Holmes® HAP242-UC HEPA-type Desktop Air Purifier

I've owned mine for about 5 years, and I love it. I was surprised to see so many negative comments from other reviewers. If I may add my two cents to the discussion:

* This machine works great as an air purifier for small/medium bedrooms. It is designed to remove dust and other allergens from the air, and it does so quite well in my opinion. It's not meant to clean the air in the whole house. It's not meant to remove strong odors like stinky pets, dirty diapers, etc. That's what an odor eliminator is for. (I use a Hamilton Beach 04271R TrueAir Plug-Mount Odor Eliminator next to the litter box, and I can't complain.) An odor eliminator contains a carbon filter than neutralizes bad smells. A HEPA air purifier contains a filter of thickly folded fibrous paper that strains tiny particles out of the air. The two devices...Read more

from new york, new york
there are 2 major things wrong with this (and every?) holmes product i have been 'duped' into using. it is much like when you buy a printer, the initial unit is a mere downpayment for all the cartridges you'll need if you use it 'normally.' the holmes air purifiers i have been intermittently stuck with do help clean the air and thanks to the standardization of the hepa filter (and no thanks to holmes), work fairly well. the downside is they are extremely difficult to clean (i think i used an entire package of qtips) and you have to take the damned thing apart yourself to do so (hence i cleaned mine once and dumped it) if you like cleanliness, after using it a few months, once you look inside the thing you'll be prompted to do likewise. the reason it's popular seems attributable to one factor: it is cheap. seems like a good idea at the time. then u start buying the filters (approx $15 or more each) and attempting to maintain it and realize what a poorly...Read more

It's affordable, does what it's supposed to (clean the air) but in the process gets itself filthy. It's almost impossible to clean, so unless you don't care about having a dirty appliance in the middle of your room all the time, I would suggest finding an easier to clean model. Also, the filter seems to get glogged up pretty fast.. maybe I just live in super dusty conditions or something, but plan on spending just as much on filters every 3-6 months as on the unit itself.