Alen Paralda Air Purifier: Trusted Review & Specs

It’s been a long time ago but Alen has finally unveiled its stylish air purifier, the Alen Paralda and the classic Alen T500. While the latter is nothing special with a look like a copycat of design from Guardian Technologies, I’ve spent a couple of days with the Alen Paralda to find out what it’s all about. So, let’s roll in our Alen Paralda Review today.

However, it seems the Alen Paralda is discontinued, still being stuck with the low-end HEPA-type filter of the past.

Alen Paralda ranks D- in our air purifier ranking list. We give the biggest and most thorough database of air purifier reviews in the world.

In Breathe Quality, we have reviewed all air purifiers under these sections. Also, we guarantee that:

• We do give honest reviews (both pros and cons) so anyone will guarantee to have the wisest choices.
• We do not (and never) exaggerate one product just to let you click the links and buy that product blindly.

Sections

Beside providing an excellent customer service, Alen is well-known at creating the most well-designed air purifiers. Their air purifiers are backed up with a lifetime warranty, which Alen hopes that will rival other American brands like Rabbit Air, Honeywell and Levoit, and in doing so give the company a truly independent foothold on the air purifier market. It’s a very smart move, as the users of air purifiers demand the after sales support a lot. In our Alen Paralda Review, we should see if the budget air purifier is worth to buy, even with the incredible customer service standing aside.

Alen Paralda Price

With a very cool codename, the Paralda is the Elemental King of Air, the Alen Paralda fulfills the Alen image perfectly: it’s a solid device with more to get excited about. Highlights include an intelligent design and air flow concept, the new sets of air filters and a very distinctive appearance.

Like the Alen T500, Alen Paralda is the budget air purifier from the company. But the budget air purifier from Alen is still far from your common imagination, as even on sale, the Alen Paralda comes with an above average price of $199. That price pits it directly against well-reviewed droids including the diminutive Levoit LV-PUR131 or Coway AP-1512HH, the slightly ageing Honeywell HPA200, and the best smart fellows Honeywell HPA250B and Blueair Sense+.

If you care about the True HEPA filter at all, the Alen Paralda is not for you. The unique sets of HEPA air filters from Alen are below the certified True HEPA filter, but there’s no doubting that this Alen Paralda is a quality air purifier in most respects.

Again, I am happy if you also check the Alen T500, which has the same $199 price tag as the Alen Paralda. I know you are here for this Alen Paralda, but why not try to know about the other Alen air purifiers? Even Alen removed the Paralda from its website.

Related post: Best air purifier 2024.

Alen Paralda Design and Size

Well, I can said that the biggest talking point about the Alen Paralda comes from its appearance. People will notice it, and they’ll ask about it.

Straight out the box, first impressions of the Alen Paralda are rather good. I know that the Alen Paralda doesn’t win any design awards, but I bet that it will. Its attractive, charming styling still feels smart and functional as well. However, it does lack a certain something to really make it feel premium. The main culprit is the body which is plastic and the unimpressive white color when putting in a bright room.

With the Alen Paralda, the company hasn’t followed the current trend for back-to-front air flow system in tower air purifiers (but they did it in their Alen T500). Instead, this 22-inch air purifier uses a double outlet air grills from both sides. That means the Alen Paralda will double the direction for outlet air flow, also is capable of cleaning your room faster.

But here is the disadvantage of this new air flow, it is difficult to direct the fresh air into the users, which is the calling card of using a tower air purifier. The Alen Paralda is meant for increasing the efficiency, but despite of its creative design, it is drawn back by only one thing, the weak fan power. The problem with that is that for most situations, you don’t know where to put the Alen Paralda for maximum efficiency. We want to enjoy the fresh air as quick as possible, which this air purifier is awful for.

On the top of this Alen Paralda, we are having the intuitive control panel with same 4 basic function buttons as the Alen T500. It also shows you the current time, which is unnecessary for an air purifier, but I am really appreciate of this function myself. The downside is the weird button shape, that is hard to press it without looking.

Source: Amazon.com

For the size, Alen Paralda is only 9 lbs, which is the same with Alen T500. This weight is only as much as a gallon of milk, and you can easily move it around your home. Sadly, we don’t have a handy handle as featured in the Alen T500, but after all you won’t hesitate to hold the Alen Paralda in your arms, right?

