SmilingBoognish wrote:My understanding of these types of humidifiers is that they should only be used for "the croup". For common colds and every day humidification, it is far better to use a something that heats the water up to get it into the air.

This humidifier has BOTH ultrasonic cool mist AND warm mist settings.
I typically use a cool mist in my house throughout the winter. The furnace tends to suck the moisture out of the air. Low humidity levels desicate me especially my lips and fingers. The cheapo 20$ one i have does an ok job of raising huumidity in my bedroom, but the fan is quite loud and the tank is quite small. Looking forward to the quite ultrasonic and use of silver to prevent microbe buildup. The warm mist is nice when you have a cold.

Amazon price for this one is 121.50 for a new one. At 50$ for a refurb, thats a really good deal.

This is my 1st home woot purchase....and 1st comment.

These work best with distilled water. And they are most useful as a sale item at the beginning of winter, not the end. Got hard water? You'll ruin it in a matter of weeks.

SmilingBoognish wrote:My understanding of these types of humidifiers is that they should only be used for "the croup". For common colds and every day humidification, it is far better to use a something that heats the water up to get it into the air.

Nope. Someone told you wrong. Dry air sucks up water, even from a towel. I use the cheap kind of humidfier that uses a rapidly spinning disk to "fracture" the water and spit it into the air, and I can watch it get absorbed before it ever reaches the ground on dry days.

lichme wrote:Especially useful for those who may be sick. Uses silver clean technology to prevent the growth of mold and bacteria in the water tank. By humidifying clean water, you provide a healthier breathing environment by not spreading germs and bacteria into the air.

A couple of drops of bleach in my cheapo model works very well.

Way back when in '09 I ordered 2 Venta-Sonic VS205 Ultrasonic Cool/Warm Humidifiers for $71 delivered from Woot. We use RO water and both are still going strong after a lot of use. I really believe it's the quality of the water that makes these things work. Ours get cleaned once a year at the end of the season (May). I might pick up 2 just in case needed but will test before storing away for future use.

Zwilrich wrote:I got one of these at Costco and it works well. Sometimes it's so quiet I can barely hear it; other times it makes a slight fan noise. My biggest gripe is that with the hard water here it leaves a layer of fine, white dust on everything.

I'm planning to buy one of the filters that is supposed to eliminate the dust, but I don't expect much from the filter. From what I can tell the filter attaches to the filler cap. They're $20 on Amazon.

t he filter is a carbon cartridge that absorbs the minerals from the water- the dust created by these is just minerals. It works pretty well, but you have to replace the cartridge/filter regularly since it's just activated charcoal.

I just ordered this product and will return the piece of crap vicksbmachine that I bought last week at walmart. Its already making all kinds of plastic on plastic jittering sounds that keep waking me up at night. I use reverse osmosis water in my humidifiers. I hardly ever have to clean any of them. Has anyone else used reverse osmosis water? If not, you should. It's the cleanest water that I've ever used.

Dear god the roomba's are evolving.

I paid just over $100 for this model a couple of years ago. It worked fine until I cleaned out the residue with vinegar water (which is USUALLY recommended for cleaning all humidifiers to remove the lime scale and usually works great), but after that, the output was pretty much nil.
I have to use a humidifier year round due to a health condition. I was excited when I first bought this one because it's so hard to find warm mist humidifiers any more. That cold mist by my head during the winter nights is chilly. However, the "warm" of the warm mist of this one barely has any heat at all.
And...last but not least, I really wish someone would come up with a top loading machine. It's a real pain to flip this over and try to fill it under the faucet night after night. The weight of it gets very heavy while holding it. And with ALL humidifiers, if you don't used distilled water and clean it regularly, it's going to shorten the life very quickly.

I bought one of these new from Costco for about twice the price of this refurb. In my opinion even that's a good price for this product. However, my first one went wrong in a matter of two weeks. My second one has worked like a champ for 2 winters, and is still going strong. Nice reservoir, great output, reasonably easy to clean. The only issue is that I'm not sure these should be relied upon to generate steam (ie, hot mist). When I read reviews on Amazon, many of the problems were reported by folks using the hot setting, rather than the cold one.

For those wanting a smaller version, the only model that I've found that comes close in quality is the sexily named Supentown SU-4010. That one has a much smaller reservoir and does not put as much water in the air, but otherwise is extremely similar.

is this an am/fm radio?

I was just about to buy this until I saw how many of the reviews on Amazon mention the new units breaking down and having to get a few replacements. With only a 90-day warranty that you have to pay shipping and on a product that seems to crap-out, I just can't fork over $50. Too bad...it seems like a good product when it works.

http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Guardian-H4500-Ultrasonic-Humidifier/dp/B00446IPB2/

Bought one of these last fall and within two months it was dead. I cleaned the little ultrasonic disc just as the instructions stated and it never worked again.

