Winix 5500-2 Air Purifer Review

The Winix 5500–2 is undoubtedly the best-designed air purifier that we have reviewed at AHC. The design of the air purifier is straightforward, a traditional square shape with rounded edges, which extends in its height, but not by length. The most attractive element of the air purifier is the black color which gives a prominent ambiance to any room where you place the air purifier.

Design of Winix 5500-2

The Winix 5500-2 air purifier is around 14.7 pounds which is a bit heavier than Coway air purifiers. However, it is very portable. But the dimensions of 8.2x15x23.6 inches in height can sometimes be a problem, where you might wonder where to place the air purifier.

The air intake of the air purifier is on the front and for additional efficiency, there are cents to the side as well. The air purifier is designed to release, purified pollutant-free air from the top of the device to the room. This feature is absent from most prominent air purifiers as this airflow is ideal, where no disturbance will occur when sitting around the air purifier. 

The Winix 5500-2 is manufactured with a handle under the top cover, which gives the freedom to drag the air purifier around your home and place it efficiently providing much more portability. The build quality of the air purifier is in the premium plastic finish but is much heavier compared to some air purifiers in the market.

The control panel of the air purifier is on top of the purifier with a slightly elevated angle that gives much more accessibility to the buttons compared to other purifiers which are in place on the top. The control panel consists of physical buttons with a good feel and touch.

Control panel features

The control panel of the Winix 5500-2 consists of five buttons; the power button and mode selection button to switch between two main modes, which are auto and sleep mode. The next is the Plasmawave button, which indicates the light is on when pressed. 

The fan speed button is next to the Plasmawave which allows you to turn the manual mode which will pave the way to select the desired speed of the fan from each press of the button. The next is the timer with the standard three durations, which are one hour, four hours, and eight hours. You can also find a check filter indicator and reset hole with the smart sensor indicator on the far right.

The Winix 5500-2 air purifier can be full of surprises in terms of its features to efficiently clean indoor polluted air. The auto mode features self-control of the fan by the air purifier by controlling its speed according to the pollution level of the room. This mod can also additionally save electricity when switched on as the smart sensor on the air purifier can detect odors, and is handy in a household kitchen. 

The Plasmawave feature is unique to the Winix 5500-2 which gives an edge over some air purifiers in terms of removing harmful airborne pollutants. The plasma wave term is given as another name for the ionizer technology built into the air purifier. 

However, this feature of the air purifier can release ozone. Generally, the emission of ozone without regulation standards may impact personal health with harmful side effects long-term. 

The Winix 5500–2 are certified and approved as the ozone emission levels are far less than the approved limit, giving a safe environment to breathe. At Airheatcool we recommend using this feature in any air purifier without no physical presence in the room and after some time switching off the feature and providing good ventilation will eliminate any threat by ozone generators.

Air quality sensor

Much like the Coway AP-1512HH there is an air quality sensor in place to detect any compromises in the air quality indoors and depicts it by showing different colors in the indicator. The auto mode will allow the fan to be switched on when the indicator shows bad air quality indoors. However, you cannot rely on the sensor entirely as it is mainly based on detecting odors and not other pollutants, such as dust, pet dander, human hair, and pollen.

The air quality indicator of the Winix 5500-2 shows three levels of air quality from each illuminating color. Blue will depict that the air quality is good, while yellow symbolizes the quality is gradually getting compromised and the red color means that the air quality has a high level of pollution in motion.

Performance and Filteration process

The filtration process of the Winix 5500–2 is equipped with three filters, which are the pre-filter, carbon filter, and HEPA filter. Each filter is lined up with the HEPA filter at last to give better efficiency in cleansing the air. The night mode of the air purifier will let you sleep in the room without any distractions of illuminating light from the air purifier by dimming them and reducing the fan speed when the mod is switched on. 

The performance of the Winix 5500-2 amazed us in different situations in that we put the appliances. We monitored the air quality with a simple air quality meter, which gave powerful readings after turning on the Winix 5500-2 for an hour. However, the tested room was smaller than the recommended dimensions for the air purifier and air quality.

The air quality improved by up to 95%. The turbo mode function made this process much faster by creating an overall quality of 90% without switching the Plasmawave mode in around 45 minutes. So far the Winix 5500–2 can be classified as one of the best purifiers that we have reviewed.

Noise Level

The noise test of the Winix 5500-2 air purifier was tested at different speeds from the configuration. The sleep mode was the lowest noise that we found on the Winix 5500–2, and it is the most recommended setting if you are using the air purifier in your personal room with a smaller area rather than recommended for the air purifier. Other modes such as turbo and the different fan speeds had a significant noise increase and the turbo mode was identified as the noisiest setting in the air purifier.

Maintenance Cost

The operating cost of the Winix 5500–2 can be a bit on the high margin as it consumes more energy with 70W power compared to other traditional purifiers. However, the air purifier carries the energy star certified standard and this is a huge advantage. Each speed level had different consumption of power, and this was helpful as we regularly turned on the night mode and the first speed. 

This gave us the same amount of consumption as with every other purifier. The highest cost will be for filter replacement. To minimize the cost we can clean the pre-filter regularly and the other two filters alongside it. However, replacement should be done for the HEPA filter once a year.