Oust Air Cleaner: Does it Really Clean the Air?

I had a chance to test out the Oust Air Cleaner before it hit the stores nationwide. I have always been a fan of Oust products so the chance to review the Oust Air Cleaner was a welcome opportunity.

Oust claims that the Air Cleaner removes particles, eliminates odors, and leaves a clean light scent. So what does a thrifty mom think of a so called low cost ($29.99) air cleaner that brought the Oust and 3M Company together to remove airborne particles, eliminate odors and add a clean scent?

PROS

It is a compact air cleaner that contains a 3M filter, a bottle of oust air sanitizer, and an ionizer. The unit is meant to be used in small rooms. I personally used it in my living room for 45 days and found that it still delivered a light clean and fresh scent throughout the room.

The ionizer was a huge benefit for me. The improves the unit's cleaning ability by releasing negative charged ions into the air which attach themselves to small airborne particles such as dust that are captured by the unit's filter. The beauty of this product is that you take out the filter and you can see that it is dirty. You see the dirt, smoke, etc. accumulating on the 3M filter.

No batteries are required. This unit simply plugs into the wall. I can never find batteries in my house, and when I do they are always the wrong size, so to not have to worry about that made me happy.

It really does clean the air. It worked in my house. I have two cats, a pug, and a baby. With my family the house can get a little smelly at times between dirty diapers and dirty litter boxes. I loved the fact that when people walked into my house they smelled the lovely scent of the air cleaner. I was proud the house smelled so fresh and clean.

CONS

It retails for $29.99 which is not really that bad for a product that that is going to clean the air in your house, but since it is really only made to clean one room say you had a six bedroom house and you want at minimum a unit in every other room. That is three rooms and a total of $89.97.

That is still cheaper then running out to sharper image and buying the ionic breeze, but take into consideration the filters. It is recommended that you change the filters every 30 days, and also change the bottle of Oust air sanitizer. This will run you an additional $6.99 a month or, $83.88 per year. Now if we go back to the three rooms model well, I am just not going there. Okay, I will and then we are talking about a first year investment of $341.61. Being a thrifty mom I just don't have that kind of money when I can purchase a bottle of the oust air sanitizer in a larger variety of scents then the air cleaner and spend about $2.99 a month.

In the FAQ portion of the website they say that the filter can not be cleaned, run under water, or vacuumed, well I tested it out, and ran the filter under water. Unfortunately it did not get it clean like I thought it would, so yes you really do need to buy a filter every thirty days.

I would highly recommend this product if it wasn't for the price. I would love to have it and run it in every room in my house, but I find purchasing the refills way to cost prohibitive. Bottom line, it does what it claims it does, and would be great to freshen a musty basement, but not really good for a whole house.