Here's a great tip: once a week put 4 teaspoons of lemon juice per gallon of water in your tank. This will deodorize your machine and room

FYI - If you have a Flexible Spending Account for healthcare expenses, you can use those funds to purchase a humidifier or vaporizer for medical purposes.

driekatten wrote:Buyer beware! I bought this the last time it was offered on Woot, for $50 plus shipping. Didn't try it out right away since I got it in May and didn't need a humidifier until later that year. Well, of course it never worked out of the box, and it was too late to return it or get money back since I had waited a couple months. Not sure if I got a bum one or what, but if you are going to buy this thing, try it out immediately!!

You should've contacted the company to get a replacement. I'm sure they would've been accomodating had you explained the situation.

from the picture, I thought it was a camera...I have nothing else to add

I scoured all the salvage stores in my area for these humidifiers. I had bought one that had worked great for a while then the "on" knob got loose and didn't work. I got a couple of 10k potentiometers from ebay and now they are great! First of all they work fabulously. I fill mine up every morning because it can put so much water into the air. I don't understand the complaining about how often you have to fill up the tank. That means it is working!! The design of the tank is wonderful- the curved edges let you fill it up in the sink instead of hauling it to the bathtub faucet. It is completely silent. Before, we used the evaporative fan ones and the noise was huge. I cannot tell you the difference this humidifier makes in my sleeping. I had a cracked nose membrane that would not heal for months. Within a day of using the humidifiers, it was gone. The "complaints" about this model are generic to all ultrasonic humidifiers. You DO have to maintain them but that is a small price to pay for the comfort of not having your nose bleed all day

I've had one for 2 years and love it, but filling up the water tank is not fun.

does it need a filter?

There are many colors of clean.
But when you need real clean, you need Silver Clean!


And that's how you know it works.

Oh, damn. I'm in the market for a humidifier. I live in Phoenix and man has it been dry. No amount of lotion is helping, lol.

I was actually going to head out tonight and see if I couldn't find one at Target, because I'm tired of waking up with a bloody nose.

But maybe I should go for this deal and deal a little longer. HMM!

SmilingBoognish wrote:My understanding of these types of humidifiers is that they should only be used for "the croup". For common colds and every day humidification, it is far better to use a something that heats the water up to get it into the air.

Ugh, but I live in Arizona and I don't need a heater, seriously. Warm humidifiers are useless in the summer time.

Now, this is what I call a quality post.

tesla33 wrote:I've got two of these, one bought as a Woot refurb, and the other bought new from Ebay. (The manufacturer also sells factory refurbs for about this price) The Woot version works fine except that whoever refurbed it used the wrong size O-ring in the cap (too big). It seals fine, but likes to fall into the tank whenever possible. The Ebay-new version had the green power light stop working for a week (it may have gotten wet) but it's fine again now.

Anyway, this is a great, very quiet humidifier, with an adjustment knob (but no humidistat) that lets you vary the mist from 'barely noticeable' to 'steaming like a tea kettle' (except with cold mist). You have to understand that *all* humidifiers require frequent cleaning, though. The silver in the tank seems to suppress mold and bacteria there (I just rinse it out when I refill it) fine, but the top of the base, which has the ultrasonic vibrating plate, has to be brushed (plate only) with the little plastic bristle brush they provide, and it needs to be rinsed and wiped with alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, or at least chlorinated water, almost every time it's refilled. This isn't at all unusual for humidifiers. If you have hard water you'll want to use a filter to reduce the mineral content of the water.

Long story short, this is about as good as they get, and this price is great, if not much better than the factory refurb. One can provide enough extra water in the air to keep a very large room comfortably humidified. Two keep our whole downstairs comfortable - no more bleeding noses or scratchy throats from too-dry air in Winter. We have never used the warm mist feature, so I can't comment on that. Run time is from 24 to about 72 hours, depending on the mist setting. If you fill the tank completely, it's a bit heavy, and a little tricky to mate the tank and base, but it does have handles that help a lot. The nozzle adjusts, with two openings (one large, one smaller) that can be independently moved to point in any direction.

These things are damned expensive new, so you might want to consider getting two.

I bought two of theses things from woot. Both of them gave up on me with in two months. One of them had a serious leaking issue. Do not go through what I went through with them. Just go buy brand new crane humidifier it works better.

I purchased a germ guardian humidifier(which is now pureguardian) through Woot.com a year ago. First one had water leak and second one they sent me again was blinking low water warning signal with full water tank.
I do not recommend this product.

