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The Fellowes AeraMax 290 Suits a Room Around 300 Square Feet

It is also the AeraMax 300 and the DX95, and it is the cheapest of the three to feed per unit of clean air.

By Franco N.·Updated September 29, 2026

The numbers

  • Certified smoke CADR: 199. Dust 204, pollen 193, all from AHAM’s October 2023 directory. Fellowes’ own spec page says 215, 222 and 244
  • Room size in the manual: 290 sq ft. On Fellowes’ page and the listings: 300 to 600 sq ft
  • Air changes an hour: 5.1 at 290 sq ft, 2.5 at 600
  • Price: about $380 MSRP, and about $145 in Staples stores
  • Filters: about $66 a year, about $200 over three
  • Filter part numbers: 9287201 and 9324201
  • Clean air per dollar of annual filters: 3.02, against 2.31 for the 190 and 1.75 for the 90
  • The AeraMax 300 and DX95 are this machine under different numbers

The short answer

The AeraMax 290 is worth it for a living room rather than a bedroom, if you can live with a discontinued machine. It costs $86 more than the 190 over three years and gives you 57 percent more clean air for the money.

The model number is the room it was built for

Fellowes rates this machine at “Room Area Served 290 sq. ft./27 sq. m.” Fellowes’ own product page says 300 to 600 square feet, and every retailer copies it.

The manual is right, whichever number you feed the formula. AHAM sizes a room at 1.55 times the smoke clean air delivery rate. The October 2023 AHAM directory certifies this unit at 199, and 1.55 times 199 comes to 308 square feet. Fellowes’ own spec page claims 215. Even the higher figure only reaches 333, so nothing either the certifier or the brand publishes gets within half of 600, and the number stamped on the box was never a marketing figure at all.

At 199 cubic feet a minute the machine moves 11,940 cubic feet an hour. In 290 square feet at an eight foot ceiling that is 5.1 air changes an hour, which clears the five the CDC asks for. Put it in 600 and you get 2.5.

Amazon manages to list this exact part number twice over, once as a 290 square foot machine and once as a 300 to 600 square foot machine, which are the same box making two different promises.

Where the money actually goes

Filters cost more as you move up the AeraMax range, but not nearly as fast as the machines do. That flips the running-cost arithmetic in favour of the bigger unit.

Clean air delivered per dollar of annual filter cost, rising from 1.75 on the AeraMax 90 to 3.02 on the 290 Clean air per dollar of annual filter cost Certified smoke CADR divided by a year of filters at Home Depot prices. 0 1 2 3 1.75 2.31 3.02 AeraMax 90 $40.58 a year AeraMax 190 $54.99 a year AeraMax 290 $65.95 a year The 290 costs 20 percent more a year to feed than the 190 and delivers 57 percent more clean air, so the biggest unit is the cheapest to run. CADR from the AHAM directory. Filter prices from Home Depot, checked 6 August 2026.

The 290 takes True HEPA 9287201 once a year and carbon 9324201 every three months in packs of four. At Home Depot that is about $36 and $30, so about $66 a year and $200 across three.

Compare that with the 190 at about $55 a year. You pay 20 percent more for 57 percent more clean air, which is the best trade in the range.

Then there is the shop you buy it from, which swamps all of that. Staples sells the same 9287201 part for about $93 against Home Depot’s about $36, on the same day, and buying it at the wrong one for three years costs you more than the machine did in the first place.

Every AeraMax filter part number and price is on one page, the replacement filter guide.

Three names, one machine

The AeraMax 290, the AeraMax 300 and the AeraMax DX95 carry identical certified numbers, and Fellowes lists their filters under all three names at once.

Which is exactly why owners keep buying the wrong part. One Home Depot reviewer found this filter “slightly too large for the unit. It had to be forced into place,” and the neighbouring family’s carbon filter has a run of reviews from people who opened the box to something far too big or far too small. Check the number on your machine. Not the picture on the listing.

You are buying a discontinued product

Fellowes’ air quality catalogue is down to five commercial AeraMax Pro machines and the networked Array range. WebstaurantStore says the 290 is no longer available. OfficeSupply says it is sold out with no restock date. Connection returns a product-not-found page. eBay had four units and all of them were used.

