Winix QS Air Purifier: Trusted Review & Specs

While we thoroughly applaud Winix for trying to be innovative with its devices, in an air purifier world that sorely needs differentiation, it doesn’t mean that we have to like what’s on show. In the same way that we don’t need our air purifier to have any unnecessary change which is not for air purification purpose. That’s exactly the case of this Winix QS. As a complete upgrade of the successful Winix NK105, I believe you will find this $20 upgrade more interesting than you could imagine. But why, let’s read our Winix QS Review.

The Winix QS is discontinued, so if you want a great performer at the same price point, you don’t need to find anywhere because the Winix AM90 is so great to be your best companion. Also the latest Winix 9800 is released, packing with more power. If you like tower design, the Winix XLC is the best you could get.

Winix QS ranks A- in our air purifier ranking list. We give the biggest and most thorough database of air purifier reviews in the world.

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Founded in 1973 as a small company, the Korean-based Winix quickly rose as an expert in air purifier industry, with more than 40 years of experience for air filtration. Together with Coway, the company shows that the Korean brands are always the most innovative in terms of design and technology. The Winix QS has a lot in its DNA to become the best air purifier, and undoubtedly, Breathe Quality’s experts will put it in one of our lists soon. You need the proof, right? Let’s find out in our Winix QS Review today.

Winix QS Price

Who might buy the Winix QS? Either those who are upgrading from the excellent Winix NK105 (for many reasons), or someone looking for a decent alternative to the high-end smart devices like the Rabbit Air MinusA2 or Blueair Classic 480i at the top of the air purifier tree.

That person would want something cool and alternative, an air purifier that promises to let them do something their friends couldn’t do, and do so at a reasonable price. The thing is, the Winix QS does offer that, and it’s a good thing.

But why can I call this Winix QS an alternative? Well, if you are surfing in the air purifier world, you won’t find any air purifiers with both Smart Sensor and Smart Wi-Fi Connectivity in mid-range to high-range devices, others than these two $649 aforementioned air purifiers. That’s a great compliment, because the Winix QS is only $349, an $20 upgrade from the previous Winix NK105. It is safe to assume that the difference of $300 is hard to ignore when you buy one air purifier.

This price isn’t horrendously expensive, and I must confess that this is the favorite price range of this brand – the low mid-range segment. You can find other great Winix devices with progressive 4-stage air filtration process, like the Winix AM90, Winix C545 and Winix 9800. And don’t worry, if you follow our deal, the price can drop to as low as only $293.

Who are looking for a stylish alternative at this price can check for the Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0, GermGuardian AC9600W or Levoit LV-H134. The Sharp FP-A80UW and Honeywell AirGenius 6 share a similar technology concept with the Winix QS, and these are the best air purifier brands.

If you only need the Smart features, Winix QS is not the cheapest in the market now. You can search for the Levoit Vital 200S or Honeywell HPA250B. They all provide a great app to control their air purifiers, and a decent Smart Sensor to beat others in low-range market.

However, none of these alternatives could have the unique feature from Winix QS. Despite all that, it’s more about how the air purifier is put together, and this time, Winix created an air purifier with excellent elements.

Sadly, you can’t buy the Winix QS anymore, as it is discontinued completely.

Related post: Best air purifier 2023.

Winix QS Design and Size

The design of Winix QS looks rather different to the Winix WAC9500 (or the Winix 5500-2 before). You will be used to Winix bulky machine, something that feels incredibly solid-built at glance, the Winix QS is a true tower air purifier just like the predecessor – the Winix NK105.

While that sounds weaker fan (smaller width and depth resulting in smaller fan in size), it’s actually great design concept in device construction and allows airflow to move more frequently.

And that’s why the first Winix NK100 has won both Red Dot Design Award and Good Design Award. Based on an already intelligent and beautiful design language, there is no doubt that you will love this Winix QS. It keeps the same height of 29.5 inches, which is only smaller than the Levoit LV-H134 in the same price range.

So what makes this Winix QS so special? As you can see easily from the front, there is a highlighted speaker. At the moment, only Winix is a trusted air purifier brand that combines both air purifier and speaker into one device. I am not an expert in this field, but many friends of us enjoyed the excellent audio quality from the Winix QS’s JBL speaker. Founded in 1946, the JBL is a signature brand in audio equipment.