If you use a water softener you Anvilania this, it will put out a salt spray that looks like dust all over your house. Distilled water is to expensive to use all winter.City water may work fine with no dust. It will turn your gas flames yellow or pink they do not tell you this on their web site, there should be a warning about the dust on the box. Mine will be in the next rummage sale.

jonbeazles wrote:I bought one of these at Costco new for $90. It worked great for a couple months, then all of a sudden it started leaking, lights died, and it made a ton more noise than it used to. Just returned it a few days ago.

I've had mine for about a year and it's still truck'n. I guess YMMV.

White dust EVERYWHERE. Run this little gem for a week and then try to figure out why the TV looks so dim!!! Funny, but this happened to me. I live in a hard water area and I'm not going to feed this thing $1/gal distilled water(My one little evaporative humidifier does 2gal/day). So at $2/day and say 100days/yr use =$200? Yikes!
I'm a huge believer in humidifiers--my asthma and bronchitis were my motivation.
That being said, these ultasonics have some advantages---no filters to buy, no noise, steady output. Pricey, though. And dusty, like I said, it'll dim your TV it's so bad. Not worth $200/yr of distilled water, but still an annoyance.
My favorites are the evaporative style---they're cheaper, no dust, simple, use tap water and are effective---they won't over-humidify, they'll only go to about 40-45%, then they just can't "push" any more water into the air. So no wet windows.
Downsides---They are fan-driven, so they are noisier---I run them on High for the day, then Low at night in my bedroom and they cover up a lot of outside car noise that would otherwise wake me, so it's kind of a positive. You have to replace filters every year, so that's an expense, maybe $10/yr each. I use a water treatment that extends filter life--$3/yr for the whole houseful(3).
Hope this helps.

This looks like an at-home variant of the microwave emitter from Batman Begins. Which also turns water to vapor.

Something to keep in mind when your pipes start kerploding.

It is worth keeping in mind the "hard water" comments. The dust that gets on everything is difficult to remove.

The sonic humidifier: The lesser of the sonic devices used by the Doctor. Offer me a sonic screwdriver, then we'll talk. Otherwise, my $9 clearance rack Target humidifier will do just fine.

Can I add oil scents to this?

To avoid the white dust... use filtered water. Most refrigerators with the water on the door also have an internal mineral filter... so it's an easy way to lessen the amount of white dust. I have an under-the-sink filter installed in my kitchen... and it also helps prevent that nasty scale from forming in my steam humidifier.

lrgillilanmartin wrote:Can I add oil scents to this?

Only if there's a medicine cup. Essential oils will eat into the plastic parts.

I bought one of these at Costco $90. Have tried different humidifiers and this is the best I have had.
Pros: quiet, got a night light switch, you can adjust the volume of mist, got warm & cold mist, advertises to be mold free (and i havent seen any build up in the last few months)
Con: When full, its heavy, but I picked this so I dont have to fill up everyday. A full tank realistically last about 40-50 hours.
Just got this steal :-)

Warranty question? The product site says this unit has a 3yr warranty. Does that apply to this deal?

We bought one of these from Costco this winter. Even on the lowest setting, it absolutely soaks anything near it. Not sure if ours is defective or what, but if it's sitting on the floor and you run it all night, the carpet will be soaked from the mist.

And it suffers from the ailment I hate most about electronics lately, stupid lights. The light on the buttons is ridic bright, so don't get it if you want to use it at night and like your room dark.

lrgillilanmartin wrote:Can I add oil scents to this?

Generally, for ultrasonic humidifier, the "warm" mist isn't at steam temperature. It would not disperse the scent as well as a thermal humidifier. I don't see a scent cup on this either.

That said, this is a GREAT deal. Ultrasonic humidifiers are quiet, effective, energy efficient and, I am surprised no one has mentioned, that the steam (actually "atomized" - turned into small droplets) is instant-on.

I use a high-end version of this, the Stadler Form Hera Humidifier, and it's such a huge improvement over the old thermal steam stuff. And if you look at the price, that's $199...this is 25% of that. Get it!

I bought one from Woot almost a year ago and it has worked flawlessly even though I've only cleaned it twice. I run it on full blast warm and refill it once a day. Refilling is extremely easy if you can carry 2.4 gallons of water.

Other than the skin/breathing reasons, it keeps my hardwood floors from contracting as much during the winter, which keeps the tiny strips of wood between the planks from drying out, cracking, and getting pulled out by my dog's nails.

Also good for keeping leather couches from drying out.

radi0j0hn wrote:These work best with distilled water. And they are most useful as a sale item at the beginning of winter, not the end. Got hard water? You'll ruin it in a matter of weeks.

I've had mine running constantly for nearly a year on hard water with no problems.