Breath
easy.
You
don't need to tell us, but allergies are a total bitch. If it isn't
hay fever in the spring and summer, it's dust allergies in the autumn
and winter... and we're sick of it. We've heard it all, from eating
local honey, to never opening windows, and from running a
dehumidifier constantly, to making a small sacrifice to one of local
heathen Gods, but nothing works – we're still sneezing all day
long. That is, until now. We review the MeacoClean CA-HEPA 47x5 Air
Purifier.
You might vacuum your carpets, scrub your counters, and polish your windows, but do you ever consider cleaning the air inside your home? We certainly never have (or any of the previous three, to be honest), but, according to Wikipedia, air is very important to humans, and should be a definite consideration when embarking upon your cleaning regimen.
The
MeacoClean CA-HEPA 47x5 Air Purifier does just that, by taking in the
air in a room into itself, running it through several filters, then
blasting it back out again. Whereas a dehumidifier exacts water from
the air, so an air purifier removes all the crap that could be
exacerbating your allergies and making you feel rubbish all year
round.
This
particular model of purifier, which weighs in at an impressively
compact 40 cm in height, is good for rooms of up to 78m³,
which should be no bigger than most normal sized house rooms. Putting
it in a room of about that size means the machine will clean and
circulate the entire air capacity about three times an hour, whereas
in a smaller room that increases, so the likes of dust and pollen
that come in from doors and open windows will be caught faster. We
suppose that if you stick it in a tiny broom cupboard, it will become
to cleanest most allergen free room on earth. Or something.
Air
is cleaned by being pulled through several different filters once it
has been drawn into the MeacoClean CA-HEPA 47x5. First up, a
pre-filter catches large particles like clumps of dust, before a True
HEPA filter catches particles up to 0.3 microns (the stuff you can't
see with your eyes). After that an Enhanced Active Charcoal Filter
neutralises smells and bad odours, then a combined ultra-violet and
titanium filter kills bacteria, germs and viruses. Finally, an
ioniser helps to catch the last of the dust, before the clean air is
blown back out into the room.
The
only logical way we found of testing if the MeacoClean CA-HEPA 47x5
Air Purifier actually worked was to give it to the most
allergy-stricken loser person we know. This guy is
afflicted by a rather sever dust allergy, whereby most mornings he
awakes to a sneezing fit. Either that, or he's just using it as an
excuse not to do any dusting.
Set
up in his room, which is about half way to the maximum size the
device can handle, the benefits could be felt almost immediately.
Remember, this thing is not only designed to remove stuff that makes
you feel ill, but also for trapping stinks in that charcoal filter.
Therefore it makes a room smell better for just being in it, even
before any dust and pollen had been caught. On that note, our Guinea
Pig's allergies were definitely lessened, and he could feel a real
improvement to the air than ever before. In a room that size, we
worked out that the total capacity of air was being cleaned seven
times each and every hour. Pretty amazing.
The
MeacoClean CA-HEPA 47x5 Air Purifier is small, light, easy to set up
and operate, and cheap to maintain. Even for those of us who don't
have allergies it made a vast improvement to the quality of the air
in Test Pit Towers, and we're keen to see what benefits are reaped in
the long term over winter. Check it, and the others in the range,
out.
£149.99