BioFresh HEPA Air Purifier
After quite a bit of reading, some research through the web and after talking with a bunch of people, Jennifer and I decided to splurge on the BioFresh HEPA Air Purifier made by Mitsubishi. It can be purchased from various online retailers including Amazon and eBay. We ended up getting ours from eBay for a little less than $300 with rebates and shipping, which made it a pretty good deal. We have had it now in our house for about a week. More information for the product can be found at RabbitAir but it looks like the design and manufacturing is by Mitsubishi and there is some relation with Sparo products (might be another retailer/distributor).
In three words, I love it. Right from the start, the company seems to have their ducks in a row. The packaging is not flimsy and has a very solid feel to it. Imagine unpacking an expensive LCD monitor or a plasma TV as opposed to unpacking a $50 microwave from Walmart. The instructions were precise and useful, the box was well printed and very sophisticated and the machine itself was not flimsy. In addition, the filters were neatly and carefully packaged in dark plastic and everything was neatly tucked away for shipping. I could easily tell that a lot of attention had been paid to packaging and shipping the product.
After plugging the unit in, I turned it on with the thin remote and set it on full auto. It has a “pollen sensor” and a “smell sensor” and they work in tandem to determine how fast the unit runs. It was interesting to know how polluted the unit thought our house was when we turned it on.
- The unit is very close to silent. Only when it senses something nasty does it get a tad bit louder but the brushless fan is perfect.
- It cleans quickly and automatically. Cooking smells and odors are gone in a few minutes, never longer than a few hours (yet)
- The pollen and smell sensors work, which is quite amazing. Cooking makes it automatically run faster and so does Jennifer’ nail polish smell. When the dogs wag their tails near the pollen/dander sensor, the unit wakes up and starts sending more air through.
We have not had the chance yet to understand the benefit of the “Biofresh” filter technology and I will write about it after we have had it for a few months. But for the time being, I am really satisfied with it and wish I had bought it sooner. The air is fresh and clean, there is no “dog” odor, cooking smells dissappear within a few minutes and it is extremely quiet. The only surprising thing was that they advertise that their filters should last upto three years but their warranty is only valid if you replace the filters every 18 months (which are a sum of $50 from Amazon for 18 months). It looks like the filters will need to be lightly vacuumed every three or four weeks to get the dust and dog hair out.
Come back in a few months for the rest of the review.
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Fresh air
Some types of indoor air filters have been getting a bad rap lately: A post at Talkin’ Tech (among other things) reports on a recent study finding that ozone-generating purifiers can actually create dangerous levels of smog in your…
Trackback by ThisNext Blog 6/25/2006 @ 7:31 pmhey mark
Comment by Spike Lomibao 8/17/2006 @ 6:50 pmi’ve just been doing research on air filters and am inclined to buy a rabbit air. your comments are helpful. the only hesitation i have is with this new technology. i mean, it all sounds wonderful, but i’m wondering if several years down the line we find out that biofresh fiber technology is a carcinogen… sorta like the asbestos fiasco. i will be optimistic and try not to be taken in by this culture of fear we live in. but i will be on the lookout, and if you hear any news, let me know. meanwhile, i will try the product out. thanks, spike.
Hello Mark,
Comment by James Pak 9/8/2006 @ 2:22 pmI’ve been doing reseach on air purifier for couple of weeks now. There is so many products out there. I like your review on this product and this was the one I was going to try out. My main concern is though, I smoke in my room and want to make sure it actually remove smoke from the air NOT the order (I don’t know if there is difference). I guess I will try this out and may come back to you and let you know how it went.
Thanks for your review
Do you happen to remember what the discount code was? I’ve done quite a bit of research and really like what I’m hearing about this air purifier.
Comment by Mike 9/15/2006 @ 2:06 pmMike, the code was a one time eBay code that is no longer valid. Sorry.
Comment by Mark 9/20/2006 @ 6:01 pmHey Mark, now that you have the BioFresh for over half a year, how do you feel about it? I am currently in the market for a new air filter and so I wonder if you can share your opinion as a long(er) term owner?
Thanks!
Comment by Maverick 11/14/2006 @ 4:45 pmMaverick,
Comment by Mark 11/14/2006 @ 4:53 pmWe love it. It is probably the ONLY appliance I have purchased in the recent past that has performed FAR beyond my expectations. Care and cleaning is simple and it just gets the job done. We have two dogs at home and our house does not smell like dog or stale food at all. If we cook large amounts of spicy food or deep fry inside the house, we just turn it on high overnight and all the smell and oily air is gone!
The automatic system works very well most of the time and turns on and off as it needs to. It still is very sensitive and comes on full strength if the dogs wag their tails around it and when we cook. A great unit indeed, worth every penny.
The company “Rabbit Fresh” used to be called “Fresh Air Express.” They previously hawked a similar product to Sharper Image’s ionic breeze, trying to cash in on that. Then they changed their name and found a new product. I wonder how much success previous customers have had getting support or even figuring out how to contact them about the previous product’s “3 year warranty”.
Now they are just putting their name on Mitsubishi’s product.
You should also read their fine print. They clearly boast that their filter “can last 3 years.” After you buy it and read the manual, you will find that their warranty is void if you can’t prove that you’ve replaced the filter every 18 months. Doesn’t that sound a little bogus? They tell you to expect to buy filters no more than every 3 years, and then force you to buy them twice as often. Who benefits from that? They do!
Also, about the supposed “nano silver” filter they mention. Did you know that the EPA has taken the stance that products advertised as germicidal, which contain nano silver, are viewed by the EPA under the PESTICIDE category? And this is an air purifier, right?
As far as I am concerned, the product may look nice on the surface, but you are buying basically a HEPA filter with ionizer. The sensors are really meaningless when you consider that a purifier should be ideally left on most of the time anyway. You will find no shortage of similar air purifiers, and certainly there are more powerful ones for about the same or even less money. And if you can live with the questionable filter life claim and don’t mind paying their filter prices, go for it. I’m just glad I did a little extra homework.
Comment by don 6/8/2007 @ 11:09 pmDon, are you sure that rabbit air is the same company as what was “Fresh Air Express”? I have a fresh air express ionic tower uv that just died (within warranty) and the company appears to have disappeared. Probably better for me anyways because even though they claimed it emitted very low amounts of ozone, i know now that ozone at any amount is not something you want to be generating in your home voluntarily. I was looking at these rabbit air units and thinking of getting one but I certainly would not if they are the same company as the “Fresh Air Express” scamjob.
Comment by Heidi 6/21/2007 @ 7:30 pmHeidi,
I’ve also been looking at Rabbit Air since they’ve been getting rave reviews on Amazon. However, I’m a little bit skeptical because the reviews are too uniformly good. In fact, many of the “reviewers” have only a single review about their Rabbit Air, leading me to believe the reviews might be planted.
With respect to Fresh Air Express, I was digging around the web and have determined that the two companies are run by the same people, since they share the same address and phone number. Here is Rabbit Air’s BBB info:
http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/CompanyReportPage_Expository.aspx?CompanyID=100007309
and that of Fresh Air Express:
http://www.insiderpages.com/b/15238815062
http://www.losangeles.com/fresh-air-express-incorporated-b5444261
That said, there seem to be plenty of reviews from real customers (such as the owner of this blog) who are satisfied with the product, so I remain interested despite the shady past and potentially questionable marketing tactics.
To Don’s comment about nano silver, it seems to be used quite commonly, is described as safe and inert, and is featured in Samsung’s products (search Google for nano silver), so nano silver seems like a good thing to me.
Comment by Lawrence 7/19/2007 @ 2:01 pm