CDW had it at about $345 with a working listing. Staples has it at about $145 in stores only, which is the best price anywhere if you happen to have one nearby, and useless if you do not.

A second Staples listing showed about $385 with free delivery promised for a date in May, three months gone. That page is out of date, so I have not linked it.

Where it was sold

CDWDiscontinued

The filters, which are easier to get than the machine

True HEPA 9287201 at Home DepotView
1 more sellerCarbon 9324201 four-pack at Home DepotView

CDW discontinued it on 2 April 2026, and the one machine listing this page had is gone. Fellowes still catalogues it at about $380 MSRP and publishes a smoke CADR of 215, but its own site takes no orders.

If it will not turn on, check the drawer

Fellowes publishes a fix and it names this model: verify that the filter drawer on the right side of the machine is properly in place, then call customer service if it still fails.

The instruction is on a support page rather than in the manual, and the manual’s troubleshooting table has no entry for a machine that will not start. Anyone who changes a filter and then finds a dead unit will get nothing from the paperwork in the box.

What is wrong with it

What holds up

  • The best clean air per dollar of running cost in the range, at 3.02 against 2.31 and 1.75
  • 5.1 air changes an hour at the size it was certified for, which clears the CDC figure
  • Re-certified upward by AHAM in October 2023 while the range was being retired, though the current online directory no longer lists it
  • Genuine True HEPA with an antimicrobial treatment on the media
  • A clean CPSC record across three separate queries

Drawbacks

  • Sold for a room twice the certified size. Source: the manual’s 290 sq ft against retail copy claiming 600, adjudicated by AHAM’s directory and its own formula
  • Amazon lists one part number at two different coverages. Source: two live listings for 9286201, one saying 290 sq ft and one saying 300 to 600
  • Discontinued at most of its dealers. Source: absence from Fellowes’ catalogue, WebstaurantStore’s “no longer available”, and OfficeSupply’s sold out with no restock date
  • The same filter costs 2.6 times as much at one retailer as another. Source: part 9287201 at about $93 and $36 on the same day
  • Filter supply is starting to thin. Source: WebstaurantStore’s carbon four-pack marked no longer available
  • The fix for the commonest failure is not in the manual. Source: the filter drawer instruction appears only on Fellowes’ support site
  • Shared part numbers make people order the wrong filter. Source: owner reviews reporting a filter that had to be forced into place, and a run of wrong-size complaints on the neighbouring family
  • The 2021 manual quotes a superseded certification. Source: the manual prints the April 2020 figures and AHAM re-certified in October 2023
  • No UL file number is published. Source: a dealer attribute reading UL Listed, and no certification mark anywhere in the manual
  • Not in the CARB register. Source: the California certified list searched twice with no Fellowes or AeraMax entry. CARB’s draft list could not be checked, so this is unverified rather than refuted
  • The panel lights are bright and the top two speeds are loud. Source: a review site rather than an owner, and it gives no decibel measurements
  • The review base is tiny. Source: 19 Walmart ratings, none of them below four stars, which is too small a sample to lean on

Questions people ask

What size room does the AeraMax 290 cover?
About 290 to 310 square feet. Fellowes’ manual says 290, AHAM’s directory says 300, and AHAM’s formula gives 308. The 600 on the listings is roughly double the certification.

Is the AeraMax 290 the same as the 300 or the DX95?
Yes. Identical certified numbers and identical filters, under three part numbers.

Which filters does it take?
True HEPA 9287201 once a year, carbon 9324201 every three months in packs of four. Shop around, because the same HEPA filter ranges from $36 to $93.

Is the 290 worth it over the 190?
For a living room, yes. It costs about 20 percent more a year in filters and delivers 57 percent more clean air. For a bedroom the 190 is enough.

My AeraMax 290 will not turn on.
Check the filter drawer on the right side is fully seated. Fellowes names this model specifically, but the instruction is on its website rather than in the manual.

Is it still made?
No. The consumer AeraMax range has gone from Fellowes’ catalogue. The filters are still in production.

How this compares with the 90 and the 190, on room size and on running cost, is on the all three AeraMax purifiers compared.

Sources (16)

Read how I check numbers.