The GoVacuum Blog

by Michele Kadison
Environmental consciousness begins at home. Breathing pure, clean air that is free of dust, mold, pollen, pet dander, smoke, and any other type of airborne pollutant is a right that we need to choose for ourselves. Buying a top-notch air purifier is an ideal way to ensure that unwanted elements in our homes do not find their way into our lungs.

A good air purifier is designed to improve the quality of the air by removing potential allergens, which can be the cause of many problems if inhaled on a regular basis. If you suffer from asthma or are sensitive to airborne particles, breathing clean air is essential. People with sensitive lungs, including children and the elderly will also experience huge benefits from purified air.A good air purifier also reduces residual smells from pets and smokers as well as any other potential air pollutant.

As one of the leading air purifying systems in the field, Blueair is a brand that many consumers are turning to for obtaining next to perfect air quality at home. As an energy efficient product, Blueair creates a very small carbon footprint while also saving the consumer money. One of their most popular models is the Blueair 650E, which is designed for large rooms and comes with a remote control device that allows settings to be changed easily. With a digital display, users can immediately get feedback on particle direction and air purifying speed. Additionally, the digital readout provides notification when the air filter needs changing.

Regardless of which brand you choose, purchasing an air purifier may be one of the best investments you will ever make in terms of you and your family’s health.

by Michele Kadison
Not too long ago it was sufficient to dust the furniture, wash the floors, and bathe your pets, to boast that you then had a clean home.  Today things have changed as the quality of our air has become polluted with too great a range of irritants.  From pollen to other air-borne elements and allergens, as well as the chemical detritus left over from so many toxic household products, we are breathing air that is laden with pollutants.

For this reason air purifiers and air filters have become important tools in assuring the cleanliness of our air in both home and office.  These systems have become a boon to those with allergies, asthma, and chronic respiratory problems as well as babies, the elderly, and anyone wishing to breathe healthily.  Because air purifiers and filters remove smoke, smog, pet dander, bacteria, mold, and other foreign matter that lingers in the air, they are considered essential by those who recognize the positive impact they have on health.

Air purifiers and filters come in many sizes, from portable to sizes commensurate with varying room dimensions. An air purifier functions by drawing the air inside a room to the base of the unit where it is then pushed upwards through a mesh filter.  As the air pushes up, pollutants are extracted and sealed inside the unit before the air continues to its next stop.  This subsequent phase is where the air enters into a cleaning cell where it is then ionized, whereby small dust particles and other types of similar debris are removed.  From here it goes to an activated charcoal filter, which deodorizes the air before it is released back into the room cleaned and purified.

Air filters also come in many different dimensions and are generally made of paper, foam, synthetic fabric, or cotton. Some filters, such as those used for HVAC (heating-ventilation-and air-conditioning)are made of fiberglass.   Often air filters are used on devices that need clean air to function well, such as vehicles, computers, and other units with exhaust systems. Using no more energy than a light bulb, air filter systems filter out many allergens including dust and small irritants.  One of the most effective household air filter systems is a universal air filter, or UAF, which includes a filter, a fan guard, and an air-flow enclosure.

If you want to keep yourself and the people around you healthy, you will want to make sure that the air inside your home and office is as irritant-free as possible.  Investing in an air purifier or air filter system is an investment in cleaner lungs along with a more conscious lifestyle.

I can always tell when Spring is here…everyone in the office starts sneezing a lot and it’s not pretty. With the rise of allergens in the air, it’s almost unavoidable. Luckily, working in the GoVacuum warehouse, I have access to all the neat products we carry. Perusing the aisles of air purifiers, I found something that looked like it could be the answer. The Blueair AirPod Portable Air Purifier. And I was right, it was the perfect solution for the rise of dirty air that was infecting my personal space.

What surprised me most was the size (13 inches) and efficiency of the Blueair Airpod, effectively creating a “Personal Clean Airzone” for me. The purifier’s sleek design is easy on the eyes and completely silent, making it a perfect addition to your cluttered desk and less annoying than your office-mates. You can even choose the color of the filter that accompanies the machine: White, Grey, Blue or Black.

If you are looking for something simple to clean the air around you, whether it is at the office or at home, the Blueair Airpod Portable Air Purifier is the perfect choice, especially at our sale price of $36.99 (used to be $99!).

You can also check out our pretty newsletter made for the Blueair Airpod:

As many of you can tell from our GoVacuum Review Series, we are dedicated to providing the most honest reviews and opinions about vacuums, with the ultimate goal being that you are always completely satisfied with your purchase.

In trying to provide our customers with as much relevant information for their vacuum research, we are also opening our website’s doors and inviting GoVacuum visitors and customers to leave their feedback and review of our products. Since we are a small team here at GoVacuum, it took us some time to get this feature developed without significant glitches. But, now, we are proud to announce that the customer product review feature can be found on every product page.

For a quick example of a product page, let’s take a look at the Sebo Air Belt C-Series Canister. If you look below the large, red “Add to Cart” button, you will see a green section titled “Product Reviews.” This is where the magic happens.

