Austin Air HealthMate HM-400

As with other air purifiers, there's a bit of disconnect between Consumer Reports' evaluation of the Austin Air HealthMate HM-400 and the results at other sites. Consumer Reports ranks this machine near the bottom of its November 2007 roundup for dust and smoke removal, but another source, Air-Purifiers-America.com, rates it fairly well in this regard, acknowledging that it didn't test for odor removal (which the HealthMate is especially proficient at, considering its 15-pound activated carbon core). Otherwise, reviewers agree that the HealthMate is a powerful machine, capable of cleaning a 1,500-square-foot room (though it does better with areas half that size) and removing thousands of different chemicals and odors from the air, even if it's not as efficient at removing allergens as the IQAir HealthPro (*est. $750) or Alen A350 (*est. $400).

The Austin Air HealthMate HM-400 scores four out of four for expert reviews. This air purifier is rated by Consumer Reports and Air-Purifiers-America.com (which both perform allergen-removal tests), and is evaluated by two air-purifier specialty sites, Air-Purifier-Power.com and AllergyBuyersClub.com. Unfortunately, we were unable to find many reviews of this machine at user-review sites such as Epinions or Amazon.com.