Austin Air CleanerHealthmate Jr ReviewHealthmate Jr Replacement filter, includes prefilter $134.99 Health Mate Jr. Long-Life Pre-Filters $24.99 As the smaller brother of the Austin Air cleaner "Healthmate", the plain-vanilla-value Austin Air Healthmate Jr. air cleaner has been selling well for years in essentially the same form. The Healthmate Juniors are three-stage air purifiers with a vacuum-able prefilter. The Austin cleaner has the lowest maintenance HEPA/carbon air cleaner system. Austin Air cleaners lack electronic controls and air filter monitors, offering long term durability and economy instead.
The core of the Austin air purification system is 6.5 lbs. of activated carbon/zeolite filtration. This amount of carbon is very rare in air cleaners under $400. A 30 square foot true-HEPA filter is combined in the same cartridge. The main weakness of Austins' combined air filter is that some HEPA is typically unused when the carbon has become saturated. Austin Air compensates for this with a prorated warranty which includes the filter. This is the only company I am aware of that does this. $135 divided by a projected filter life of 3 years gives annual filter costs of $45, at 5 years it's $27! That cost is calculated without including the prorated warranty. For the first two years, the company rebates 60% of retail cost, plus shipping. In the third year, 40% of retail cost plus shipping. If the filter clogs in the last year of coverage, it's a 10% rebate. The best overall value in this business is not in the filterless electrostatic sector; not the Breeze, not the Friedrich, not even the Blueair. The near perfect IQAir cannot come close to the pure value represented by Austin air cleaners. They do a significant fraction of the air cleaning IQAir can do, but at an even smaller fraction of the price long term. Does this make the Austin Air Healthmate jr the best air cleaner? Only for those who place economy, low maintenance, assured safety, and reliable steady performance ahead of electronic automated interface, threshold straining ionic technology, and overwhelming short term sweeping power. As a chemical and particle sensitive (MCS) sufferer, I personally want and need the second half of that equation. I like ozone free negative ions, remote controls, automatic air pollutant sensors, and 10 air change or better quick sweeping power. But if you want value for a reasonably sized room, Austins Healthmate jr is it. Austin "Junior" is Low to Mid-PoweredMany people are making the mistake of installing the Austin Healthmate Jr in environments too challenging for small air purifiers. Austin wisely does not participate in CADR testing, which is biased against tight filters and real carbon. So the manufacturers claims are the main data available. The Junior system is rated by the builder at 125 cubic feet per minute of cleaned air on the highest of 3 speeds. Allergy Buyers Club tests products over a long period of time before approving them for sale. Their particle counter efficiency tests rated the Austin cleaners in the mid-80% to 90% area. Air Purifiers America publishes similar results. This is just good, not spectacular performance, substantially below the builders claims. Unlike electrostatics, this performance will remain steady over the life of the Austin air cleaner. So we can calculate estimated clean air delivery rate (CADR) for comparison; 125 cfm x .88 = 110. AHAM has rule for calculating room size based on a CADR 66% of the room size rating. My recommendationis CADR equal or greater than room size. That makes the Austin junior air cleaner perfectfor a small 10 x 11 bedroom, 110 square feet. Austin Jr: KryptonitePut it in that room, plug it in, turn it on. Vacuum the exterior to clean the pre-filters once a month. Wash, not replace, the "permafilt" prefilter annually. In the 3rd year replace the air filter and prefilter using the 40% Austin warranty. If your air is cleaner than average, go the whole 5 years on filters. Smoking or moldy households look for 1 year or even less on filters. Please be aware that the Austin air cleaning system, with its zeolite filters, cannot be installed in damp environments: Zeolite is a water adsorbing clay mineral which will swell up and clog in wet places. Also, room air cleaners cannot remove the multiple health hazards associated with secondhand smoke. Smoke toxins will quickly clog every unit, electrostatic or HEPA/carbon, on the market. To remain partially effective in a smoking environment, electrostatic plates must be washed daily. Even a good HEPA/carbon like the Health Mate will clog in a few months. Source removal is imperative, air purifiers come second. Austin claims this machine, running at 125 cfm, will clean up to 750 square feet. This equates to only 2 air exchanges an hour, running on high. I recommend 6 air changes as a minimum, so that the room air can be cycled once in "burst mode" in about 10 minutes, after which the air cleaner can be turned down. Austin systems are designed to vent in a concentrated stream, to provide a cleaned air zone for allergy attacks. Others may find this arrangement breezy. On high the Austin Air purifier consumes 80 watts of electricity. Using the estimated CADR above gives 1.4 CADR/watt, not an EPA Energy Star qualifier.
