Hot and dry to cool and tolerable in no time flat!

The quick version: I bought this humidifier to cool down and humidify my bedroom for periods of dry weather. It does its job well in a large bedroom and one fill-up is enough to bring relief all night long.

The "Tolstoy" version:
I live in Southern California and suffer through the Santa Ana wind condition several times a year. The wind shifts from westerly, cool and wet off the ocean, to easterly, hot and dry from the desert. I'm particularly sensitive to being uncomfortable in lower humidity (probably because I'm spoiled by the weather here in LA) and need something to keep me from waking up feeling dry and itchy. This humidifier, purchased about 2 years ago, fits the bill perfectly.

The unit can be broken down into three basic pieces: the reservoir, the fan, and the controls.

The reservoir is large enough to keep pumping out cool, damp air for hours even at maximum fan/humidity settings. For my purpose, to bring relief overnight when the dry winds kick up, it was great. I could fill the reservoir one day and have two to three nights of comfortable sleep with it. To fill the reservoir, it is removed from the unit (slips in and out quite easily) by a big, easy-grip handle. A screw-on base is removed and water can be added through a large opening in the bottom. I used this unit with the recommended "cleaner" cartridge in the reservoir and have not had any issues with mold, slime, or mildew growth.

Have no illusions, however: this is a LARGE RESERVOIR. Four gallons is a lot of water and hauling the reservoir carefully from sink to bedroom - taking extreme care avoid frequent drips - was a challenge. When the unit is full (fresh reservoir), it's hard to move without making a mess.

The fan blows through an opening about 3" x 3" on the front of the unit. There are slats that prevent curious fingers from finding themselves in harm's way. The fan is stationary and doesn't oscillate. The unit will only blow air in the direction the fan is pointed so choose your direction carefully. I like sleeping with white noise and have a fan running continually in my bedroom anyway. The noise from this fan, on low, med and high settings, isn't a drawback for me.

The controls allow two different operating modes. In "manual" mode (not sure what the it was called in the booklet) the user selects the fan level and the unit will run forever (as long as there's power) at that fan speed. It's good for flooding a room to cool it down. This is how I always operate the unit.

In the "automatic" mode, the user selects a relative humidity that's comfortable (50%, 75%, etc; higher RH means wetter air) and the unit will run until that set point is reached and then will turn off. It will come back on (and go back off) continually to maintain the selected humidity level. I found the humidistat controls difficult to figure out and found that the fan shutting down (and coming on) disturbed my sleep.

A quick note about consumables. There are replacement filters and antimicrobial cartridges available for sale. Filters seem to run about $10; 2-packs of cartridges run about $10. For occasional use - like mine - where the unit sits dry for months on end, I haven't yet needed to replace either the filter or the cartridge. I should probably replace the cartridge, but the filter is still in good shape after ~2 years.

I really like this humidifier. For the price, it does everything I want it to do and it does so efficiently. After just a few minutes, it's easy to tell that it's been on. The fan noise doesn't bother me, but it might bug other people. The manual "always on!" setting is perfect for me.