Lightweight vacuum cleaners were paired with savvy marketing to establish a brand identity which could command a price premium. Eventually the Oreck vac business got paired with an air purifier.

Oreck products are sold on the web and in Oreck stores.

With hundreds of Oreck locations in the U.S., you won't have to rely on the Oreck television commercial for a view of the Oreck purifier. The Oreck store I visited had four air purifiers on display among the vacuums, with a set of collector blades out for inspection.

The Oreck infomercial consistently places in the top 10 in National Cable Infomercial Rankings for frequency viewed. The Oreck infomercial features professional (not celebrity) hosts, air purifier testimonials from users, and Oreck products demonstrations by the company's charismatic founder David. Millions of people love this guy, with his friendly flair, casual banter, Sharper Image Ionic Breeze air purifier bashing gags, and never-give-up optimism. They line up to buy Oreck air purifier as advertized on TV.

I call David "America's best salesman", he is the brand.

I applaud David for his attacks on bagless vacuums which leak air and bypass fine particles. When these are emptied in the house, fine clouds of dirt go back into the air. His hypoallergenic vacuums do not spew dust.

Unfortunately, this is not "Oreck review", but air purifier by Oreck review. The vacs would be easier to review positively.

Photo shows Oreck XL.

Oreck XL Air Purifier

Oreck XL air purifier.

Buy One, Get One Free

Many people cannot resist the illusion of something "free." A neighbor of mine once started a mom-and-pop fireworks business. Working long hours, he struggled to start-up a seasonal business. Fatigued and despairing, he considered closing. Traveling in another state, I noticed a packed stand with a big banner saying "Buy one get one free." Stopping, I found prices much higher than twice the single price! I suggested a similar promotion which quadrupled my friend's sales in the winter season.

By summer we had a theme: pure marketing hype.

On the next fourth of July he ordered a container full of mini-roman candles from China at a cost of $.07 each. We raised prices 60% on everything else and ran TV ads for free roman candles with every purchase. We had hundreds of customers viewing a fireworks display at dusk, played rock music, shouted about "specials" to create a carnival atmosphere, stuffed "free" extras into bags, and threw cheap fireworks into the crowd.

They lined up four deep to buy marked-up goods they saw advertised on TV. The struggling fireworks business boomed to over 50 stands and was sold for over six figures.

If the Oreck infomercial offered "buy one air purifier, get one free" people would still line up to buy Oreck air purifier as advertized on TV.

Hey, wait a minute, does the Oreck air purifier work?

There is a definitive "not recommended" in the October 2005 Consumer Reports rankings. I often disagree with CR's reviews, but they are pretty fair when it comes to airing out the bad news.

Air-Purifiers-America.com did review an Oreck air cleaner with their usual thorough particle counter testing.

In that report only 33% of particles passing through the air purifer were removed. Oreck failed to clean air. Oreck was among the worst performing purifiers Air-Purifiers-America ever reviewed.

The Air Purifiers America concludes:

"We recommend avoiding this unit completely."

The Oreck air purifiers did soundly beat their main rival, Sharper Image Ionic Breeze, at air purification, in Air Purifiers America's review.

The air purifier by Oreck is a little electrostatic precipitator.

A small fan draws the airstream air in through a prefilter, to remove dust and hair, then airborne particles pick up a positive charge from electrified wires. The charged particles are attracted toward negatively charged collection plates where most of them stick. Purified air exits through a charcoal odor filter and user controllable negative ion generator pins.

But air-purifier-power-Guru, didn't you say that a properly room-sized unit would provide six air changes an hour?

Of course one air change per hour is pure nonsense. Four is fair, six is better, ten is best. Now let's try to estimate a true room size for the Oreck.

Though the company did not join in AHAM (Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers) Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) tests, we can derive an estimated Oreck clean air delivery rate from advertised data. Ads state airflow at 140 cubic feet per minute (cfm), so generously assuming 90% airborne particle removal efficiency, we get a fairly anemic 126 CADR.

Searching the CADR tables, we find that the $137 Bionaire BAP1825 has air purification similar to the Oreck air purifier.

To get the recommended room size, let's go with four air changes per hour, the absolute minimum. That's one every 15 minutes. 140 cfm airflow times 15 minutes equals 2100 cubic feet. Using the industry standard eight foot ceiling, 2100 cu. ft. divide eight = a 262 sq. ft. room, not 900.

