Holmes HAP8650B-NU Air Purifier: Trusted Review & Specs

Holmes HAP8650B-NU is the distinctive yet original piece of device from The Holmes Group. Together with the Holmes HAP9726B-NU, you will get the best seller True HEPA air purifier that, of course, doesn’t cost you the earth while maintaining a great fan power. Let’s look at the competitive and well-played air purifier in this Holmes HAP8650B-NU Review.

Holmes HAP8650B-NU ranks C 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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Holmes has been in the world of air purifier of the United States for more than 35 years, under the name of The Holmes Group. Now, being acquired by the Jarden Corporation, this brand has a chance to improve their air purifiers to a next level. Now, the Holmes HAP8650B-NU is the ace of a brand once being the top dog of air purifier industry in North America. Yes, we are talking about the flagship of this company in the Holmes HAP8650B-NU Review.

Other Holmes’s Air Purifier Reviews:

Holmes HAP8650B-NU Price

Holmes has created hype around their cheap air purifier devices to rival with increasing of things like Honeywell, Guardian Technologies or Winix. To trade off the actual performance and lack of features, we will have some good starting air purifier that is under $50, or less. But is it enough to sway public opinion?

It seems the era of HEPA-type air purifier (or HEPA-like) is going to the very end, and The Holmes Group are ready to show off some of the better True HEPA air purifiers. In an attempt to show themselves as an air purifier manufacturer in their own right, The Holmes Group has released the Holmes HAP8650B-NU, along with the Holmes HAP9726B-NU, to replace the old Holmes HAP726-NU and Holmes HAP759-NU.

Despite some well-publicized problems with high power consumption or loud noise, the Holmes HAP8650B-NU deserves to be the flagship of a big air purifier brand. The price of this Holmes HAP8650B-NU launched at $149, but it has reduced to only $119, but for a limited time. I suggest you to grab my deal as soon as possible, especially when you like this air purifier.

With this new price, the Holmes HAP8650B-NU is really a worthy competitor of many great True HEPA devices, like VEVA 8000 Elite Pro, Honeywell 17000-S, GermGuardian AC5250PT or even the AeraMax 200. They all have good features to stand toe-to-toe with the Holmes HAP8650B-NU, but nothing is near the range of the fan power from the Holmes representative. If you want a device to quick clean your room, maybe the Holmes HAP8650B-NU is your best pick.

Related post: Best air purifier 2023.

Holmes HAP8650B-NU Design and Size

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, air purifier design-wise, somebody always seems to come along with something completely different. The Holmes HAP8650B-NU’s design can’t be found anywhere, unless you look further in the high-range level, where the Honeywell HPA600B is truly a similar air purifier.

And having the same design concept as a high-end machine is a great compliment for the Holmes HAP8650B-NU. With a tidily arranged perforated holes for the air vents, this air purifiers looks premium and gives you the exact feeling of a solid build. And that is just the first great impression, and I like the plain black sides and top of the Holmes HAP8650B-NU, because it is painted carefully and from my experience, it won’t easily be budged.

Talking about the dimension, this air purifier will be bigger than the predecessors, as it is 21 inches in height and 22.8 inches in width. You should know the height of the Holmes HAP9726B-NU is just only 17 inches, or the Holmes HAP726-NU is 18.7 inches. Though being broader, this air purifier remains the same weight of 19.4 lbs. To move it around your home, you need to use the convenient handle of this air purifier.

Holmes HAP8650B-NU makes use of the classic bottom-to-top air flow system concept. This concept works great for any air purifier with great fan, and don’t worry, the Holmes HAP8650B-NU is one of those things. It has a manual knob on the front of the air purifier, and you can use it to change the fan speed setting.

Source: Amazon.com

Related post: Best air purifiers for bedroom.

Holmes HAP8650B-NU Filters

To decide the performance of one air purifier, you will need to know about the quantity and quality of its air filters, as well as the air filter types are used. The Holmes HAP8650B-NU has the similar 2-stage air cleaning system as the old devices.

1. Activated Carbon Filter – This Activated Carbon filter has been treated with the baking soda, it can act as a pre-filter to trap larger particles and adsorb the odors that may come from pets, garbage, cooking, smoke, bathroom or litter boxes.
2. True HEPA filter – A True HEPA Filter can reduce 99.97% of down to 0.3 microns all contaminant particles like dust, dust mites, pollen, pet dander or even mold spores.

