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List Price: $99.99
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I just got this unit (Vicks V790) from Amazon. (For several reasons, I greatly prefer the steam-type humidifiers over the cold-mist types.)
Pros It's attractive and well made. Twin independently-fillable water tanks mean you do not have to shut it off to refill it. Holds a lot of water so it does not go dry overnight. Makes a pleasant noise not unlike a drip coffee percolator. The UV lamp feature gives an additional level of sterilization, over and above the boiling action that creates the steam.
Cons The blue LED power light is indeed bright. I turned mine toward the wall, and now it also serves as a night light. (If it really bothers you, a small piece of electrical tape will cover it.)
(EDIT) Previously I complained here about lack of vapor output. But after running it for a few days, output greatly increased. Apparently there is a slight break-in period. Naturally, water usage increased also, as did the boiling noise, but now it's working like it should, and I have adequate RH (30%) even in my large (400 sq. ft.) room. Amazon does not allow me to change the rating, but if I could I would now give it 5 stars.
The replacement mineral absorber pads are the small 2-1/4 inch round size sold here on Amazon under the "Slant Fin" brand. (Don't get the larger 3-1/4 inch Honeywell ones, unless you like trimming to fit with scissors.) You replace the pad when it gets stiff. If you have hard water, this may happen quite frequently.
Remember that all humidifiers require regular maintenance. This is where many owners drop the ball. Every month or so you should put some vinegar in it to dissolve any mineral deposits, and sterilize the tanks with bleach water. The exact procedure is clearly spelled out in the manual. If you disregard this, you will be handsomely rewarded with hard mineral crusts and foul-smelling slimy deposits of algae and bacteria.
In conclusion, I really like this humidifier so far.
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My new house has gas heat and I found it really dried the place out. I was especially getting tired of the static electricity buildup due to the low humidity -I was getting zapped basically every time I walked somewhere and touched something.
I had no idea that shopping for a humidifier would be so hard. I learned a lot by browsing and reading reviews. I decided that what I wanted was:
* "Hot" humidifier -makes steam rather than spritzing cold water
* Quiet -gurgling ok, noisy fan not ok.
* Something that would let me set a humidity level and would turn off the unit once that level was reached (I wanted to avoid ever coming home to a tropical jungle atmosphere)
* Easy to refill
* Easy to clean
* Germ killing UV light
* Big enough tank to run for 10+ hours without a refill
* Ships from Amazon ($15 shipping from a 3rd party seller? no thanks)
This humidifier is the only one I found that matches ALL of the above criteria.
So far I'm really pleased with it. The unit has no real fan, just a little tiny one inside the middle, enough to make the steam gently waft out of the top. I'm not getting condensation on anything. It's a fine steam that seems to get soaked up readily by the dry air in my house before it can possibly condense on anything.
Refilling is easy. If you look at the picture of the unit, each of those blue sides is a separate tank. You can leave the unit running with one tank while you go refill the other tank. To fill the tank you turn it upside down, screw off the bottom cap, fill it up, screw the cap back on and flip it back onto the unit. I had no trouble at all with anything spilling and in fact there's no problem with taking off a half-full tank to top it off.
After running it overnight I had one tank near empty and the other over half full. I'm running 1 of these for an entire 3 story townhouse -I should really buy 1 or 2 more but with just this one running I'm already seeing a very noticeable reduction in static. Basically the floor its on (middle level) has no static issues anymore and the other two levels don't zap me as often or as hard!
If you put it in your bedroom you're going to want a nice piece of electrical tape or something for the super bright, blue power light. It does make a lovely night light for my living room, though. The gurgling noise I think I could sleep with.
The only way I would like this unit more is if it would tell me what the current humidity is.
Still, I think it's going to be hard to beat this humidifier.
(P.S., when shopping for replacement mineral absorption pads, pay close attention to shipping costs. Some of the ones shipped by 3rd parties on Amazon have ridiculous shipping charges. Find the ones that Amazon sells directly instead. Size does not have to be exact. The pad just sort of floats around in the boiling chamber.)