The Bionaire BAP1825 is sized by AHAM at 180 sq. ft.

I estimate a 200 sq. ft. room size rating at the most for the Oreck.

Oreck Air Purifier

Do the Oreck purifiers clean air? Ads claim the purifiers from Oreck filter 95% of airborne particles as tiny as 0.1 micron.

Isn't that pretty good?

Many readers may not recognize the weakness of the claim: top HEPA (IQAir) and quality electrostatic (Blueair) unitscapture 99.95% of particles to .16 micron, not 95%. As stated throughout this site, inefficient air cleaners are dangerous because they collect "big" particles while letting finer ones slip by. These finest impurities are the most hazardous.

All electrostatic air purifying machines (Blueair an exception) have two design weaknesses. The first centers on rapid efficiency loss as collector plates become coated with impurities. Within three days Oreck air cleaners begin to bypass impure air if not cleaned. To be fair to the company: many dissatisfied users are those who fail to regularly clean their collector plates.

From an Oreck purifier user:

"It ran for two months...never collected dirt after the first week."

The second weakness concerns efficiency loss on higher speeds. Airflow inside a closed vessel is not uniform, it is turbulent. Particle velocities are not constant. As particles tumble quickly by the collector plates, some have high enough speeds to escape the electrostatic attraction. The Oreck air cleaners' poor high speed air purification performance is even weaker when plates are electrically insulated by a coat of dirt.

This is why the company's engineers can test 95% while field results differ.

One user review:

"On top of the grid where the exhaust outlet is for the clean air...they are loaded with layers of fine dust... and the fan is also caked in fine dust..."

This is evidence of bypassing, a lack of airtightness.

Note many inexpensive aircleaners share this airproofing problem. See my page on HEPA air filters, backpressure and bypassing, under the Technologies navbar button, for more.

The company implies its air purifiers are better than HEPA air cleaners as a class, using a "window screen" gag. I think they would be better off attacking the weakest HEPA air purifiers specifically, some of which have efficiencies similar to theirs. Comparing this shoe-box sized product's airstream purifying ability to top end HEPA models is the company's most spurious claim.

As true HEPA airfilters clog they gain, not loose, efficiency.

So it has to be cleaned, how hard can that be?

I have seen blogs by owners wanting to know how to clean Oreck air filters. Done very, very often, it stays easy. One screw at the bottom holds the faceplate, remove it and pull out the filters.

Remove the prefilter and charcoal filter and run the prefilter and permanent filter under tap water to clean. Let everything dry completely, like 24 hours completely. The company recommends soaking the grid 2-3 hours, and sells special sprays and cleaners for cleaning. One user review reports success with Windex.

If the environment is smoky or polluted, or if cleaning is put off, oxidized films bond to the collector grid, making it difficult to clean.

Once the grid is dirty and oxidized, pure exhaust air becomes an elusive goal. Electrical arcing, with sparks and popping noises may result.

The Oreck purifier has a red indicator light that tells you when to clean the collector grid.

There are four small carbon filter pads which need to be replaced frequently if odor control is desired.

This is not a silent cleaning tool.

Three fan settings, high, med and silence, are controlled by mechanical slider switches on the front panel.

With a Radio Shack sound level meter, one consumer measured 52dB(A) on high, 42dB(A) on medium, and could not verify the company's claim of 30dB(A) on silent. This is quieter than most of the competition.

Users report electrical zapping noises, especially with dirty grids.

Electrical "corona discharge" used to electrify (ionize) particles creates ozone, a dangerous oxidizing gas composed of three oxygen atoms.

As in Ionic Breeze air purifier and many competing purification units, this ozone emission, which does destroy odors, is the true main perceived benefit generator. The negative ions, which produce health benefits the manufacturer is unfairly forbidden to advertise, probably contribute a considerable portion.

Reports by Orek users often refer to the improved odor. The typical purifier user review starts with: "A noticeable change in the air, a clean fresh scent." This is probably not due primarily to the Oreck's small charcoal odor pads, but to ozone.

Ozone persists, decaying over three days to half its former levels. This makes it uncontrollable by the user. High levels can kill bacteria as the company claims the unit does.

