While power users and people with allergies will want to stay far, far away from the Hamilton Beach 04386 (and Hamilton Beach 04383), it’s still a budget device for people, or even for less-discriminating users, who just want to reduce the amount of dust in their homes. The Hamilton Beach air purifiers are the representatives for the modern budget devices, and we’re happy to deliver the most popular air purifier of them in this Hamilton Beach 04386 Review.
In Breathe Quality, we have reviewed all air purifiers under these sections. Also, we guarantee that:
- We do give honest reviews (both pros and cons) so anyone will guarantee to have the wisest choices.
- We do not (and never) exaggerate one product just to let you click the links and buy that product blindly.
Sections
- Compact, versatile design
- The Permanent air filter is good
- Low price
- Poor performance without True HEPA filter
- No Activated Carbon filter
- No indicator to know when to clean the filter
Normally an electronic brand doesn’t need to be only specialized in air purifier industry. Honeywell, Holmes and Sharp are the most popular examples. Hamilton Beach is one of those, and the American air purifier brand knows exactly how to make their air purifiers to the top reviews. Hamilton Beach 04386, and its new white counterpart – the Hamilton Beach 04383, are one of the best Amazon’s Choices with more than 10000 reviews on this marketplace, rated 4/5. In our today Hamilton Beach 04386 Review, we will have a quick look for these two versions to see if it fits your home in a serious allergy season.
Other Hamilton Beach’s Air Purifier Reviews:
1, Hamilton Beach 04384 Review.
Hamilton Beach 04386 Price
Hamilton Beach 04386 is not the only popular air purifier of this company. There are more budget devices from Hamilton Beach, and after all, people can’t just resist on the idea of “budget air purifiers”, especially when they have used these devices for the first time.
Although most of modern air purifier manufacturers have finally wised up and reduced the number of devices they produce compared to years ago, others have stepped in to fill that void. The Hamilton Beach is famous for its blenders, coffee makers, odor eliminators and so on, and there is no way it will forget to make some air purifiers to its large customer base.
At first glance, the Hamilton Beach 04386 shows promise. You can easily buy this air purifier with only $59, a price that will go down even more if you can catch good deal, for example, our deal. Or you can get the Hamilton Beach 04384 instead, as it offers the same amount of money as our today unit, and packs with a real Activated Carbon filter.
For this money, you can buy the Honeywell HHT270W or GermGuardian AC4150 instead. Both of these air purifiers don’t have the True HEPA filter like the Hamilton Beach 04386, but they have an option of carbon filter. If you like the certified True HEPA filter, you should check the Levoit LV-H126 or Levoit Vista 200 right now, as the price is not far from $59.
Hamilton Beach TrueAir, ultra quiet allergen reducing air purifier with Permanent HEPA filter, Black.
Allergen-reducing air cleaner for large-size rooms up to 160 square feet. HEPA filter is supposed to last permanently.
Related post: Best air purifier 2023.
Hamilton Beach 04386 Design and Size
The Hamilton Beach 04386 has a similar counterpart with white color option named Hamilton Beach 04383. This white version is much alike to the old Hamilton Beach 04384.
Weighing in at a scant 6 lbs and measuring a modest 13.54 (height) x 6 (width) x 8.5 (depth) inches, the air purifier is certainly pleasant to put tabletop, and plenty light enough to bring anywhere in your home.
Source: Amazon.com
It’s also a model of simplicity, the Hamilton Beach 04386 can be put vertically or horizontally. To put it horizontally, you must add four adhesive feet as provided in the case. The versatility is truly a big selling point for this air purifier, so it can fits anywhere, be it your bedroom or office.
The bottom is also attached with a base, and you can remove it when putting horizontally. You can easily remove the front plate to clean or change the air filter, thanks to the opening tab on top of the device.
With the air filter is put from the front, we can know that the air flow direction is from the front to the back. This reverse air flow system concept is necessary for the Hamilton Beach 04386, so you can put it in either positions.
On top, we only have a knob to change the fan speed and turn on/off the air purifier. It is the most simple way to control one air purifier.
Source: Amazon.com
Related post: Best air purifiers for bedroom.
Hamilton Beach 04386 Filters
The Hamilton Beach has sold their air purifiers with the unique air filter named Permanent HEPA filter. As you can see below, the Hamilton Beach 04386 (and Hamilton Beach 04383) runs only one air filter, and like this company has said, this air purifier is specifically for the dust and dust mite debris, as they “live with us” invisibly all year long.
- Permanent HEPA filter – This is actually a HEPA filter that can be cleaned or vacuumed for minimal upkeep. The air filter is said to remove 99% of any airborne particles as small as 0.3 microns, mainly the dust mite debris, animal dander, mold and dust.
Well, knowing the structure of one HEPA filter, saying that it won’t degrade and never needs replacement is quite… unrealistic. Sure, the Permanent HEPA filter can last for a long time, because the air purifier has a low capacity. However, you still need to replace once the air filter is too dirty to just clean it again. Moreover, you should not wash the air filter.
