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Lifestyle

BRONDELL O2+ BALANCE AIR PURIFIER, REVIEW BY NIKKI MOUSTAKI, NIKKI KNOWS PETS

4/29/2016

19 Comments

 
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Paws up for the Brondell O2+ Balance Air Purifier. Here's why: 
​Let me start with the most important information you need when choosing an air purifier: the health benefits. Since using the Brondell O2+ Balance air purifier in my bedroom, I no longer wake up with a stuffy nose and I sleep better. Although I don't know if Jasmine the Poodle's breathing has improved, I'd guess that it has. 
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I’m of the belief that every pet owning home should have at least one air purifier running 24 hours a day, especially if you have dogs, cats, small mammals, and most especially if you have birds.

​I’ve seen too many situations where allergies or pet odor get between a human guardian and a companion animal, which sometimes results in the re-homing of a beloved pet.
I was more than pleased to give the Brondell O2+ air purifier a try in my bedroom. Like most people, I spend more than eight hours a night in the bedroom, and my dog (and often foster dogs) sleep there with me. ​
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You can see how much dirt, hair, and junk the Brondell O2+ Balance pulled out of my air!
I placed the Brondell O2+ Balance air purifier at the foot of my bed next to my dog’s bed. It is very simple to set up—just remove the plastic from the various filters and then replace them easily into the unit.
 
The lighted blue interface is very sexy. It’s dummy proof (re: uncomplicated), and the included remote control allows you to change settings from across the room. It has a night mode that senses when the lights go out and dims the interface so that it doesn’t interrupt your sleep. Nice feature. 

On its lowest setting, “silent,” you won’t even know the air purifier is there, pulling dust and microbes out of the air. At the highest setting, you can use it as white noise when you sleep and it will pull even more pollution and microbes out of your sleeping environment.
​I keep my Brondell O2+ Balance on the “auto” setting. It’s amazing how this unit knows when to power on and when it can resume working in the background. When I make the bed or my dog shakes near it, it puts itself on a higher setting. This gives me confidence that the machine is acting in my best interest. 
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The Brondell O2+ Balance is a sleek, elegant looking air purifier that will blend into your décor. I’d put it anywhere in my home and feel comfortable with how it looks with my furniture.
 
At $349.00, this is an affordable unit for its class. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a unit twice its price, but that just makes it easier to use. There’s plenty to admire here.
 
My final evaluation of the Brondell O2+ Balance air purifier is that it's useful as a tool to reduce pet allergies, and it does a great job on pet odor as well. If you have a dusty home with a lot of pet dander, this would be a smart purchase. 
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FROM THE BRONDELL WEBSITE: 

The simple and intuitive touch panel makes it easy to control your personalized settings, and the Balance comes with the added convenience of a wireless remote control. The air purifier features four distinct operating modes and includes an air quality indicator that automatically adjusts the machine to match the air quality in the room. With its sleek compact design, the O2+ Balance is ideal for any home or office.

Balance Air Purifier Key Features
  • Three-stage advanced purifier system includes certified True HEPA and Granulated Carbon technology
  • Air quality indicator with color specific LED indication
  • Adjustable air quality sensor (Sensitivity customization for peak allergy seasons)
  • Four operating modes allow adjustability to accommodate any needs:
          • Auto Mode – automatically adjusts to the room’s air quality, ensuring the cleanest air possible
          • Night Mode – senses when it’s dark and automatically adjusts to ensure uninterrupted sleep
          • Fan Speed Mode – allows manual control to any of four different speed settings
          • Eco Mode – power saving mode to save electricity and extend the filter life
  • Simple intuitive touch technology control panel with additional wireless remote control
  • Whisper-quiet operation
  • Automatic filter change indicator
  • Easy-to-replace filter set lasts one (1) year
  • Ozone-free filtration means eco-friendly and doctor recommended healthy choice
  • AHAM Verifide, California ARB and Energy Star certified
  • Inspired minimalist design integrates into any home
  • Available in black or white
  • Three-year limited warranty

Three-Stage Advanced Filter Technology
  1. Mesh Pre-Filter (not included in replacement set) – washable micron mesh filters 99.97% of particulate matter larger than 0.28mm improving the lifespan of the other two filters.
  2. Activated Carbon Filter – granulated carbon formula that effectively reduces smoke, odor and harmful off gassing VOCs including Formaldehyde and Benzene.
  3. True HEPA Filter – removes 99.97% of particulates and allergens including dust, smoke, pet dander, mold spores and pollen above 0.3 microns.
19 Comments

RABBIT AIR MINUSA2 AIR PURIFIER REVIEW BY NIKKI MOUSTAKI

11/16/2015

 
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Is it wrong to be in love with an air purifier? The Rabbit Air MinusA2 is the total package, a pretty face combined with a hardy interior, making it possibly the loveliest and most useful air purifier on the market.

Being a pet person and having pet allergies makes having an air purifier a necessity for me. I sleep with this unit mounted to the wall just to the side of my bed in NYC. It's attractive enough to keep in any room. The cherry blossom design that I have is downright swanky. It has a color changing mood light that can be turned on to cast a cool glow over the room. Impressive. 

