What It’s For
In other articles, we’ve talked about how important it is to utilize some kind of air filtration and purification technology if you have historically had, or are at risk for having mold issues. Whatever size you get, and whatever form the ultimately take, their purpose is the same. The air in your home gets routed through these devices where it is cleaned and filtered before being returned back into the room, minus all the airborne particles (including mold spores, dust mites, pet dander, and more), which are trapped by the unit’s filtration system.
This small, tabletop air filtration unit is specifically designed for single room use. Offered by Guardian Technologies, it’s the ideal solution if you have a fairly localized problem. That is to say, if you’ve had a mold problem in the past, and are interested in ensuring that your risk is minimized at the point where the colony first gave you trouble, this unit will get the job done for you. It not only filters the air, but is also equipped with UV technologies that kill the mold spores as they enter the filtration chamber, which reduces your risk to virtually nil. If you’re looking for a whole-home solution, you’re going to need to invest in one of these for every room in your home, or get something bigger like this unit.
Note that this unit is rated for up to 800 square feet of living space, so you’ll probably need more than one of these, but having one big unit, supported by a couple of satellite units like the one we’re talking about in this review is a perfectly acceptable whole-home solution.
Pros
The GermGuardian may be small, but it is feature rich, and is very good at what it does. Capable of not only cleaning the air in the room it’s installed in, but also killing mold (which is the function of the UV capabilities), and getting rid of odors, courtesy of the charcoal filter, this is actually quite a robust, capable little unit. Even better is the fact that it’s small footprint and relatively light weight (under five pounds) means that you can move it from one location to another with ease. The unit comes with a 6’ power cord, three speed fan, and an electronic filter replacement reminder, so you’ll never have to guess at when the filters need to be swapped out. While there are more feature rich models on the market, you’ll pay a premium for them, and this model covers the basics very well indeed, making it a solid all-around choice.
Cons
The only real drawback of this unit is scope and scale. In general, cleaning the air in a small, select area of your home is sub-optimal. After all, you live in your WHOLE home, not just small parts of it, and ideally, you’re going to want air handling, filtration, and purification in the whole house. Unfortunately, that can get rather expensive, and a unit like this lets you focus on the most problematic areas of your home, on the thinking that even if the air in the rest of the house isn’t 100% clean and fresh, if you put this in a room where mold is likely to take up residence, or where it has appeared before, you can go a long way toward solving the problem. Thus, it’s a minor complaint and limitation, but one that bears mentioning.
Summary
All things considered, this is a great product, and attractively well-priced. According to the manufacturer, the filters only need to be replaced about once every six months, which means there is some ongoing maintenance expense with the unit, but that’s to be expected. We give this 4.5 stars out of a possible five, deducting half a point for the inherent limitation of the unit due to its small size.
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