Winix 5500-2 Review

this is a review for the Winx 5500 ash - this unit is about 24 inches tall it's about 15 inches wide and it's about 8 inches deep the unit weighs about 60 and a half pounds now this unit features three different filters behind this front grille there is a washable pre-filter behind the washable pre-filter there is a carbon filter and behind that carbon filter there is a true HEPA filter air travels into the unit through the front grille here but also on the sides there are large gaps here on each side of the front of the unit so air travels in through the front through the sides and even a little bit through the bottom there's a gap here on the bottom as well so air travels through all those directions into the unit past the pre-filter past the activated carbon filter past the true HEPA filter and then up and out through the top of the unit there's a outlet up top here behind the control panel so clean air exits out through the top here this unit features four fan speeds low medium high and turbo the unit outputs at about 250 CFM and this unit retails for about 150 dollars so what do we like about the Winx 5500 ash - we definitely like the high output especially considering the price this unit again outputs at about 250 CFM meaning that it takes in 250 cubic feet of air every minute and it is actually able to process that amount of air every minute at 250 CFM this unit can be used in rooms up to about 300 square feet now for good and proper air filtration you really need two things you need proper air filters and you also need good output and this unit does give you very high output at 250 CFM in terms of filters again this unit features that washable pre-filter the washable pre-filter is the first filter that the air will actually travel through and the purpose of that washable pre-filter is to filter out larger particles so things like hairs larger fibers all types of larger particles like that are caught by the pre-filter and what that does is it allows the pre-filter to saturate with those types of particles so that they don't saturate the true HEPA filter instead so that is the purpose of that pre-filter and this unit does have a washable pre-filter and this is important because a lot of units out on the market have a replaceable pre-filter and what that means is that as those pre-filter saturate with all of these larger particles they need to eventually be replaced and of course replacing them means buying them buying replacements for them with this unit it has that washable pre-filter meaning that the pre-filter can saturate over time and when it would have been time to replace it all you have to do is take it out of the air purifier and clean it now you can clean it by vacuuming it you can rinse it but you can do that yourself you can clean that filter and the unit will still be highly effective when you replace that clean filter with a lot of other units on the market that filter cannot be clean and it has to be replaced this unit also comes equipped with a true HEPA filter in the world of air purifiers the true HEPA filter is really the gold standard for particle filtration so anything like allergens dust mold spores any type of particle that travels in the air through this unit will be filtered out by that true HEPA filter and the fact that this unit actually does come equipped with a true HEPA filter is another strong positive for it finally for gas filtration this unit comes equipped with a activated carbon filter now a lot of units on the market especially at this price point down below come equipped with a fibrous filter that is simply coated with carbon the carbon filter inside of this winix features a plastic honeycomb design and inside of that plastic frame there is actual carbon pellets activated carbon pellets so as the air travels through here if it contains any type of an unwanted gas a V OC or a note or something like that the VOCs the odors the molecules that make up those VOCs will actually bond to the carbon inside of that filter and be removed from the air and the fact that this unit actually comes equipped with that activated carbon filter that contains actual real activated carbon pellets is also a strong positive for this unit compared to most of the units on the market at the same price point that only features that fibrous filter that doesn't capture gases nearly as well as the pellet based activated carbon filter inside of this winix we also like the very good energy efficiency on this unit now this unit has a CFM 2 watt ratio of about 5 to 1 on its highest fan speed and it's ratio is about 10 to 1 on lower settings now for comparison's sake most of their units on the market tend to hover around 2 to three CFM per watt of power draw on higher settings and also about two to three CFM per watt on lower settings so you are getting a much better CFM to power draw ratio with this winix unit then you get with most other air purifiers on the market we also like the low noise output on this unit to determine noise output to compare noise output between different units we look at the CFM to decibel ratio similar to how we look at CFM to water ratio for energy efficiency so in terms of CFM to DB ratio this unit also does very well it is a very quiet machine for the amount of air that it actually processes finally the last thing that we'll mention here has something that we really like about this machine is its value and this is probably the thing that we like the most about this unit again you are paying about $150 here for a unit that outputs at approximately 250 CFM it has that true HEPA filter it has that activated carbon filter that is of a higher quality due to the fact that it actually contains activated carbon pellets you have that washable pre-filter you get all of that in this machine and you only have to pay about 150 dollars to get that so in terms of value this is really one of the best value units out there on the market now moving on to things that we dislike about this unit the one thing that we'd probably dislike the most is the fact that you cannot turn off the display