Teardown review of AX40
Well, not really a teardown, wasn't really necessary, all I did was take out the filter to expose the fan motor.
The fan motor is a 310V DC brushless motor from 日本电产芝浦(浙江)有限公司。
So...sounds like a tiong company, eh? A quick googling turns up a real surprise:
Parent company is 日本电产...also known as Nidec Corp...
Wait...what?
Nidec? THE Nidec???
PC enthusiasts may be familiar with this brand...many popular and well reviewed PC cooling fans uses Nidec motors. In fact, I first got to know of this brand during my DIY PC days.
Nidec, a Japanese company, is the industry leader in fan motors.
So, the AX40 uses a brand name Japanese motor of (possibly) Japanese design, made in China.
I also separated the charcoal filter from the HEPA. It's quite easy, just need a penknife to carefully cut along the black masking tape, along the seam. just becareful not to cut the grey foam. Both sides of the charcoal screen have the same netting.
Since activated charcoal lasts about 1-3 months, u either remove it completely, or somehow replace the charcoal granules.
If u don't mind doing a bit of DIY, u can cut open the netting on one side, replace the charcoal granules (very cheap from Taobao, Qoo10, even Daiso), then sew up the netting. I guess the most time consuming part is the sewing, lol.
I think Samsung has a winning product here...brand name motor, quiet, efficient, plasma ionizer on/off, high CADR, 5 color led indicator, possibility of cheap replacement of charcoal filter, cheap HEPA alternatives from Taobao...best of all, great prices from qoo10!
If Samsung were to improve this product, I hope they give a nano silver anti bacterial coating to the filters...similar to Winix.
Hope u guys find this review useful!
Edit: fan motor label shows 31W, not the 34W indicated by Samsung.
This explains the sub 30W reading taken by bro WRX