(P.P.S., the unit does not tell you what the humidity is, which is a shame, but it does have a dial to control how humid it will get. This works for me: turn the unit on and let it run for an hour or so with the dial all the way "on". After its settled in and bubbling nicely, turn the dial slowly left until you hear it go 'click' -that's the current humidity level, which will probably be pretty low if you needed a humidifier! That dial is like a thermostat. If you keep the dial right around where it went "click", it will try to maintain the current humidity level. Turn it up and it will try to reach the new goal. If you put it into a smallish area (like a single room) it should have no trouble reaching a level and keeping it there and at that point it won't go through so much water. If you put it into a big area (like a living room in an open house) it'll probably run constantly trying to reach the desired humidity and you'll need to refill it about once a day. I've got the dial at about 1/3rd on and that at least kills the static in my house. In other news, I just took it out of storage for a second winter and it's up and running just fine again. I'm highly tempted to buy a second one... one for my bedroom and one for the living room...)
Best Deals for Vicks UV 99.999% Germ Free Humidifier
After buying two other humidifiers and throwing them away we finally bought this model last year and are very happy with it. The main feature we hated about the other models were Noise and the filters. This model is nice and quiet, it has a low humming sound and a gurgling sound that actually is very tolerable, and maybe even soothing. Our two year old doesn't mind it at all, he sleeps better with it I think. Another advantage of the warm steam is that it keeps my sons room nice and warm and he needs that since he kicks off his blanket most of the time. The warm steam might be a disadvantage for people living in warm dry climate but it works great for northwest winters.
Although this unit does not have a filter a mineral pad comes with it and is recommended to remove minerals from the water if you use tap water. You can't find the pad in most retail stores but can buy it here on Amazon.
Also it has a Ultraviolet Light bulb (great Feature) and after a year of use the Ultraviolet light finally went out and again I bought it here on Amazon. The unit is fairly maintenance free, you should clean it often but its not too bad.
Another great feature is the two water chambers, they hold enough water for the overnight operation so you don't have to worry about running out of water in the middle of the night.
Overall this is the best humidifier that we have owned and I do recommend it.
Honest reviews on Vicks UV 99.999% Germ Free Humidifier
Due to both health and profession (singers in the house) we have had humidifiers for several years blasting in the cold winters. We quickly found that cold mist humidifiers, or even warm mist humidifiers without an UV germ killing light, produced more coughs and upper respiratory track problems than they solved. We moved then to Slant Finn UV light humidifiers, which solved our health and voice problems, and ran many of these to the ground -the average lifetime of the SlantFinns was about two seasons without problems, a third if we got lucky...
The Vicks UV humidifiers are a tad quieter than the SlantFinn (some of which had a fan to move the water vapor faster), but the Vicks humidifier is not exceedingly quiet. Their loudness is typical of other boil humidifiers and yes, on occasion, the water and pads, or water and chaos theory can get just so that the humidifiers will be loud. Yet, the next day or even hour, they can quiet down. I am sure it depends on the person, but we find the bubbling of the humidifiers soothing...
So far, our original Vicks has run very well after ten weeks of continuous daily use, and I have gotten another one which has performed exactly as the first. The best thing is that the Vicks use a floater with a lever to tell the unit whether water is present, or whether they are running dry... The SlantFinns used an electrode and the electrode became flaky and partially dissolved after one season or two, and by season three would be gone and rendering an otherwise fine unit inoperable.
Relating to other reports, in our experience, placing the humidifiers in a table or floor has been level enough.
