Buy Optimus U-32000 2.5 Gallon Warm Mist Humidifier with Wicking Vapor

Customer Ratings:

I bought this humidifier to replace an old humidifier in our bedroom. This one is nice and compact for a 2.5 gallon model and is very quite compared to other humidifiers. My favorite feature is how long the water lasts. On high the humidifier easily runs the entire night and on low the humidifier runs from when we go to bed until lunch without needing a refill.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I previously had a Sears model and chose this because it was the original supplier. It has all of the features I liked from the earlier Sears: overnight capacity, nice water handling, and quiet operation.

Alas, it has the one real pain I did not like about the Sears the finicky safety switch. This exists on the side of the unit to detect the presence of the water tank before engaging the humidification power. However, one typically has to keep fidgeting with the tank to get the switch to work. On the Sears unit I got so frustrated I simply wired it out of operation.

My old Sears suffered a cracked base and started leaking but only after many hours of service, so I'm willing to give this unit a chance (plus I had leftover filters...). Take the manual's advice and only use distilled water. Mineral buildup can be a real problem to keep at bay if you use tap water.

Best Deals for Optimus U-32000 2.5 Gallon Warm Mist Humidifier with Wicking Vapor

So far so good. Humidity on a cheap barometer goes from under 20% to about 50% on high for awhile. Helping me sleep immensely. Had to put it on a flat surface for it to work, fills extremely easily. Also seems to warm room quite a bit but might be a comfort level thing.

Honest reviews on Optimus U-32000 2.5 Gallon Warm Mist Humidifier with Wicking Vapor

I didn't know anything about humidifiers or what the big deal was. My 5 year old has had trouble with coughing at night for quite some time, but recently it got to the point where she coughed so violently that she vomited. This happened on two different occasions a week apart, so we headed to the allergist (she is allergic to house dust or dust mites more likely). The allergist told us that a humidifier would "probably help." Now we use an inhaler every night, and run the humidifier on high all night in her room. On just the first night she slept 4 hours past when she usually wakes up coughing. I didn't mean to test it, but tonight something happened with the water properly filling the bottom section, so it didn't start humidifying... sure enough, at 1am she woke up hacking, asking for a bowl. A simple removal and re-set of the tank and the humidifier was going again, and she's fast asleep.

It runs quietly. Tank is easy to fill, and can run on high for a good 10-12 hours.

The only thing I'm not crazy about is the "Wicking Vapor System" ... basically there's a little felted sleeve that fits over the heating element to catch the minerals and gross stuff in the water I guess. You're supposed to rinse the sleeve every time you use it, but even so, mineral deposit builds up around the top of the heating element. I'm using filtered water, and the sleeve is still caked with brownish mineral deposit that you're supposed to rub away with your fingers under running water. Just kind of gross, and a little more maintenance than I expected. I guess it's nice to know that junk isn't in the air though.

UPDATE: The sleeves are available in a 3 pack for $15 here on Amazon. I used 1 sleeve for 3 months, running humidifier daily with filtered water, before replacing. I also manually chipped the mineral deposit off the heating element unplugged of course but it was super thick in places, like 1/4 1/2" thick. I can't imagine it really functioning properly over time if those deposits are not removed.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Optimus U-32000 2.5 Gallon Warm Mist Humidifier with Wicking Vapor

The humidifier works fine and is easy to take apart and put back together. The tank and base are easy to clean, but not the main unit. THe heating element gets encrusted with junk. I empty the unit and clean the filter pad which encases the heating element but the element itself get encrusted. The instructions say to use distilled water but this would be prohibitively expensive as the thing is on all the time.