Hamilton Beach has told us that not anyone is supposed to be a pet owner with pet dander issues, and the pollen and mold spores have their peak times and seasons, so only dust and dust mites are remaining in your ‘everyday’ air, thus you need an air purifier to deal with these problems. The Hamilton Beach 04386 was born for that reason, and from my experiments, I believe that this air purifier is qualified to be your first budget air purifier.
Of course, the Hamilton Beach 04386 can’t perform as well as other True HEPA air purifiers, but considering the low upfront and maintaining costs, what could you possibly expect from an air purifier in this price range. In our test, the Hamilton Beach 04386 failed miserably in performance test.
Well, if you like to change the air filter, you need to pay for $16, or you can completely believe in the name of “Permanent filter”. Hamilton Beach also sells the carbon filter, which costs for another $16, and it works with both the Hamilton Beach 04386 and Hamilton Beach 04384.
Related post: Best air purifiers for allergies.
Hamilton Beach 04386 Room Coverage
Normally, we don’t expect an around $50 air purifier to cover a large room, because the better the fan power, the more expensive. Hamilton Beach 04386 is suggested for only 160 square feet, and it fits only small bedrooms or spaces.
Source: Amazon.com
The ACH of Hamilton Beach 04386 is 2X.
The CADR of Hamilton Beach 04386 is 40 cfm in general.
Related post: Best large room air purifiers.
Hamilton Beach 04386 Sound
Most of the time, an air purifier with such low fan power won’t create much noise. However, from day-to-day tests and based on other reviews on Amazon, I can tell you one sad thing, the Hamilton Beach 04386 (and Hamilton Beach 04383) is really noisy.
The highest fan speed (in the name of Quick Clean) can have the noise level as high as 60 decibels (db), which is even louder than many console air purifiers with at least triple its fan power. And because you need to keep the device as near you as possible, this noise level is quite unacceptable.
Related post: Best air purifiers for baby.
Hamilton Beach 04386 Power Consumption
An air purifier is designed to run for a long time to be more efficient, making the high-priority question in Breathe Quality is: “Do air purifiers use a lot of energy?” To know the answer, we will need to check the power consumption of this air purifier.
Hamilton Beach 04386 is not an Energy Star rated air purifier, and I am not surprise to get the power consumption result from this air purifier to be 100 watts. It is quite higher than normal air purifier with same fan power.
If you run the Hamilton Beach 04386 for about 8 hours each day, you need to pay $36 each year.
Related post: Best air purifiers for pets.
Hamilton Beach 04386 Additional Features
Again, we are looking at a budget air purifier, and you shouldn’t expect to see any other features except from the basic knob to turn the device on and change the fan speeds.
If you really want some fancy features on your air purifier, you should pay at leas $30 more for the things like AeraMax 100, or PureZone Halo.
Related posts:
1, Best air purifiers for smoke.
2, Best air purifiers for dust.
3, Best air purifiers for mold.
Hamilton Beach 04386 Customer Service
Hamilton Beach is a big brand in the U.S for more than 100 years, and their customer service could easily be one of the best at the moment. You can follow their blog or Facebook page (with over 500,000 followers) to check the latest news and updates of their products and promotions.
If you purchased an air purifier from Hamilton Beach, you can contact the customer support anytime by email inquiry from their Contact Us page. Also, you can try to call them via phone at 877-474-1122. For the email, you will be responded to within 3 business days.
Hamilton Beach also provides a great Free Shipping policy, for any orders more than $75. Remember, free shipping offer does not apply to commercial grade products.
Finally, if you don’t like the Hamilton Beach air purifiers for any reasons, you can make a return process, provided that it is less than 60 days since you bought the product. But you can only return the device if there is any defective, or the air purifier is unused. For the warranty, this company only offer an 1-year warranty for their air purifiers. To make a warranty claim, please call 800-851-8900 to proceed.
Hamilton Beach TrueAir, ultra quiet allergen reducing air purifier with Permanent HEPA filter, Black.
Allergen-reducing air cleaner for large-size rooms up to 160 square feet. HEPA filter is supposed to last permanently.
Our verdict
Yes, the Hamilton Beach 04386 is affordable, but you still need to sacrifice too much for this budget air purifier. So, if you really need an air purifier for cleaning tasks, you should aim for more expensive True HEPA air purifiers.
At the moment, after our updated ranking list, we don’t recommend this air purifier anymore.
Hamilton Beach 04386 Air Purifier: Trusted Review in 2024
Hamilton Beach 04386 Reviews and Specs (Air Purifier Trusted Reviews in 2024). ✓ Cleaning Power: Permanent HEPA filter ✓ Value: 2/5 ✓ Certified Review
Product Brand: Hamilton Beach
Product Currency: USD
Product Price: 59
Product In-Stock: https://schema.org/InStock
2
Summary
A low-entry level air purifier that we don’t recommend anymore.