AIRCARE Essick Air 22.7l Whole House Humidifier, White

First, I have to compare this to other units to be fair. We tried a number of units in our large bedroom; all the units claimed to be able to get the humidity up to 60 percent in large areas but none were able to raise it more than 10% from the ambient even in our room of 180 square feet. In this industry the square footage claims are completely dishonest, but manufacturers are in the awkward position of having to exaggerate the square footage they can humidify or they will look bad to consumers who are comparing with other units. So first I say "forget the square footage claims of all the units on the market". Look for how much water they will actually put into the air in a day. That being said, this unit is very simple and not particularly robustly designed, but it puts a couple gallons of water into the air and can get our room up to 60% or higher on any day - and we have dry forced air heat. This can only be done using the high setting, which gives a loud fan noise that might bother most people but the sound is basically white noise and not offensive. You don't need to run it on high all night. We turn it on in the late afternoon, on high, and when we go to bed we turn it down to medium, which makes less sound than a window fan and doesn't bother us at all. On low it will maintain humidity on a normal day that is not too dry and you can barely hear it... very quiet. It came with absolutely no instructions, which was annoying, but a simple glance at the pdf on this listing showed how to get it started and where to place the filter, which is all you need to know. The fill situation is awkward and should have been designed better, but we are happy enough with the unit that we just deal with it. You have to be willing to pour the water in more slowly than you might like, but the way we see it is that people should be happy it requires so much water... that means it is doing its job :-) So overall, a simple workhorse of a unit in a relatively small footprint, with a simple appearance that blends in well with most decor, that simple does the job. I would buy another one if I have another room that needed it, rather than take a chance on buying something else.

The humidity in my condo (~1100 sq-ft) goes down to about 12% in the winter, so I need a whole-home humidifier. I used the Aircare D46 last year and it was just OK. Not powerful enough for my whole house, but it got things up in the 30% range which at least wasn't awful. Filling up the containers was annoying though, so I decided to get a larger and more powerful unit that I could fill easily. I ended up settling on this one. I've used it for about 2 weeks, so I now have a good idea of how well it works. First off, filling this thing is so much easier than my last unit. I just take a pitcher filled with tap water, and dump it in. It's that easy and makes me wish I had bought a "top-fill" unit ages ago. As for the speed settings, low (1) is pretty quiet and seems to be able to keep my humidity level at around 37% which is good for my place. I fill the water daily, but I believe it would last about 2 days before going empty on this setting. The 2nd setting is a little useless as it's quite loud, so you may as well use the the setting (3) which is a little louder, but barely and works better. I personally set the humidity to 45%, and it's able to keep up as long as I keep it filled with water. I'd say the full tank lasts about 24hrs on this setting. It does turn off once it hits 45%, but it doesn't turn off very often, so I think 45% is somewhat maxing out it's capabilities for my home. If I set it to 50% it would likely always stay on, and maybe go up to 47%-ish. Anyways, I have it on (3) when I'm not in the same room, and (1) when I am. My humidity level is always between a healthy 35-45% as a result, which I am happy with. Overall my only complain is that it's white and doesn't fit my decor at all. I can live with that as long as it keep working though.

Although I'm satisfied with this unit, it is made with the thinnest possible plastic and feels pretty cheap. It has 3 fan settings, the second of which operates at a frequency that makes the unit shake rattle and is, IMO, completely unusable. That's OK because we use it on the highest setting in a larger house with two HVAC units. We have it in an open staircase area so it circulates and supplements an HVAC mister set up in one unit. It has been unusually cold lately and in our setup, at high speed, this unit can only get its immediate area up to 30%. When it was a little warmer, we could hit 40%. Unfortunately, this makes so much noise on the high setting, that my wife turns it down at night, and it cannot keep up. This unit puts out a lot of water, so it's doing its job, and in fact as it runs all day it has to be refilled before the day is over in our setting. While relatively easy to fill, you have to turn the fan down to the lowest setting or completely off because it will blow water back in your face at the high setting. LOL. The fill opening is behind the grate where air blows out, and is shallow enough that using a bucket to fill means water splashes against the filter and the max fill line. I would rather pour water directly into the basin with a larger opening. We have also slipped and dumped water on the floor, so while acceptable, the fill could be a little better IMO. To sum up, in our setting which is asking it to humidify too large an area, it nevertheless puts out a lot of water per day, but requires the highest setting, which we consider very noisy. The lowest setting is whisper quiet but does not put out enough water for our use. Still, it's easy enough to use, and a pretty good value, hence the rating despite some criticisms.

Cet appareil est très efficace et fait exactement le travail qu'il doit faire. Simple d'utilisation. Il a un grand réservoir avec un filtre, une hélice avec un petit moteur et un contrôle électronique. Quoi de plus simple? Décembre 2018 Le 1er appareil a refusé de fonctionner quand je l'ai remis en marche l'automne suivant, 1 mois après la fin de la garantie. C'est le module électronique qui est défectueux et il ne se vend pas séparément. J'ai quand même acheté un 2e appareil parce qu'il a un grand réservoir de trois jours. J'espère qu'il durera plus d'une saison.

Wonderful product. Not perfect. Pros: - The reservoir is a good size. - The casters help... they don't move great on carpet, but with the reservoir size, it'd be hard to move it into place without the casters. - It is simple... I've had other humidifiers that were more aesthetically pleasing but which ended up drenching my floors due to over complicated designs. - It puts a good amount of water into the air. Naturally that's going to be based on your space, the airflow, the relative humidity its working against, etc. But for an evaporative humidifier, it does a good job. The cons: - Any setting except for the lowest one is loud. You can talk over the middle setting. The highest setting isn't conducive to conversation. - There are little plastic ridges on the inside of the reservoir that align the wick to form two compartments... There is the large air inflow compartment, then the smaller air outflow compartment. The wick sits in between these two compartments so that the maximum amount of air passes through it... thus increasing the efficiency of the humidifier. But the little plastic ridges that hold the wick in place are unnecessarily small. and as a result, on the highest setting, the air pressure can easily push them out of place. That lets a lot of air escape without passing through the wick. I'm providing some images to show the intended position and the position it can end up in when on the highest setting to demonstrate the air leakage. All in all, I think its a good product. I intend to get a couple bull clips to clip to the top of the wick housing, which should keep it in place.