A little research pays off! This was my first air purifier purchase. Originally, I was going to buy an ionic one. But, I was amazed once I started researching how little I knew!
In case you''re in the same boat, Here''s the criteria I ultimately set, ratings for this model on the criteria, and my experience with it:
CRITERIA #1: Must noticably reduce our allergies, clear smoke and odors: 5+ Stars!
Have had it two months with a smoker, a hairy dog, and allergy season in full bloom. Reduced allergies and no breathing problems at home since we got it. Noticable quick removal of odors and smoke!
(NOTE: More power than I even intended. You may be able to get a cheaper model if you don''t want all this one has:
A) Electrostatic/Ionicattracts pollutants from a wide area, but not odors and allergens
B) Carbon clears smoke, odors and pollutants but not germs and allergens
C) HEPA traps even the smallest of allergens, but nothing else
D) UV destroys bacteria and germs, but not allergens, pollution or smoke cheaper models offer only HEPA and UV filters.)
Best Added Feature: The sensor lights that let you know the status of your air quality and then watching them go off when it''s corrected the problem.
CRITERIA #2: Low/No ozone model! 5+ stars.
I found that the old sharper image-type ionic-only models (many still on the market at reduced prices) only clean pollutants, but not odors and allergens. Worse, they generate ozone at a level that can exacberate asthma problems. The electrostatic filter combined with the ionic one in this model eliminate that problem. Look for one that has this!
CRITERIA #3: High area coverage: 4.5 stars.
I found an obscure site that lists air purifiers and their coverage areas and particle levels. This one seems to cover about 1,200 sq. ft. or more than double what is listed. But, even with what was listed, proved to be the best ranked in comparison with price levels.
CRITERIA #4: Low Noise: 4-stars.
We keep it in the living room mostly on auto. On low and medium, it''s very quiet. On automatic mostly very quiet, unless it''s under attack from something like cooking or opening the door frequently. On high, it makes a noticable "white noise". But, it''s OK good for falling asleep and not so loud you can''t hear the TV. Wouldn''t put it on "high" regularly though.
CRITERIA #5: Price/Value including maintenance: 4.5 stars
My budget was $200. I went over that slightly. But, the filters on this one are so much cheaper than the models I compared it to that the extra $40 should more than pay out.
BOTTOM LINE: I chose this one based on research, but I highly recommend it for quality and value! If you want to cleaner, fresher air and reduced home allergies without intrusive noise at the price, I''m not sure you can do better.
Given that there weren''t many reviews out when I bought this purifier, I figured I''d take a minute and give a brief review of it after having used it for a few weeks.
Out of the box:
It''s a very lightweight machine that has a very elegant/professional look to it. The "Flow, Timer, and Power" buttons feel a little like cheap plastic, but it''s really not a big deal, nor does it diminish the look of the purifier.
In Action:
When I first started it up, I heard a little bit of "static" noise coming from the ionizer, as it was possibly collecting the dust that was in the packaging that it was shipped in. Within a minute, that noise was gone, and it has been operating very smoothly and quietly for the last few weeks. I live in a house with central air, and the air quality is pretty good, but since I have bad allergies, I wanted to get a purifier. To be honest, I''m not sure if I can tell the difference, if any, it has made in improving the air quality in my room, but I always keep it on (Auto setting) and it gives me comfort to know and "see" (the indicator) that my air is clean. Interestingly, the sensor in this purifier that determines the air quality and revs up its engines as soon as the air quality becomes worse is quite sensitive. It even knows that the air quality has changed/worsened (ever so slightly) whenever I peel an orange! this also happens if you spray some cologne while you''re in the room. Just a few minutes ago, I opened my window to my backyard and noticed the machine''s air quality indicator shoot to its highest setting, signifying that the air needs to be rapidly cleaned. It was right! I know that there is a ton of pollen outside today, and that''s what came into my room. My Intelli-Pro picked it up quickly and adjusted appropriately.
