Sharper Image Hybrid GP

Looks like the review below, written in early 2007, was prophetic.

Hybrid GP Germicidal Air Purifier $399.95 SI724 Professional Series

Over two years have elapsed since I did the Sharper Image (SI) Ionic Breeze Review. The product was awarded a 70, my lowest passing score.

I talked about the legal battle with Consumer Reports (CR), ozone emissions, and low air delivery rates.

Ionic Breeze, the company's cash cow, had become a target, harassment and even rude jokes followed. The publicly traded stock was “in play.”

Shareholders panicked after the attacks from CR. As the SI stock price (SHRP: Nasdaq) plummeted, management and the board of directors tried everything to turn the company around.

But they made one big mistake.

They forgot to invite me to address the board.

Instead they had a proxy fight looming for board seats ahead of the 2006 annual stockholder's meeting. A compromise was reached where big investor groups took over one third of the board seats.

I would have suggested that instead of wasting resources on legal fees, high rent mall expansion, and marketing cover ups, Richard Thalheimer and his Sharper Image Design team should get going on a new product aimed at the soft areas of their game plan.

The initial growth phase of the air purification industry is passing, a consolidation approaches, with hungry sharks circling. A 1930's style shakedown looks like a possibility to me.

Direct marketing built the company, but fad merchandising can only carry you so far. The proprietary in-house design team was, to me, their best chance to build a permanent base. Too often, engineering talent is perceived as "employees" instead of assets.

I know these guys are too busy to read Air-Purifier-Power, but it looks like they took my advice. Their new GP Hybridair purifier is the answer which could silence the critics!

Whether it will save the company is another question.

Not Just Another Ionic Breeze

The Hybrid GP is nearly ozone free, has fan forced air flow, uses far less energy for work done than any air cleaner on the market, has no filter replacement costs, and is quiet enough to run on high speed 24/7.

Wow! No part of the new name contains references to the old Ionic Breeze.

This is a brand new product. Most information comes from the company and dealers.

Amazon.com has 3 positive customer reviews averaging 4.5 of 5, otherwise things are quiet.

Like its predecessor, the new air cleaner is an electrostatic precipitator (ESP).GP has an expanded 19-blade, 1,300-sq.-inch collection array. Nine powerful high voltage charging wireselectrify the airborne pollutants entering through the air purifiers rear grill. These are electrostaticallyattracted to the collector blades, which are spaced closer than Breeze blades were.

Marketing Mistakes

The term "efficient" is misused in marketing this air cleaner.

Efficiency, with respect to air purifying, refers to the percentage of particles of a given size the machine can capture. A good HEPA device might have 90% efficiency at .3 microns as a unit. Typical electrostatics are much less efficient, especially when collector blades are not kept clean. The term is properly used with respect to improved blade design: "increases single pass efficiency."

However, "The world’s most efficient high-capacity air cleaner" is going too far.

Marketing people just always gotta do this. Self defeating sales puffing will not save the Image.

They have built the world's most energy-efficient mid capacity air cleaner.

Why obscure this great achievement with hype?

To sophisticated consumers, the kind who compare air purifiers sold by Image and Brookstone in upscale malls, and understand the term "efficiency", this is insulting.

Air-Purifier-Power promotes product engineering above marketing. American companies must learn to compete on product quality in the coming global market. In Asia, engineering dominates, ambitious kids study science. The elite class in America is composed primarily of deal-killing lawyers. The corresponding group in China are product building engineers.

To be fair, the company has moved towards objective style marketing, publishing sound and airflow data, and going the clean air delivery rate testing route. Smarter Image.

While the new Hybirds are not yet listed in AHAM's online clean air delivery ratings, EPA has quotedCADRS at 175 dust, 141 smoke, and 192 pollen.

These are above average CADRs, reflecting a mid powered air purification machine. These numbers open a new window for Sharper Image.

Incredible Energy Efficiency

The Energy Star ratings are off the scale: 15.23 cadr/watt! This is an order of magnitude above most air cleaning devices. To qualify for Energy Star listing, many air cleaners struggle to attain the required 2.0 CADR/Watt threshold. A majority fail. SI has set the bar for an increasingly important factor. The former leader, from Sharp Electronics, scored 6.3 CADR/Watt.

Energy consumption ranges from 5 watts to a whopping 16 watts with the temporary "Boost" feature on. With no filters to replace, this might be the lowest cost of ownership on the market. For this dream to come true, the Hybrid GP Germicidal air cleaner will need a long life cycle. The warranty, shortened to only one year, casts some doubt on longevity predictions.

Many filtered air purifiers have annual maintenance cost-to- purchase-price ratios as low as 1. This means filters and electricity equal the cost of the machine after only one year. Can the new Sharper Image Germicidal air purifier last three to five years, and pay for itself?

Suppose we bought a 175 CADR HEPA filter ultraviolet germicidal purifier for $250, with $100 annual filter/UV bulb replacement costs and 80 Watt energy use. In under two years, total ownership costs would surpass the price of the Hybrid by Sharper Image.

Only time will tell, and the $400 purchase price means years are involved, but this could be fun to watch.

