Kenmore 85500 Air Purifier

Plasmacluster Air Purifiers are the top seller in Japan, and are selling well in America.

I built this website partly to discredit vendors selling inferior air purification machines through multilevel marketing and television advertising blitzes. As I have studied the market, I have found the other side of that coin: amateurish under marketing. Underselling.

The Kenmore purifiers are another under-marketed product: only minimal data is available, the cryptic product description at the Sears website leaves more questions than answers. Many Sears stores have the "Kenmore" Envirosense air purifiers on display. Inspecting a couple makes me pretty much sure they are rebranded Sharps.

Like other Sharps, the Kenmores are elegant, smart, and effective.

A Mid-Powered Kenmore Air Purifier

The Kenmore 85500 air cleaner ranked 20 of 30 in Consumer Reports October 2005 air cleaners write-up. It is Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) Clean Air Delivery Rate certified at 182 dust, 183 smoke, 194 pollen. AHAM recommended room size is 280 sq. ft.

I would place this Kenmore purifiers in at most a 180 sq. ft. room, still a fair sized bedroom. It looks like they took a little power awayfrom the 209 CADR FPN60CX for this model, to lower the price.

5 Stage Air Cleaner

The Kenmore 5-stage air cleaning system includes a washable pre-filter, a grid similar to manypermanent window mount air conditioner filters.

There is a true HEPA filter with "99.99% efficiency", but no particle size specified.

Chinese, Japanese, and Korean shops are churning out thousands of innovative products, only a fraction of which will be successful. Sharp/Kenmore is among the first to try to move a nano-silverair purifier in the US market. The Mitsubishi built Rabbit Air air cleaner is another.

Sharp's washable carbon filter is a real nice feature, but again the brief product descriptiondoes not tell me if the Kenmore purifier has the same weight of carbon as its mentor.

Kenmore PlasmaDoctor looks like a Plasmacluster Ion clone to me. It's an ion generator that releases positive and negative ions, creating plasma-clusters around water molecules in the air. These clustersoxidize odors and organic particles outside the air purifier.

This airpurfier by Kenmore utilizes the Sharp's sensor system that automatically monitors airborne dust and odor levels, and controls the speed and ion plasma output for cleaner air.

There is an oxygen generator boom in Asia, and everybody is trying to include the "O" word in their air cleaner marketing hype. "Molecules of oxygen are released in the process, creating cleaner and fresher air." I see no evidence that this statement is true as phrased. What is released in this type (hydroxyl radical) air purifier is superoxide anions, a potent free radical oxidizingagent. If this seems complicated, think "Clorox bleach" type cleaner for the air.

The air purifier is Energy Star qualified at 2.8 dust CADR per Watt. Sears does not display filter replacement intervals, a strong selling point for the Sharps. Are they the same? A customer review at epinions.com quotes 1 year for the Kenmore air purifier's sister unit, the 85501. This looks like a bit more dumbing down of the Sharp, which has advertised 5 year filter life.

There is a change filter alert, and handy programmable remote control. Four fan speeds allow extremely quiet operation, again under marketed by Sears. No decibel sound citations are published by Sears.

85500 air cleaner is 21-7/10 in. high,Width 16-3/10 in. wide, and 8-1/2 in. deep.

Kenmore Customer Service

A one year limited warranty is mentioned on the Sears website.

Here is where the trouble starts: Sears has generated lots of complaints on the web.

Two Epinions.com reviews of different model Kenmore air purifiers report negative customer service from Sears.

Sears as a whole has average merchant ratings, based on 109 customer reviews, of only 2.5 stars at Yahoo Shopping. The 60 merchant reviews currently posted are mostly negative, with many 1 star horror stories. Both online and in-store customerrelations are blasted. My3cents.com has 204 customer reviews, the vast majority are bitter complaints.

A recent corporate merger with Kmart seems to be the last straw for the long ailing retail giant.

I have dealt with Sears for almost 50 years, but I must distinguish the Sharp air purifiers from the Kenmore 85500 air purifiers. I cannot guarantee a positive customer service experience from the vacuum cleaner outlets and the like that sell the Sharp, but I think Wal-Mart has Kmart/Sears and Kenmore on the ropes.

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: 9 of 10,

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

Score: 10 of 10

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

Score: 10 of 10

5. Unit has long filter life, low maintenance requirements, and reasonable operating costs.

Score: 8 of 10,

6. Purifier produces low noise levels and meaningful air flow rates relative to noise.

Score: 8 of 10,

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

Score: 5 of 10, Sears is spread too thin to support specialty products like electronically controlled air purifiers.

8. Purifier 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: 8 of 10

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

Score: 5 of 10, see above.

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

Score: 10 of 10, handy remote, easy automatic interface.

Air-Purifier-Power Numeric Rating; 73, I recommend, use, and prefer the Sharp air purifier to the Kenmore version.