Vent-Axia Pozidry Compact vs Nuaire Drimaster Flatmaster Review

Vent-Axia is a British manufacturer of ventilation equipment. Located in Crawley, West Sussex. The company has been operating since 1936, when they invented the world’s first electronically operated window fan, their name is renowned for quality and their products live up to their name.

This first review is on the Pozidry Compact with heat, wall mounted unit for apartments and flats to combat condensation and the resultant black mould. For the purposes of this review I will give my opinion of the Pozidry unit compared against another leading product with which installers will be familiar – The Nuaire flatmaster 2000 which (at the time of writing) we also stock and sell.

First impressions

At only 393mm wide x 206mm high the Pozidry compact heated unit is considerably smaller than the Nuaire Flatmaster 2000 at a size of 485mm wide by 326mm high this appears much bigger to the eye which of course makes it more difficult to position in a flat or apartment where space is at a premium, you often need to fit these units over a window or door with a lintel above them.

Ease of fitting

The Pozidry compact with heater is very easy to fit, a metal back plate detaches and works as a perfect template for siting and marking out, once the core hole is drilled the back plate affixes to the wall in what I found to be a simple one man operation, the unit then fixes on to the backplate easily with 2 large plastic screws. The covers then fit onto the unit quickly and easily

By comparison the full Nuaire unit has to be held up in position to mark the fixing holes or a complex series of measurements have to be marked on the wall and drilled in the hope you got it accurate. I for one cannot hold these units with one hand and mark or drill with the other without the unit slipping or moving due to arm fatigue, this meant that (for safety reasons) I needed to take a helper with me to fit the unit.

The Vent-Axia Pozidry compact can be fitted with the air outlet to the left or right, which means no confusion over which unit to buy – one unit does it all and you can’t buy the wrong one. The Nuaire heated range by comparison comes as Nuaire Flatmaster 2000L or Flatmaster 2000R depending which way you want to duct the unit, this of course means there is no changing your mind (or your customers) on site and you are stuck if you hit a snag like finding something in the wall where you planned to install. The Nuaire units will only fit in one direction. If you order the wrong unit then you are stuck and will need to return it and re-arrange a site visit for fitting.

Build Quality

In my experience the Nuaire Flatmaster range has a design weakness, the cabinet clips snap off very easily and make it impossible to get the thing to close properly which looks terrible if left on the wall and also causes the unit to leak during operation. I tried to return a unit to Nuaire with this problem but they held on to the unit for over 10 days then simply sent it back, I had of course fitted another unit by then (I couldn’t bring myself to leave my customer for 10 days with a hole in their wall) – so that was me out of pocket and in my experience these things snap off very easily as I have had contractors come back to us with the exact same problem.

Also the electric control box in the Flatmaster is held shut with a cable tie as the contents are too big for the box they have fitted them in, whilst this is probably perfectly safe, it looks awful and has lead to contractors returning units insisting they have been tampered with.

We found no issues with the Vent-Axia Pozidry compact build quality which seemed first class to us.

Noise

We did not find a noticeable difference in noise levels except when on boost where the Pozidry Compact seemed a lot quieter in our opinion, mainly because the Nuaire units I have installed often have a vibration type noise when on boost with the fan running at high speed.

Features

Pozidry has a built in datalogger which displays the runtime of the unit, we have found this to be very helpful when tenants have turned the units off for whatever reason then claimed they do not work – a quick check of the datalogger and we can easily prove the reason for not working – it was switched off!

The Nuaire units have dataloggers available as an extra and you will need to purchase these separately and that adds considerably to the overall unit cost.

Price

Amazingly we can supply the Vent-Axia Pozidry Compact Heated units at a cheaper price than we, or our competition can do the Nuaire 2000 L or R heated units for. We think it is an absolute no-brainer – the Vent Axia Pozidry Compact beats the Nuaire Flatmaster 2000 L or R hands down in our opinion.

Purchase the Vent-Axia Pozidry Compact Pro With Heater

The Preservation Shop is an authorised distributor of Vent-Axia products.

Article by Mike Davison CSSW, M.Inst.SSE.

Mike has over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry & specialises in Building Pathology, remedial works & structural repair.

Mike has installed many Positive Pressure Units (PIV) from different manufacturers and the above review is based on his opinion from his experience fitting, selling and talking to installers who are customers of the Preservation Shop.