Alen’s BreatheSmart 75i is the company’s largest air purifier, and it’s one of the largest I’ve tested altogether. The 75i is also quite powerful–indeed, maybe too powerful for most residential users, making it a better fit in commercial venues. Our experts test thousands of products each year using thoughtful alen breathesmart test plans that bring out key performance differences between competing products. And, to assure complete independence, we buy all the products we test ourselves. Reflects how intuitive and easy the controls are to use, carrying ease, ability to remove the filter, and filter life indicator.
Its smaller brother, the FIT50, shares similar design styles and capabilities and effectively cover medium-sized rooms such as your family room or master bedroom up to 900 sq ft. Onboard controls are basic but functional, including a color-coded ring around the power button that indicates one of five levels of particulates in the air. The front panel pops off to reveal a large HEPA filter (no rating specified) underneath. Air is pulled in from around the sides of the panel, through the filter, and emitted through a large grille on the top of the device. A child-friendly vent guard attachment is also in the box if you’re worried about Junior sticking a hand inside.
While it is equipped with handles, it weighs a whopping 27 pounds, which makes it a little more challenging to relocate. We use a Purpleair Indoor sensor with our in-house custom API recording software and then share this data via Flourish. Consumer Reports recommends the Alen® BreatheSmart 75i Pure with an overall EXCELLENT score. Alen® air purifiers are engineered to outperform by combining power with efficacy and superb filtration technology.
To measure the amount of electricity used, we hooked the device up to a watt reader and recorded how many kilowatts per hour it used while running on a medium setting. Assuming 12 hours of use per day, it costs around $9.00 to run the BreatheSmart 75i for a year. While quite a few devices were cheaper to run, this was nowhere near the highest annual cost. For those looking for a quiet and powerful purifier for under $450.00 and are happy to pay extra for the lifetime guarantee and smart features, the 45i could be the air purifier for you. The app isn’t the most intuitive, in part because it seems to be designed to service multiple devices instead of just one. All status indicators include the number of devices which are in the given state, so you might see “1” running, “1” with “blue” air quality, and “1” with good filter life.
I went for the ‘Fresh’ model, which contains a medical-grade H13 True HEPA filter plus an activated carbon filter for added protection against VOCs and smoke. ? The replacement filters are expensive.? The cheapest filter option doesn’t have an activated carbon filter.? Being provided with 3 different power cables for various regions is unnecessary and wasteful. Speed can be adjusted manually or using an automatic mode, and a countdown timer lets you shut the unit off after two, 4, or 12 hours.
The next step was sealing up our 150-square-foot testing room and filling it with smoke by burning paper and other testing materials. We monitored the air with a Dylos air quality monitor; once the room reached our desired level of airborne particulate pollution, we kicked on the BreatheSmart 75i for an hour. After 30 minutes, there were only 16.62% of the original particulates left floating in the air, .003% after 45 minutes, and 0 detectable particulates after an hour. While the odor from the burnt paper wasn’t entirely eliminated, it was severely reduced.