Why Consumer Reports Magazine Test Certain Air Cleaner Brands & Not Others.
This information, is brought to you by Absolute Air Cleaners and Purifiers Inc.



My name is Barry Cohen. I have successfully owned and operated Absolute Air Cleaners and Purifiers since 1989. My company takes great pride in selling only top quality HEPA air cleaners and air purifiers to our many satisfied customers. However, almost everyday some of our customers call us by phone or E-mail us with these same 3 questions.

#1 Do you sell the same air cleaner and air purifier brands that I see in Consumers Reports magazine?

#2 Why don’t you sell the same air cleaner and air purifier brands that I see in Consumer Reports Magazine?

#3 Are your brands of air cleaners and air purifiers as good as the ones I see in Consumer Reports?

This urgent report is written to explain to you why Consumer Reports magazine only tests lower quality, inexpensive HEPA air cleaners and air purifiers without testing and rating the high quality HEPA air cleaners and air purifiers that are also available on the market.

It’s really quite simple!

Consumer Reports magazine only does testing and rating reports on the easy to find brands of air cleaners and air purifiers that have the largest market share of sales in the world marketplace. Unfortunately the air cleaners and air purifiers with the most market share are often the lower quality, inexpensive brands and models you can easily find in huge discount department stores such as Home Depot, Sears, Wal-Mart, K- Mart and other discount chain stores that sell millions of these lower quality air cleaners that flood the world marketplace!

Many people in the air cleaner and air purifier industry agree that Consumer Reports magazine is hiding this marketplace share testing / rating information and they feel that this is very deceiving to the general public!

However, because of the wonderful internet, educated consumers can do their own market research in order to discover that there are many brands of affordable, higher quality HEPA air cleaners and air purifiers other then what is found in Consumer Reports Magazine and in department store chains. These HEPA air cleaners and air purifiers will do a much better job of cleaning and improving the indoor air quality at home and in the workplace! Some of these higher quality brands of HEPA air cleaners and air purifiers include, Austin Air, TRACS and IQAir.

I have written a letter requesting the people at Consumer Reports magazine to include future rating reports on the higher quality brands of HEPA air cleaners and air purifiers that are quickly growing in popularity but still carry a lesser share of the world marketplace.

Below is Consumer Reports magazines representative’s return letter to me answering my questions!

PLUS! Also below is a news article about a well known HEPA air cleaner manufacturer, IQAir complaining to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about Consumer Reports magazine being biased and unfair in their air cleaner and air purifier reporting methods.

Letter to me:

Dear Mr. Barry Cohen:

Thanks for taking the time to contact Consumer Reports(r). It is always a pleasure to hear from our readers!

We appreciate your asking us for information on Air cleaners. It is always our pleasure to help our readers in any way we can.

As you can imagine, choosing a product for inclusion in our tests is a complicated task, and one we take very seriously. I hope the following overview offers insight into our process.

To help us determine which brands and models to include in our testing, our Market Analysts research each brand-name in the product category and select those that have the highest market share at the time we begin our testing. Then, our secret shoppers go to work and purchase the models that we have decided to test.

If there is a brand or model that our shoppers cannot readily purchase for us to test, we sometimes have to exclude it from testing, as strict testing deadlines have to be met by our engineers and editorial staff. Also, sometimes a well-known product is discontinued, or has been redesigned or reformulated, and the new version was not available in time for testing.

Please do not construe our exclusion of any brand negatively. The absence of any product from our report does NOT mean that it is a poor performer. I'd like you to know that I have forwarded your letter to the appropriate editors and technicians for their review and consideration for our future reports. They, too, like to know what products our readers are interested in.

I hope that I have given you insight into how products are chosen for testing. Thank you for taking the time to write. Everyone at CU appreciates hearing from our readers; please be assured that your feedback is incorporated into the work we do.

Sincerely,

Paul Hanney
Customer Relations Representative
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