Product Description

Hepasilent E series air purifier with room coverage up to 365-square feet.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46168 in Home
• Color: White
• Brand: Blueair
• Model: 450E
• Dimensions: 23.00" h x 20.00" w x 11.00" l, 34.00 pounds

Features

• Energy Star 4-speed air purifier with HEPASilent technology
• 5 air changes per hour for rooms up to 365 square feet
• Electronic sensors; active carbon filtration; recyclable filter media
• Auto mode and timer function; digital display; remote control included
• Measures 11 by 20 by 23 inches; 5-year limited warranty

---

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Made in Germany
By anonymous
I am extremely pleased with the Blueair 450E. It is very quiet and very effective. It is so sensitive in auto mode that punching a dusty pillow on the other side of a 15-foot room will soon start it running. So, I just keep mine set to auto.

UPDATE 02/19/2012: I did some remodeling in my apartment during which my 450E ingested substantial amounts of spackling dust. The auto-mode stopped working. It sounded as though it were trying to reduce power to medium setting, yet remained on high constantly. I used a small soft brush to clean the sensor screen which is about 60mm x 15mm and located at the outlet end. This did not cure the malfunction. I dipped the brush in denatured alcohol then tried, gently, poking a little, to get the bristles of the brush through the mesh opening. (The mesh is not rigid.) Finally, I set the machine with outlet side up, then poured 2 fl. ounces of the denatured alcohol through the mesh, which then soaked the sensor element. I waited 30 minutes. Works like new!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Powerful and works well
By M. Breyer
I have this air purifier for a few weeks now and in general I am very satisfied. I like the rugged, all metal case construction, and the very powerful fan that can really move the air around when you want it to (as opposed to some other purifiers which produce rather feeble air flow). Operation is simple and straightforward.

Here are some caveats though: The first unit I purchased had some slight rattle coming from the fan in silent mode. I returned that and it was fixed with a replacement unit. Also, the circuit boards in both the first and second unit I got emitted some quite noticeable "new computer smell" for the first couple days of operation. After about a week of use this was gone though. If you are sensitive to this kind of electronics smell you might want to run the unit for a few days in a different room before moving it to your bedroom. The quiet mode is very quiet but still ever so slightly audible (my wife is still bothered by it at night when the unit is close to her side of the bed), I wish the unit had an even slower, quieter mode.

Customer service was very helpful and went to great lengths to resolve questions and issues I had.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
A quiet model with limited sensor capability
By slm
The strength of the Blueair 450E is its quiet operation (claimed to be only 27 dB on the lowest setting). On the two lowest speeds the noise levels are very modest. The highest setting, at which the air flow ratings are measured, is noisy, but that is true of all HEPA filters. The system includes gas and particle sensors (poorly labeled as "smell" and "dust" sensors) with a primitive readout of 1, 2, or 3 bars; the display also includes a frowning face at 3 bars and a smiling face at 1 bar--I find this type of labeling annoying but have not allowed it to affect my rating). The sensors permit an auto mode that adjusts the fan speed so that the room is kept clean. The sensors do seem to correspond moderately well with the air quality, but the auto mode has a tendency to kick into high gear for brief periods when a longer burst on the level 2 setting would suffice. Given that the level 3 setting is quite a bit louder than the other two this is a flaw that could easily have been avoided. (For example an auto mode that is optionally limited to the two lower speeds would be convenient for night time when one is trying to sleep.) This purifier is well constructed and should last for many years. The most significant flaw is that the filters must be exchanged every 6 months and the filters with activated carbon costs $120 each--this makes the Blueair maintenance costs among the highest for models in this class of air purifiers. I have not tried operating the purifier with the cheaper HEPA-only filter (which costs half as much as the "smoke-stop" filters) and I wonder how well the auto mode will function when using a filter that only removes particles (you need activated carbon to remove gas contaminants so the particle filters don't seem to have any way to remove the gas contaminants that the sensor detects).

HEPA filters can, in principle, remove 99.97% of particles that are 0.3 microns in size from the air. The actual performan ce however depends strongly on the quality of the air purifier because if air leaks around the filter you won't get anywhere near 99.97% purification. I have seen independent tests indicating Blueair purifiers achieve 98% efficiency whereas some premium brands only have scores of ~80-90%. Of course, with multiple air changes per hour, even 80% filtering efficiency will ultimately get the job done, but the higher ratings will do a better job for a given amount of air flow.

If you as concerned about noise levels and not especially concerned about replacement filter costs the Blueair 450E deserves strong consideration. If you want low operating costs and can tolerate high noise levels there are more cost effective options out there.