MistAire Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier

I purchased a humidifier because the Northern air gets so dry, and then running heaters in the winter time, compounds the matter even worse. Did you know that experts have proven that, if the air gets too dry, you can get sick easier? I feel so much better when I humidify the air, I breath easier, and sleep easier as well. Plus, if the air gets too dry, you can also shock yourself on everything in your home, thats usually an indicator that your humidity is bellow 30%. I also purchased a humidity meter from the acurite brand, as I like to know where my humidity levels are at all times. Just for reference, if you can keep your humidity levels around 40% to 50% MAX, you will live happier. I have owned this humidifier for 2-years now, and I can tell you right now, that longevity is pretty good so far. I bought this for large rooms, so that I have the output if necessary. The resovoir holds up to 1-gallon of water, and its really easy to fill. Just lift the container off the base, flip it over, remove the fill cap, fill all the way up, replace cap, put container back down onto base. On the first use, you will see lots of bubbles, while the water fills up the base resovoir where the transducer is located, that creates the ultra sonic vaporization. This unit comes with two nozzles. The directional nozzle, and the 2-way nozzle. Use the directional nozzle when placing this unit near a wall, you obviously don't want to shoot water vapor into your wall. When used in an open space where there is at least 3 feet all around the unit, use the 2-way nozzle to get higher flow. Additionally, the on/off knob also controls the flow amount. Depending on how bad the humidity is, use 50% to 75% flow, for small rooms. For use in large rooms, maintain 100% flow unless water begins to form around the unit and surface it is on, then back off on the flow. This is why I highly recommend the use of a humidity meter. I like being able to know where my humidity is at all times. I do not want to exceed 50%, as it will get far too humid. But I also don't want to drop bellow 30%, and would rather keep it at a happy 40% medium. Its also nice having the meter cause in the summer time, we don't want humidity, so I can pay attention to what the humidity is doing, while I run the 2-AC units. Also, this unit has a LED light mode, up to three colors can be chosen, and can be turned on by pressing the touch sensor button, just above the flow control knob. I do wish that the max flow had a higher rate then it does, and a higher push into the air. However, for what it does do, I am pretty happy with it. This unit is also fairly easy to clean as well. I use filtered water from a Britta jug, so the deposits don't get too bad. If you use tap water, you will only breath disgusting water vapor, and will lesson the life of your unit, making cleaning more difficult. Using filtered water, I only really need to do a rinsing once a week, and a cleaning of the transducer, with the included brush. And a final cleaning with 1-cup distilled white vinegar with mostly water solution, before putting up for storage. Keep the unit clean and you should have no problems. I highly recommend it, 5-STARS! UPDATE Jan 7th 2019! I wanted to give everybody an update on how this humidifier is doing. It is now 3-years old, and it is still working! I know, hard to believe, when we know how quickly things die these days due to planned obsolescence. I have the humidifier running right now infact, as after the rains stopped again, the humidity went down to 34%, and I decided to start humidifying. The unit is still in pretty good condition, I do have some discoloration within the transducer area due to wear, I don't think much can be done about that besides a straight vinegar cleaning. Speaking of which, I have run a 1-cup vinegar to full tank of water in the tank to clean it out. I just let it sit for 30-minutes, and then cleaned it out. Now, if the deposits that form that yellow gooyness is really bad, the vinegar treatment will at least break it up to make it loose its bond, then you can fish a paper towel through inside the hole to clean off the bottom inside of the tank. Again I can't stress enough how important it is to use filtered water. Companies advertisements always lie to consumers making them think they can use tap water. Sure, but if your tap water is hard water like ours, it will dirty up your humidifier so darn fast, you'll be cleaning it every day! At least filtered water, such as that from a Britta jug container, will at least extend your cleaning times to once per week, and then at least 1 or 2 vinegar cleanings per year of use. Cleaning is important with this product for your health, as you want to breath clean moisture in the air, but don't cause yourself unnecessary labor by using tap water please. The humidifier is still able to push out its full power as it did in the first 2-years of use. One thing I've noticed over the years is, the colder the water is, the longer it takes to get going. We keep our Britta jug in the fridge, cause I don't like to drink room temperature water, and when the freshly cold water runs in the machine, it takes time for it to build up the moisture vapor till its going full strength. But this machine does a really good job in bringing up the humidity in the room. One of the things I like about it as well, is that its efficient on power consumption. Since were using a lot of electricity running space heaters, since its winter and all, I am grateful for the low consumption of the unit. Anytime you have a heating device, it uses a lot of power. Its just one of the reasons why I don't like steam based humidifiers, cause your running elements in there that draw a lot of power. And cold running humidifiers, use transducers, which generate ultrasonic vibrations, which vaporizes the water instead, while a onboard fan, pushes the vapor out. I still highly recommend this humidifier and I keep the rating at 5 out of 5!