Thinking of buying an air purifier to help your allergies? While air purifying machines can rid a room of airborne particles, they won’t remove many gases, odors or particles that have settled onto furniture and floors. Thus, they’re better at removing animal dander than dust and pollen, which tend to settle on surfaces quickly. You’ll still have to dust and mop frequently.
Look for a purifier with HEPA or ULPA filters, which trap micro particles, and choose a machine based on room size. Ionizers charge particles for easier capture, but the charged particles will also stick to walls and other surfaces. Ozone generators don’t remove particles well and may raise the indoor level of ozone above the federal limit.
Pros
Quiet, works, washable filters.
Cons
Price, not as easy to clean as the Ionic Breeze, cost of filters.
The Bottom Line
An excellent air purifier for those suffering from allergies.
Prior to buying my Sharp Plasmacluster FP-N40CX I was using an Ionic Breeze Quadra. While the Ionic Breeze Quadra is an amazing machine in many respects, it wasn't doing an adequate job removing mold spores from my home. I chose the Sharp Plasmacluster after visiting my doctor, who recommended the Plasmacluster for these types of biospores. So, how does it compare to my Ionic Breeze Quadra?
The Product:
The Sharp Plasmacluster (medium room model FP-N40CX) is a relatively large air purifier; about 22" tall, 16" wide and 8 inches deep. According to the Sharp Company, the Plasmacluster offers triple filtration and combines passive air filtration with active air treatment. This combination enables this unit to be effective at removing a multitude of air impurities i.e. mold, dust, pollen, odor, etc.
What is Plasmacluster technology?
Plasmacluster technology causes both positively and negatively charged ions to be released into the atmosphere. Water molecules immediately surround these ions once they are emitted into the air. The resulting clusters, which are called "Plasmaclusters", spread throughout a room (252 sq.ft.max) attaching to airborne particles and molecules, which then fall to the ground.
Styling:
Although Sharp claims that this unit is "elegant in design", I find the Plasmacluster's sheetmetal to be more utilitarian than anything else. If you are looking for a fancy air purifier, I highly suggest going with the Ionic Breeze. Although it's not as effective as the Plasmacluster, it offers a more attractive design and has the ability to blend in with any room's theme.
Noise level:
One of the slight downsides to the Plasmacluster is its noise level on max settings. Although the Plasmacluster is aeons quieter than my old GE HEPA Air Purifier, it's nowhere near as quiet as my Ionic Breeze Quadra. The Plasmacluster's noise level isn't enough to keep me from getting a good nights rest, however I still usually just run my Ionic Breeze Quadra during the night time hours.
Ease of use:
Although extremely easy to operate, clean up is another story. One of the biggest problems with conventional air purifiers is cleaning up the system after it has cleaned my air. Unfortunately, the Plasmacluster doesn't offer a more user-friendly approach to cleaning up. To explain you have three filters to clean about once every two to three months. These filters include the pre filter (used for catching airborne hair, dust, etc.) the Carbon filter ( a charcoal filter that is used to collect any dust that has made it through the pre filter), and finally the HEPA filter which captures everything else, including foul odors. These filters are great, but can be a big pain in the butt to clean. Note: These filters are supposed to last up to 5 years! Also, this system comes with a remote control for those of us who don't like to change our air purifier settings while we are watching a good TV program.
Features:
LED Color display, which displays current operating mode and current air conditions
A Filter Monitor with indicator light tells when to clean or replace the filter
Remote Control
Built-in off Timer- 1, 4, 8 Hours
LED Color Indicator Light is On when the Plasmacluster Ions being Emitted
Choice of Full Auto, Special Program (Pollen), Manual Operating Modes
Ultra Low Power Consumption: Silent/Medium/High/Max - 3/6/14/25 Watts
Performance
The Plasmacluster is perhaps the most effective air purifier that I have ever used. Though it is noisier than systems like the Ionic Breeze Quadra and even my Holmes Ionizer, the Plasmacluster by Sharp works significantly better than both of those units, enabling this system to create a clean household atmosphere like I have never experienced. It's amazing how well I can breathe in my house after using this unit.
