B079KBYVZ5

As a board-certified allergist, I’m often asked, “what air filter should I buy?”. First of all, do you need a filter at all? If you’re allergic to just dust mites, don’t bother. Dust mites are carried on large particles (10 micro-meters, or microns), and only stay airborne for 15 minutes after being disturbed (such as making the bed or running a vacuum cleaner). They won’t even get to the filter, so no matter what filter you buy, it can’t filter something that doesn’t STAY airborne.
But if you’re allergic to something carried on tiny (~ 2 micron) particles, such as cat dander or grass pollen, then by all means consider getting an air filter.
My household owns 2 Rabbit Minus A2’s. That’s the bottom line, but here’s the long explanation:
1) I ask my patients who need a filter, ‘what is your budget’? If it’s $200, get a Honeywell. They’re inexpensive and work well. If it’s $500, get a Rabbit (details below). If it’s $1,000, consider getting an IQ air, Blue-Air, or Austin. If cost is no object, do what we did with our previous home. I bought 3 hospital grade IQ Airs and put 1 of them inline with each HVAC unit in the house (I know, I know, 3 HVAC’s must mean a big house, buy hey, I’m a doctor in practice for 25 years, and besides, the financial guy down the street has a house twice as big). We spent about $12,000 on that upgrade. All so we could have our cake and eat it too (not get rid of the cats). Or is it EAT our cake and have it too? The super-fancy filters lowered the airborne allergens to next-to-nothing, but if my daughter still slept with the cat…
2) Why do we own 2 Rabbits? I really like the idea that Rabbits have 4 separate filters, and you can customize the 4th filter (germ, pet, toxin or odor remover).
3) I am totally inept when it comes to mechanical aptitude, but I am able to order the $85 filter pack once a year and make our Rabbit as good as new. All you have to do is unwrap each filter and keep them in the same order.
4) We have one of them in our bedroom and one in the allergic kid’s bedroom.
—Other hints about getting any filter
-High speed equals better filtration, but the ‘turbo’ speed on Rabbits is pretty loud. Maybe run it on high speed when you’re NOT in the room (especially if the cat goes in the room—Whiskers doesn’t mind the noise–trust me on that one), and turn it down to low speed when you’re in the room.
-Priority #1 is to put one of these in your bedroom–that’s where you spend (hopefully) 8 hours a day while you’re asleep.
-Don’t skimp on replacing those filters each year. A clogged up filter is worthless, at best, and aerosolizing last year’s allergens, at worst.
-Clean the pre-filter every month or two.
Hope that helps.

When my 8-year-old said he wanted his own room, we converted our finished basement into a bedroom for him. It is at ground level and has 4 large windows. It also has a fireplace from 1820 and a bit of dampness at the base of the fireplace. After about a month, he started having a slight cough; almost a tic. To ensure it wasn’t a problem with the air quality in his room, I purchased this to see if I could make it any better for him because he desperately wanted to keep this as his room despite our attempts to the contrary.

Assembly was a breeze and the entire unit feels incredibly well built and well designed. The filter assembly is a lovely masterpiece of sequential filters, one of which is supposed to remove mold spores and germs. The air is not noticeably bad in there (my home office is 10′ away). However, when I plugged the unit in, the air quality indicate glowed red and it went into full-tilt mode. I was a bit panicked thinking, oh no, this thing is loud. However, after about an hour, that red light had turned to red/blue and then to blue. The unit is now WHISPER quiet and he has already stopped coughing occasionally as he used to. Psychosomatic, maybe. But it worked and I don’t think so. This thing seems to actually be doing what it was designed to do.

I am an engineering nerd and designer. This is a fantastic piece of equipment. It is not cheap, but it is great product. I am very pleased with this purchase so far. Will update as time progresses. When I opened my closet door (always a bit dusty in there) the unit jumped to life again and cleared the air after 10m of doing its job. Was very impressed with how sensitive this is. It’s kind of awesome.

Only thing I would lose is that weird blue bar across the middle.

I like so many others on here, really wanted this to work. I purchased the odor eliminator version. Everything started off great. I was contacted by Rabbit Air stating they were out of stock of the 700A model but was going to give me a complimentary upgrade to the Minus A2 model for free! That was awesome customer service and I couldn’t wait to get it. It came in and the product was well packaged and everything precisely labeled. The directions and instructions were easy and it was up and running in no time. It immediately kicked into gear ups turning it on and the air quality light turned red right off the bat. I hadn’t even started smoking cigars yet and it was cleaning the air. Within no time the air was clean and the speed back down to quiet and the sensor light was blue. Time to test it out with a Cigar I thought! So I did. It again kicked into high gear upon sensing the odor and I thought this was going to be the answer to my problems. After only smoking 1 cigar two days ago, I have been running the unit on TURBO speed nonstop and the odor is distinctly very prevalent in my apartment. It says the air is clean, but the odor is about as bad is if I hadn’t even had the unit. I’ve had to burn scented candles and spray febreeze every where. I called up Rabbit Air as I figured I had done something wrong. The lady on the phone shockingly told me that “sometimes it just doesn’t work.” As much as I like it, I think I’m going to have to return it because it doesn’t do what I purchased it for. I don’t suffer from allergies so I really don’t need it for that. I purchased it to eliminate or at the very least drastically reduce the smell of cigar smoke, but it doesn’t do that. Such a shame…