Some of my readers may recall that a few weeks back we had all 5 kids come down with the swine flu, not a fun thing at all. Fortunately, everyone is all better now and I can be thankful that our ordeal with the swine flu is behind us. I'm also quite relieved that it did not occur during all the holiday festivities.
In a hint of irony, I was offered the opportunity to review the Germ Guardian Air Purifier right as the kids were all recovering. After those past few weeks, I was willing to try almost anything that might reduce the chances of me playing doctor mom for a while, so the answer was yes.
I want to start by saying that we've had air purifiers before. Two of my children suffer from asthma and we all have some allergies. Air purifers were suggested by our pediatrician as a good idea. However, the pricey units we owned in the past were ultimately tossed in the garbage. My complaints with those units included the noise, the constant need to wash the filter, and the smell.
The Germ Guardian Air Purifier has been running non-stop in our home for several weeks and I'm very pleased. It was placed in our Master Bedroom so I would be around it frequently. I was thrilled to discover that it lived up to it's promise not to emit ozone. Gone was that nasty smell I had experienced with other brands. Even better, this unit seemed to actually remove bad smells from the room. The hint of nail polish remover I had used seemed to vanish in half the time. Perhaps I should have put this in the boy's room?
I was also very pleasantly surprised to discover that I did not have to wash the filter every couple days. Instead it has a filter you simply replace it every 6 months, no washing. It even came with an extra filter.
About the noise, my past experience with air filters included a crackling bug zapping noise each time a minute dust particle flitted by the unit. It was incredibly annoying and was the ultimate reason we tossed the thing out. The Germ Guardian Air Purifier does not make that noise. In fact, it has multiple settings and you can't hear much of a purr until you get to the highest one. The Germ Guardian passed my quiet test with flying colors.
Clearly the Germ Guardian is the most pleasing Air Purifier I have experienced. You hardly notice it is even there at all. However, I felt it was important to make sure that it did as much as the other brands in terms of actually cleaning the air. I popped over to thehealthyhomechallenge.com to get the scoop and it appears to do even more. According to their website, it has five powerful levels of air cleaning. It captures allergens, uses UV-C light to kill common germs and viruses, kills airborne mold spores and fights unwanted odors.
Better still, the Germ Guardian Air Purifier is considerably less expensive then other brands and currently is being offering at a 33% discount until Dec. 7th. Thank you to Germ Guardian for providing this product for my review.