There is nothing to say more about the air filters of the Holmes HAP8650B-NU, because it uses the same air filter from even the antique Holmes HAP726-NU. Utilizing the air filter from old products is a common strategy from many low-range air purifier brands, but of course it will pose some threats to the flagship like our today unit. First, we can’t expect much more from the actual performance, thanks to the same old internals. And second, the old air purifier can’t always fit the new model, resulting in the leak inside and reduction of the real-world use’s efficiency.

In the condition of laboratory, the Holmes HAP8650B-NU performed better than its predecessors. As you can see from the below chart, in a room of 200 square feet, the Holmes HAP8650B-NU had the highest efficiency, to trap 99.9% any particles down to 0.3 microns. Such performance is even a difficult task for more expensive air purifier, and so to say, I am happy to announce the Holmes HAP8650B-NU as the king of budget air purifiers for people who don’t care much about the additional features.

Like I said earlier, the Holmes HAP8650B-NU uses the same air filter as the HAP726-NU. You should replace the air filter after 6 months of use, for optimal performance.

Related post: Best air purifiers for allergies.

Holmes HAP8650B-NU Room Coverage

With better fan power, the Holmes HAP8650B-NU is supposed to be better than the previous Holmes HAP9726B-NU. You can use this air purifier in a room of 350 square feet easily.

The ACH of Holmes HAP8650B-NU is 4X. This air purifier can clean your room in every 15 minutes, and the air changes per hour rating of 4X is common in air purifiers today.

The CADR of Holmes HAP8650B-NU is 225 cfm in general. It is better than any air purifiers in the same price range, as they just only have around 100 cfm for the highest setting.

Related post: Best large room air purifiers.

Holmes HAP8650B-NU Sound

There is one downside for any air purifier with True HEPA filter and high fan power, it will clearly produce a lot of noise. The Holmes HAP8650B-NU can be the flagship of this company, but it isn’t better than the older brothers in terms of noise level.

That being said, if you try to run this air purifier at the highest setting, the noise level can reach 60 decibels (db). This is the threshold of noise level from public places, like restaurant or office, and if you are sensitive to the loud noise, you will be annoyed by the high noise level.

One recommendation, you can use this Holmes HAP8650B-NU in the quiet places, like your bedroom or small office, but you should keep the fan setting as low as possible.

Related post: Best air purifiers for baby.

Holmes HAP8650B-NU 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 how much energy this air purifier will consume.

We like to have one air purifier with high fan power, right? But the higher fan power is, the higher power consumption is, too. 100 watts for the power consumption is not the highest, but clearly it never be the lowest.

For running the Holmes HAP8650B-NU 8 hours per day, you need to pay $36 each year.

Related post: Best air purifiers for pets.

Holmes HAP8650B-NU Additional Features

Even for a flagship of The Holmes Group, this company will not include any additional features in this Holmes HAP8650B-NU. Aside from the knob to manually change the fan speed, we don’t have anything, even a small feature like the timer. The only thing we will have is the alert for filter replacement, which is now just only a staple thing for air purifier.

Source: Amazon.com

Related posts:

1, Best air purifiers for smoke.

2, Best air purifiers for dust.

3, Best air purifiers for mold.

Holmes HAP8650B-NU Customer Service

Even being acquired for more than 10 years, the Holmes products are still one of the most popular electric appliances today. Then the reason can only be their impressive customer service. If you need to contact them, you can easily do so by filling in the information at their Contact page, or calling them via phone at 800-546-5637.

Once you make an order, you will get your Holmes air purifier with a promotion of Free Shipping over $50. However, the promotion is only applied at the time of writing, so if you can’t find the Free Shipping option, you should choose to buy from Amazon. The most wonderful thing is, after your purchase, or any reason you are not completely satisfied with the Holmes air purifier, you can return your item within 30 days of receipt for an exchange or refund of the purchase price. Great, isn’t it?

And don’t worry about your air purifier, it will be backed up by a great 5-year warranty from The Holmes Group. This is also the best warranty for an air purifier brand that only targets low-range segment.

Our verdict

Holmes HAP8650B-NU is not only the best seller of The Holmes Group, it is also the current flagship of the brand, with a premium black coat as well as unmatched fan power for the price. However, lacks of features certainly hold it back at the moment, so we recommend you to look for air purifiers from other brands.