Four manually controlled fan speeds and a 20 minute timed "boost" setting are claimed to clean air in rooms up to 500 square feet. Room size for my recommended 6 air changes per hour is around 200 square feet.

Because the hybridized new model is so quiet it can run 24/7 on higher speeds, I rate it at 240 sq. ft.

Sharper Image GP is Low Ozone

I was skeptical about the ozone catalyst add on to Ionic Breeze. It didn't cover the entire exhaust airstream, and therefore could only reduce, never eliminate ozone emissions from the Breeze. From an engineering standpoint it looked tacky.

Sharper Image Air Purifier

The ozone guard on the Sharper Image Hybrid Air Purifier is a whole new story. It slides into a slot in front of the collector blade apparatus, and can be removed for vacuuming. Airflow exiting the inner chamber must pass through the 1600 square inch catalyst grid.

Sharper Image asserts .010 parts per million ozone measured at 2 foot distance. This measurement could have been taken closer, but I think they have succeeded at reducing the big "O" issue.

.010 parts per million is well below the FDA medical device limit (.050 ppm), which has become the defacto standard for air cleaner ozone emissions.

As an air purifier reviewer, I have learned to smell ozone. You can try this yourself.

Go to the mall and visit Sharper Image. They will have some Iomic Breezes with the smaller catalyst grid. The new hybridized GP model will be prominently displayed. Both should be running.

First, move your face into the draft created by the older air purifier. The air freshener-like smell isozone. Now inhale deeply. Your life has just been shortened by 33 microseconds. Hurry to the new model.

Sniff the exhaust airflow.

There is no ozone scent from the Hybrid, even when GP is on "boost." Thank you for not oozing.

One user review mentions motor break-in odor, which lasted a week.

Germicidal High Voltage

By raising the charge, the design team has increased filtration efficiency and eliminated the needfor ultraviolet lamps. The electric charge and internal ozone is claimed to kill all airborne pathogens irrespective ofsize.

In my previous review I speculated that Ionic Breeze without ozone would lack the "fresh scent" and odor removal capability that so many users mentioned fondly. Perhaps the biocidal aspect will partially compensate for the lack of ozone.

I also wonder if the powerful electromagnetic fields generated are an increased health risk.

Hybrids are Quiet

My examination confirms the company's claim that their new air purifiers are quiet enough to run on high 24/7. Brookstone Pure-ion, on display nearby, while having a high quality finish, was audibly much louder than the GPs on display. Silence was a strength of the breeze, and should be a front sales piece, in lieuof the incorrectly flaunted "efficiency" claim. One key strength of the Breeze was repeat sales.Many noisy cheaper air cleaners never get a repeat sale. They are sold at garage sales or deposited in dumpsters. Experienced users demand quiet.

Measured at 36-46 dBA through the 4 speeds, four smaller (120mm diameter) fans using superior brushless magnetic DC motors are indeed quiet. Aerodynamic design and large front and rear areas reduce noise.The whooshing noise associated with air pressure drops in filtered air purifiers is absent.

Hybrid GP Maintenance

Thanks, Sharper Image, for abandoning the pretense, still trumpeted at Oreck and other electronic air cleaner vendors, that electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are maintenance free. The company is right upfront with the notice about the need for collector blade cleaning weekly or even more often.I have never understood why the giving-things-away message is so seductive to consumers. I never buy anything from vendors who insult me with "free." Smart, upscale consumers want facts, and will pay for quality.

Since ESPs loose particle trapping efficiency very rapidly when the blade surfaces are covered with alayer of grime, they must be washed or they don't work. Smart vendors do not mislead customers when the effectiveness of their staple product depends on proper maintenance.

Classic shot-self-in-foot marketing mistake. Thanks again, Sharpening Image for helping clean up the air purifier marketing mess.

A special cleaning brush and LED cleaning alert light are provided. Grills, catalyst, and collection grids all remove easily for cleaning. The collection grid is sturdily built and slides smoothly in its tracks, lifting the 9 charging-wire cleaning balls each time it is extracted. No need for turning of tilting the machine, which many users never did, to clean the hot wires.

This large grid assembly will not fit in dishwashers. The deep, densely spaced grids are definitely more difficult to clean than other models. I could see a garden hose, with a pressure attachment, as the preferred method of cleaning. Of course, like all ESP collectors, GPs grid must be handled carefully. What appear tobe electrical contacts, on the bottom of the grid, should be absolutely dry before gentle reinsertion.

The designers wisely included a switch which can sense the presence of a damp connection. It lights a warning lamp and runs fans-only until the water evaporates. One reason for the arching, fires, an shortened service lives of many ESPs is users reinserting damp collector grids. I must admit, when I buy a new product, the user's manual is often consulted only as a last resort.

Frequent cleaning and completely bone-dry grid reinsertion are the key to user success with ESP air cleaners.What Sharper Image has added is a safety feature, it is not for wet insertion convenience.

At 30 inches tall, and weighing 18 lbs., the Germicidal GP Hybrid is a mid sized and portable, even up stairs.

What the "Hybrid" is Not