One small thing I don''t like about the Intelli-Pro is its always-on blue light, which tells you that the UV light is working. I don''t like sleeping with a night light, and even if you do, this light might be too bright to sleep with. For now I just angle the purifier away from my bed and that solves the issue. I may eventually want to put a small piece of tape over it but obviously that would ruin its beauty.
I have not yet looked into how difficult it will be to clean the different filters, but there are decent instructions in the manual provided and I don''t anticipate it taking more than 15-20 mins.
Overall, I''m very impressed with the different air-purifying technologies that this company has incorporated into quiet, yet powerful Intelli-Pro air purifier (look into the product details/description for the specifications). I would definitely recommend this other consumers in the market for a reasonably priced, high-quality air purifier. I''m sure you will like it!
Buy Surround Air XJ-3800 Large Intelligent Air Purifier Now
It''s bigger than it looks in the pictures: Stands about thigh-high. This put me off at first...but then I plugged it in.
First impression: It''s not doing anything.
After two days: I want to have it''s babies.
I have allergies...miserable miserable allergies, and I just moved back to maryland during the worst allergy season I''ve seen in years.
To a house with three smokers. And Two Dogs. And Two Cats. This house has clutter (re: dust) and mold and four plants in the livingroom and old carpets. It has old furniture and crummy filters but it DOES have ceiling fans!
This house is allergy hell.
and this purifier?...Ah...I swear I can breathe again. It cleans up the air (auto setting rocks!) of the entire 500 sq/ft first floor from *awful* to *clear* in roughly 20 minutes, and if it''s running constantly, it never gets intolerable. In fact, it barely ever gets to worse than "do you smell something?" for more than a minute or two, even if there has been cooking and smoking and the dogs were in the rain.
Even if it only lasted 6 months before it totally broke down, it would be worth the price to pay every six months to get another one.
I am in love.
Make more of these.
Buy it. Buy ten and give them to your friends. Send this link to anyone with allergies. Or gas.
Read Best Reviews of Surround Air XJ-3800 Large Intelligent Air Purifier Here
OK, In order for you to develop some since of discernment with me, let me give you a flavor of my personality and background: By profession, I am a technical writer in the engineering field which is not really saying much... everyone knows engineers can''t communicate very well and stink at writing; but give us a problem and will solve it for you three different ways and confuse you trying to explain each one.
When I look at reviews to buy a product, I don''t read all the 4 and 5 star reviews because I''m thinking most people are too proud to admit they bought something that doesn''t work... you feel better about your $200 purchase when you tell everyone else, "It''s wonderful!" No, what I do is click the sort button to show me the 1 and 2 star reviews because I want to hear what the unhappy buyers have to say. For this product, the 1 and 2 star reviews represent about 15 percent of the total number of reviews, and 78% represent 4 and 5 star reviews. Apparently, not a bad product according to customer reviews.
In the bad reviews I read things like,
"...it gives off a foul burning plastic smell when you first turn it on...", or
"...the ''AUTO'' mode doesn''t do anything when I shake a bunch of dust in front of the intake vents...", or
"...the ''clean metal grid'' and ''replace filter'' lights come on much faster than hoped or advertised", or
"...I am a senior citizen and I broke the metal wires trying to clean them...".
And then there were those who warned that you''d be sorry if you bought the item because all the positive reviews fail to tell you certain things which are important about this horrible product (in their opinion)!
I just about decided not to buy the XJ-3800 Intelli-Pro based on what I was reading, but in all fairness I scoured through the 4 and 5 star reviews. I wanted to see if there were enough people giving intelligently informed opinions rather than just stating that they loved it and that it has a bunch of bells and whistles that seem to indicate that it''s working. After much reading, I allowed the positive reviews to help me overcome my skepticism and purchased the unit.
My unit arrived in less than a week. Upon unpacking the unit, I remembered that almost everyone expressed a little bit of surprise with the size of it. With me, I''m thinking, if this unit is going to take care of a 20 by 30 room (600 sq. ft.) and be able to do so quietly and efficiently, it''s going to have to be larger than your typical bookshelf speaker; otherwise it''s just not going to be efficient or fast enough at cleaning up the air when contaminants are introduced (smoking, odors, pollen, mold, etc). Now engineering physics tell you that you can do the same job with a smaller sized unit, but then you have to have a faster fan speed to move the same volume of air. Faster fan speed would translate into more fan noise, so I guess the trade off here was to go a little larger in size and opt for quieter operation. I''m good with that.
