For She’s a Jolly Good Fellowes Air Purifier

This post brought to you by Fellowes. All opinions are 100% mine.

As I mentioned the other day, my mission this winter has been to avoid the flu and as many colds as possible. And like I mentioned, I’ve been really good about most of the necessary steps for cold and flu prevention, such as getting a flu shot, washing hands regularly and wiping down surfaces. But that fourth step in the four-step process — purifying the air indoors — well, I just hadn’t gotten there yet. And because my husband and I both suffer from seasonal allergies and sniffling noses throughout the year, an air purifier is one of those items we’d really, really been planning to purchase. But hadn’t.

Enter the trusty Fellowes AeraMax(TM) DX-55.

Luckily for me, this review opportunity came right at the time of the year where I get the most apprehensive about getting sick. Because this time last year, my entire family and I were bed-ridden for like a month straight. So I was eager to pull this beauty out of the box and get her cranked up. She looks super sleek and fancy, but is a breeze (har har) to get set up. You simply plug it in, turn it on and you’ve got air purification going.

Remember how I said it was supposed to be super quiet, which was a necessity as it was next to our bed? It fulfills that promise. It’s stealthy quiet — as quiet as a ceiling fan honestly, and you barely notice when it kicks up into a higher fan level. (Which, by the way, I always find it funny when the air quality decreases or the fan speed increases soon after I enter a room. Hmmm …)

For being such a powerful machine — one that automatically monitors air quality and automatically adjusts fan speed to keep the air purified and removes 99.97 percent of airborne particles, including viruses, germs, dust, mold, pollen, ragweed, pet dander and cigarette smoke — it doesn’t take up too much room. I’d say it’s smaller than rolling carry-on luggage — and way sleeker. It easily fits beside our bed, and when we’re done staring at it, we’ll probably move it to the corner so it’s a little more out of the way. As it is, the blue lights are a perfect nightlight, preventing the stubbed toe in the middle of the night.

While I can’t say that I’ve been using it long enough to attribute our lack of flu to its virus-fighting powers, I can say that I do feel like our air quality has improved. I don’t wake up nearly as stuffy as I usually do, and the fan does keep the room pleasantly cooler in the evenings, which will be perfect once it starts to warm up and allergens creep in.

If you’re interested in such a strategy on top of your regular flu-prevention tactics or to combat the upcoming spring that is surely coming (eventually? Please?), you can buy an AeraMax DX55 at starting at $189.99 at BestBuy.com.

Any strategies you implement to cut down on cold and flu viruses? Do you have a fancy air purifier, too? —Erin