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List Price: $162.65
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I purchased this humidifier for a library, which is primarily dark woods and the white 821-000 model which is a very good unit stood out like a sore thumb. Fortunately, both units take the #1043 replacement wick. The pictures I saw of the product depict a rather rich looking appearance, but in the flesh its not so impressive. The fill level is somewhat confusing. Its a 1" plate saying max fill. Fill to the bottom/middle/top of the plate? Nothing in the manual on the subject. Filling it is a pain with a little door that makes pouring in water a precision operation to avoid spills. In addition, I needed a flashlight to see the water level to prevent overfilling. I have 2 of the 821-000 models and they are much easier to use. They should make a dark colored version of it where white is not a good option. I have also found that filling the units with filtered water greatly extends filter life and efficiency. Otherwise, if the water used has a high mineral content it will turn the filter into a cinder block in short order.
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It is plastic, but it looks good, and is much better looking than competitive models. It is also very quiet on the 1 setting, and puts out a lot of moisture and the 9 setting, and can be set anywhere in between.
the major drawback is that there is no way to tell how much water is in the reservoir. The unit holds 3.5 gallons, so when it is empty, I add 3 gallons. I have to wait until it is empty to fill it (which can happen anytime) when I am not around, there is no easy way to top it off in the evening.
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Reading the reviews of this product, I was hesitant to purchase it, but comparing the other humidifiers on this site, I couldn't find one that was any better. That being said, I was afraid to buy it on line in case it needed to be returned so I purchased it locally. A couple of comments regarding it performance:
Noise: Sounds like a pedestal fan, or box fan, really not that big of a deal for us. After a couple hours you forget that its actualy there. There are about 10 fan levels, you realy don't need that many, but it is nice to turn it down, if your listening to a movie, and then pump it up when you need the extra moisture.
Filling the tank: The one feature I really like is that you just pop open a small door, and using a pitcher, fill it up, it holds 3 gallons. With our wood stove running non stop, and the humidifier set on medium to high fan level, we go through about 3 gallons every 24 hours, and it keeps the main living floor at 45 to 50 percent humidity.
The unit keeps our 1700 sqft, 2 story house comfortable, we keep it by the stairs, so that the natural draft distributes the mositur evenly.
One complaint, I wish it had a water level window, you don't know its full untill water is running on the floor, so we just put a gallon in it in the morning, and one at night, or just wait till it runs out completly.
The remote control is usefull, but not nessecary. It is nice to see the humidity is on the other side of the room, not just right at the machine.
The tile top is extremely fragile, be carefull.
The plastic consol is just that plastic, not bad, but not great, though since it is a pedestal, it is not very obtrusive.
We;ve been running it for 2 months now on well water and np problems, the wick still works and it does a good job. The concept is simple, a fan blowing across a large wick, like an auto air filter. Its not flashy, but it does it job.
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This unit looks nice and that is where the value ends. The door in the front pulls down for you to fill the unit, unfortunetly there is no gauge as to how much water is needed. Fill it to high and the unit overflows, and stops working. The only way to determine how much water is needed is to take teh full lid off. In addittion witht he way the fill door is set, there is a high probablility the water will spill out as you lift the fill container (one you use) higher. Looks nice and that is it.
Now the unit I do recomend for one from the same company that is easy to fill and runs for a long time is the Essick Air 4D7 300 Whole-House Console-Style Evaporative Humidifier. I purchased both of them and this one is much easier to work with. It has two large fill tanks that last a long time (depending on how dry your place is) comes with a hose that mkaes it easy till fill, water is in sealed container as you move it from fill source to unit. Bigger and not as nice looking at the EP9500 but a better choice.
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This humidifier is a good size if you're looking for a whole house humidifier with a small footprint. It appears to have a woodgrain look in the photos, but it doesn't. It's just brown plastic...really cheap looking brown plastic. Having said that, it is slightly more attractive than the gray plastic humidifiers and does blend in a little better than one of those. The granite tile for the top is an actual (relatively thick) granite tile, which was surprising to me. Honestly, I think it makes the plastic look even cheaper by comparison though. I do give them props for putting it on rolling casters. It's really easy to shove into a closet if you're having company and don't want to look at an ugly appliance.
I've only had this for about a week now, but it seems to do the job fairly well. The air doesn't seem quite as chilly since I've been humidifying it; which is why I wanted a large humidifier. You can set the desired humidity and the system will turn itself on and off to maintain that. You can also adjust the fan speed at 9 levels. It is fairly loud even at the lowest speed, but not overly distracting.
EDIT 1-21-2012: The humidity sensor on this thing is useless. Sometimes it will come on for about 10 seconds, then shut off and do that continually. It loses a star for that as this feature doesn't seem to work correctly. I just turn it all the way up when I want to humidify and off when I don't.
Others have commented on the fill door being useless and I have to agree. You can use it, but unless you take the top piece off, there is absolutely no way of knowing how full the tank is. I find it easier to just open it up to fill it rather than guess and risk an overflow. The top piece pulls right off, so this isn't much of a hardship.
I keep my reviews up to date and will share additional comments, good or bad, if my experience with this appliance changes.
