The Technology Has Improved

This is my second try at using an ionic air cleansing system. The Ionic Pro is modestly priced and the technology has come a long way since the first high cost electronic air cleaners. When compared to more traditional electric motor and multi filter HEPA units the Ionic Pro uses less electriciy and runs quietly.



Ionic blade technology has long been used by NASA and in commercial aircraft. It began finding its way into homes initally as add-on units to newly installed furnaces. The current stand-alone towers evolved as separate appliances.



Like the other "Ionic" air cleaning systems this unit still emits ozone. Though billed in the owner's guide as a "clean scent" the ozone aroma can be overpowering to some people. If you have ever been in a room where power tools have been in use an electric train set has been running or a new computer monitor was turned on for the first time you have encountered ozone. In all fairness the Ionic Pro has come a long way from its predecessors in terms of filtering basically breaking up 03 ozone into 02 oxygen the electric arc scent. When I bought my first ionic air cleansers several years ago I ended up returning them because of the annoying ozone scent -- even though I was the only person in my household who seemed to notice the ozone smell. There are ionic air cleaners that have just about licked this problem with the addition of three filters. Unfortunately these brands are commensurately more expensive. The Ionic Pro is equipped with a solitary filter. Thus far during my use of the product the scent is bearable. However for those who are intolerant of even a hint of ozone I recommend you opt for a more expensive multi-filter brand.



As other reviewers have noted the Ionic Pro is hardly maintenance free. This is the price you pay for not having to buy expensive HEPA replacement filters and using less electricity. The collection blades must be cleaned at least every week. The downside to this is that the manufacturer recommends that the blades be allowed to dry 24 hours before reinstalling them in the unit. The booklet recommends that you order an additional set of blades. Although I am not yet at the point of ordering a second set of blades I did notice that they are now hard to find for this particular unit.



The other challenge with this unit is that it is not designed to handle larger airborne debris such as pet hair. Unlike a true HEPA filter that simply screens out the hair any hair entering the Ionic Pro will cause it snap and crackle until you vacuum it out. In reading other reviews on the Ionic Pro I want to point out that most of the debris causing the crackling will not be found on the collection blades. There is a thin wire filament toward the rear of the unit. It has its own cleaning swipe that can be accessed at the top of the tower but that will usually not stop the crackle. I use a long thin bristle brush the type you use to clean the coils under a refrigerator and brush off the outside and inside of the rear air inlets behind the wire. This does the trick.



Prior to buying the Ionic Pro I had two Honeywell circular HEPA air cleaners. With a child in the family with allergies it is a fact of life that you change your furnace filters regularly and own one or more air cleaning systems. Mind you I have no immediate plans to dispose of the hard working Honeywell units. Even my son's allergist recommended that we stick to using true HEPA air cleaning systems versus ionizing tower units. Still I noticed an ever increasing number of offices including medical office waiting rooms using ionic air cleaners. More challenging was the fact that my HEPA unit uses expensive filters that can no longer be found on store shelves. Although you can buy the charcoal pre-filter (designed to fit any number of air cleaning systems) in stores like WalMart the large cylandrical filters are only available through mail order -- and they are not cheap. As an added note the original filters for my unit are no longer available. I recently ordered two 2-pack "permanent" replacement filters complete with spacers and two additional charcoal pre-filters. The replacement cost admittedly to change the filters in two Honeywell units came to $179.00.



Another selling point for the Ionic Pro is that it is much quieter than the Honeywell. My teenagers keep shutting off the old reliable HEPA units while watching television because it is too noisy. As there is no benefit to an air cleaner unless it is running I decided to add the Ionic Pro as a second line of allergin defense.



There are a lot of varied opinions on the usefulness of Ionic Pro. The product works well but you should not view it as a solitary cure filtering the air in your home.More detail ...

Disappointing

I guess my first review got rejected for the mention of a certain website regarding the word ripoff. This was a fairly important point so I'll try to make note of why. Unfortunately my first review was a little better but here goes:



First I'll give a report of my experiences with product failure and customer service then I'll give some general impressions after using the unit for a little less than a year.



Recently my red 'clean' light came on and no matter how clean the blades and wires were the clean light would come on after the unit was powered on. This happens after 11 months of mostly continuous use.



I emailed Ionic pro and got a phone number to call. I called this number and they gave me another phone number to call. It turns out that the first phone number was for Ionic Pro sales and the second was for retail sales (even though my email specified "I bought this thing from Amazon").



The second phone call resulted in the need to troubleshoot. Since I had done some research online and since I had a second unit I knew it was the unit itself - not the blades. If I didn't have the twin pack I wouldn't have had the ability to diagnose this problem - with or without the service representative.



It could have been the blades - apparently running the unit on high power shortens the blade life. The blades "dull" and must be replaced. Or something in the body of the unit breaks and the whole unit needs replaced.



My option was as follows. Fax a copy of my sales receipt to a bogus fax number. This is where my first review was stopped. Looking this phone/fax number online gave disturbing results leading me to believe it was a bogus fax (the ripoff report).



After (or in addition to faxing) I had to ship the unit to them with a copy of the receipt. When they got the unit they would call me for my credit card number so they could ship a new unit. The joke here is that I pay to ship the broken unit to them and I pay for shipping on the new unit. I have no idea how much it would cost for me to ship to them but the shipping of the new unit via USPS was $29.99. So I can only imagine that my under warranty replacement would cost me roughly $60. The replacement process seems rather inefficient costly and has some suspicious details.



I must say the representative on the second phone call was nice and helpful. But the service options are disappointing.



All in all this product is fairly noisy. When it buzzes you are supposed to lift a little lever to clean the wires this hardly makes a difference. It was quiet for a few days then I was never able to attain silence again - no matter how clean everything looked.



There is also an annoying bright blue LED that leaves a nice bright spot on the ceiling. Sure this could be covered up with tape.



After a few weeks of what I thought was success with this product I almost bought a set for my parents. I'm certainly glad I didn't. Given the costs of under warranty replacement the sale price is no real bargain. I have yet to decide whether I'll return the unit and pay IP another $60 but I doubt it.More detail ...

Good Product - Could Be Better

I purchased the Ionic Pro a few months ago to help alleviate litter box odor. It was smaller than expected and is really not a "convenient" product. It does not have an electrical cord. It plugs directly into the electrical outlet. So it is really difficult to place it exactly where you want it to be and thus its effectiveness could be hampered.



It does a good job on most odors most of the time--minimal to slight odors. However when there is a particularly stong odor the product is less effective. If you want to combat strong odors I would suggest purchasing one of the more powerful/bigger Ionic products.More detail ...

Does its job - but an interesting issue

I bought this from amazon based on all the good reviews. I was trying to get the smoking smell out of my car. This product is petty impressive in that as soon as I turn it ON there seemed to be a magical "no smell" environment (at least when I sit on the drivers seat). So I must say that the product works very well. The issue came when I used it for my 30 minutes commute back and forth from work and saw that I had a persistent sore throat and throat irritation in the evening. I then read about this online and found that a side effect of a product like this that releases a lot of ozone is that it can cause throat irritation. So I have decided to keep it and use it only when its really required - I cannot keep it ON all the time in my car. So in short while this product does its work petty well people who may be sensitive to sore throat and throat dryness etc may need to think twice before getting it.More detail ...