Reviews on IQAir Healthpro Plus
And IQ Air Healthpro Compact Plus

Whilst almost all air purifier's manufacturers claim that their air cleaners are suitable for alleviating allergy and asthma, or to remove odor and gas, in truth, most of them are only capable of removing a small amount of those harmful particles in the air.

Not so with IQ Air purifier. IQ Air Healthpro Plus has been proven to make a difference in the life of allergy and asthma sufferers. It's also very effective in cleaning up air from cigarette smoke.

In fact, since all IQAir home air purifier series are so effective, the IQAir company has been chosen by Hongkong Department of Health to supply hospital-grade air purifier during the height of SARS (a lethal respiratory disease) back in 2003. Also, due to its high quality product, American Lung Association has asked IQAir to be its partner in promoting cleaner indoor air.

IQAir Health Pro Plus Feature Reviews

1. Filter Capability Reviews

Both IQAir Health Pro Plus and IQAir Healthpro Compact Plus have these high-quality filters:

• First, is the prefilter (6-18 month life span, $59).
  Unlike most air purifier's prefilter, IQAir's prefilter is a serious high efficiency filter which can arrest particles up to 0.3 micron in size. This means that IQAir prefilter's performance is actually comparable to other brand's HEPA filters. It filters out pollen, dust, pet dander, dust mite and mold. To prolong the life of this prefilter, IQAir offers optional installation of IQAir PF40 Coarse Dust Pre-Filtration Kit for $139. Later, the replacement coarse dust prefilter itself can be bought for a mere $10.
  
  
• Second, is the Hyper HEPA filter (17-35 month life span, $189).
  IQAir's Hyper HEPA filter is literally a 'hyper' HEPA. It's capable to filter out particles 100x smaller than what other brand's HEPA filter is capable of filtering off. Therefore, it can arrest airborne ultrafine particles not normally retained by standard HEPA filters, including cigarette smoke, odor-causing gas, and smaller size of dust, pet dander and dust mite's dropping.
  
  
• Third, is the dedicated HiFlow gas and odor filters (V5-cell, 10-21 month life span, $89)
  This third filter's component of IQAir Healthpro Plus is unique to the Plus version of the Healthpro series. It contains 6 lb of carbon (2 lb for the IQAir Health Pro Compact Plus) which gives this air cleaner additional capability to remove volatile organic compound gases, including foul-smelling odor and smoke. This feature is very important if you have a lung disease and are sensitive to gas.

It is also important to mention that while there are three independent filters in IQ Air Healthpro Plus (the prefilter, Hyper HEPA filter, and gas filter), the prefilter and gas phase filter are combined in IQ Air Healthpro Compact Plus, resulting in two sets of filters for the compact version.

2. Filter Efficiency Reviews

IQAir's filters is proven to exceed the HEPA standard in that they are capable to retain the air particles up to 0.003 micron versus 0.3 micron of the usual HEPA filter standard. Coupled to this superb ability to filter out ultra fine partickles is the excellent efficiency in retaining air particles.

Efficiency measures the percentage of particles arrested in the filter. In various independent testing, IQAir filters live up to its claim, which is 99% efficiency. This means that within 24 hours of treatment, 99% of air particles were removed. This is an excellent achievement, considering that most of its competitor are lucky enough to get even a 50% efficiency.

This efficiency is not only achieved because of the filter itself, but it is also due to the triple seal design of IQAir Healthpro Plus air cleaner. This design prevents internal leakage that decreases the efficiency and is so rampant in other purifier.

It is not surprising then that customers, many of whom are serious allergy and lung disease sufferers, stated in independent customer review sites, such as Amazon, epinion.com and some online air purifier vendor sites that IQAir's air purifier really makes a difference in their lives. Many report on major allergy relief only hours after switching the machine on.

3. How Does The Filtering Work ?

Filtering works as follow:

• Air sucked up to the bottom of the air cleaner is passed through the bottom stack of the filters, which is the prefilter. This removes the bulk of air particulates.
• It then passes the gas-phase filter consisting of carbon to remove gases. The gas filter itself is located on top of the prefilter.
• It subsequently passes through the HEPA filter to remove the rest of particulates.
• Clean air is delivered back into the room from the side opening just below the top of air purifier.

4. Other Features

• Quietness. Although not the quietest in the market, customers of IQAir Healthpro Plus and IQAir Healthpro Plus Compact have reported that level one thru three setting, which corresponds to 43 thru 58 decibels, are tolerable in the bedroom. It is important also to mention that 43 decibel, which is the lowest setting of the purifier, has around the same level of noise as quiet conversation. If you can sleep in the library comfortably, chances are you can use this air purifier at night, at least at the lowest setting. However, the newly released IQAir Healthpro Plus has the 'red label' fan with revolutionary 7-blade design (in contrast to the previous 11-blade design) which decreases the noise.
  