For the operating display, the unit has a power button, and an airflow control switch which can be set to AUTO, QUIET, LOW, MED, and HI speed. The AUTO mode allows the unit''s sensors to determine the necessary fan speed based on the quality of the air in the room. The sensors are suppose to throttle the fan speed up and down accordingly as needed to clean up the air. The display also has a 4-light indicator labeled, "Clean Air Monitor" which is interpreted as follows: 1 light on no pollution detected; 2 lights some pollution detected; 3 lights moderate pollution detected; 4 lights severe pollution detected. Next there is a UV/Negative Ion indicator lamp which just simply tells you the UV lamp is working. This UV indicator light is suppose to cycle faintly between dim and bright. Many people have complained that the light is an eye sore and cover it with black tape if it is being used in the bedroom where they sleep. Personally, I found it no more obtrusive than a very dim night light or the LEDs on your cable or satellite DVR. The light oscillations were very faint such that you really don''t notice it unless you intensely stare at it. Next it has sensor lights for ODOR detection, DUST detection, and ALLERGEN detection pretty straight forward. It also has a Power ON timer, which can be set to 1 Hr, 2 Hrs, or 8 Hrs. I think I would have rather seen 2, 8, and 12 hour timer choices for my needs. And finally, there are indicator lights that tell you when to clean the metal grid filter and when to replace the HEPA filter. No doubt this is a thoroughly designed unit if everything works properly.
I have had the unit now for about 2 weeks, and the following are my impressions after using the air purifier during this short amount of time:
First, the instructions clearly say to place the unit in a large room initially where you can create outside fresh air exchange by opening windows and doors assuming the outside air is relatively clean. You are to operate the unit for several hours in that room before using it in its intended space. I suppose this is to help alleviate any potential smells from the unit while it is new and freshly unpacked. But the interesting thing is that the unit I received did not seem to have any objectionable odors during initial operation, even when I bent down and sniffed the purified air exhaust in the back of the unit. Well that''s all good, but why are other buyers saying different? My presumption is that probably 5% of the units sold have a problem due to quality control, in assembling or packaging resulting in unusual off-gassing. Asking for a new replacement unit immediately if this occurs would solve that problem and that is where Amazon shines.
During initial operation in "AUTO" mode, I began to worry that this unit was more of a conversation piece rather than an air cleaner because of all the pretty lights, buttons and futuristic looks. I worried that the unit was doing nothing more than acting like a small air blower. So I decided to get out our 12 year old vacuum cleaner and started vacuuming in the area near the purifier. Within less than a minute, the "DUST" light came on, the clean air monitor indicator moved to 4 lights (indicating severe pollution detected) and the fan speed immediately shifted into "HI". The fan noise was not objectionable; in fact not even near as loud as a normal oscillating house fan running at a moderately high speed. With bright sunlight light coming in thru the large living room window, I could see particulate dust matter floating around in the area where I had just run the vacuum. Within about 5 to 8 minutes, the particulate matter had cleared and the unit began to cycle back down to "MED", then "LOW", and then the "QUIET" fan speed. At that point I was thinking, hmm, nice!"
I had remembered reading one fella''s review who wrote that when he expelled some personal gas near the purifier, he laughed when the "ODOR" light came on. I thought, funny, but naaaah. So I went to take a shower while the unit was in its initial operation for several hours. When I got out, I decided to take my roll-on deodorant and apply it to my underarms while near the purifier. Sure enough, the "ODOR" light comes on (I assume from the deodorant `cuz I''m not gettin'' back in the shower, lol), the fan speed ramped up, and stayed this way after I had left the room and gotten dressed. When I came back 15 minutes later, the odor light was still on but I ignored it and left the room again. Came back about 2 or 3 minutes later as I was leaving the house and the "ODOR" light was now off and the fan speed was back to "QUIET".
