Alen Tower Air Purifier - T300

Comment: Product was not bought for me so as far as I know it was delivered and works as advertised

Comment: I purchased the Alen T300 about eight months ago and was surprised when the UV bulb burned out so quickly. I was even more surprised to find a replacement cost $59, but I ordered one because part of the reason I purchased the unit was the UV mold and bacteria killing feature.
When I got the bulb, I tried to replace it. I got the back off with no trouble, but then found I had to remove a screw in the wiring harness and pull the harness out to get to the bulb. One twist and the screw head was stripped out. There is no way to get it out without breaking the wiring harness. The screw is tiny and there is very little room to use any tools.
I emailed Alen customer service right away for help. Tay Sarian answered my email by saying, yes, we all run into screws that strip out. He referred me to handyman articles on how to drill out screws and suggested I pull the screw out with a pair of pliers. Obviously, he has never even looked at the unit I am talking about.
Even if I sent the unit back to Alen or had it repaired at my own expense, this will just keep happening. I don't plan on shipping my unit back to Alen every six months when the bulb burns out!
This is a design flaw in an otherwise nice unit. The customer should not have to remove a warning harness to replace the UV bulb or go through what I did. The fact that you can buy a similar replacement bulb at a hardware store for less than $15 makes me leary of Alen's good intentions towards its customers.
I do not recommend buying this unit because it is very expensive and the customer service is non-existent.

Comment: I originally bought Alen T300 for my living room. It has sleek design made from high quality dark grey plastic with dark silver insert. It looks cool in living room side by side with black frame LCD HDTV and matching TV stand and electronics. At lowest speed it is whisper quiet. In living room you can hardly hear it running. It cleans living room okay but as I discovered it is perfect for room size about 200 sf or less. Eventually I moved it to bedroom because it matches my 168 sf bedroom perfectly and it is very quiet at night. All noise (36 db at low speed) it generates is a slight hiss which rather helps to sleep than get distracted. It cleans air so well that in the morning the air in bedroom feels fresher than air outside, so I hesitate to open window in the morning to let in contaminated air from street.

It is affordable high quality product and I highly recommend it for use in bedroom. In living room which is connected to kitchen T300 may struggle to keep 400 sf space clean. Of course you can buy two of them and put in living room and kitchen respectively. Other option is to buy Alen A350 which is good for 400 sf or less. I may try this path also but I did not decided yet.

Comment: I purchased two T300 purifiers about three years ago based on extensive research and user reviews. One was for use downstairs in the family room and one upstairs in my bedroom. The hepa filters were replaced as recommended by Alen.

I plugged in the bedroom unit and heard a rattling noise on the two highest speeds. Alen customer service advised that this was common in some T300 models but would not effect the operation of the unit. I thought, well okay and continued to use it. About 18 months later the rattling became more and more noticeable. It finally got to the point where it sounded like the machine was coming apart. I notified Alen and they replaced the purifier. I turned on the replacment and the rattling noise was worse than the one I had sent back. I notified Alen and they apologized for sending a defective unit that another customer had returned. They sent another replacement and thankfully, the only sound detectable was the air going through the fan. Okay, this is great. Two weeks ago the machine started "whistling". The noise is more intense as the fan speed is increased. It got to the point where I couldn't use the machine even at the lowest setting during the night.

The downstairs T300 developed a burning smell after about two weeks. I emailed Alen customer service and they said to return it immediately. They replaced the unit within a few days. So far, so good. Just recently this purifier also developed a whistling noise at every fan speed. The higher the speed the louder the whistle. I tried removing the filters to see if the noise was generated there. The whistling noise was even louder. Again, I can't use the machine because of the loud noise. What's the point?

This morning I'm donating both units to the Salvation Army. I'm VERY disappointed in the product. I will say that Alen customer service responded quickly to all of my inquiries but what good does that do if I keep getting defective units as replacements? I certainly wouldn't recommend the T300. I'm shopping around for a different product made by a different manufacturer.

Comment: I did a lot of research, reading and talking to people before finally deciding on the Alen T300. I was worried about a few things: 1.Noise 2.Filter price, 3.Ozone generation, and 4.power consumption. Im happy that this air filter really met all the criteria I was after.
1. Noise. Really what good is an air purifier if you cant sleep with the thing on? Or hear the TV for that matter? This air purifer is really quiet. The white noise it provides at night when all is silent is equivalent to the sound of a hotel air conditioner running. My wife and I find it quite relaxing and its nice to sleep along to.
2. Filter. The filter has a foam pre-filter that is easily removable and washable so the filters should last a long time, when they need to be replaced they cost $49. a pair (it uses two at a time) Not bad seeing that most people can get two years out of the filters running about 2200 hours a year. The UV bulb that can be turned on and off to kill Virus and bacteria in the air can be easily replaced.
3.Ozone- Read the EPA report people, Ozone is bad for your lungs!!! Many ionizing air purifiers produce Ozone (not good) the Inizer with the T300 is a negative ionizer (negative ions = good for humans, Positive Ions = bad for humans) so it doesnt produce ozone and its not harmful to humans. If you dont like the idea of an ionizer at all you can simply turn it off.
4.Power consumption- The power consumption over the past three months with two of these running on the #2 fan speed (low is 1, high is 4) for approx. 9 hours a day hasnt added much to our bill at all, actually its hardly noticeable that there even was a change in consumption of electricity.
Fit and finish is top notch, and the controls are clear and easy to use. All settings are clearly laid out for you when the unit is running so you know with a glance at the LCD screen whats on.
If your considering an air purifier, this should be at the top of your list. I purchased my units brand new for a cost of $270. each and best of all Alen offers a lifetime warranty on their products, because as they state "We dont want our products to wind up taking up space in a landfill somewhere". Sounds pretty environmentally responsible to me.
Go ahead, try one. I dont think you'll be disappointed with this unit.