Winix 5500-2 Air Purifier with True Hepa, Plasmawave and Odor Reducing Washable AOC Carbon Filter

This appears to be cutting edge when it comes to air purifiers. I bought it because I like the fact they had a washable carbon filter. I was disappointed it didn’t come in anything but black but I’ll survive it.However it is so much complicated being a smart device and I have yet to figure out how to make it become part of my smart network of many devices, which may be part of the problem I have over 20 devices in my smart Network.. It operates sufficiently, I guess, and anything that would be relevant.I’ve yet to notice anything that’s significantly wonderful and nothing that is a problem.I like the size, and again I can’t impress is very quiet and I like that. And it does look pretty sleek and design if someone’s into that.But I recommend it - probably. It ... MoreThis appears to be cutting edge when it comes to air purifiers. I bought it because I like the fact they had a washable carbon filter. I was disappointed it didn’t come in anything but black but I’ll survive it.However it is so much complicated being a smart device and I have yet to figure out how to make it become part of my smart network of many devices, which may be part of the problem I have over 20 devices in my smart Network.. It operates sufficiently, I guess, and anything that would be relevant.I’ve yet to notice anything that’s significantly wonderful and nothing that is a problem.I like the size, and again I can’t impress is very quiet and I like that. And it does look pretty sleek and design if someone’s into that.But I recommend it - probably. It definitely appears to have far more bells and whistle’s. The color is black I would rather had something else Although it is growing on me. And I wish I could get on the smart network.UPDATE this thing has never stayed on and keeps shutting itself off. It’s too late to request a replacement so I’m taking a pretty big ‘hit’ to my wallet on this one.

I got a few of these when I found out I was pregnant. I live in an old condo that gets SO dusty. No matter how much I clean I can’t stay on top it. I was so worried about my baby breathing in all this dust. I keep these running 24/7 and they suck up a lot of dust. The filters are super easy to take out and clean. The only thing that’s not great about these are that there’s a screw inside that attaches the fan and it can come loose and start making this annoying loud rattling noise. I had to take to take the whole thing apart and tighten that screw but now it’s working great again.

"Smart" Sensor

I just received this air purifier after spending weeks scouring over reviews doing sooo much research, and out of the box the "smart" air sensor does not work, and the brand new remote does not work at all. The back of the remote is impossible to open to check/remove the battery. I lit a candle and placed it directly in front of this thing for a few min and then blew it out and watched the smoke go right into the sensor, and the sensor stayed bright blue so the machine never kicked up a notch to filter out the smoke. Next I lit some incense and held it right in front of the sensor for about 5 minutes and same thing. Sensor stayed bright blue indicating perfectly clean air. I tried manually resetting, but out of the box, this one seems to be a dud. If the sensor ... MoreI just received this air purifier after spending weeks scouring over reviews doing sooo much research, and out of the box the "smart" air sensor does not work, and the brand new remote does not work at all. The back of the remote is impossible to open to check/remove the battery. I lit a candle and placed it directly in front of this thing for a few min and then blew it out and watched the smoke go right into the sensor, and the sensor stayed bright blue so the machine never kicked up a notch to filter out the smoke. Next I lit some incense and held it right in front of the sensor for about 5 minutes and same thing. Sensor stayed bright blue indicating perfectly clean air. I tried manually resetting, but out of the box, this one seems to be a dud. If the sensor can't be trusted, the auto feature is worthless for the machine to kick into the right gear to filter out the bad stuff. Not sure if I want to try again with another 5500 or just move on to Coway/Levoit. Not looking forward to hauling this thing back to the store, but will be doing so this weekend.

Great filter! Very quiet and cleans well!

We have two of these now. They’re awesome! These filters are no joke in that they remove an incredible amount of stuff from the air. I like that you have a pre-filter as well as an odor filter - and then you have the HEPA filter as well! The units are quiet. We keep the plasma wave off.We use a piece of paper over the light on the front of the device. That may be the only drawback (that the light doesn’t turn off), but it’s quite minor.I’ve owned the number of the filtrete units and a Dyson. This brand is far better in my opinion.

