Hissing and High maintenance

We bought this when we were sick with colds and needed extra moisture in the air. The Vick's medicine cup was a selling point. Also the auto shut off sounded good. It was supposed to be nice and quiet as well which would be nice. We were pleased at first, like the first night or two.

After that it was nothing but a hassle. Not only do you have to take this thing apart every day and clean the inside but weekly maintenance includes having to soak certain parts in vinegar and others in bleach, and still others in half vinegar and half water solutions. Figuring out which parts they were referring to required constant checking the diagrams to figure out what part was what. There's the water tank which is removable, the medicine cup up top, the cover over the main part of the machine that comes off. Then there are another set of removable cups on the inside then other things beneath that. Cleaning all of these parts and even after soaks I had to scrape scale off other parts. It was all a huge hassle.

The worst part was that after all of that daily and weekly maintenance it began to hiss noisily and make strange sounds that kept us awake. It would spit and sputter and things like that. Finally we couldn't take it and had to turn the thing off just to be able to sleep.

In addition to that, it would completely empty and NOT shut off like it promised to do on the box. The medicine cup is a joke in my opinion. It is little more than a thimble size and it's difficult to get the medicine poured in there without spilling it all over due to it's odd shaped container. Also, it is not enough medicine to smell let alone clear out your sinuses when you are sick. I was sorely disappointed with everything on this model.

About the only thing I did like about this was that the water tank was easy to fill and had an easy load mechanism. I also liked that it had a built in nightlight. Other than that it doesn't have much going for it. After only 1 1/2 weeks of using this thing unhappily, I am returning it to the store for a refund.