Both my wife and I are allergic to dust and pollen, so we’ve been using a Delonghi HEPA filter for a number of years to purify the air during springtime. It also cleans out smells after serving fish or during remodeling work such as painting.
The biggest disadvantage was that the filter we used needed regular cartridge replacement of the carbon filter and paper HEPA filter which had a combined cost of €70. The machine itself cost only €100, so we started looking around for an alternative. And it turns out Philips makes one. The CleanAir filter has a self-cleaning 6-stage filtration system which means that the filters can be used for 5 years and cleaned with a vacuum cleaner. It also sterilizes viruses and bacteria from the air. The price is a bit higher though at €180, but the lack of need for replacement filters quickly makes up for this.
There are two versions available in Belgium, one for 20m2 and one for 40m2, both with mechanical controls. In the Netherlands, they sell a model which incorporates SmartAir, a system which measures the air quality and which adapts it speed to the amount of pollen and dust in the air. It also has a timer for unsupervised cleaning. We asked philips if it would become available to the Belgian market (they have excellent customer support by the way) but it turned out that it was not in the foreseeable future. Since we wanted to get this models, we looked for an only shop which could deliver to Belgium from the Netherlands. eshop seemed a good choice due to the many positive reviews and low transportation costs. We ordered it Monday in the afternoon and the machine is quietly spinning away next to me right now (Thursday morning). It was well packaged and quickly delivered.
Collishop in Belgium offers the manual models for those looking to save (a little) money or who don’t need SmartAir control.