With a height of just 16.5" and square at 11" x 11" the little Austin Air cleaner is a tidy package, easily integrated into the decor. The Healthmate Jr. weighs just 18 pounds, and is easily portable. These air cleaners are available in three colors; black, white, and sandstone. The "Junior" air cleaners are also available in a "Plus" version, with an extra $50 worth of Potassium Iodide for additional chemical filtration, and a "HEGA" version, using military grade carbon cloth for safe room applications. A 5 year warranty covers parts, labor, and is prorated on the filter. Air Cleaner ComplaintsThere are quite a few five star reviews for the little Austins. I found a couple sour user reviews from epinions, which demonstrate my view that many people who buy air purifiers have little understanding of their environment, and even less of the air cleaner market. In the interest of objectivity, and as a model for failure to be avoided, I post them here. Readers can learn from these unhappy examples: no air purifier can substitute for proper source identification and removal. "I purchased the Austin Air Health Mate Junior after extensive research. I needed a product which could remove odors. My bedroom has a slight musty odor. After reading reviews and advertisements regarding other products, I thought I would never be able to find an air cleaner that would effectively remove odors. Then I came across Austin Air's product line. I was impressed by the advertised size, low noise level and HEPA capabilities, but most importantly, I was convinced to buy the product by its odor removal capabilities. When I got the unit home, while true to low noise levels, it did absolutely nothing for the slight musty odor in my bedroom. I even gave it two weeks, with the bedroom door shut, and left it on high (except when sleeping). Again, however, no help. For a well-reasoned complaint like the above, Air-Purifier-Power offers a suggestion; have you evaluated the source of the "slight musty odor", maybe itis coming from a continuous emitting source like mold in your HVAC ducts, coil or evaporation pan. Did a pet ever live here, on this carpet? Maybe there is a nearby damp basement, leaky plumbing, or other larger scope factor that room air purifiers cannot resolve. Hotel CaliforniaYears before air purifiers were common and I had MCS, I knew a guy who was always complaining about the odor in a hotel. This was before the non-smoking room and eco-hotel came into being. A group of us software guys were housed there by our company, staying in the same rooms every week. Everybody else loved the place. Finally, a few of us went to his room after dinner to check out the odor. We razzed him in the elevator about his dirty sox and personal hygiene. He got pretty belligerent and defensive. But the room did smell. We turned it inside out, looking for dirty laundry to embarrass him. Nothing. Finally, one guy looked under the bed and found a 1/3 eaten moldy large pizza still in the greasy delivery box. It was his own fault! A bit overweight, he was notorious for ordering pizza late and getting grease on the fancy plastic software manuals we all had to share. We laughed so hard it hurt: Hey, Leo, whadda ya say we order a pizza tonight? Please don't make the mistake of asking an air cleaner purchase to solve problems it is not designed to deal with. The 30-day return policy is posted on the company's site, an accusation like this should include greater detail as to the retail location and circumstances. Another disappointed buyer: "I bought this machine because it was supposed to be good and economical. All the ads and reviews talk about a five year HEPA filter guarantee, which justified for me the high sale price of the machine. I just bought my second new filter, both of which lasted less than one year. The last one lasted only six months, hardly the promised five years. The "guarantee" means that with taxes and shipping I paid over $105 for the new filter instead of a new list price of about $130. I can get $30 back if I spend $13 shipping to return the old filter to the factory, no doubt so they can resell it. In my opinion, this company is a serious scam and I do not appreciate the misinformation that lead me to buy this machine. I can't help but wonder if the positive reviews were written by interested parties. I tried to post my review on another site like this and it wouldn't let me Be careful about trusting the glowing opinions that get posted on these type of sites." Thousands of others use Austin Air purifiers and do not have this problem. It looks to me like the company honored their very unusual warranty exactly as advertised. If this user clogged a Healthmate jr that fast, there is something in his/her home that is the reason. Maybe its just a wet installation, but this could be another air-purifier-trying-to-tell-me-something situation. What if an unseen airborne toxin is to blame? To avoid these unhappy scenarios, find indoor air pollution sources and visit the nearest dumpster. I know what it means to be sick and struggle to find answers. The first step toward better health is accepting 100% of the responsibility for your own situation. I agree that many websites offer "misinformation" and "glowing opinions." But few products are as widely respected and objectively supported as the Healthmates. Yes, there are many dishonest air cleaner sites and web vendors. But accusations like this are not objective; which websites and what misinformation? "Scam"? I go on at length elsewhere about the air-purifier-easy-credit-rip-off without being real specific about which dishonest companies I am referring to. This company is not one of them. Junior: Austin Air Cleaner RatingEach of ten factors gets up to 10 points, 100 is perfect and very unlikely. 1. First do no harm; minimal out gassing, no ozone. Score: 9 of 10. 2. Serious gas and odor removal is a requirement if health benefits are expected: Air purification devices with real carbon VOC capability rank higher. Score: 9 of 10 3. Quality construction; case, gaskets, seals, and precision fitting eliminate bypassing and assure high efficiency at filtering sub-micron particles. Score: 8 of 10 4. The air cleaner design maximizes the lifespan of each filter stage by allowing independent filter replacement. Ideally this is combined with electronic monitoring of filters. Score: 7 of 10, combined filters, no filter monitor. 5. Air filtration unit has long filter life, low maintenance requirements, and reasonable operating costs. Score: 10 of 10, 6. Purifiers produce low noise levels and meaningful air flow rates relative to noise. Score: 8 of 10, a bit loud on high. 7. Manufacturer has a track record, with many cleaners in the field and a reputation for supporting what they sell. Warranty period and average service life are long. Score: 9 of 10, 5-year warranty includes filter. 8. Purifiers are a value in terms of price/performance ratio. Every price range should be included, “models above $1,200 are best”, while true, is not useful to most consumers. Score: 10 of 10, worth the money. 9. No dirt; air purifiers and manufacturer should be devoid of class-action suits, high returns, recalls, consumer complaints, and legitimate negative consumer reviews. Score: 7 of 10, a couple consumers cite bad expierences (above) 10. Air cleaners are stylish, portable, comfortable, and convenientfor consumer use. Score: 7 of 10, no remote, mechanical interface. Healthmate Jr Rating; 84Very Good Value
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