Behind Plasmacluster Technology
How Our Immune System Fights Off Bacteria Infection
Have you ever wondered how our immune system fights off bacteria infections? As I recently learnt, one way it is accomplished is with the help of positive hydrogen (H+) and negative oxygen (O-).
If you have no clue on what that is all about, so am I. I’m not a medical expert and if you ask me further, I’ll probably stumble as I won’t be able to give you further scientific explanation to it.
But if results from scientific studies were to hold, it is down to one simple thing. Inhaling Hydrogen Peroxide likely helps to ease breathing difficulties such as Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
Sharp’s Plasmacluster Generates Positive H+ and Negative O-
Behind Sharp’s sexy branding of Plasmacluster, only 1 thing matters to air purifier users. It is nothing but an air sanitizing technology that relies not on sucking and trapping air pollutants, but one that releases ions to destroy the harmful elements circulating in the air we breathe in.
If we picture air purifying as a fight between us and the harmful germs and bacteria, Plasmacluster takes on the strategy of an aggressor rather than defendant.
My Sharp KC-860U Experience
Great Humidifier
As the Chinese’ Yin-Yang principle suggests, there always has to be a balance in everything. The same applies to humidity condition. Too low humidity is no good. Too high humidity doesn’t help either.
Many health experts suggest humidity level of 45-55 to be the ideal range. If your room humidity gets too low, problems such as skin irritation and breathing difficulties will be common. If your room humidity gets too high (wet), you’ll end up with mold, bugs and food rotting.
Unless you’re living in the tropics, American homes are more proned to excessively dry rather than wet humidity problem. This is where the Sharp Plasmacluster KC-860U comes in. This is in fact, one shortcoming that is often raised by many owners who have bought Sharp’s other popular Plasmacluster air purifier, FP-A80UW.
Some time back, I spent quite a few months in Arizona, AZ. As you know, Arizona is one of the driest state in America. Wherever you stay, the desert will not be too far away.
I suffered severe skin irritation when I first moved there. You know I hate to see the doctors and I’ll do that only as a last resort. So I went online and start researching. That’s when I learnt that the skin irritation could be due to the low humidity. After looking around, I lay my bet on the KC-860U.
It didn’t take too long before I noticed my skin irritation starts to diminish. I wouldn’t say it completely eliminates the itches. Just that if previously I was going through level 8 suffering (out of 10 scale), it went down to probably 3 or 4.
Smart Sensor Mechanism
The other aspect of Sharp KC-860U that I love about is its sensor monitoring feature. The sensor is basically your ‘eyes’ to the ‘invisible’ particles. Every time I start feeling a little breathless, I’ll look out to the air quality indicator.
More likely than not, the LED will be flashing in green or red. I remember during the early days when I’ve just started using the KC-860U. One day, I came home and when I stand near to the unit, it starts to blink in green and then red. I tried it few times and it consistently show the same behaviour.
To me, if you ever had any doubt if the sensor is just a gimmick, testing it out yourself would be the best way to confirm your doubt. For me, that’s been my way of clearing my doubt.
What You Need to be Cautious About
Watch Out for the Water Reservoir
While the Sharp Plasmacluster KC-860U is a great machine, it does have a design flaw. The flaw is with the water reservoir design. The water reservoir is where you place the water before you can activate the humidifying function.
What I notice is it tends to attract small bugs and insects. Make sure you watch out the water reservoir. My advice is to first monitor the rate the KC-860U sucks up the water. As it tries to maintain humidity at the optimum level (I assume between 45%-55%), the water suction rate depends on the humidity of your living space.
One-year Warranty Leaves Much to be Desired
The other thing that leaves many air purifier hunters whining about is the warranty coverage that comes with Sharp Plasmacluster air purifier unit.
When Alen Corp is offering a lifetime warranty and the likes of BlueAir and Rabbit Air are offering 5-year warranty, Sharp’s one-year warranty leaves much to be desired. It is definitely something that I believe Sharp can do better.
In Summary
I can’t speak for other owners about their experience with the Sharp Plasmacluster KC-860U air purifier. What I can say is for my case, it’s proved itself to be a worthy air purifier investment. It helps to reduce my allergy symptoms, skin irritation and makes my air fresher.
Are you decided on it yet? If not, be sure to check out our air purifier champion guide and see which air purifier model emerged as the winner.