Airspace ozone levels that high make rooms unsafe for human occupation. Many people will find even low levels uncomfortable. Asthma and allergy sufferers may report lessened symptoms, especially where toxic volatile organic chemicals (VOC), which are oxidized by ozone, form the foundation of their illness.

My regular readers know my position: allergy and asthma are not primarily caused by pollen, dander, or dust mite droppings, but by larger scale immune system disruptors, including VOCs. They also know that better user-controllable oxidation technology is available. See Sharp FP-N60CX review for my preferred unit in this price range, and hydroxyl radical/photocatalytic oxidation in general.

The fragrance tray with optional fragrance cartridges should remain optional. Mulberry, jasmine, or any other masking fragrance is a poor response to odor, and may make things worse. This is not purified air. Orecks marketing has trumped engineering again.

Some users report fragrance feature failures: lucky for them.The fragrance "disk" does scent up the whole house.

Why do carbon odor absorbers also require replaceable scent maskers for odor problems? Asthma and allergy sufferers do not need to breathe chemical perfume.

There are no electronics or remote. Mechanical slider switches on the front panel control fan and ionizer functions. This unit is very compact, roughly 16" by 10" by 5", and fits on a tabletop or, with optional wall mount, completely out of the way.

It cleans air nicely on a shelf in the bathroom. Oreck purifer weighs only 10 pounds, easy to carry up stairs.

While their product is better than Ionic Breeze, the Oreck customer service department does not earn Sharper Image's good marks from users. Long phone waits are reported.

If you buy an air purifier from Oreck, be sure to keep all tracking numbers and return labels.

Customers report higher service quality at Oreck stores.

The ads say try the air purifier "free" for various periods from 30 to 90 days. Oreck runs your credit card right away. I never bash a hard working, hurricane ravenged, American company, but this is not “free.”

Reconditioned Oreck Air Cleaners are for sale at discount refurbished Oreck prices. If I was going to buy Oreck, I'd save money with refurbished. There is a separate website for repaired Orecks.

Oreck's air purifier has a 3-year warranty, while the electrostatic grid comes with a 12-year warranty. Again, on warranty service reputation, Ionic Breeze wins by a wide margin.

Corporate headquarters in New Orleans, and the vacuum manufacturing plant in Long Beach, Mississippi were badly damaged by the big storm.

Daily management duties fall to the 54-year-old son of the founder, CEO Tom Oreck. Katrina brought the company real problems, but management fought to save it and heroically committed themselves to their employees and the U.S. Gulf coast. This would have been an easy excuse to offshore vac production. The air purifiers are already made in China.

Does the Oreck work better than the Breeze? Yes, but poor service cancels this advantage.

If you want an Oreck air purifier, I suggest you pay cash at an Oreck store. If I was to buy Oreck products, I'd get the low-bypassing hypoallergenic vacuum cleaner instead.

In the same price range as the Oreck air cleaner, much better purifiers are available; I recommend Sharp FP-N60CX ($350), Blueair 201 ($300), or AustinAir Healthmate Jr ($300), as quality alternatives.

1. First do no harm; no ozone, minimal out gassing.

Score: 5 of 10, main cleaning power probably ozone.

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

Score: 5 of 10, Orek air cleaner has small carbon capacity.

3. Construction quality; case, gaskets, seals, and precision fitting reduce bypassing and assure top efficiency at filtering sub-micron particles.

Score: 5 of 10, serious bypasser.

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

Score: 9 of 10.

5. Airpurifiers have long filter life, low maintenance demands, and reasonable operating costs.

Score: 9 of 10.

6. Purifier produces low noise levels and meaningful airflow rates compared to noise.

Score: 7 of 10.

7. Builder has a track record, with many air purification products in the field and a reputation for support of what they sell. Average purifer service life and warranty should be long.

Score: 5 of 10, Weak support reputation.

8. Aircleaner is fairly priced in terms of price/performance ratio. Every price range should be included, “models above $1,200 are best”, while true, is not valuable to most consumers.

Score: 5 of 10, branding success, not value.

9. No dirt; airpurifiers and vendor should be unimpaired by class-action suits, excessive returns, recalls, frequent repairs, consumer complaints, and negative consumer reviews.

Score: 4 of 10.

10. Airpurifiers are stylish, portable up or down stairs, comfortable, and easyfor consumers to use.

Score: 8 of 10, no remote, automatic functions, or smart user interface.

Air-Purifier-Power Rating;"62",