The Air Doctor is a breath of fresh air

As an independent Consumer Advocate, I was completely disgusted with AirDoctor’s extremely disreputable business practices, which almost required I enlist a lawyer to ensure they took the three (3) health damaging VOC air polluting pieces of garbage back and provide me with a full refund.

For the record, I am only a very angry customer who is sick and tired of businesses ripping people off. I do not work for a competitor, and am not in the industry. I actually wrote this slightly updated review at the beginning of 2019 on Amazon, but Amazon chose to delete it for dubious reasons (along with several other very negative reviews), and limit reviews to only “Verified” purchases until recently, forcing me to voice my opinion under Comments and as Answers to Questions. Still, I kept an eye on the product, due to how disreputable they were, and am extremely happy to have been able to post this review there again now, given how Air Doctor will surely try and exploit the victims of California’s Fires.

From start to finish, my customer experience was riddled with the need to sort through misleading, deceptive, and misrepresentative sales practices, whether I was reviewing its highly misleading webpage, talking to ignorant or just plain dishonest sales reps on the phone, or being forced to get basic technical information via email that had to be channeled through the Sales Supervisor, since any direct communication with technical support was apparently off limits, either by phone or email.

In fact, AirDoctor was so disreputable, it may even be guilty of illegal taxation, with its taxing of shipping and handling charges in California when they didn’t provide the proper invoice as required by CA Law. It’s quite obvious they know they are doing this, since AirDoctor Customer Service didn’t want to provide me with a corrected invoice when I requested it, let alone any invoice at all in the beginning, and Management still only provided me with a hand-corrected one when I insisted, probably so the tax refund wouldn’t show up in their official accounting and draw attention to their illegalities if/when they’re formally audited. (NOTE: Some previous commenters disputed this claim, but California Tax Law on this requires merchants to fulfill specific requirements in order to charge taxes on shipping, which Air Doctor didn’t fulfill.)

The Air Doctor is actually dangerous for your health, because it adds VOC pollution to the Air, as determined from extensive, video documented testing on three separate units with a Temtop LKC 1000S+ and several BlueAir Aware Monitors. Simply putting your nose to the outlet vent and turning the AirDoctor on will reveal a noxious plastic smell that doesn’t dissipate even after a month of daily use.

It’s also cheaply made, as evidenced by the many gaps in the charcoal filter they provide, which also pokes a lot of holes in their claim that the unit is Triple Sealed. This may be true for PM2.5 and PM10 particles that it appears to clean, but not the VOCs it claims to clean as well.

Don’t trust their return policy either, since they will repeatedly delay in providing you with responses to your emails. They literally ignored the email I sent before the 30-days was up, then told me later when I persisted in my efforts to return the units that I couldn’t because I had passed the 30-day return period.

Beware of the Warranty as well, since it is non-transferable. Only the person who bought the unit will be covered for its inferior warranty, which is only for a year, instead of the 5-10 Year Warranties that other units in this price range offer.

The company has also been extremely misrepresentative and deceptive in its marketing. Phone reps, like their Customer Service Rep, Angie, lied about the performance of the unit, saying the Air Doctor’s built in Air Tester will test for VOCs, which it will not, as Angie was forced to correct in writing. They will also pretend their warranty terms are more generous and flexible than they really are when you read them.

In fact, they used to advertise that the unit cleaned a 2400 square foot space on any fan speed, which was physically impossible from a math and physics perspective. Standard specs use a 2-cycle measure, while Air Doctor used a single cycle. In other words, Air Doctor could only say it cleans 2400 square feet, because relied on a single turnover of the air in a room of that size, while others say they clean 1200 square feet, for example, based on recycling the air in the room twice.

They’ve since changed this manipulation of the facts and now state the room cleans a 900 square feet with three turnovers of air, but that doesn’t mean this or anything else they say is completely true. What remains true are the additional problems cited below that persist even with their corrected claim of cleaning 900 sf., since the following experience still applies, just with an even smaller area than the specs I cite from their earlier deceptive marketing practices. In other words, Buyers should still expect far less than 900 sf., unless the Boost setting is always employed, as described below using the 2400 sf. max.