We do find that the humidifier knob / setting even 3/4s of the way might shut the humidifier at low humidity levels (45-50%, we like 5560%) but turning the knob all the way has resulted in non-stop operation that we like. (The unit might or might not have a hygrometer controlling the power cycle, though functionally we have seen no difference to the SlantFinns which advertised a hygrometer control)
Another good thing is that the water reservoirs are not too heavy, nor too tall and fit our kitchen sink and faucets. At continuous use, full power, each water reservoir lasts about nine hours, so the two give you about 18 hours in our experience. This is less than the advertised 24 hours, but then again, we run them at the max humidity setting.
The units' mist does smell like plastic for a few days after the units were new, but this was minimal and perceivable only by sticking our noses two inches from the grate.
As in many other consumer appliances which have fallen for blue LED indicators, the LEDs are blindingly bright for night use and it is necessary to tape a piece of cardboard over the LED and even then, there is plenty of brightness in the room.
As far as the UV light, you can see some of the visible light portion emanating from the UV bulb in nooks and crannies of the unit, but so far have had no eye problems but then again we do not stare at it and the amounts are minimal. The light, between violet and blue, is actually quite nice in color. Our experience with the Slant Finns is that the UV light along with the heat from the unit's bottom might mar fine furniture finishes over a winter, so a protective material is a good idea.
We find that we do not need to clean them too often, that the Teflon covered boil chamber works seems to keep salt deposits in control --but not perfectly by any means.
I have bought a second unit, and have been equally pleased... So far no problem with leaks, though some (not Vicks) humidifiers we have had did end up their lives in a puddle, but I have to say we ignored signs of problems (small salt water traces indicating small leaks) prior to larger leaks.
*** Season 2009 2010 Update ***
Units worked flawlessly and so far so good... Did acquire a third to fully humidify our space. No leaks, no need to replace the UV lights yet. Humidifers can occasionally boil dry if not cleaned every ten days or so.
*** Season 2010 2011 Update ***
One of the two units needs its UV lamp replaced. Got an economical replacement lamp at eBay (matching the bulb type printed in the bulb I am replacing) but the new UV lamp did not power up, so I will have to get one from Vicks. All units still going strong. No leaks yet.
*** Season 2011 2012 Update ***
Three units going strong. Replaced two UV bulbs. One of those replacements was a swap of an original burnt bulb with a new Eiko GTL3 UV light (bought from Amazon from seller Victoria Supply). This Eiko GTL3 light worked, while a previous attempt at replacing it with a similarly stamped GTL3 UV light from eBay had not worked. For the second replacement, I had an older but unused GTL3 light for my long time ago demised Slant-Finn. That worked too! No leaks yet. Winter started earlier so might get a fourth unit. It has become harder to raise humidity over 40% as winter started early!!!
*** End of Season 2011 2012 Additional Update ***
The oldest unit died. No symptoms at all before failure... When it failed, no lights turned on, no fan stirred. No leaks. The UV bulb, which was replaced once, seemed OK, so I extracted it and is waiting its turn to run its life in a different unit. Hence, we can estimate that the lifespan of each unit is about three winters of daily use. I actually bought a replacement unit and it is going strong... So, two older units going, and a new one has joined the club. The elder unit alas, has gone to humidifier heaven after three seasons of service.
*** End of Season 2012 2013 ***
I updated my review on Jan... Something happened and never made it... Here it is.
Of the two units running, all two still run. However, the older unit can no longer power up its UV bulb... The bulb is OK. I tried a new one, and I tried the old one in the other unit and all is fine in the other unit, no UV light on the afflicted unit. Still, steam performance is great and there is no leakage.
So, in my case, with daily always on usage during Winter, I get about three seasons without problems. The fourth season was too much for one unit, and too much for the UV for the other unit. Still, I continue to be pleased with how well these humidifiers perform, given the large amount of usage.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Vicks UV 99.999% Germ Free Humidifier
Like Honeywell warm mist humidifiers, this humidifier is actually made by Kaz and simply branded by Vicks. (Does anybody besides Kaz make warm mist humidifiers?) This isn't necessarily a bad thing; Kaz makes some good humidifiers.
