Nice concept humidifier..

I have owned this humidifier for over a year. It does a lot of things really well and have only a few complaints about this humidifier. First of all, let's talk about speeds. There is a low and high speed on this humidifier. The low is fairly low and you can hear the water trickling down the metal filters. Its a somewhat pleasant noise in fact. High is very high and powerful and makes a fair amount of noise. The noise is not disturbing to me and in fact, helped to drown out a lot of background noise so I can sleep peacefully. I could hear dogs barking, kids screaming through the neighborhood, but this humidifier is loud enough so I could barely hear the annoyances and sleep. If you live in a quiet area, you may then find it disturbing if you aren't used to it.

Next, the maintenance. This is where we run into some problems. The metal non disposable filters recommend you soak them in vinegar to remove mineral deposits that form. There is an antimicrobial coating on these filters to help inhibit growth of harmful bacteria and suggest that running these through the dishwasher will ruin the antimicrobial protection. Well, I've owned this for over a year, and there was so much hard water deposits on these filters that they were ineffective. I had to run it through the dishwasher to clean them up. The vinegar did nothing to help remove these things. It is also nice that the base is dishwasher safe, but after extended use, it is clear that brown algae like material was forming all over the inside of the unit as well, by the motor. This can't be healthy to breathe in, but you can't run that portion through the dishwasher. Also, the venting that brings in the are was getting filthy and some deposits were forming there as well. I've had to take the unit apart as much as possible, and put the plastic pieces I've unscrewed into the dishwasher as well to get the unit somewhat clean again. The areas around the motor are very difficult to clean and I end up using a thin brillo pad to try to wipe off the brown slimy scum that forms. I even take off the outgoing vent cover so I can wipe the fan blades. This unit is not easy to clean at all, but it works better then most other humidifiers I've bought before.

An improvement in design would be to perhaps blow air into the unit with the fan, rather then sucking moist air out with the fan. When you are sucking the moist air out of the system, more moving parts seem to get wet and slimy. I'm looking into the Venta Airwasher system which does this, but its very expensive.

The humidistat works well, but the refill light is on too often now. Some water has somehow gotten into the float that triggers the light. I'm not sure how to get the water out of the float.

This unit IS effective, but you have to keep it clean.