The MinusA2's auto feature is the "set it and forget it" setting. It's extremely quiet, and has a color coded light on the outside that shows your air quality so that you know it's working. When I go to bed, I put the unit on high for the white noise that blocks out annoying sounds that could wake me. If you keep it on automatic, it has a light sensor that keeps the unit very quiet at night until there's more activity in the room. 
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But how well does it clean the air, you'd like to know? When I clean the filters, they are loaded with dust, mold, and other junk, stuff that would have ended up in my lungs and possibly created a health issue if the unit wasn't pulling it out of the air. Rabbit Air has wonderful technical information and videos on its pages about the MinusA2. I'm here to tell you simply that it works. 

My favorite part about the MinusA2 is that you can customize the filter for you needs. They have a pet allergy filter pack, toxin absorber, odor removal, and germ defense. It also has an Negative Ion Generator feature that you can turn on and off. This feature is great for removing odors and giving the air an extra scrubbing.
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This is the view of my MinusA2
This air purifier is extremely easy to use. Simply open the front panel, unwrap the filters and place them into the body of the air purifier, then close the front panel. There's a remote control so you can change settings from across the room, or in case you mount it higher than you can reach. 

​Currently, the MinusA2 runs between $459 and $589. I've been running this unit for several years and it's still going strong. The filter kit runs about $85, and you'll have to replace it about once a year, depending on your use. I use it heavily, so I change it about every 9 months. The unit will remind you when it wants to be changed. 

Paws up for the Rabbit Air MinusA2 air purifier! 
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From the Rabbit Air website: 

A happy home should be a place where you can relax, rejuvenate, and reconnect with your family. We designed our MinusA2 air purifiers using a holistic approach, so that they contribute to the comfort of your home by doing much more than providing clean air. Our whisper quiet operation allows you to run your purifier any time without fear of distraction, while our light sensing sleep mode dims the lights when the sun goes down for undisturbed sleep. Turn on the soft, multi-color mood light when you want a soothing spectrum of light to relax with, or if you are always on-the-go, select the intelligent automatic mode and the MinusA2 will adjust itself so that you just relax and enjoy the clean air. 
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The unboxing!

CritterZone Pet Odor Eliminator Review: Nikki Moustaki, Nikki Knows Pets

7/17/2014

1 Comment

 
I first stumbled across CritterZone at the SuperZoo pet trade show in Vegas in September, 2012. It won the new product award for the entire show, which is no easy feat. I'm always skeptical of products like this, those that claim to remove pet odors -- that's also no easy feat. As someone with three dogs, two hamsters, and a bunch of fish tanks (yes, fish tanks can sometimes have an odor, but ideally they don't!), I have pet odors in my home, and like most pet people, I don't want them. 

I decided to give two of the units a try, one CritterZone Pet Air Purifier with Cord, and one CritterZone Wall Plug-in Pet Air Purifier. Retailing at nearly $90.00, I was hoping for these to work, but kept my expectations low after having been burnt by other products who claim to do the same thing, but don't. Also, these units are tiny, so how could they work to clear the odors out of an entire room?

I plugged one into an outlet in my kitchen, where the puppy pads are, and one into my "hamster room," the room in my apartment that can never deny the existence of pets. Hamsters do not smell like roses. 

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After a few hours, I went back into the "hamster room" and noticed a fresh odor, kind of like the scent after a nice rain shower in the country. No hamster smell at all, no musty odor, nothing. Just fresh and clean. Could it be that the CritterZone worked so well? No way. So I unplugged it. 

I came back a few hours later and the hamster room stunk again. I plugged the CritterZone back in. Again, after a short while, not only did the odor disappear, the room smelled great. I unplugged it again for a second experiment. The same thing happened. 

My kitchen, which sometimes had a slight urine odor if I didn't pick up the puppy pads right away, also smelled great, and it's a much larger area. 

Now that I've been using CritterZone for several months, I can honestly say that not only does this product work to control and eliminate odors, it exceeds expectations. 

There's a switch on the front that indicates low, medium, and high, but there aren't any indications as to which setting is low and which is high, so I just keep the switch in the middle. 

I run my CritterZone units almost all the time. I give them "breaks" periodically -- not for any other reason that I tend to unplug a lot of other stuff to give it "breaks" too. I asked the creator of CritterZone how long the units will last, but since it's such a new proudct, they really don't know. It's small, but it does seem well built, so I hope they last a long time. And if one conked out? I'd get another! 

Paws up for CritterZone! It does what it says it will do -- control the pet odors in your home. I can see this working very well for someone with kitty litter odor issues, cat urine odors, or rabbit odors, and it would do well in any musty area of your home. 

www.critterzoneusa.com
1 Comment
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Disclosure: I may receive products or compensation in conjunction with reviews. However, I only review products that I like and that I feel are valuable for the pet consumer. The reviews on this site reflect my honest appraisal of the products that appear here. Some reviews may also contain affiliate links. 
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