Austin Air Purifier: Heart of Gold

Austin Airs: Low Maintenance Relationship

If you hate maintenance, would never clean the collector plates on an electrostatic air filtering system, would forget to change a smaller HEPA air filter or wash out the prefilter, the Austinair purifier is for you.

Turn the Austins on and ignore 'em, vacuum the outside, these best economy air purifiers do all the work.

Ain't love grand?

The Austin Air Healthmate true HEPA air filter is the top of the Austinair product line.

Universally regarded as an economical, reliable, well built air filters, Austin air cleaners have been consistent top sellers for years.

You will find at least one Austin Air Healthmate in every allergy store, and at about 40,000 air purifier sites on the web.

I walked into a small allergy shop once, and found an inexperienced sales clerk hunched over a product manual open on a footstool.

Brushing past dust mite covers and beautiful best quality hypoallergenic quilts, I made my way back to where he sat. I asked,

Eager to help, he searched high and low without success.

When we had circled back to his home base, he had found no product.

My hopes for a knowledgeable retailer interview were dashed.

As I thanked him and turned to go, he picked up his manual, which revealed his footstool, the ever-present Austin Air HealthMate.

Austin: Quality HEPA Aircleaner Under $500

The Healthmate HEPA air purifier is simple, without electronic extras, but it has a heart of gold: 15 pounds of activated carbon, with zeolite mix to adsorb over 3000 different VOC chemicals and odors.

Austin air purifiers are a perennial candidate for top HEPA purifiers and overall economy in air purifying.

You would need to go about $400 higher, to the finest home air filters (found in IQAirs) to get better air purification.

Cartridge life is a projected 5-years: if you changed Austin air filters every 3 years it would still be economical. When airflow begins to feel restricted you change the cartridge.

With over 60 square feet of True Medical Grade HEPA filter material to accompany all that activated carbon, you can take the Austin Air HEPA air purifier home for only $100 more than best selling, but inferior, air purifiers by advertising giants like Ionic Breeze and Oreck.

Austin Air claims its filter material meets HEPA filter standards (99.97% particle filtration at .3 micron size), and is 95% efficient in filtering airborne particulates 0.1 micron and smaller.

Field tests at Allergy Buyers Club and others give lower purifying efficiencies, in the upper 80's.

This is still well above average efficiency.

Warning: Austin Warranty and Air Filter Life

Even Austin Air's filters are included in a prorated 5-year limited warranty.

There is a clause requiring normal home use, but very, very little expensive carbon or HEPA filter media is included in warranties elsewhere.

If the home air is toxic, or smoked in, the activated carbon could saturate sooner.

There are many reports of Austin air purifiers with Carbon/Zeolite filter material quickly ruined by improper use; mold overgrowth, fire damage, wet installations in pools, saunas, or flood damaged areas, and heavy toxic VOC vapor exposure.

Please don't join disappointed buyers who mistakenly expect miracles from air purifiers.

Air cleaners, Austinair or otherwise, cannot single-handedly solve those problems, source removal is required before installation.

For the first two years, Austin Air rebates 60% of retail cost, plus shipping.

In the third year, 40% of retail cost plus shipping. If the filter material clogs in the last year of coverage, it's a 10% rebate.

The newer models have a pair of prefilters, an outer for larger particles, and inside that, a medium size particle prefilter.

Designed to be vacuumed with a brush attachment from the outside, without prefilter removal, the Austin Air HEPA filter requires no other maintenance between changes.

Austin has No Electronics or Air Filter Monitor

Every air purifier design will have flaws, and Austin Air's big-filter-long-life-means-value has a couple.

First is the combined HEPA/carbon filters.

In normal households this arrangement performs well, but if there is an extreme particle or chemical situation, half the filter will still be working when other half needs replacing.

Lack of a filter life monitor is the second weakness.

Zeolite is a water magnet, so this activated carbon-zeolite filter cannot run in baths, saunas, or indoor pools.

Of course, high humidity is to be avoided for other air purifier's filters as well.

I prefer electronic sensors and controls, and a remote, which are absent from the Austins.

Many buyers think they are paying lots of money: Austin Airs are economy air purifiers, the low end of the premium product spectrum.

Austinairs must be installed and used properly to fulfill that promise.