The Winix QS, despite of an additional high-quality speaker to go alongside, will not trade off the air filtration performance. It’s still the winner of many design awards, all thanks to the 360 Degree air intake concept. In recent years, I’ve seen lots of air purifiers, but only the top premium air purifiers make use of this airflow system. To benefit the most from 360 Degree air intake, an air purifier needs an excellent and advanced fan to operate, leaving most of the inferior devices unable to use this system.

As such, you will satisfy with the Winix QS, providing as you can accept the fact that this device has a weaker fan. All the fan power focuses on moving the airflow, but on the other hand, it is unable to cover a large area.

On top of this Winix QS, we can find the outlet air grill. With the smaller shape grill, the Winix QS will concentrate the airflow better and the fan can circulate larger amounts of air.

Source: WinixAmerica.com

Also, Winix keeps the same control panel from the Winix NK105, with a Wi-Fi connectivity function button. Following that is a change to white bezel instead of the black one in previous NK105.

Source: WinixAmerica.com

When you’re talking about an air purifier that resembles the most with the Winix NK100 and have an additional speaker, the weight of this Winix QS is just only 18 lbs, and hardly to be considered as heavy. To move this air purifier around your home, you can use the handle on the back.

Related post: Best air purifiers for bedroom.

Winix QS Filters

When it comes to the internals of an air purifier, we must look for how many air filters and the air filter types are used. Like pretty much every Winix tower device before, the Winix QS packs a 4-stage air cleaning system as below.

1. Pre-filter – The polluted air must pass through a built-in pre-filter. This pre-filter will help capture the large objects of contaminants, such as pet hair and even some kinds of pet dander and skin.
2. True HEPA filter – The True HEPA Filter that captures 99.97% of as small as 0.3 microns allergens, virus particles, pollen, mold and fungi particles.
3. Activated Carbon Filter – The Coated deodorization carbon filter will eliminate kitchen and pet odors as well as smokes, also reduce the common household chemicals.
4. Winix PlasmaWave – This technology is one kind of ionizer, which can further reduce the amount of pollutants. Can be switched on/off.

It is a great air cleaning system that doesn’t have any trouble purifying your indoor air – but then I wouldn’t expect anything else from a high-end air purifier such as this. The Winix QS has optimized its air filters into an All-in-one physical layer of filter. It’s mostly to clear the confuse of the users, when they don’t know the difference between common air filter types, or when to change one.

Source: WinixAmerica.com

As with much of the rest Winix air purifiers, the combination of True HEPA filter and PlasmaWave Technology impresses me a lot. The PlasmaWave is the exclusive technology of Winix, creating ositive and negative ions that combine with natural water vapor to form hydroxyls, which cleans the indoor air. Sharp has similar approach when it adds the Plasmacluster Technology into its air purifiers, like the Sharp FP-F60UW or Sharp FP-A80UW.

Together, the 4-stage air cleaning system is able to deal with 99.97% of anything as small as 0.3 microns in size. Moreover, not like any kinds of ionizers, Winix claimed that its PlasmaWave technology is tested and certified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to comply the standard safety level. But again, I still find the customer reviews about PlasmaWave technology emit ozone and irritate asthma. Well, must be bad luck, right?

Source: WinixAmerica.com

This time, to test the performance of Winix QS, I chose the worthy expensive opponents, the Sharp FP-A80UW, Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0, and Alen BreatheSmart 45i. The testing environment is a room of 200 square feet, and all air purifiers must run in 1 hour. As a result, the Sharp FP-A80UW won with a high efficiency of 99.97% trapping any allergens as small as 0.3 in size. Winix QS was just a little bit behind, with the high efficiency of 99.93%. The Alen BreatheSmart 45i, without True HEPA filter, can only end up with 99%.

Winix QS uses the same filter N as the previous Winix NK105 and Winix NK100, with a cost of $119. It is a bit higher than even the cost of expensive mid-range devices, like the Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 with $79, or the Alen BreatheSmart 45i from $59 to $89.

Related post: Best air purifiers for allergies.

Winix QS Room Coverage

To assure that the PlasmaWave Technology doesn’t emit ozone, Winix makes all of its air purifiers with low voltages and weaker fan power. Even with an advanced fan motor, the Winix QS can’t clean for a large room coverage like any Honeywell or Blueair air purifiers. Just like the previous Winix NK105, the Winix QS is able to deal with 320 square feet, as verified by AHAM (Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers).

The ACH of Winix QS is 5X ACH. With high air changes per hour, this air purifier can clean your room as often as possible, once every 12 minutes.