In order to submit your review, you must first click on the stars below the sentence “Click to Rate This Product.” When you click the number of stars you want to give the product, you will be prompted by a new window to leave the title of your review, your name and the actual review itself. We invite you to leave a review of any product you desire, whether the review is positive or negative.

Once your review is submitted, it may take up to 3-4 business days to be posted, so don’t be shocked if it doesn’t appear immediately. Because of the possibility of spammers taking advantage of this feature, we must have a GoVacuum editor review all the customer reviews before they are published on the site. GoVacuum’s policies about editing customer reviews are as follows: we will only edit a customer review for common spelling and grammar mistakes and will never change the content or opinion of the review.

We hope you enjoy this feature! Feel free to send us any feedback by leaving a comment in the blog!

Since the air in your home or office may be more polluted than the air outside, you might consider an air purifier for the home or office. The benefits to having an air purifier are tremendous. For starters, it can remove allergens from your home and if you have allergies like hay fever and other allergies that cause you to sneeze, cough, clear your throat a lot, and gives you a stuffy head, scratchy throat, headaches, and other discomforts then an air purifier can help you solve most of that with relative ease.

You can treat dust mites, pet dander, fungus, molds, and pollens easily and affordably with the right air purifier and with so many good brands on the market, there is no reason not to have one:

• Allerair
• Airfree
• Airpura
• Austin Air Systems
• Blueair
• Electrolux
• Healthway
• Hoover
• IQAir
• Neoair
• NQ
• Panasonic
• Sharp

An air purifier can make your life more comfortable and your air more breathable.

While at the annual Vacuum Dealer Trade Association (VDTA) last month, I was lucky enough to attend the IQAir College. This is an 8 hour intensive seminar on air cleaners and air purification in general. The course was limited to only authorized independent retailers of IQAir; a breath of fresh air for us independent dealers who are increasingly witnessing manufacturers making the transition to selling to Big Box stores. Even more impressive was the fact that the session was led by Frank Hammes, the President of IQAir , who was able to bring his expertise to the table and give each of us a glimpse of what is involved in making the world’s best air cleaners.

For me the session was extremely educational, even if it did leave me with the lingering fear that the air I breathe on a daily basis is so contaminated with harmful micro-particles that holding my breath indefinitely might be a better alternative. But seeing as how I would be limited in my ability to blog about Vacuums and Air Cleaners with the latter alternative, I’ve decided to simply buy an IQAir HealthPro Plus air cleaner instead.

I’m not the kind of person who is easily sold on a product simply because the company purports that their product performs x% better than their competitors. Mainly because I’ve taken some statistics classes before and the only thing that I learned was that all statistics can be manipulated to achieve whatever goal is desired. What impressed me about IQAir’s approach to comparisons was how direct they were about them. Over the course of the session, Frank set up various competitor’s air cleaners and directly compared them with the IQAir HealthPro Plus , their most popular product offering. In these comparisons Frank tested the two most important things when considering purchasing an air cleaner: airflow and particle emission.

Using an expensive laser particle scanner, Frank put all air cleaners up to the test, even his own. He also used a weird contraption that looked like an over-sized trash can that was placed over the air cleaners to measure the airflow output of the machine. This was an interesting exercise because the results from this test were significantly different from what the air cleaner product descriptions proclaimed as actual air flow. It was explained that this is because many air cleaner descriptions describe the airflow of the product BEFORE it hits the air filter. What a sham! Of course air flow will decrease after the air filter, that’s what its supposed to do!

Anyways, while the results varied across the board, one thing was consistent: IQAir seemed to be the best choice. Some machines would have higher air flow than the IQAir HealthPro Plus and some would reach 0% in particle emission but not one machine achieved both.

For those who are interested, you can watch a video demonstration of the IQAir HealthPro Plus check it out below:

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For those who are extremely serious about the air quality in their homes, IQAir unveiled to us a product that helps purify all the air that circulates throughout your entire house. The IQAir Perfect 16 whole-house air cleaning system attaches to your central heating and air condition unit and filters the air as it is circulated around your house. I found two things to be very impressive about this unit. First, the results of this unit can be seen within just an hour after installation (using a laser particle scanner). Second, the Perfect 16 machine is powerful enough to purify all the air your home approximately 125 times a day.

You can check out the video below to see the other features of the IQAir Perfect 16 machine , as featured on the TV show “Extreme Makeover-Home Edition.”

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In the latest issue of Wired Magazine, Scott Taves went on a search for the cleanest clean he could attain (he sounds as anal as me). He tested a slew of air cleaners and found his favorite to be the IQAir Healthpro Plus (also my favorite!). It’s not the prettiest or the fanciest, but damn if it doesn’t get the job done right. As he mentioned, it was used in hospitals in Hong Kong during the SARS outbreak, and effectively squashes any hypochondriac tendencies (at least while you’re sitting in the comfort of your own so-fresh-and-so-pure home). Yay. Now, if I could just squish my procrastination tendencies and get some damn work done.