Related post: Best air purifiers for bedroom.

Alen Paralda Filters

As the decisive criteria for the performance of one air purifier, by default we look at the quantity and the quality of its air filters, and what the air filter types are using. There is only a 2-stage air cleaning system from Alen Paralda, with an ionizer and one HEPA filter from the below options.

1. HEPA-Pure – The standard HEPA filter of Alen Paralda, which is able to capture 95% of as small as 0.3 microns pollutant particles such as dust, dust mites and pollen.
2. HEPA-Fresh – The next level HEPA filter will improve the first HEPA-Pure to deal with the household odors like cooking smells and light smoke, with an addition of Activated Carbon filter.
3. HEPA-Silver – For a little bit more money, you can upgrade to the HEPA-Silver filter with anti-microbial Silver-Ion threads that prevents the growth of mold spores and bacteria.
4. HEPA-OdorCell – The ultimate level HEPA filter of Alen Paralda, using the ultimate Alen’s Molecular Conversion Powder. This air filter is the final defense against all allergens as well as smoke and pet odors.

For an unknown reason, Alen has removed the washable pre-filter from the Alen Paralda. The pre-filter is only an extra layer to capture the large objects of pollutants, which is used by many high-end air purifiers to reduce the amount of pollutants on the surface of HEPA filter, and therefore prolong its lifetime. But yes, we don’t have this pre-filter in our Alen Paralda.

As a device from Alen, the Alen Paralda has not one, but four options to choose for a genuine HEPA filter. At the core, this air purifier uses the HEPA-Pure, which is just a HEPA-type air filter, not a True HEPA filter. It’s not quite flawless, but the overall performance is acceptable, providing that you don’t have extreme allergies or asthma for airborne pollutants. Comparing to other True HEPA filter, we found a drop of at least 5% in efficiency.

You see, there is an ionizer for this Alen Paralda. In Breathe Quality, we don’t have any tools to check the ozone emission from any ionizer. However, without any negative reviews about the ionizer of Alen Paralda, I believe that it is safe to use the ionic filter without worrying about the ozone that irritate asthma or any breathing issues. Moreover, you can turn it off at will easily.

Time to test the Alen Paralda, and I will use the Honeywell AirGenius 5 and Honeywell 50250. The Honeywell HFD320 is using an ifD air filter, which is one type of ionic air filter and may have some in common with Alen Paralda, while the Honeywell 50250 is using a real True HEPA filter. All of three devices were using in the same 150-sq-ft room for 1 hour. The result, as my expectation, the True HEPA filter made the Honeywell 50250 the winner, with an efficiency of trapping 99.95% particles as small as 0.3 microns. The Honeywell HFD320 won the runner-up, with 96% efficiency. Our Alen Paralda can only deal with 88% of the given pollutants.

By all means, Alen Paralda is not great with its air filtration system. We should hope that Alen will reconsider and bring the True HEPA filter into life.

This Alen Paralda has an even higher air filter cost than the Alen T500, with the first level HEPA-Pure starting at $49. Therefore, the HEPA-OdorCell is $94, and in a $200 segment with the present of $45 air filter from Coway AP-1512HH or $49 from Honeywell HPA200, we can’t believe that Alen will charge so high in a none-True HEPA air filter. To make you depress more, the air filter will only last for 6 months. Sometimes, I can help thinking that the Alen T500 and Alen Paralda is indeed the bait Alen used for hooking people to their advanced high level air purifiers. But whatever the reason is, we can’t accept the current Alen Paralda’s air filter cost.

Well, I got a discount for the Alen Paralda’s air filter. If you decide to buy this device, you should get our deal for better saving. Importantly, just “if you buy”.

Related post: Best air purifiers for allergies.

Alen Paralda Room Coverage

Being the same size with the Alen T500, Alen Paralda swore to deal with the same area, with an impressive room coverage of 500 square feet. However, as I check more specs for the fan power, and after testing, I believe the Alen Paralda needs lots of time to clean a whole room of 500 square feet.