  
• Completely safe. This air cleaner does not emit questionable particles, such as ozone.
  
  
• Filter sensor. This sensor lets you know whenever any filter has filter efficiency of 20% . It is intelligent in a sense that it does not work by clocking or counting the using time. Instead, it is capable of determining the real capacity of filters.
  
  
• Convenient. First, it is programmable, so you can set it to be on or off at certain times. In addition, it's operated by remote control.
  
  
• Filter changing is reasonably easy and does not require any tools.
  
  
• Independent filter change (for the non-compact version), which means that you can change each type of the filters independently. That way, when one filter needs changing, you can just change that particular filter. Many cheaper air purifiers often combine all filter types together as an effort to prompt customers to buy their products more often and expensively (combined filter is more expensive than replacing each component one by one).
  
  
• Energy saving (85-215 watt). As explained before, the newest release of IQAir Healthpro Plus has the 'red label' fan which improves air delivery, so that it now uses less energy for the most fan speed levels (level 2 thru 5).
  
  
• Manufacturer's guarantee on performance. The manufacturer's test each and every one of IQ Air Healthpro Plus going out of their warehouse to ensure that only quality products get to the customer's hands.
• Five years warranty.

5. Reviews on IQ Air Healthpro Plus Air Cleaner Potential Drawback

• It's not the quietest around. But it can be reasonably be used in a bedroom when set between level 1-3.
• High price. (almost $900 for the IQAir Healthpro Plus).
• No automatic dust sensor which determines whether the machine needs to be on or off.
• Heavy to move around and bulky.
• The plastic casters used for moving the air purifier are easily broken when air cleaner is moved around.
• Some customers reported that for the first few days, the V5 carbon filter of this air purifier will outgas. Therefore it's recommended to run the purifier for several hours prior to using it to let the carbon filter outgas.

Whilst IQAir delivers the best air cleaner around, unfortunately their purifiers are not rated favourably by AHAM (American Home Appliance Manufacturer) and Consumer Report Magazine. However, the way AHAM and Consumer Report measures effectiveness of air purifiers is by measuring the clean air delivery rate (CADR) which means that the one which has the strongest fan gets the best rating, no matter whether they actually deliver the clean air or not. (For more discussion on this, visit our air purifier rating page). However, this purifier clearly does what it is supposed to do, which is purifying the air.

Who Should Buy IQAir Healthpro Plus ?

IQAir helps tremendously the people with real health problem, including people with the lung diseases (asthma, COPD, and so forth) and allergy . IQAir Healthpro Plus and its compact version remove all these contaminants:

• pet dander.
• mold
• dust mite and its dropping.
• pollen.
• various size of dust (up to 0.03 micron).
• bacteria and viruses.
• cigar smoke and other volatile gas compound gases.

NOTE:The gas phase filter of this air cleaner doesn't remove inorganic gases and formaldehyde. So people with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) issue should weigh in those facts when deciding to purchase the IQAir Healthpro Plus. However, IQAir has the multigas version which can address the multiple chemical sensitivity problems. Also, it is advisable to not put the machine in humid area since its gas phase filter can get clogged up easily with water moisture. If you need a machine which can curb out gases in humid area without getting clogged up quickly, it's advisable to get the chemical air purifier which uses chemicals instead of carbon as the gas absorbant. IQAir Multigas is the best chemical air purifier in the market today.

IQAir Healthpro Plus Compact and IQAir Health Pro Plus- What's the difference

At close to $900, you can tell that Healthpro Plus air purifier is not cheap. If you want to save a bit of money and are okay with the less powerful, smaller IQAir purifier, then you can instead get the IQAir Health Pro Plus Compact for $100 less. Please bear in mind that IQAir HEalthpro Compact Plus is suitable for smaller rooms only (800 sq feet cleaning capability vs 900 sq feet of the non-compact version). Also, the prefilter and gas phase in the compact version are combined, so you will get a total of 2 filters: the HEPA and the combined prefilter and gas phase filter. In contrast, the non-compact IQ Air Healthpro Plus contains three independent filters: HEPA, prefilter and gas phase filters. Other than that, they both perform briliantly.

Other Types of IQAir Purifiers

IQAir Healthpro and IQ Air Healthpro Compact
Suitable for allergy sufferers.

IQAir Multigas
Suitable for people suffering from allergy, lung diseases and multiple chemical sensitivity. It is also capable for high level of cigarette smoke removal as well as removal of odors.

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