Prior to using my Plasmacluster, waking up in the morning was one of the worst parts of my day. To explain, in the morning I would always have red eyes, I was always tired, I usually had a sore throat, and just wasn't a happy camper in general. It's been nothing short of amazing how healthy I feel and how much energy I have in the morning after using this system. I no longer have red eyes in the morning, I don't have that common sore throat, and I don't wake up sneezing.
Thanks to Sharp's Plasmacluster Technology, which allows both positively and negatively charged ions to be released, this system is able to do something that no others have been able to do. For example, I have a skylight in my hall, which allows everyone who looks in that direction to see the sun reflecting off the floating dust particles. Since I have used the Plasmacluster these dust particles are virtually undetectable.
The Plasmacluster FP-C40CX is said to be useful in rooms 14' x 18' (252 sq. ft.). My living room is about this size, however the effects from this purifier can be experienced throughout my home. If you have a large home you may want to check out the N60CX model (100 dollars more than the N40CX) which is better for larger rooms.
So what about Odor?
I like to think of my house as smelling good without this air purifier, but I have got more compliments on the smell of my house since I have started using this system; it smells fresh and clean. There is an odor sensor on this unit, so if you have a smelly house it will let you know via an indicator light. This system works great for those who like to cook without the smell of food filtering into other parts of the house.
Price/Availability:
I have never seen a Sharp Plasmacluster in any of my local retail stores. Online, this unit can run anywhere from $299-$399 (about the same price as the Ionic Breeze). The filters, which will need to be replaced every 5 years, are around $150 for both the HEPA and Carbon. If anything goes wrong with your new Sharp Plasmacluster, Sharp backs it with a 1-year full coverage warranty.
Final Thoughts:
The Plasmacluster FP-N40CX has been a great addition to my health care. I can breathe better, I sleep better, and my house no longer has those dust particles floating around for the world to view. I recommend the Sharp Plasmacluster to anyone who needs a quality air purifier and I definitely recommend it over the Ionic Breeze Quadra.
True Cure For the Common Cold
by rinbau,Nov 08 '04
Pros: Extremely quite, great design, does what is says it does.
Cons: Size - most comparable items are the size of a boom box.
If you serious allergies, irrespective of cause, this machine will ease your troubles greatly. It will be up to you to take care of yourself outside the house, but inside, you are going to see a marked difference.
My daughter and I have serous allergies - The best prescribed medicine barely cut it for us. Once we got this machine, we have been forgetting to take our medication.
Coming in contact with people on the outside has given us a couple of bugs, but the incessant eye itching, runny nose, sneezing, wheezing and headaches have disappeared.
The price has dropped since we bought it, and is much lower than similar appliances in the market.
Finally We Can Breathe
Pros
Great unit! Effective, attractive, loaded with lots breathe easier features ...literally.
Cons
I wish you could turn the LEDs of from the unit not just the remote.
The Bottom Line
I recommend this to anyone wanting to breathe clean air and not wanting to pay a bundle. It's a product you didn't know you were missing until you got it.
I moved in with my girlfriend in our Uptown apartment in Manhattan. We moved from Seattle where we were used to fresh air and I thought dust was something you see on TV for the purpose of having a "French maid" in the scene.
So I thought it was really weird that even with all the windows closed and my Air Conditioner going and filtering air we had such a ridiculous accumulation of dust. All our furniture is leather and the tables are glass and stainless steel. We just couldn't figure out where all this dust was coming from.
After a few weeks of living here we both started waking up with that feeling your throat ...you know that one you get and the next day you know you're going to come down with a cold. But we never fully got ill. I developed a little cough that didn't go away and I just didn't know what the deal was. My girlfriend who is a singer noticed that her voice was going out and later got so bad she was all raspy. We tried figuring out what we do during our day that could cause her voice to go out. At this point we were going out all the time and she thought it may have been her social smoking - nope! She quit that and that didn't do it (New York bars are smoke free environments so it wasn't the second hand smoke either.) "Maybe it's all those shots of tequila and vodka drying out my throat" she said - nope! She switched to beer and even stopped drinking, nothing was helping.