The ACH of Alen Paralda is from 1X to 5X. If you use the air purifier for a large room as 500 square feet, the ACH rating is only 1X, resulting the air cleaning frequency of 1 times per hour.

The CADR of Alen Paralda is 130 cfm overall. With a lower CADR rating than even the Alen T500 and Levoit LV-PUR131, it will be a difficult task for Alen Paralda to clean a room of 500 square feet. For better performance, I suggest you to only use this air purifier for a room from 150 to 200 square feet in size.

Related post: Best large room air purifiers.

Alen Paralda Sound

One reason Alen gave to public for not having True HEPA filter is because they don’t want the True HEPA filter restricts airflow. It is quite reasonable, and with less restriction in the air flow, you don’t need a powerful fan to cover a large space.

Source: Amazon.com

The Alen Paralda is a lot better than the awful Alen T500 in term of noise level. With 4 fan speeds, this Alen Paralda only runs at 37.5 decibels for the lowest fan speed. This noise level is lower than the standard library noise level, which is really quiet for any users.

At the highest setting, it is still bad to use the air purifier. I recorded a high noise level of 60 decibels (db), which can be compared with the noise level of some conversation in the restaurant or office. It is fairly quiet, but is still as loud as an air conditioner unit. I believe that I prefer the quiet operation from other devices, like Coway AP-1512HH or Levoit LV-PUR131 more.

But not like the Alen T500, you can now use the Alen Paralda without any trouble for its noise level.

Related post: Best air purifiers for baby.

Alen Paralda Power Consumption

One of our most FAQs is “Do air purifiers use a lot of energy?” An air purifier is meant to run for a long time to be efficient, that’s why many air purifier brands consider the energy-saving standard, mostly in the rate of Energy Star, is one important selling point.

The power consumption is not the pros or cons of Alen, with the maximum power consumption from Alen Paralda is just 56 watts. It is better than the 84 watts from Honeywell HPA200, but higher than many devices like Levoit LV-PUR131 or Honeywell HFD320.

For using a Alen Paralda 8 hours per day, it would cost you about $20 per year.

Related post: Best air purifiers for pets.

Alen Paralda Additional Features

For a budget device, it is not a surprise that there is not much additional features from the Alen Paralda. We will only have one programmable setting to control this air purifier smarter. Other than that, I don’t find any Timer function as featured in Alen T500. At least, we still have our LED indicator for filter replacement. With this, we don’t need to remember the date to replace our HEPA air filter.

Of course, Alen Paralda doesn’t provide the Smart features. If you must have these features, you need to find others in the $200 budget range, like GermGuardian CDAP5500BCA, Honeywell HPA250B or Blueair Sense+.

Related posts:

1, Best air purifiers for smoke.

2, Best air purifiers for dust.

3, Best air purifiers for mold.

Alen Paralda Customer Service

Running through a very long review about Alen air purifiers, you may question us: “Why I need to buy Alen air purifier?” Yes, if it is not for the outstanding performance, or the top-class fan power, then there is must be something really, really important. What I’m trying to say here is the perfect customer service from the Alen Corporation.

Alen doesn’t hide the intent to speak high of their customer services. Look at their website, there are full of content to support the customers. You will have their phone, their emails, and of course, their support policies without any hindrance. To reach the Alen, you can contact them 6/7 days per week. They provide the best fast and free shipping for any products, as long as the orders are placed before 3 PM, they will guarantee to ship in the same day. Impressive, right?

They expand the refund time up to 60 days, or 2 months. You won’t need to worry about the quality of your air purifiers, because Alen will back you up with (also the first) Lifetime Warranty. Whenever your personal Alen air purifier doesn’t operate as normal, you will have a same refurbished air purifier with free shipping. To do this, please call 512-436-0457.

There are a lot of good review for the Alen customer services, that’s why I highly recommend to look for the brand if you need permanent better air quality for your home.

Our verdict

Another $200 air purifier from Alen, another time we are disappointed with the poor performance, but still linger with the unmatched customer service. The Alen Paralda begins a very smart design for tower air purifier, which no one else could do like this. However, this Alen Paralda needs to improve both the air filter and fan power to deserve such intelligent design, or it will be a waste.

Also, the Alen Paralda is discontinued, for obvious reasons.