Air Cleaner Prices and Deals

Air that feels good must be properly humidified. Heated air dries out the mucous membranes (weakening your resistance to viral infections). Overheated dry air makes you feel tired and listless. Your skin dries out, your plants suffer and your wooden furniture starts to show cracks. The Venta Airwasher is ideal to decrease chapped lips, full up noses, sore throats, and dried out eyes. Protect your valuable wood furniture and floors also as musical instruments from drying out. Dry indoor air is hard to clean; every motion causes millions of particles to be stirred up and become airborne. But, humidification keeps a big number of airborne particles down on the floor; making the two in one humidifier/purifier? More efficient than air purifiers alone. The Venta Airwasher humidifies the air while at the same time drawing in and removing dust, pollen and other contaminating particles down to ten microns ( 10/1000 mm ) in size from the air. Easy maintenance. No filters to change or clean or cumbersome containers to fill. The simple design and convenient access to the tank let for easy cleaning. Three gal. Tank capacity. Measures 16.5″ x 11.8″ x 13″. Three speeds. Humidifies/purifies up to 720 sq. Ft. Ten Year restricted Warranty. Made in Germany

349 of 350 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of five stars efficient, Intelligent & costly, March 21, 2004
By Adam Sterling (New York City NY United States) See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME) This review is from: Venta LW44 Air Humidifier and Purifier All in one (Kitchen) Update on January 15, 2008:

Yesterday, the motor in my Venta unit began making a grinding sound after almost six year of flawless operation. I called Venta buyer service this afternoon. After wating a rather long time on hold, I has been connected to a nice man, George, who asked me to put the phone beside the motor so he could hear the sound. I did, and he did.

Without a moment’s hesitation, George said he could have a new motor shipped free to me, and that delivery may be projected inside five seven business days.

It’s generally a nice surprise to find a company standing unquestioningly behind their warranty. If only more understood that is all it takes to create loyal customers.



Update on September 17, 2007:

I’m happy to report , my review, below, is still true in every detail. This product was a great investment.



I live in a desertlike New York City apartment and owned my Venta Air Washer for nearly exactly two years. Throughout this time it was operating on the “high” setting, 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The Air Washer lives up to all of the manufacturer’s claims.

The Air Washer is a product of fanatical German engineering, overdesign and bulletproof construction, which accounts for it is rather grotesque price. But, I owned merchandise of inferior engineering and construction that have had to be replaced after one or two seasons. It’s evident I’ll own my Air Washer for many years to come.

The rules of operation couldn’t be more simple (it’s like a High School science project developed into a luxury product):

1) A fan blows room air straight down into a reservoir of water.

2) In this reservoir of water, some dozen disks are gradually rotating to multiply the surface area that’s wet.

3) Because you’re blowing air onto a enlarged wet surface you’re multiplying the rate of evaporation.

4) Humidified air is exhausted out of the Air Washer through vents in the side.

THIS WORKS.

On the “high” setting the water reservoir needs to be refilled daily in my apartment (this is greatly reliant on your local weather or heating cycle). I end up carrying a couple gallons of water to the device or carrying the device to the bathtub , then back to its spot in my livingroom.

The design of the Air Washer is “neutral.” It sits unobtrusive and unnoticed in a corner. It’s almost silent. It’s built like a tank: It could be a challenge to damage this product on function.

Why not Five Stars?

The Venta Air Washer consumes expendables. You need a water treatment solution to prevent mineral deposits forming on the rotating disks mentioned above (weekly). AND you need a regular cleaning solution to take off deposits that develop pn the bottoms and walls of the reservoir. I tried operating the Air Washer without these things. They’re obliged for best performance.

Like the device itself, the Venta treatment and cleaning solutions work perfectly and simply. But, THE EXPENDIBLES ARE EXPENSIVE! Assume youy will use up US$50.00 per year.

Also, you could think that for a company selling a FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR humidifier, the Venta aroma medical care scents could smell a bit less like a Central American bordello (not that I have ever seen one of those). Skip these if they are free samples.

If you want the best at any price, purchase this product.

I am not affiliated with either the maker or Amazon.

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154 of 156 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of five stars costly, but calm and efficient, January 16, 2005
By tangofan (Mountain View, CA USA) See all my reviews This review is from: Venta LW44 Air Humidifier and Purifier All in one (Kitchen) Having used a Venta humidifier in Germany some number of years ago, I was happy to see that they’re selling in the U.S. Now also. I had a case of sticker shock though, as they’re now much costly than their older models used to be, but since I used to be happy with them, I decided to go ahead and purchase one anyway.