Now just to give you a little heads up, neither my wife or I are smokers, and we don''t have any inside pets, but we do live in an area of the country where outdoor mold spores and pollen counts can rise moderately high at times. Our home is only about 12 years old, and we mostly use a propane ventless space heater to heat our lower basement office areas in the winter. This is where I spend most of my days and where I want to use the purifier.
Well after initial operation, the instructions say to unplug the unit from the wall in order to reset the sensor data memory and move it to the space of intended use for normal operation. I did this. After plugging the unit back in and powering up, the unit shifted into "MED" speed and the clean air monitor lights went to Defcon 2, lol. I guess it was finding that my office space had contaminated air. As an interesting contrast on the odor detector, my wife decided to do her fingernails one evening in the room next to my office. The chemical was that strong smell of acetone fingernail polish remover, which permeated the whole downstairs. I closed my office door and looked over at the XJ-3800 Intelli-Pro and it had already ramped up to the next to highest fan speed, with 4 lights showing on the Clean Air Monitor, and the ODOR light was on. It took the unit about 10 minutes to clean up the air in my 15 by 15 office with the door closed. When I again opened my office door, the unit ramped up again to clean the rest of the air in the basement area. It finished that area in another 30 minutes.
I have to say that I am pleased with this unit and would buy it again with the short experience I have with it. I am not sure what kind of life I''ll get out of the UV lamp, HEPA filter, or "wires" that will eventually need to be cleaned, but the instructions give you step by step procedures with pictures so I am not too worried. Now what about all the other good folks out there who have not had a positive experience? Well the discernment that I believe is needed here would include the following:
* Do you have a highly contaminated interior area that includes, frequent smoking, indoor pets, damp and musty basement areas, older construction homes (20 plus years), carpet or upholstered furniture that has not been replaced in more than 10 years, wood burning fire places where ashes and soot can become airborne, inadequate outdoor air exchange rates (ASHRAE codes recommend a complete fresh air exchange through mechanical ventilation every 3 hours, minimum)? All of these can create an interior space that will require an air purifier to work harder and longer, and shorten the life of the filtering system.
* If your home is naturally ventilated from open windows, screen doors, loose door and window seals, etc. then your home will experience 3 to 5 air changes per hour or more. If you have high mold spore and pollen counts outdoors, high humidity levels, high industrial or transportation pollution nearby, and windy conditions, this can be bad for the inside of your home and can shorten the life of your purifier''s filters.
* Some people (and I really should say most people) don''t like to read instructions. They unpack a product, plug it in, and then throw their hands up in the air when it doesn''t work the way they had hoped. A good manufacturer includes helpful instructions to make sure you have a successful experience with their product. They know that if the unit works properly, you will tell your friends and you will buy another. Therefore, they go to great lengths to tell you how to get the best operating experience out of their product. Read the instructions before turning the unit on. I think this may be the downfall to some, not all, who experience disappointment with this unit.
* And finally, some of these units probably are lemons out of the box. Based on the reviews, and taking exception for operator error, I am guessing the lemon rate may be as high as 5 percent. That''s probably 4 percent too high. But even with this high of a faulty rate, Amazon will be your ace in the hold to insure your satisfaction.
Therefore, I have given this product a 5 star review and would recommend all to buy it from an Amazon sponsored dealer in order to protect your purchase.
Want Surround Air XJ-3800 Large Intelligent Air Purifier Discount?
Wow, this machine is amazing. I actually picked it up at a second hand store for $15.00 dollars. It only needed a new $36.00 HEPA filter. I have two dogs and it took the dander smell right out of the air. I can also walk up to this machine and fart, the machine will detect the odor and the Ordor light will turn on. Too Funny!!
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I read online to buy this to help remove scuffs from stainless steel. It didnt work.. It made everything around it shiny so I guess its good for polishing but wont help with scuffs or scrapes. I then had to polish the entire refrigerator so it matched.. But the fridge is nice and shiny now.. Scuffs and all
