Air Purifier Reviews | Reviews Air Purifiers

Re: Blueair 115B Small Room air purifier at Costco

A Reader writes:

Thanks for you hard work in providing such a useful service!

Using your reviews, we have purchased 2 air purifiers, one of them being a Blueair 550.

Costco is now advertising a Blueair online which is a different design than other Blueairs that I've seen on your website (Blueair 115B Small Room air purifier).

It is designed for a small room.

(They list it for rooms 150 sq. ft. or smaller.)

Have you seen this model or have any opinion on its capabilities?

Thanks,

A Reader.

Ed's Reply

Hey Reader;

Blueair 115B Air Purifier with Additional Filter, is $149.99 at Costco (with temporary $50 discount until Dec 18, 2011).

Blueair's website makes no mention of the 115B, but it looks exactly like the 100-series Blueair 103.

BlueAir has previously built specialty models for big-box retailers, including Costco Wholesale. Basically these are promotional packages, regular-line machines with extra filters thrown in and a new number assigned.

These tend to fan out into the market a bit. I saw 115bs at walgreens.com and on ebay. (103 is more widely offered).

The 555EB Costco-Blueair story was covered in this post;

Re: Blueair 215B and 555EB at Costco

The Blueair company is well established in the high end market, but has struggled to produce a successful product for the higher volume lower end consumer.

This particle-only round air cleaner looks to be targeted at the Honeywell line of round-HEPA purifiers.

Costco's site claims certified CADRs of 100 smoke, 120 dust, and 110 pollen, same as the 103, though the official list does not mention the 115b.

100 CADR is really a weak air cleaner, NOT enough for a 150 square foot room.

115B is pretty small, measuring 18" H x 10" W x 10" D, and weighing just 15 lbs.

The "HEPAQuiet" filter's polypropylene fibers are layered progressively finer, but are claimed to "capture 99% of airborne particles."

It looks like This is NOT a HEPA spec filter.

This hybrid electrostatic filter design, very similar to other Blueairs, may also loose efficiency as filters accumulate a coating of microscopic debris.

In this bottom price bracket, where sub-HEPA performance is common, a Blueair's metal construction may be slightly more durable and outgass less than plastic competitors.

I would expect the success of this new air cleaner to revolve around Blueair's claims of low noise: "ultra-quiet fan," since the Honeywells are quite noisy.

Noise specs are posted at Allergybuyersclub.com; 32 dB for low and 50 dB for high. This is quieter than the Honeywells, but some users may find the high speed noisy.

Blueair 115B offers no chemical or odor capability, again consistent with the price.

The problem with Blueairs is the need for frequent and pricey filter replacements - the progressive design without prefilter tends to clog quickly with large particles in dusty rooms.

But, unlike other Blueairs, 115B is scheduled for once (not twice) annual $50 filter replacements.

I didn't see any vendor offering replacement filters specifically for the 115B - I assume they are identical to 103s.

This is a good quality alternative to other machines in the rock-bottom $150 area, many of which have very short life expectancies.

But Blueair 115b is suited for particle clearing in very small rooms only.

Best wishes,

Ed

Home: Air Purifier Reviews