However, this particular humidifier gets such a low rating (and inspires my first rating ever, for that matter) for one critical reason:
WARNING: This humidifier must be ABSOLUTELY LEVEL (even a 1-degree tilt is too much) or else it will boil itself dry and never shut off. This could pose a fire hazard, and I had to return the unit for this reason. See "PLACEMENT" below for more.
I wanted to like this humidifier, so if the above isn't a worry for you (or for more details on the problem), please read on:
OPERATION:
* There's no hygrometer (humidity meter) on the unit. There's just a dial that seems to range from "never turn on" to "always boil". I have no idea whether the hygrometers on other humidifiers are even remotely accurate (especially since they're right next to a source of humidity), so this might not practically be a downside, but it's worth mentioning. I missed having one. (It's clear from the pictures that it doesn't have one, I just didn't notice until it arrived.)
* It doesn't seem to put out much steam, compared to other humidifiers I've used. It's nice to claim that you don't need to refill it more than every 24 hours, but that just means you're putting out less than 4 gal/day. In contrast, our old humidifier (also 4 gallon capacity) could put out over 8 gal/day.
* It does look easy to clean, and it's certainly easy to disassemble, but I haven't had it long enough to determine whether it really is easy to clean. I suspect the deep cylinder of the heating element will be harder to clean than humidifiers that just have a flat heading element.
* As others have mentioned, the "ON" light is blindingly bright. I knew this when I bought it, so I just put some electrical tape over it. It's also behind a translucent bezel, so you'll probably want to cover a bit of the bezel as well. Note that the "refill" light is not nearly as bright, so you don't need to cover it.
* Being a warm mist humidifier, it's relatively expensive to operate, but it doesn't have the white residue that ultrasonic humidifiers have, and boiling the water has some antibacterial benefits.
VERDICT: It puts out steam, but lacks most of the bells and whistles and attention to detail you'd expect for the price. I suspect you're paying for the UV lamp and for the Vicks name (though, again, it's actually Kaz).
UV LIGHT:
* Using a UV lamp to kill bacteria seems like a potential plus, but I'm somewhat skeptical that it actually provides any benefit beyond the boiling that all warm mist humidifiers do.
* It's yet another consumable replaceable part (though it's supposed to last about a year, and the humidifier will work when it's burned out).
* Despite the lamp cover (and warnings not to look at the lamp), there are still a few places where the UV light is visible while in operation: (1) if you pick up the right tank, the hole which leads to the UV lamp has a blue glow, hopefully attenuated; (2) the lamp is visible from underneath the humidifier, so if you have this on a table top, you might be enjoying a little more UV light in your eyes than you intended.
VERDICT: Seems like a gimmick that introduces a lot of problems. Not really worth the trouble and potential risk.
NOISE:
* The boiling is very quiet.
* As Shane's review observed (sadly, after I bought this), there's a fan that's always on. I presume the fan is required to cool the UV lamp (another strike against the UV lamp), since it's on even when the humidifier isn't boiling water. Thankfully, the fan is quieter than the large fans in filter/wick-based humidifiers, but it is louder than the boiling. So while the unit is quieter than filter-based humidifiers, it's loud for a warm mist humidifier.
VERDICT: This very nearly made me return the unit immediately, as it was unexpected. I much prefer the silence of our old humidifier.
TANKS:
* The use of 2 tanks makes each tank lighter than a larger single tank. This is an improvement over other humidifiers we've used, where I was the only person who could lug the full tank from the bathtub to the humidifier. Also, the handles are very comfortable. The down side of 2 tanks, of course, is that you fill them twice as often. A worthwhile trade in our case.
* The seal around the caps of the tanks was the best I've encountered in a humidifier. When screwing them closed, they turned easily and distinctly stopped turning when they were fully tightened, and at that point there was no leaking. It's possible that this would cause a problem over time (as the rubber seal gets compressed and you can't tighten the cap further), but in my brief use of the humidifier I was impressed. Most other humidifiers require really cranking the caps down to keep them from leaking.