Impressed

I actually love it enough I promoted it to my beother in law and he purchased one and my sister is getting one after Christmas as well as my daughter in law. My only small complaint is my remote does not work I dont know if its the battery or the remote I spent enough on the machine I should not have to buy a costly battery from jump. Would like some more info on the plasmawave tech per humans an animals are there any affects to us. And it doesnt hold a memory everytime its turned off an back on it goes to default auto/plasmawave. And the lights only dim out if it the room is darkened not that big of deal to me. What made me promote it to family is we are smokers and I was tired of the big cloud of smoke lingering in my livingroom (mostly) and when I tured this on ... MoreI actually love it enough I promoted it to my beother in law and he purchased one and my sister is getting one after Christmas as well as my daughter in law. My only small complaint is my remote does not work I dont know if its the battery or the remote I spent enough on the machine I should not have to buy a costly battery from jump. Would like some more info on the plasmawave tech per humans an animals are there any affects to us. And it doesnt hold a memory everytime its turned off an back on it goes to default auto/plasmawave. And the lights only dim out if it the room is darkened not that big of deal to me. What made me promote it to family is we are smokers and I was tired of the big cloud of smoke lingering in my livingroom (mostly) and when I tured this on it pulled it right to it the room cleared up I was impressed, no more cloudy house (have to move to rooms we're smoking in) but that alone was worth. My husband cut a very strong onion and the kitchen smelled sat it in the doorway ran it smell was gone same with a room I keep my cats and their litter in it smelled just like that sat it in front of the door ran it on four/turbo in 20mins clean air no smell. I have tried different rooms different situations and it did not disappoint.

It's ok?

I have a lot of cats.A LOT of litter. 150 pounds a week.** So to explain the image first IF it decides to upload it because nothing is showing up if I select it. My parents have this grill where every week when I deep clean it has a layer of litter dust. This was one week without the purifier and one week with the purifier and to be completely honest there is not a huge difference, and the purifier is kept a few inches in front of it. So I dont know how to feel about that.The dust from the litter was killing us. I got this one because it was ranking higher in reviews than the bigger and more expensive ones. There is a slight difference. Less nose running, less coughing. The air quality indicator seems ok but I do think its a bit rigged in that if you choose a ... MoreI have a lot of cats.A LOT of litter. 150 pounds a week.** So to explain the image first IF it decides to upload it because nothing is showing up if I select it. My parents have this grill where every week when I deep clean it has a layer of litter dust. This was one week without the purifier and one week with the purifier and to be completely honest there is not a huge difference, and the purifier is kept a few inches in front of it. So I dont know how to feel about that.The dust from the litter was killing us. I got this one because it was ranking higher in reviews than the bigger and more expensive ones. There is a slight difference. Less nose running, less coughing. The air quality indicator seems ok but I do think its a bit rigged in that if you choose a higher setting it'll suspiciously agree that the air quality got worse a little while later. When I'm scooping sometimes the indicator will change sometimes it won't. If you spray something right in front of it, it'll still take a bit for it to say something changed but it does notice. You can't feel it sucking any air in though. And hair mostly stays on the outside grill. Its very bad at actual collecting it as i still get tumbleweed hairballs popping up in the room.Overall if you have a lot of pets I dont think it's great at doing much. I think it's more for smoke, chemicals, etc, but dust is iffy.

Just awesome

Awesome product for its value and even the filters are relatively cheap.., this thing runs 24 hours a day seven days a week I have one of my living room, and I bought one for my bedroom and the one of my living room. The amount of dust that then catches is astonishing. Also, the front filter is washable and then you add the carbon behind that and the filter itself HEPA that gets replaced and they all come in a single box for like 50 bucks my allergies have went down, and I have ferrets and also helps with odor for the price you can’t beat this. It’s got a turbo mode the first one I had I think two years and it runs for 24 hours straight. We have a 1253 foot square.. if you were looking for value, don’t look anywhere else. This is the product you want…. I have one of ... MoreAwesome product for its value and even the filters are relatively cheap.., this thing runs 24 hours a day seven days a week I have one of my living room, and I bought one for my bedroom and the one of my living room. The amount of dust that then catches is astonishing. Also, the front filter is washable and then you add the carbon behind that and the filter itself HEPA that gets replaced and they all come in a single box for like 50 bucks my allergies have went down, and I have ferrets and also helps with odor for the price you can’t beat this. It’s got a turbo mode the first one I had I think two years and it runs for 24 hours straight. We have a 1253 foot square.. if you were looking for value, don’t look anywhere else. This is the product you want…. I have one of my bedroom and one of my living room and I have one downstairs and the basement…

Real HEPA filter, cleans the air well

I bought Winix 5500-2 because it was a top choice on consumer reports, had a real HEPA filter and a wide air input area, and was rated quieter than other purifiers. I'm very happy with it even 2 years later! Low setting is almost silent, medium is less than a whisper, and even the highest setting is pretty ignorable. It does improve air quality. Get the pet filters (#1712-0094-00 filter U) and replace it monthly to extend the life of the more expensive HEPA filter (#116130 filter H). I don't have pets and don't smoke, but I work from home, so I replaced the pet filter every 3 weeks since it caught lots of dust. I replaced the HEPA after a year but it still looked kinda clean, so this year I'm leaving it in longer.

