I own this model, and use it to humidify a small room. I sympathize with the author's complaints with respect to the difficulty of cleaning it, though mine just doesn't need cleaning very often. And the wick DOES get moldy if you let it sit in wet water for weeks on end.
But her other complaints puzzle me:
I don't find it to be messy to refill. What is she doing wrong?
It's even more baffling that she thinks it "doesn't work". I mean, she refills the tank every night, so we know the water is disappearing from the tank... where does she think the water is going? Isn't that proof enough that it does, in fact work?
A teaspoon- of bleach or so for 3 gallons of water will solve your mold issue quite handily, even while sitting. It's not enough to smell even when the humidifier is running at full blast. Just enough to kill bacteria and mold.
I'm repeating this advice a lot in this thread, it surprises me it's not better known.
Is that too much bleach though? I do just a few drops in my ~1 gallon humidifier that works continuously in my clone room and it stays clean and even keeps the Serratia bacteria that make the pink stuff in the reservoir at bay. I do use reverse osmosis water to fill it though.
Is breathing that much aerosolized chlorine a concern?
A calculator I use is here. Tap water is about 2 ppm.
I hasn’t been an issue, but I am careful to not overdo it. I have overdone it once with a cool mist humidifier, and it was definitely noticeably uncomfortable. I replaced the water quite quickly.
How are you sure it's not a boiling the frog scenario then? You might be "comfortable", but internal damage over long term can be taking place until it gets to a tipping point. I'm just weary of ingesting / inhaling anything foreign over long periods of time regularly.
The problem isn't so much the wick itself but the concentration increase of salts over time as water-soluble chemicals are introduced at seemingly small levels each time. I suppose with proper monitoring it can be managed, but doesn't seem like the ticket in a non-flushing system.
I have this model, and I thought the refill comment was funny too. She's carrying it with the opening pointed down, cap screwed on, but the cap must be leaking. My cap doesn't leak, but I carry mine with the opening up.... so it doesn't matter if the cap leaks. I leave the reservoir open, sitting on my counter each morning so that it dries out, and i run the fan on the unit for a while to dry out the filter (so it doesn't mold). My unit doesn't get dirty, but I don't have dogs.
I have one of these too. I was baffled by many parts of the commentary. There's obviously a huge range of fastidiousness / standard for cleanliness in people but I have literally never felt the urge to try and pry off the grille to get at the fan blades etc.
And unless there's some kind of catastrophic failure of the gasket on the lid, you're really talking about a few drops of water leaking out, at most, if you carry it by the handle.
I just bought a (different) honeywell humidifier. so far it works, but not as well as I expected. I hoped it would be able to maintain a somewhat stable humidity for the sake of my guitars, but it can't really keep up with the desiccating power of my central heat. I wonder if part of the issue here is mismatched expectations with evaporative humidifiers?
I went through early parts of my life thinking little humidifiers were doing something and not until I got a relative humidity meter did I see how little they do unless you either a.) have a very big humidifier or b.) a very small sealed room. One of those "I'm sick" humidifiers can be going full blast and not budge the RH right nearby.
If you have a central HVAC and valuable things that are sensitive to humidity you really need a whole-house humidifier. A bunch of manufacturers make them, I have the Aprilaire 400 ($741 professionally installed in 2016), you can see all their products here: https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/humidifier
I think the problem is your humidifier needs to be able to keep up with the rate of air turnover in your house.
If your humidifier can't push a 1/4 gallon an hour it's probably not doing that much.
I think the wick type humidifiers likely suck because at low humidity the dew point is really low, the wick gets cold and the water doesn't can't evaporate very fast.
I have never seen relative humidity budge more than a few percent using any portable humidifer. Sitting at 10% here, hard cases with humidity packs is the only way I can keep acoustics in one piece, though as a result I hardly ever play them anymore.
>though mine just doesn't need cleaning very often.
Do you have carpet where you use it and do you have pets?
From fairly limited observation on computer fans, those two factors make a huge difference in how messy fans will get. Apartment with hardwood floors, air duster once a year is fine. Apartment with carpet, monthly minimum still leaves the fans gunked up.
Algicide also works. Benzalkonium chloride. You can get it as a 60% solution as a pool chemical and that will last forever. I use like 0.005% iirc. I make a 1% stock and dose that in, but I haven't used a humidifier in a while (prolly should)
I was confused by that complaint about it not working too. If the water disappearing isn't enough to confirm it then a hygrometer certainly would do the trick.
But her other complaints puzzle me:
I don't find it to be messy to refill. What is she doing wrong?
It's even more baffling that she thinks it "doesn't work". I mean, she refills the tank every night, so we know the water is disappearing from the tank... where does she think the water is going? Isn't that proof enough that it does, in fact work?