Question:
I am living with a girl that is very allergic to my cat (actually she has
asthma).
I see that there are some Honeywell HEPA air filters for about $200. There
is also some Sharper Image air filter which sounds interesting, but I am
generally warey (sp?) of the things they make in general.
Answer:
I intend to order a SmartHepa Console soon from from HealthWay at
P.O. Box 2729, Syracuse, N.Y. 13220-2729, 315-463-0240, or for sales,
800-227-1375. Fax 315-437-7290. Cost about $200 plus shipping (and tax
if applicable). I have a large living room.. There are smaller models,
the Tower for small to medium sized rooms, and a TableTop for small rooms I'm using an Environcare unit now, but it is so noisy that I want
something quieter and bigger. Each to his own.. Go look at the Dulley
reports which you can order from www.dulley.com or by mail. Cost about
$3 each.
I have no interest, financial or otherwise in either the Dulley reports,
nor in HealthWay.
I have two cats AND a Honeywell Enviricaire (sp?) HEPA filter. It
surely does collect a huge amount of cat's hair.
But my grand daughter who is very allergic to cats cannot come to my
home even with that good filter...So the solution is obvious...
I have been using the Honeywell for several years now, and am quite
satisfied with it. Be advised that it is noisy, but it keeps my
breathing from being noisier. My advice: buy nothing less than a *true* HEPA machine, and largeer is
better.
No connection with the product except as satisfied consumer. My girlfriend has allergies which have kept her from sleeping through
the night. I researched air cleaners because I thought one might
help. The "best" from what I read is the Austin Healthmate, which we
are currently using. We first got a Honeywell model 12528 for about US$150 at Sam's Club.
We bought it becuase we were at Sam's, the price wasn't bad, so why
not try it. I found it noisy at the mid setting (now I couldn't
sleep) and my girlfriend said that it didn't help her much after the
first few nights.
We subsequently placed an order at the local Brookstone in the mall
for an Austin Healthmate protable air cleaner. This cost $400 plus
tax but only $19.00 for shipping via UPS (the cleaner weighs about
50lbs, so this was pretty good). What I liked about buying from
Brookstone was that we can return the cleaner to one of their local
stores w/in 30 days if we don't like it. So we don't even have to
ship it back. Even though, I could have saved about $50 by buying
mail order, I liked being able to return it easily if it didn't live
up to the high $400 cost.
The Healthmate works great. It is quieter than the Honeywell. The
Hepa filter is at least 2x the size of this particular Honeywell and
2-3x heavier. The unit is on casters so it can be easily mover from
room to room. We like it, more importantly, she likes it and can
sleep through the night now. At least general stress aside; maybe
someone should make a stress filter :-).
More on how loud it is. On low, I would descripe it as whisper quiet,
but I wonder how good ANY (not just this one) air cleaner is on low.
Medium is about 2/3 (a purely subjective approximation) as loud as the
Honeywell. It is just slightly louder than the sound of a central A/C
unit blowing air into a room, and it sounds much like one. On high,
the Healthmate is probably louder than the Honeywell. I use this
setting for cleaning the room before bed time. I don't think this is
necessarily a negative, this just means to me that the Healthmate is
moving a lot of air, a lot more than the Honeywell, I suspect.
This is a matter of health, happiness and in your case compatibility;
my overall opinion is if you need an air cleaner because of allergies
or whatnot, spend some money, the quality will be better. But if you
can't, buy from somewhere you can return the cleaner to if you are not
happy.
Also I agree with the other posters about not getting an
electro-filter, ionizer, or anything less than a true-hepa filter.
My boyfriend was very allergic to my cats and he had asthma too.
In the beginning he just took antihistamines when it got bad
and his pump for any asthma scares. It took about 3 weeks or so
and he found that he didn't need to use the tablets or pump. It
turns out that he is not allergic to my cats any more. Only my
cats, though, he is still allergic to any other cat. My advice is don't be too hasty, try and tough it out for a
while.