Seems okay so far

Seems like it's working, mostly... I've been using it for several weeks and do not use the ion technology.What's good: I like that you have to option to NOT use the ion technology. There are some brands that don't have it at all and some that have it but you can't turn it off. The filter types and quality are good on this model, there is a washable carbon filter that extends the life of the filter and the required filter changes happen less often than some other brands and need to. Some need to be changed every 3 months. Although these filters are a little pricy, they not as expensive as many others, and not changed as often so I opted to go with this Winix. My allergies are better-not 100% but I do leave the window open a bit. It's quiet. I can say it's gotten a ... MoreSeems like it's working, mostly... I've been using it for several weeks and do not use the ion technology.What's good: I like that you have to option to NOT use the ion technology. There are some brands that don't have it at all and some that have it but you can't turn it off. The filter types and quality are good on this model, there is a washable carbon filter that extends the life of the filter and the required filter changes happen less often than some other brands and need to. Some need to be changed every 3 months. Although these filters are a little pricy, they not as expensive as many others, and not changed as often so I opted to go with this Winix. My allergies are better-not 100% but I do leave the window open a bit. It's quiet. I can say it's gotten a bit louder in the last few weeks but still quiet and doesn't disturb my sleep at all. It detects/goes red if I spray alcohol or lysol even in the next room with the door closed. The not so good: I've used ammonia and bleach near it and it didn't detect it at all. I've put it near the kitchen while cooking and sometimes it detects things and sometimes it doesn't and some odors can linger longer than I thought they should (onions) but the odors do seem to go away. Since this is my first air purifier, I don't have anything to compare it to but I can say that it does help, but it's not as dramatic a change as I thought it would be.

Works Great During a Pandemic!

I have 2 of these in my small bedroom, and 5 more of these throughout my small one-bedroom apartment. These have worked perfectly to help filter out pathogens like viruses, dust, and germs. I breathe a lot better, too. Because I have so many in my small apartment, I turn off the Plasmawave feature for most, so as not to create too much ozone in my apartment. I typically have these running all the time, with 3 out of 4 on the fan level. I follow the instructions on how to clean the prefilter and carbon filter. I replace the filters about once every 6 to 9 months, especially after a brutal wildfire season. I have these going at full blast whenever I have any visitors in my apartment, or whenever I'm doing a lot of in-and-out of my apartment for tasks such as getting ... MoreI have 2 of these in my small bedroom, and 5 more of these throughout my small one-bedroom apartment. These have worked perfectly to help filter out pathogens like viruses, dust, and germs. I breathe a lot better, too. Because I have so many in my small apartment, I turn off the Plasmawave feature for most, so as not to create too much ozone in my apartment. I typically have these running all the time, with 3 out of 4 on the fan level. I follow the instructions on how to clean the prefilter and carbon filter. I replace the filters about once every 6 to 9 months, especially after a brutal wildfire season. I have these going at full blast whenever I have any visitors in my apartment, or whenever I'm doing a lot of in-and-out of my apartment for tasks such as getting packages from the mailroom and retrieving door deliveries. So far, these have kept me virus-free for the past few years. (I must also say that I mask everywhere I go, I allow fresh air inside when others enter my apartment, and I require mask wearing for anyone who enters my apartment, which are layered approaches to helping me reduce viral risk, in addition to using the air purifiers. I'm disabled, so I spend most of my time home alone, too. But I feel more secure with having these air purifiers aid in keeping my air clean.) Also, I still have to dust and clean the baseboards, but not as frequently. The replacement filters are less expensive than some other air purifiers I've had in the past. And the design of these blends in with most decorations. To keep them mobile on hard flooring, I've purchased 16" rolling plant stands to place 5 out of my 7 air purifiers on, so that I can easily sweep and mop around them, while keeping them slightly off the ground. My 2 bedroom purifiers sit directly on the carpeting, one that purifies the bedroom area, and the other that faces the door to my walk-in closet, for added coverage. I would highly recommend these purifiers! I've had most of mine for about 2 years now, and they work great!