Noise is this machine's weakness.

Breathing air from all 4 sides, though little holes in the metal skin, and exhausting upward, the Austin air purifiers provide;

Note that 50 dB(A)(decibels) on low is not the best for sleeping.

A call to Austin verifies this as the correct reading, despite better quality numbers floating around the web.

The main thing happening here is that Austinair is honest, many air purification vendors make spurious sound claims.

One way to test any vendor is to call customer service with a question or problem before you buy. When I called Austin, friendly employees answered immediately.

The middle speed is pretty quiet for 180 cubic feet per minute (cfm) air flow.

The 400 cfm of air, on high speed, coming through that big Healthmate air filter is 100% serious filtration, good throughput. This purifier could actually filter the air in a room up to the rated size of 1500 square feet.

But who has a room that big anyway?

Donald Trump.

Oh, I forgot.

The hm400 purifier by Austin Air has enough power to exchange air in standard home bedrooms over 8 times an hour!

For best air purification, I suggest a max room size for the Austin Air of less than one third the rated size: 400 square feet.

Instead of venting around the perimeter, the Health Mate has one focused outlet near the top. This may assist asthma sufferers who need purified air immediately, but to others it could be drafty.

Low Costs + Long Life = Best Air Purifying Value

With infrequent filter changes, the Austin Air is cheaper to own than almost every other carbon-HEPA air purifier on the market.

Cost of ownership for a typical lower quality air cleaner selling for around $200 will eventually exceed the Austin Air HealthMate.

After several of an inferior air purifier's frequent filter changes, the Austinair air purifiers filters will still be in warranty.

But you could buy a cartful of small carbon granule covered mesh or polyester pre-filters and have less than 1 pound of activated carbon air filtering capacity.

Built with a steel housing 23 inches high and 14.5 inches square, the Austin's exterior is painted with a baked on non-toxic powder finish now available in four colors; sandstone, silver, black, and white.

At 45 pounds Healthmate needs the 4 caster type wheels to get around, and may prove difficult for the elderly or infirm to move about the home, or upstairs.

Power consumption is 115 watts on high, and 56 watts on low, not as good as the best Energy Star qualifiers.

Austin is located in Buffalo, New York. Among the oldest air purifier manufacturers in the country, Austin Air is not going away.

Many aircleaners manufactured in the mid-1990's are still running with their first replacement filters.

The Austin Air HM400 is designed and built in the world's biggest purifier plant, with no contracted parts or sub-assemblies.

Austin air purifier is investment grade, offering quality air purification with little price flexibility across the web. There are look-alike units out there, which may be seconds, remanufactured, or knock-offs. Be sure you’re getting the real thing.

Rating: 91, very good

Each 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: 10 of 10.

2. Serious gas and odor removal is a requirement if health benefits are expected: Units with real carbon VOC capability rank higher.

Score:10 of 10, lots of carbon and HEPA air purification for the money.

3. Quality construction; case, gaskets, seals, and precision fitting eliminate bypassing and assure high efficiency at filtering sub-micron particles.

Score: 10 of 10, entire air purifying-filtering system is quality sealed.

4. The purifier-air-filter design maximizes the lifespan of each filter stage by allowing independent replacement of filters. Ideally this is combined with electronic monitoring.

Score: 5 of 10, Austinair filter package great, but carbon air cartridge not independently replaceable. No filter life monitor.

5. Purifiers have 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 noisy, but purifier air cleaning volume to back it up. Not a bedroom unit for light sleepers.

7. Manufacturer has a track record, with many air purifiers in the field and a reputation for supporting what they sell. Warranty period and average service life are long.

Score: 10 of 10, broad support, best service life reputation, 5-year warranty includes filter.

8. Machine is 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, Austin Air is best air filter value, not "expensive."

9. No dirt; unit and manufacturer should be devoid of class-action suits, high returns, frequent repairs, recall reports, consumer complaints, and legitimate negative consumer reviews.

Score: 10 of 10.

10. Air Purifier is stylish, portable, comfortable, and convenient for consumer use.

Score: 8 of 10, boxy, heavy, no electronics or filter monitor.

Austin Air Rating; 91,

For less money, see the smaller Healthmate Jr: Austin Air Cleaner: Healthmate Jr Review

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