lights on top of the unit's control panel here there are LEDs that illuminate as you turn on different settings and those cannot be turned off the actual air quality display here this horizontal bar here it cannot be turned off the plasma wave display here can be turned off but at the cost of turning off the plasma wave so you can turn that on and off but you lose functionality if you turn off the light the same is true for the fan speeds here you can turn off the fan speed lights but you have to set the unit to sleep mode to do that and so you lose the functionality of being able to manually control fan speed if you go to the sleep mode and you turn off the LEDs up here for the fan speed so there are these white LEDs that illuminate that cannot be turned off without going to the sleep mode and once you go to the sleep mode you lose that functionality of being able to manually set fan speed which we do recommend for scuse cases so that LED illumination up there with the control panel the fact that you don't have the control to turn off the lights that is definitely a negative for this unit now there are many many other models of air purifiers in the market that suffer from the same issue so it is not necessarily a problem specific to this model but that is definitely the one thing that we don't like about this model is that lack of control for the LED illumination the second thing that we don't like about this unit is its lack of a longer warranty this unit ships with only a one year warranty that is much less than the warranty that comes with most other air purifiers on the market most other units come equipped with a three year warranty or a five year warranty so for the fact that this unit does come with that one-year warranty that is definitely a negative for it comparing this unit to other winix units out there on the market the unit that you are most likely to compare to it is the 5300 - - so this is the 5500 - - there's also a winix 5300 - - now the 5300 - - is essentially the same unit it has exactly the same dimensions it has a very similar weight it has the same control panel up here it almost looks the same except for the fact that it's front grille is a different color it is essentially the same unit the only difference between the 5500 s - or let's say the most substantial difference between the 5500 - - and the 5300 s - is the actual carbon filter that is installed on each unit the 5300 s - has that fibrous filter that is simply coated with carbon while the 5500 s - has that activated carbon filter that actually contains carbon pellets so that is the largest difference between them and that is the reason why we would recommend the 5500 ash - over the 5300 ash - with the carbon filter that's in here you really get much better gas filtration with this unit and we believe that that extra performance in gas filtration is well worth the extra twenty dollars or so that you have to spend on the 5500 ash - versus the 5300 ash - so how does this unit compared to some of the top rated units on the market well this unit actually is one of the best air purifiers that we've tested it is a top rated recommended model no other unit on the market provides the same level of part filtration gas filtration and output at the price of this unit and that is the reason why we recommend it as one of the best air purifiers out there on the market today now there is one substantial competitor to the winix unit here that is also out there on the market and that is the co a mighty air purifier and we're gonna take a few minutes just to compare those two units to really give you a good idea of how this unit compares to another very highly rated model the co way mighty now the co way normally retails for about $50 more than the Winnick so it is a little bit more expensive it has exactly the same output it also comes with a true HEPA filter it also comes with a washable pre-filter however the co way like the winix 5300 s2 comes equipped with a fibrous filter that is simply coated with carbon so again with a co way there like you do with the 5300 s2 compared to this 5500 s2 you have lower performance when it comes to gas filtration with the co way this particular winix the 5500 s2 also comes with a remote control while the co way does not so if that is something that is important to you keep that in mind also when you're comparing those two units in terms of things that favor the co a unit the co way does come with a three-year warranty versus the one-year warranty on the Winnick so the co way is definitely the better option there if warranty is important to you however we must say here that in terms of inspecting each unit the winix is a very well-built machine and we very much doubt the fact that it is going to require that warranty anywhere within one year two years even three years in terms of energy efficiency the winix and the co way units tested very similarly the winix does have slightly less power draw on its highest fan speed compared to the co way and again on that highest fan speed the units have equal output so you have slightly better energy efficiency on the highest fan speed with the winix compared to the co way but otherwise both units are very much equal in terms of energy efficiency and noise output so what would be our final recommendation between the co way and the winix well it really comes down to two things and that is gas filtration and price for both of those things the winix is the better option here it filters gas is better and also is a lower price at most retailers so between value and that better gas filtration our nod goes to the Linux if warranty is important to you then definitely the co is a very good option and really the co way is not a bad air purifier by any means you really can't go wrong between either unit it is simply our recommendation that if you absolutely had to choose between the two we would recommend the Winx to most consumers

Channel: Consumer Analysis

Views: 216,581

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Id: An1viLvI8Xw

Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 09 2020