I work from home and I'm very much a clean freak. So I spent about 2 to 3 hours every three days cleaning our little New York apartment. Our living room Measuring 16 1/2' Long X 9 1/2' Wide with 10' high ceilings. So I tried looking for all these little gadgets that could make cleaning easier. Like those little robotic vacuums and all that stuff. I caught that Sharper Image commercial on TV talking about living in cities and air pollution and all that good stuff. Things started to click in my little head and I started researching air purifiers. I naturally came to Epinions and read up on the Sharper Image and after reading mixed results and a consumer reports article stating its "ineffective" I decided to explore other options.
I learned about this thing called CADR it stands for Clean Air Delivery Rate. It's an independent organization that certifies air purifiers for cleaning air. So you can go on there and do the research at cadr.org. This is because what the manufacturer advertises isn't necessarily what you get. For example The Sharp Plasmacluster FP-N60CX air purifier is said to "serve" up to 330 ft sq. Well if you check with CADR they say: Dust 209 / Smoke 213 / Pollen 205. So that's something to keep in mind.
When choosing the unit I was using the following to make my decisions:
- effective (this ruled out sharper image stuff)
- attractive this killed a lot of the stuff out there including one of the most effective units the Friedrich
- quiet (This unit on medium or lower is really almost impossible to hear) In fact when we received it and I turned it on auto it sampled the air and kicked on into silent mode and I wasn't sure if it were on or broken.
- price (I wanted bang for the buck this came with a $100 rebate)
Ok so the unit itself looks cool, I like the LEDs this unit can detect the amount of impurities in the air whether they are dust or odors. So when you plug it in, it samples the air and internally judges whether its clean, dirty or very dirty. You can select how sensitive you want it to be (two settings normal or sensitive). I know it works because when I walk by after putting on some cologne it turns orange from green. Or if we start cooking in the kitchen it will "smell it" in the living room.
This unit uses two methods of cleaning the air. Active filtration and passive. The active part is the three stage filtering process. It goes through a mesh filter similar to one you would find in your AC or clothes dryer. This thing collects a lot of stuff like hair and all sorts of weird stuff you didn't even know was floating around in your house. The charcoal filter is the next step this has a smaller mesh and collects a lot of the finer dust particles on the outside and the charcoal removes odor from the air. Finally the third stage is the HEPA filter which is suppose to last for five years.
The passive filtration is Sharps "over 60 patents pending" Plasmacluster technology. This basically sprays out negative and positive ions that render airborne bacteria and viruses inactive by surrounding them with not only negative ions like most ionizers do but positive ions also. I guess it works they have lab video available on their Web site of several experiments. I also noticed that if I shake out some white dusty stuff around the air purifier it either gets sucked right in or looks almost magnetically drawn to the ground. This is cool because we don't have dust flying around our house. It just settles instantly. Then you vacuum it up or clean it up with whatever you usually clean your dust with.
The reason I chose this unit was because it is very appealing visually, quiet and has a lot of cool built in features. For example with the remote you can turn off all the displays so at night your bedroom won't glow with green or blue light depending on the state of the air.
We tend to keep this unit running 24/7 on high although it does have a Max on there also. You can also program it to turn off after a specific time or just leave it on auto and let it chose it's best settings. Again, I prefer to keep it on high all the time and when we're cooking I kick it up on Max and get all the food smells out of the air.
Cleaning seems to be simple I wash the prefilter screen thing out every week under water (dirty to clean side) and that seems to get it all out. The charcoal filter is easily cleaned also but requires a longer drying time. (It can be vacuumed)
The unit uses relatively low amounts of energy:
Max: 54W Fan speed CFM 212
High: 19W Fan speed CFM 131
Medium: 9W Fan speed CFM 88
Silent: 4W Fan speed CFM 28
For those of us with a window AC unit we know all about Wattage. As you can see there is a huge different between high and max settings in the amount of power. This thing really kicks on.