* The tanks were a little too tall to fill in our bathroom sink, which was a little surprising. That wasn't an inherent problem, as we're accustomed to filling our humidifier tanks in the bathtub. However:
* The tank openings are smaller than on other humidifiers I've used. On the plus side, that means it's easier for small hands to screw them shut. On the minus side, it makes filling the tanks in a bathtub much harder. You either need to hold the tanks as you fill them (which get heavier as they fill), or you have to spend some time moving them around to just the right position if you put them on the tub floor. And if you turn the water pressure up or down at all, it'll probably miss the hole until you reposition them. On the plus side, the top of the tanks is flat, making them easy to put on the tub floor.
* The tanks have completely flat bottoms (apart from the cap), which causes residual steam to condense on the bottom of them. That means that any time you pick them up, you'll drip water everywhere (as others have noted). Other humidifiers I've used had curved bottoms, so that any condensation rolled down towards the cap and into the reservoir.
VERDICT: This is a draw. Having 2 tanks was nice, but dripping condensation everywhere was annoying. We had to keep a towel next to the humidifier.
PLACEMENT:
* As mentioned above, the humidifier must be ABSOLUTELY LEVEL. The manual does specify placing the humidifier on a "firm, flat, level surface" in multiple places, but who would expect less than 1 degree margin of error? I had to get out a bubble level to even perceive the slight incline. (And I measured it with a protractor.)
* Due to what I consider a major design flaw, if the humidifier is as little as 1 degree tilted forward, it will not shut off when the tanks are empty, and will instead boil dry. Compounding this flaw is that the humidifier does not have a temperature-based shutoff when it runs dry. It just keeps heating (and cooking the mineral absorption pad). I don't know whether it will keep heating until the pad catches on fire, but I don't intend to find out.
* It's nearly impossible to tell when the humidifier has boiled dry, because there's still water in the reservoir below the tanks, and because you can still feel heat rising from the top vent. (There's even still water above the little hole leading to the UV lamp!) And because this unit never puts out visible steam, and because the always-on fan is louder than the boiling, it's hard to tell that boiling has stopped. You have to disassemble the unit to see that the heating element has boiled dry -but be careful, the cone is hot to the touch if you haven't waited the prescribed 15 minutes.
* The problem with a slight incline is primarily due to the use of a float switch to determine when the tanks are empty. In theory, this should be an improvement over other humidifiers that simply use an overheating sensor to determine that there's no more water and/or they need cleaning (thus confusing the issue). However, the float switch in this humidifier is placed too far from the water inlet leading to the heating element (it's on the opposite corner, in fact). Thus the inlet can run dry while there's still water lifting the float switch.
* Worse still, the manufacturer seems to have decided that the use of the float switch eliminates the need for an overheating sensor. As a result, when the heating element runs dry, there's nothing to shut it off.
* Because the path of the water from the reservoir past the UV lamp to the heating element is so complicated, even a 1-degree forward incline can cause the heating element to boil dry, but the reservoir (including the inlet to the UV lamp) to appear full.
* I tested other inclines (perfectly level, 1 degree in other directions), and they don't have this problem. It's only 1 degree tilted forward (tested multiple times) that's a problem.
VERDICT: The potential for catastrophic failure when only 1 degree off-level renders this humidifier unacceptable for my use. I don't want it in my house. I did check, and the box has a UL mark on it, so maybe there's a fuse somewhere that will burn out before the flames start, but I don't want to find out the hard way.
FINAL VERDICT:
* For me, the problems with boiling dry made this humidifier unacceptable.
* Apart from that, it seemed a capable though unremarkable humidifier. I'm not sure it's worth the price premium for the "99.999% Germ Free" label given that boiling kills most germs anyway.
* Does anybody make a truly good warm mist humidifier?
