Hunter 30890 Total Air Sanitizer, Gunmetal

works well; a bit noisy; small odor, arcing sounds
We just purchased the 30441 version of this model at Target. The 30441 model shares the same manual with the 30890 model. Don't know the differences, if any.

Here is my 3 day assessment:

1) First six hours of unit operation produced an unusual smell. After 24 hours, could not longer detect. I've worked with HEPA filters in clean rooms before, and the smell seems like that of a new HEPA replacement. There may have also been a bit of `electrical' type odor, but I no longer notice that.
2) On all three speed settings, the unit is louder than I would like. We located it far from our bed, so can run overnight on the number 1 setting. Since I have tinnitus, the white noise seems to help a bit with sleeping, but I still think it seems a bit louder than desirable on the lowest setting.
3) We have never used an air purifier before. We finally realized we needed this when I experienced a prolonged allergy attack lasting months which seriously affected my health...

Works great, major concern is the smell.
*** Update Sept 22 2011 ***
Smell is completely gone. Still a slight ozone smell when running but the harsh plastic odor is gone!

First off this thing operates very quietly and appears efficiently. The major concern I have with the unit is that as soon as I opened the box I smelled a strange plastic odor. During operation that odor mixed with a smell of ozone. The operating manual is lacking in that it tells of the basic operation but does not cover much in the way of troubleshooting. I understand that this unit draws air in through a HEPA filtration system and then ionizes the air to kill bacteria. While operating this for a couple of days in a 20x10 room the odor was strong enough to notice.

Pros:
+ Quiet operation
+ Easily adjustable by touch button on top of unit
+ Filter change is easy
+ Efficient & quiet

Cons:
- New unit has strange plastic odor that has yet to have dissipated (nearly a week)...

Cleans air, but filter eventually makes zapping sound
I bought this to get rid of the stale odor and allergens in the room I was staying in. It seemed to work pretty well, as the smell in the room went away and my allergies improved.

I did not have an issue with the smell of the device that other reviewers have mentioned. However, after turning the machine on for a day or two (sometimes on the highest setting), it started making a "zapping"/"popping" electric sound. The instructions tell you that to fix this, you should turn off the machine for a minute and turn it back on, or reposition the filter, or replace the filter. The first two options didn't work, but replacing the filter did work and it no longer makes the sound.

Comparing the bad filter to the good filter, the vertical folds in the filter had been warped, so the conductive material on it was getting close to touching--this is likely why the machine was "zapping". I'm guessing this happened from putting it on the highest setting, which moves air...

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