So the bottom line is WE CAN BREATHE. My girlfriend's voice problems stopped (I told her to never blame the alcohol it's been the solution to many of my problems for years). My throat feels great and my cough is gone. This all happened within 30 hours of using the unit. When friends come over to our house I always watch as they take a deep breath kind of like that "I just hiked up a steep mountain for fresh air" thing ...but it could always be the 5th floor walk up.
This is awesome,
Sage Lin (New Jersey)
I'v had this unit for over a year now, and I must say it is well worth the money.
I don't want to go into its functions as many others have done that already. What I want to point out is that the pollen mode really helped me a great deal during allergy seasons.
Cleaning filter is a fairly easy and does save on cost.
I purchased my unit with an $100 rebate from Sharp. It took a little while to get the rebate but now I wish I had gotten another unit.
air purifier (may be the best in its class),
K. Vuong (Orange County, CA)
I bought this unit about 5 months ago. Of course I did all kinds of research before buying it. Sharp's Canadian website has a ton of info. on this unit, it even has a rebate which, unfortunately, does not apply to US purchases.
I would elaborate more on features and why I liked this unit but you can read more about it through the reviews here as well as from Googling (try Sharp's Canadian website). Instead, I will share my after-5-month experience.
I've had to clean my filter once after 5 months of use. Cleaning is very easy, just pop open the cover, take out the filters, vacuum them then put them back in. Sharp reccommends buying new filters every 5 years. That's a huge cost saving versus what other air filters will cost down the road. I've left the unit on non-stop (usually in silent/auto mode) for the past 5 months without incident. Works like a charm. Quieting working in the background, kicking into higher gear as it detects impurities in the air. Put it near the main door of your house and you can tell how *clean* your guests are. Also, it seems to know the difference between a pungent smell and perfume/air fresheners. I sprayed the room near the unit with a citrus air freshener but the unit didn't show that the air was "unclean". However, put a pungent smell near it (trash, rotten food, etc.) and it will kick into high gear almost instantly.
With all this hoopla revolving around the vastly inferior Ionic Breeze, I'm surprised to see that there hasn't been a major US-based review on Sharp's Plasmacluster technology, or much talk about it. Is it hype? Does it not work? It seems to work for me and the other reviewers here.
The best!!!,
Issaquah Drew (Issaquah, WA)
I probably don't have to expand on the performance of this product. As you can read from other reviews, it does all the things it says it does and then some...
Besides being a good air cleaner, it's very well designed, simple and unobstrusive... it's beautiful.
PERFECT!!!,
K. Middleton
Is the only word I can think of for this unit! In "Silent" mode it REALLY is silent! I keep it on "Auto" in my bedroom and you can't even here it. Every now and then, the air quality goes to "slighty impure" and it kicks into gear and cleans the air. On "Max" it really moves the air! I love the fact that it has a "thick" carbon pre-filter instead of those "thin" sheet carbon filters. It'a all the features you'll ever need in a purifier. I highly recomend this unit.
Medical centres choice!,
Po "poming" (San Francisco)
I pretty much bought this Plasma Purifier without hesitation for my new born baby nephew in Hong Kong, after hearing that some medical centres there have been using it as well. With the bad air pollution there and caring about the air he's going to be breathing in, I feel there is no better choice. Don't worry about changing the filter either, 5years is a very long time and putting one in is a breeze.
I suffer from hayfever, so any dust or pollen around tends to irrate me quite a bit during the summer. I personally have the much advertised Ionic breeze, and don't think it realy helps that much, although I still keep it on, hoping it's doing something! To be honest, unlike the Sharp, there is hardly any circulation to move air or dust particles around to be ionized. The Sharp is the obvious choice even for the price tag.
SIMPLY AWESOME,
A Kitchen & Housewares enthusiast
I have severe allergies and have tried all of the air purifiers on the market with no luck. I decided to plunk down the $$ for this unit and kept my fingers crossed for any improvement with my allergies. Well, this is THE UNIT and I actually feel better.
