FJay

Of the six Winix filters in my house, four are C545s of which two are many years old. They are quiet, fairly unobtrusive and run on the Auto setting practically all the time, occasionally speeding up when they detect contaminants and switching to almost silent in the dark. This requires no setup. I don’t use the wireless function to control them with the app, instead relying on visual inspection to determine when each filer actually needs to be replaced.

When the fan is turned up to the maximum it moves a lot of air.

The most frequent maintenance is cleaning the mesh pre-filter with a vacuum cleaner brush attachment. This filter picks up lint, fluff, dander, hair and such and is easily detached for cleaning.

The units are more effective, but more obtrusive, when placed away from walls - especially corners (as pictured in the photo).

Units can often be purchased at Coscto for under $100 and refurbished units directly from Winix shipped for less. The significant majority of the lifetime cost of any HEPA air filter unit is the HEPA filter. Even with the frequent 30% off sales, buying direct from Winix for $60 is expensive, while aftermarket multi-packs of Filter S can be purchased for under $8 per filter, making this a very inexpensive air filter.