Air Doctor was incredibly evasive and inconsistent in providing information on their various fan speeds as well. In fact, even the 900 square feet they now say it cleans relies on what Air Doctor calls its BOOST Fan Speed. Not only is this fan speed just as noisy as other, more reputable units I tested, such as the very AirIQ unit that Air Doctor likes to compare itself to in its marketing, but the Air Doctor manual I received was quite deceptive as well, which stated:

“The speed selected determines how rapidly you want to clean the air. The “LOW” and “MEDIUM” settings are great for everyday use. The “HIGH” setting is great for areas with more airborne contaminants (such as excessive smoke, pet dander, etc), or areas used frequently by allergy-sufferers. The “BOOST” setting is best used for shorter bursts of time when you want to rapidly purify the air.”

Notice how it failed to include the fact that the lower fan speeds would NOT clean its then advertised 2400 square feet, and the “BOOST setting is best used for shorter bursts of time.” If you look at all of Air Doctor’s responses that I received via email to the question of how much area does the unit cover on different speeds, provided below, you can see how misrepresentative and evasive they were when directly questioned on these details. In providing me with answers, they provided two different sets of specs — one declaring specs for only the two lower speeds, which were later contradicted by the specs they gave for all four speeds. Getting these took quite a bit of effort to obtain. The first time they answered me they provided this answer in response to my phone inquiry into the specs for all speeds:

“How much air is the unit cleaning on Med and Low settings?
705 Square feet on low and 1050 Square feet on med.”

Here are the final specs they gave me, though they refused to inform me as to why these numbers should be trusted when the previous numbers I was provided were false.

“On low : 810 sq. feet
On Med : 1215 sq. feet
On high : 1845 sq. feet
On Boost : 2400 sq. feet”

They also didn’t (don’t?) publish the decibel level of the noise the unit makes at different speeds and only discuss three speeds in their official marketing, so they can conflate its so-called High Speed, which doesn’t purify their then maximum of 1845 sq. feet, with its claim that the Unit cleans 2400 sq. feet. Yes, the High Speed is also quieter as well, but it’s not cleaning 2400 sq. feet at that speed. In fact, the Decibel sound rating provided was misrepresented as being no louder than 52 dB, by conveniently failing to mention that the High setting is not actually the highest setting. The Boost setting is rated at 59 dB, which is similar to the IQAir that is a Commercial Grade Unit with six (6) settings to choose from, all of which are authentically represented. Thus, Air Doctor is hardly 30% quieter than its competition.

Air Doctor was also limited in the size of credit card transactions it was able to accept, plus check out and customer service was manipulative and misrepresentative in how the shipping charges and taxes were handled, and getting an actual invoice that detailed all of the final charges required me to seriously push to get it, probably because of the tax fraud they may be trying to commit.

Angie, the Customer Service Rep, first told me that I simply needed to order the three (3) units I wanted directly from their website, and I would only be charged shipping for just one of the units. False. Shipping had to be adjusted later, and checkout wouldn’t reveal the final cost including taxes. The website accepted my purchase of three units, plus extra filters, and $49.99 was required to get a five year warranty, but Customer Service had to call me and arrange to literally split the purchase into separate charges and invoices, since “for customer protection”, they can’t accept purchases over $1,200 or so. This required even more of my time, which wasn’t appreciated. Nor did I appreciate having to chase after invoices, which I was promised during the purchase split, but not provided until demanded again via email. No wonder, since it was the invoice that I finally got that revealed that I was being over charged in taxes, which had illegally taxed me on Shipping.

Based on the above, I can only conclude that they may be limited in the credit card purchases they can accept because the credit card companies may not trust them either. Just my opinion.

If you’re interested in learning more about their deceptive and manipulative marketing, read on for details on the misrepresentative claims they made (make?) on their website. For the record, I don’t know if they’ve since changed any of these manipulative representations as well, like their shift from 2400 sf. to 900 sf., but it still demonstrates their willingness to use disreputable business practices if they feel they can get away with it.

