BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Cleaning Kenmore Progressive 295 HEPA Air Cleaner

We all live in a world with air that could be much cleaner. Many people have pets. The natural world creates pollen and dust. Industries and cars create pollution and smog. Your nose hairs and lungs do their very best to keep your body clean and healthy, but the human body was not designed for this modern world we live in. It's no wonder that many of us have allergies to modern pollutants.



This is where the Kenmore Progressive 295 HEPA Air Cleaner comes in. First, what does HEPA mean? HEPA stands for "high efficiency particulate air" and refers to the type of filter in the system. This super-fine filter blocks out 99.97% (or more!) of dust and other particles in the air. This is the type of filter they use in hospitals and clean rooms.

In fact, technically, the HEPA is blocking 99.97% of particles of 0.3 micrometers (�m) in diameter - this specific size is considered "hard to catch" for some reason. So for items larger and smaller than this size it actually does even better.

Usually the problem with a HEPA filter is the noise. It requires a lot of power to suck air through a filter this good. However, somehow the Kenmore manages to do it very quietly. Yes, you hear it running - but it is a very low hum. I don't mind it at all. My boyfriend who is sometimes oddly sensitive to particular sounds, doesn't like to fall asleep with it running. So we run it all day in the bedroom while we're not there, and then turn it off when we go to sleep. The room air is MUCH cleaner than it would otherwise be, and he gets his silence for falling asleep. You could easily do the opposite in your living room if you wanted, although to be honest if you had the TV or radio on you'd never even notice the tiny hum of this unit.

How well does it work? I definitely notice a big difference in how well I sleep and breathe. The HEPA rating is an industry standard one, so you know that it meets those qualifications.

Unlike ozone generating devices, this is completely safe as well.

The reason every single home doesn't have 10 of these running is cost. This unit began around $400 and is now down around $175. That's an amazing price for a HEPA filter but still not cheap. Also, HEPA filters are not cheap either. They are not just "a pile of cotton" - they are very precisely engineered constructions. In fact the unit has a pre-filter to try to keep the main filter as clean as possible, so that it lasts as long as possible. The pre-filter costs about $6 each, and should be changed quarterly. The main HEPA filter should be changed yearly and is about $60.

So again, not cheap, but VERY good at what it does. If you have allergies or sleeping problems, you might be amazed at how better you sleep when you have fresh air to breathe. The resulting good health and better efficiency and activity could be well worth the cost to you.

Highly Recommended.

Thank you, very informative. I've been trying to decide which brand and model to buy for our home to replace the very old one that went kaput.

A main reason we went with this one was the noise. In essence all the HEPA filters clean to the same very high level, they're all HEPA rated. This was the quietest one we found to do that. I in fact just ordered a complete set of new filters from Amazon and hopefully they will be here soon!

It makes a big difference in my allergic reactions if I have this running. We have two cats and it's not that I'm "really allergic" in having to take medicine. But I can feel my nose tighten up and my face tingle when the cats are around, and this handles that. I imagine for people with more severe allergies that it'd be even more impressive

I am wondering if opening the windows in your home for 20 minutes each day accomplishes the same thing? I have heard that it does, if you live in an area with clean air. This is what we do.

In bad air situations, it's not an option though. So something like this unit could be a very important health expense.

We live in a city, but still open the windows during the summer. Someone stole our outdoor AC unit! So, it gets pretty hot and I cannot tolerate normal in-window units.

Jill - we keep our windows open all day long in the summer, because we have only mild problems with pollen and would rather have the fresh air vs stagnant air.

Let's take the bedroom as an example. We have two cats. They lay all over the bed, they get their fur and saliva everywhere. Now if we opened all the windows for 20 minutes, and a gigantic hurricane came through and completely blew everything off the surfaces, walls, ceilings, and then we closed it all back up again, we would have all that fur, dander etc. accumulating immediately. The HEPA runs all day long, actively, sucking up loose allergens as they are set loose.

Even in the summer if we left all the windows open all over the house, it's not going to be breezy all the time. The HEPA "makes a breeze" all the time And again, with all the outside allergens like pollen and outside animal dander, the HEPA is clearing those out too. Open windows let in as many natural allergens as they blow out

So that all being said, we don't have HEPAs in every room. I deal with the allergens in the living room, even though the cats are in there constantly too. There's a big sliding door screen on one side and multiple windows on the other side. Even with that cross breeze, sitting in an area that has lots of pets is definitely noticeable The air doesn't go through like a hurricane, there are pockets of stagnant air

Jill - I only gave in and got an AC unit a few years ago. Until then I toughed it out and refused. But I live in Massachusetts so it's not like it gets "really" hot here - it only gets into the high 90s sometimes. But I don't like the heat

Well, it doesn't get hot or humid here, and we don't have animal hair on things or have allergies.

So I don't think for us this would be a worthwhile expense.

I would totally get one if i lived in most states in the US - the cold ones, the hot ones, or the city-air places.

Yesterday it was what we would consider killer hot (around 97F) and I heard from three different friends that they were nauseous, on the point of collapse. They thought they had gotten salmonella poisoning in fact. It all ended up being the heat and pollen. It was a combination of the heat hitting, the flowers all being in pollen season, and people breathing As soon as nighttime hit and it got cooler (and the pollen settled down) everybody felt better.

So definitely there are some areas of the country that just conspire to affect your health