All Venta humidifiers belong to the class of cool mist humidifiers, which I believe is the best principle, as you do not “over humidify” the room. Usually a cool mist humidifier has a filter that sucks up water from the tank and a fan blows air through the filter. The water evaporates into the air and increases its humidity.

The difference in the Venta humidifier is that it does not use filters, but two arrays of plastic disks that rotate through the water. A fan over the device sucks suckes air through those disk arrays and the water drops that were lifted up from the tank evaporate.

One of my big gripes with other cool mist humidifiers is that the fan is noisy on the lowest setting. The Venta fan is pleasantly calm. I keep the device in my bedroom at night on the lowest fan speed and I do not notice the fan at all.

While it’s true that you will not have to replace filters every not many months, you’ll have to replace the water treatment additive at every cleaning cycle (usually 10 14 days), so there ARE many maintenance costs. The LW44 comes with two fillings of the additive, afterwards you must spent about USD 16 18 for a bottle of the water treatment which will last for twelve cleaning cycles (4 6 months). Venta also sells a cleaning solution, but as indicated by their manual you will not need it usually. In any way the cleaning solution costs about $10 and is only good for one cleaning, so using it usually will really drive the maintenance costs up.

All in all this is indeed the best humidifier that I ever had. I am not giving it five stars, because I still think the price is outrageously high.

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205 of 220 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of five stars it is been a fight for the last three years, December 18, 2005
By djac “beantownboy” (Boston, MA United States) See all my reviews This review is from: Venta LW44 Air Humidifier and Purifier All in one (Kitchen) After living with a low end humidifier that did little and made too much sound for the bedroom I decided I could get the best humidifier at any cost. That was three years ago and at that time the Venta fit that bill. My initial impression of the Venta was good the idea of a fan blowing over wet disks looks pretty ingenous and solves problems like airborn bacteria, mineral deposits, and gives the machine many air cleaning potential. Right from the start I has been surprised how badly it humidified the air checked with a high quality hygrometer it only raises a medium sized bedroom’s humidity by about 5 at maximum speed and is useless at lower speeds. Also, at maximum speed the device sounds like an unusually deafening room fan which is hard to sleep with. People talk about the device being calm at the slowest speed which it was but this setting is ineffective at humidifying a small room depending on my readings with a hygrometer.

Now I have lived with this unit for three years and encountered more problems that have driven me to admit this whole buy wasn’t a smart idea.

The 1st problem with this unit is that the “air washing” capability results in the machine to get dirty. But unlike nearly every other kind of humidifier this dirt is everywhere on the machine during the disks, all over the fan, all inside surfaces. On the inside surfaces (which have lots of hard to clean nooks) this dirt is alike to a sticky wax and on the wet surfaces its more like a slime. I use up about 30 minutes struggling to clean it every time I attempt before I feel I have done an OK job. The Venta cleaner additive does not work that well on the disks, does not do anything for the waxy sludge on the housing because it does not touch it, and the unit has so many hard to clean parts that it is almost impossible to get all the dirt. I tried putting the non electrical parts in the dishwasher which does not work either.

The second problem is that this device can “easily” produce deafening noises to the point that I have to shut the machine off because I’d rather be tormented by dry air than this devices groanings. I say easily because it’s possible with enough cleaning and fiddling to keep this device operating at the “merely loud” fan sound that it had when I got it. But after three years this is becoming hard to achieve. There are two possible resources for this sound. 1st, the gears themselves operate by having plastic tabs press against the gears in an undulating fashion. When clean this typically happens silently. But when somewhat dirty these tabs can make a deafening studdering sound that’s caused by two materials not moving against each other smoothly. If you have ever heard your car’s windshield wipers studder across your windshield instead of smoothly glide over the glass you know what this sounds like. It is not quite that deafening, but when you are trying to sleep it may also be. The second source for this sound is imbalance in the fan. With a little dirt on the leading edge of the fan the fan looks to be aerodynamically or statically out of balance and makes an undulating groan about every 4 6 seconds the way an old fan may be projected to. On a $15 room fan it could be the kind of sound that may cause you to throw it out and get a new one. On a humidifier this expensive?

Finally the device is sensitive to being assembled in just the right way or it’ll make the noises I have mentioned above more easily. Usually you just put the top on the device and you are in business. But with the noises you start pressing on different parts of the top to attempt to shift the plastic pieces into better alignment. Once you press in just the right way and the device stops making sound you gradually remove the pressue and 99 of the time the sound comes back. If you push and prod you’re on occasion able to get the machine to be quite, but frequently you must unlatch everything, reseat the fan assembly and start over. That gets old fast when its 3am and the machine just starts making a really annoying sound that wakes you up.