The CADR of Winix QS is 221 Dust/ 207 Smoke/ 218 Pollen (cfm). The CADR rating of this Winix QS is the same as other Winix tower air purifiers, which is lower than Levoit LV-H133. However, the CADR rating is only to tell how fast an air purifier can clean the room, so you don’t need to worry.

Related post: Best large room air purifiers.

Winix QS Sound

This criteria is for how silent when the Winix QS is running alone, without the JBL spearker turning on. Winix QS is as silent as the Winix NK105 can be, with a noise level of 33.7 decibels (dB) at normal use. You must know the standard library noise level is from 35 dB to 40 dB, to know that how quiet the Winix QS operates.

Winix QS has 4 fan speeds, but this noise level is better than many air purifiers in same price, like the Alen BreatheSmart FLEX or Honeywell AirGenius 6.

If you want to use the Winix QS for the quiet places, like your bedroom or nursery, it’s highly recommended.

Related post: Best air purifiers for baby.

Winix QS Power Consumption

One of our most FAQs is “Do air purifiers use a lot of energy?” In fact, air purifier must be used for a long time to be efficient. And power consumption is one important criteria to review if this air purifier is good or not.

If there is one element of the Winix QS that I cannot praise, then it would be its power consumption. Not only the Winix QS, but many devices from this brand are consuming lots of energy, like the Winix 5500-2 and Winix WAC9500.

The Winix QS, just like the previous Winix NK105, runs at 55 watts at the highest setting. If you need to compare, the Rabbit Air BioGS 2.0 can go as low as 5 watts, and the Alen BreatheSmart 45i only needs 50 watts.

For 8 hours of using per day, it would cost you around $20 per year.

Related post: Best air purifiers for pets.

Winix QS Additional Features

The reason why the Winix QS is a best phone for the price not only stays at its intelligent design and high performance rating, but also the rich additional features on one device. Winix QS is packing the same sophisticated Smart features as the Winix NK105, notably the Smart Wi-Fi connectivity and the exceptional Smart Sensor.

First, we need to know that Wi-Fi connectivity function is extremely rare in the low to mid-range segment. This is a sign of a modern device, which can be controlled anywhere and anytime. For the Winix QS, you can open the Winix Smart App (available on both Android and iOS), and start connecting with your air purifier.

The Smart Sensor is another story. This smart feature is a highly accurate sensor that can detect the current indoor air quality, then give feedback via an indicator light on top of Winix QS. But not just that, the Winix QS can turn on the Auto Mode, and then it will change the fan speed automatically to equalize the pollutants and create clean pure air.

Source: WinixAmerica.com

However, the reason why you searched for the Winix QS is its one and only JBL speakers, right? We’ve had too many boring, identikit devices on the market these days, and combined with the powerful speaker, it’s great to see Winix doing something different (and great, too).

As a normal person, I am impressed with the audio quality of the JBL speaker. It is truly a big speaker, which translates to a big sound. This speaker can be really cranked up and will have no problem filling a large room. I don’t know, but I love the deep and powerful bass from this speaker. And I asked myself, why just buy only one $90 JBL Charge 3, while you can do the same thing with only $20 different from the Winix NK105. Sure that someone will be thinking.

The last but not least, you will have a comfortable LED indicator for filter replacement. Now you don’t need to remember the date to change your air filter anymore.

Related posts:

1, Best air purifiers for smoke.

2, Best air purifiers for dust.

3, Best air purifiers for mold.

Winix QS Customer Service

Established over 40 years ago, in 1973, the Winix company is truly an expert in the air purifier industry. It has many headquarters, not only in South Korea but also in both the U.S and Europe. You can reach its customer service from 9 a.m to 5 p.m, Monday through Friday, via phone or email. If you have trouble calling its service, you can email Winix America at info@winixinc.com.

On its official website, the company is selling both new and certified refurbished air purifiers, of course with free shipping in the U.S only. The Winix limited warranty is two years for most of its products. During the warranty period, Winix will repair or replace the product if it fails because of a defect in material or workmanship, as determined by Winix. Remember that this warranty will be null and void if the product is used for purposes other than home, consumer purposes.

Our verdict

Beautiful, powerful, impressive JBL speaker. What else could resist you from buying this amazing Winix QS? Perhaps because it is discontinued, right? However, you have the Winix AM90 and Winix 9800 with the same great performance and much better features.