tldr; Community favorite for whisper-quiet operation and effective allergy relief.
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Best praise vs top criticism for Winix 5500-2
“There is a stickied thread in this that goes into detail about dust. Purifiers are not meant to eliminate dust. You need to vacuum with a bagged vacuum and wet dust surfaces as a first line of defense if dust is your issue. Ideally, you would run units in every room, because you are correct, purifiers are bad at pulling air around corners and walls. You should get units that are matched to the size of your rooms. [House Fresh](https://housefresh.com/cadr-calculator/) has a good explainer and calculator you can use to figure it out. You can always start with 1 or 2 purifiers now and add more later. This is just my personal opinion, but I have owned both Winix and Levoit and much prefer my units from Levoit. Also, the circular Winix units they sell at Costco are not good. It’s pretty much the 5500 or go with another brand. Another option would be Coway, but I’ve owned those too and they are great, but much louder than my Levoits. I also appreciate Levoit because they sell a lot of different sizes of units so you can outfit a house pretty easily on a budget.”
“Avoid Tailulu, it's a garbage rebadged brand. Winix 5500-2 for the living room. Winix A230 for your bedroom. Keep in mind: Clean Air Delivery Rates (CADRs) apply to the highest airflow speed/setting only. Lower settings have lower CADRs. In all likelihood, disabling PlasmaWave (the ionizer) will decrease Pollen CADR. The Built Environment Research Group showed the Winix 5500-2 showed an 18% decrease in Pollen CADR during their testing: [https://www.built-envi.com/wp-content/uploads/IIT-CADR-Testing-WINIX-5500-2-October-2021.pdf](https://www.built-envi.com/wp-content/uploads/IIT-CADR-Testing-WINIX-5500-2-October-2021.pdf) Another note: the Winix 5500-2 is being phased out. But... filters will be available in the years to come. That would be [Filter H – 116130](https://www.winixamerica.com/product/filter-h-116130/). The genuine Winix filter is cheaper on Amazon.”
1,174 Reddit opinions analyzed • Last updated 2/24/2026