I call my three year journey with this Venta machine a fight because I have tried tons of things to help reimburse for this machine’s problems. The initial problem of low humidification is because the device sets up own recirculating airflow that is restricted to an area pretty local to the device. The humidity inside one foot of the device is good as indicated by my hygrometer. The humidifier’s fan sucks this air back into itself frequently. By putting another fan to the side of the Venta to offer room circulating air current you may be able to get an extra 3 5 humidity 5 7 feet away from the device (like where you are head is in bed). Of course now you have got another supply of sound in the bedroom.

To reimburse for the gear sound and the dirt problems I have tried adding up all types of things to the water that may act as either a cleaner or a lubricant or both. I have tried double amounts of the Venta additive, a range of soaps, different aeromatic oils in amounts where the oil’s lubricant properites may help. Really nothing is efficient.

In the end I have to say that I am most dissapointed by this machine’s price. The unit is nothing more than a big hunk of plastic with fan over it. If it was made in China this unit could cost $39.95. But its made in Germany by a company that looks to be over charging far beyond what the added expense of German manufacturing and poor exchange rate could explain. Being German made I expected that the unit be better engineered. The machine is built well nothing has broken in three years of constant operation. Its weaknesses aren’t structural. There are simple ways of eliminating the problems I have listed. Fan sound may be reduced by using a bigger, slower moving fan with more and better bearings (something that should be projected in a $500 device). The gear system that generates so much sound should be replaced with a non contact device like a magnetic drive alike to high grade aquarium pumps. A top of the line magnetically driven pump costs 1/3 of what this Venta costs so magnetic mechanisms should easly have been considered for a $500 device. That these evident techiques. Or any others. Aren’t employed on a device of this cost in the face of its inherent problems is criminal.

99 of the time I recommend spending the extra money (even if it is 5 10 times more) and to get a machine built the right way. This machine isn’t built the right way it is just 5 10 times as costly. I do not believe anybody is building a humidifier the right way now. Given this I could have to recommend one of the 4+ star devices for $50 70 steam looks to be the best for keeping away from white powder and bacteria. I have bought two Honeywell HWM450 steam humidfiers for $55 each. Their capability to humidify is unbelievable. In the same bedroom with 50 humidity the Vental may get it up to 55. The Honeywell can get it to 70 if you want and has digital controls for setting the exact humidy you want (although they do not work that well). In general any shortcomings of the $55 Honeywell aren’t related to it is major function humidifying. The same can not be said for the VENTA.

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Intended for use with the Blueair 200 Series air purifier, this substitute filter helps remove contaminants from the air. Its HEPASilent technology uses electrostatic and mechanical filtration to swiftly and silently catch 99.97 percent of particles down to 0.1 micron in size, as well as allergens like pollen grains, dust mites, mold spores, and pet dander particles. Just open the back side of the air purifier (not included), remove the used filter, and put the substitute filter. Made of nontoxic polypropylene, the 100 percent recyclable filter media produces only carbon dioxide and water as it decomposes, plus it is waterproof, which makes it naturally tolerant to bacteria, viruses, and mold, without chemical additives or washes. For best performance, Blueair recommends replacing ?Lters every six months. The substitute particle filter measures roughly 2 1/5 by 15 by 18 inches.

One of two people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars Blueair Filter, July 5, 2010
By Pambuy See all my reviews () This review is from: Blueair 200PF substitute Particle Filter (Kitchen) This filter was exactly like the original one that game with my Blueair, no problems.

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One of two people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars Is it worth it?, June 16, 2009
By Mark E. Felker “a real cut up” (Brooklyn, NY) See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) () This review is from: Blueair 200PF substitute Particle Filter (Kitchen) Yes, to my mind, definately. About the price. I have been purchasing this specific filter, once every six months and it never cost 79.95$. It generally cost 50$ more or less. It works and you may be able to really sense that the air that you’re breathing is clean healthy. Purchase the machine and the filters and live a longer more healthy life.

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One of two people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars A great filter for a great air purifier, November 11, 2007
By S. Greer (memphis, tn) See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) () We owned the Blueair 205C for six months and just replaced the filter. This air purifier is great. I only wish we could pay for a bigger one. You may be able to move this unit anyplace in the house, a bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, anywhere you need many new air and WOW! It really works. The filter traps dust, pet dander, odors, you name it.
A product that really does what it says! The allergy doctor suggested this kind of air purifier and we love it.

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