Webpage Misrepresentations:

“Only AirDoctor Has These 6 Unique Features.” This is highly misleading if not completely false. Luckily, AirDoctor chose to compare itself to the IQAir Health Pro Plus (the “IQAir”), which I happen to purchase as well for my own personal comparison, so I shall also use it here, along with the Aerus QuietPure Home Plus (the “QuietPure”), to illustrate how AirDoctor likes to bend the truth, if not break it.

“100 Times More Effective with State-Of-The Art UltraHepa.” This may be a truly unique feature in regards to no one else using the “UltraHEPA” brand filter, but it’s still deceptive, because the IQAir has its own “revolutionary HyperHEPA filtration system [which] is proven to capture particles 100 times smaller, down to 0.003 microns”. So AirDoctor is not alone in filtering out particles down to 0.003 microns.

“Patented Dual Action Carbon/Gas Trap/VOC Filter.” Both the IQAir and the QuietPure offer gas, chemical and odor filtration using carbon filters that filter out formaldehyde. In fact, the QuietPure and IQAir may even provide better filtration, since they utilize their own unique systems that utilize up to twice the amount of carbon than the 2.2 lbs. of the AirDoctor, as quoted below respectively:

QuietPure: “For advanced chemical, odor, VOCs and formaldehyde removal, the QuietPure Home+ Smoke Air Purifier features 4+ lbs. of granulated activated carbon.”

IQAir: “The IQAir HealthPro air purifiers take in air from the bottom of the unit. The air is passed through the PreMax pre-filter(1) where micro-particles such as pollen, pet dander and mold spores are captured. The air is then drawn through the fan into the V-5 filter (HealthPro Plus model only) where granular activated carbon(2) eliminates volatile organic compounds, and pelletized chemisorption(3) destroys harmful chemicals, such as formaldehyde, by an oxidation process inside the chemically active alumina pellets. As the last stage filtration, air passes through the nano-fibers of the HyperHEPA filter(4) removing ultra-fine particles such as bacteria, viruses and combustion particles… V-5 Cell™ chemical & odor filter contains 5 lbs of coal-based activated carbon and potassium permanganate impregnated alumina.

Clean, purified air is vented through the 320° EvenFlow™ diffuser at top of unit. The air outlet diffuser is designed to outflow low turbulence, low velocity air which creates less noise.In fact, the IQAir is probably even better in this regard, because it has 5 lbs. of Carbon, compared to the 2 lbs. in the AirDoctor.

100% Sealed System. The IQAir has a triple Sealed System. Plus, simply hold the Carbon Filter from an Air Doctor up to the light and you will easily see that there are all sorts of holes in the carbon mesh, so even if the unit is supposedly sealed, the carbon filter is so poorly manufactured that air is surely seeping through without being subjected to any carbon filtration.

Auto-Mode. The QuietPure has an Auto-mode as well, and the “display shows particle counts, relative humidity and even the temperature in your home.” Air Doctor’s Auto Mode only checks for particle pollution. No VOCs are tested, despite being told this by Angie, AirDoctor’s Sales Supervisor, at least before she was forced to retract this claim when I asked for confirmation of it in writing.

Change Filter Alert. The IQAir and many others have a change filter alert.“

Quiet Performance… WhisperJet fans that are 30% quieter.” Again, this may be true when compared to “the fans found in ordinary air purifiers”, which is why AirDoctor can get away with saying it, but when compared to the IQAir (the competitor AirDoctor chose to compare itself to in its own marketing), or the QuietPure, it’s actually just as loud as these on its highest setting, while on the lowest setting, it is merely comparable to the IQAir, and louder than the QuietPure. No wonder AirDoctor doesn’t list its decibel ratings anywhere on its website or in its owners manual and misleads customers by only speaking of its High setting, without disclosing this “High” setting isn’t actually the highest setting, since AirDoctor actually calls its highest speed the “Boost” setting, which is the setting that’s actually required to clean the 2400 square feet that Air Doctor claims it purifies. And since the specs for the IQAir are rated from 35-69 decibels, I highly doubt the AirDoctor is only 52 dB on its High Setting, and only 59 dB on its Boost setting. In my experience, the AirDoctor and IQAir were equivalent, although the IQAir has six (6) settings, none of which are considered a Boost setting.