are going to buy an air purifier for use in your home, consider the air purifiers that use HEPA filters to be the best option available.

Allergy sufferers know the rigors of suffering through allergy seasons. Allergy seasons come and go along with the 4 seasons, and it’s just a cycle that needs to be continuously battled.

The long winter months might actually provide relief to those with seasonal allergies. When spring rolls around, and the prospect of nice weather arriving and the cold winter days leaving is upon us, mixed feelings will be the norm for those that suffer from allergies.

Allergy symptoms

Even though the cold days are gone, the new springtime weather brings with it a bevy of allergy causing situations. Pollen, pollutants, open windows, vacationing to different outside locales… all of these will contribute to allergy problems in some way or another.

If you suffer from intense allergies on a seasonal basis, you are probably already doing something to combat your symptoms, whether that includes taking allergy medication or other approaches to curbing your symptoms.

In addition to medications, keeping the air inside your home is important to curbing your allergy symptoms.

This is where an air purifier comes in.

Keeping indoor air clean with an air purifier

Using an air purifier to clean and filter the air in your home is a must if you are trying to combat allergies. The air purifier will help you reduce the amount of pollen and other small particles in the air that aggravate your allergy symptoms.

In many cases, the air inside a home may be of poorer quality than the air outdoors, even during allergy seasons outdoors. This could be because of poor air circulation systems within your house or poor ventilation within your home overall. Even though it’s a good idea to fight the source and get poorly maintained ventilation systems cleaned or maintained, an air purifier can clean up some of the poor air conditions that might result from poor air handling within your home.

Where should you put an air purifier?

You will want to focus your air purification efforts on certain key areas within your home.

The bedrooms of your home are probably the most important places to keep an air purifier. One reason for this is the fact that you spend a large portion of your time in this particular room when you are sleeping. Another reason to keep an air purifier in your bedrooms is because human respiratory systems let down their guard while you are sleeping. Stuff in the air that might not bother you much during the day will wreak havoc at night while your body is relaxed and you are trying to sleep. Also, it’s easier to sleep if you are not suffering from your allergy symptoms.

You’ll also want to put air purifiers in other areas where you spend a lot of time. If your family spends a lot of time in a particular family room (especially one that is shared with pets), you’ll want to concentrate on that area of the home, for example.

Some people will move an air purifier from room to room as they do things in various parts of their home. Maybe you put the air purifier in your bedroom at night and in the living room during the day. This can help alleviate costs too.

Keep the air purifier running

Don’t run your air purifier for short periods of time if you don’t need to. It’s best to leave it running continuously wherever it is that is running.

When you turn off the air purifier you run the risk of letting the air quality drop and your air purifier will need to play “catch-up” when you turn it back on.

For allergies, use an air purifier with a HEPA filter

Overall, an air purifier that uses a HEPA filter will prove to be the best at combating most types of air-born allergies. The term HEPA stands for “High Energy Particulate Arresting”, and HEPA filters where developed by NASA for use in space shuttles.

Basically, the HEPA filter is the best at pulling the tiny particles that cause allergies out of the air. A HEPA filter will need to be changed periodically, and will be more effective during the beginning of it’s life cycle than the end of it’s life cycle. Because of this it is important to stay on top of maintaining your air purifier and it’s filter to get maximum performance from your air purifier.

Other air filters in your home

In addition to the air purifiers in your home, make sure that you also properly maintain the filters on your air conditioning systems and other ventilation systems within your home. This can be important and will lessen the need for an air purifier unit and will help lengthen the life span of any air purifiers that you might be operating.

Don’t delay

Make sure you prepare appropriately for allergy season by servicing all your air systems within your home and by getting your air purifiers running before the allergy season begins. This will help you to stay on top of the situation and prevent air quality from becoming bad within your home in the first place, and will make your indoor experience during allergy season a pleasant one.