Monday, February 3, 2014

Buy Bionaire BDQ01-UC Mini Dehumidifier

Bionaire BDQ01-UC Mini Dehumidifier
Customer Ratings: 3.5 stars
List Price: $49.99
Sale Price: $45.99
Today's Bonus: 8% Off
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This dehumidifier works quite well in small spaces (as designed). I've been using it in a larger bedroom with significant reduction in the humidity. Noise level is less than a window ac unit. There are no frills. Just on or off. Good product overall.

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I bought this dehumidifier yesterday and in less than 12 hours it has collected about an inch of water. I used before products that use some crystal balls to absorbed water and these crystal balls get dissolved so you don't know how much is water and how much is the crystal balls. With this product I know this water is all from the room. It is pretty quiet and the price is not bad at all. I am planning on buying additional ones for the other rooms in the house since I live in a very humid city in Cartagena, Colombia.

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I bought this dehumidifier for my small bathroom. I live in upstate NY and the summers can be very humid. I've had this unit for a few weeks and the humidity has been moderate. Thus far, it has pulled some water out of the air not a tidal wave, but enough so that I notice the difference. In fact, I hand washed some clothes yesterday and hung them over the shower curtain rod to dry usually this process would not be complete for at least 1/2 day, but within 3 hours, my clothes were dry! I was impressed.

The unit is bare bones just off and on. It's nice to look at and is reasonably quiet the sound of the toilet tank refilling after a flush is enough to drown out the sound. As another review noted, the cord is long, but it has this transformer thing about 1/2 way, which is annoying, but not enough so for me to give send it back. The maximum capacity is about 300 ml (just over a cup) in 24 hours, and the "bucket" holds 2 or 3 times that, so it will probably take a week or more to fill up at the rate it pulls humidity out of the air.

So if you're looking for a mini dehumidifier, for a mini space, at a mini price, this one is a good choice. I have a large dehumidifier in my basement, and that serves a very different purpose and dries out a much larger and more humid space. This small unit just makes my bathroom feeling less humid in the summer, so that when I come out of the shower, I'm not hit with heavy humid air. I think that it would probably work well in a closet too, but certainly not in a larger space.

I'm very happy with my purchase!

Honest reviews on Bionaire BDQ01-UC Mini Dehumidifier

Between 55 and 62% humidity, it took six weeks for this tiny thing to fill. What really chaps my hide is that the power converter in the middle of the cord measures about 3"x4.5"x7", which totally negates the compactness of the unit for me, and pretty much defeats the purpose of the long cord. It's two units to think about when placing it it in the tight spaces for which it's purposed. In short, it's ineffective, and much bigger than I expected.

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I bought this for a small bathroom that's exposed to the outside through a venting pipe through the roof but otherwise has no ventilation in response to a buildup of mold. Since cleaning the bathroom (again) and turning on this dehumidifier after each shower, the mold has finally stopped returning.

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Sunday, February 2, 2014

Reviews of NewAir AU-400 NewAir Ultrasonic Humidifier

NewAir AU-400 NewAir Ultrasonic Humidifier
Customer Ratings: 4 stars
List Price: $89.95
Sale Price: Price Unavailable
Today's Bonus: 44% Off
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This unit is pretty decent. It works well, it's virtually silent, and as soon as you turn it on you'll see a big plume of vapor rising from it. It really does noticeably help during dry periods.

There are some downsides:

* The blue light is not UV, there is nothing to kill bacteria so you should change the water often

* The fountain of vapor, although blown upwards by an internal fan, will fall around the base of the unit. I've never really had any problem with water collecting, but still, don't stand the unit on a material that might harbor mold or be sensitive to moisture.

* There is no timer or automatic shut-off if the humidity gets too high, so unfortunately you can't really feel comfortable going to sleep with it on.

All in all it does its job well for the price. Unfortunately my unit after only light periodical use has started having some problems. Particularly, the materials around the "energy exchanger", which is essentially the part that produces the ultrasonics, seem to be warping and deteriorating. Nevertheless, it's still working for now. I don't rate it down too harshly for this because after reading most of the other reviews for humidifiers of any kind on Amazon it does seem that no matter what kind you buy they all need regular maintenance and they'll all degrade over time in one way or another. At this price point I figure I can afford to buy a new one each year if I have to without hurting my wallet too harshly.

My biggest gripe is with Air & Water, who at the time I purchased charged an extortionate amount (about half the price of the unit!) for what turned out to be 2 day shipping. That left a very sour taste in my mouth. Moral of the story: if you need the unit fast check what kind of shipping you're actually paying for "expedited" might not be as fast as the cost leads you to believe.

-----

Update:

I'd actually like to warn everyone out there about ultrasonic humidifiers. I've recently discovered that they kick out *huge* amounts of fine particle pollution into the air. I discovered this after my air purifier went nuts every time this humidifier was running. Sure enough, when I whipped out my green laser pen I could see zillions of fine particles flying through the beam every time this humidifier was running. I switched to a warm mist humidifier (which boils/evaporates water) and have no such problem.

Upon further research I found science articles stating that ultrasonics can inject so much particle matter into the air that they can bring the air quality below EPA standards for breathable air.

I've seen others on Amazon comment on "white powder" being dispersed by these things, and I always thought they were crazy. I guess not! I didn't actually notice dust around my room (maybe the water quality is good where I live), but I did notice quite a volume of it collected during vacuuming after running the humidifier for a week or so.

I now strongly recommend against ultrasonic humidifiers altogether, especially for anyone with asthma or other respiratory issues.

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Most ultrasonic humidifiers are shaped so that you cannot place them upside down to fill them at the faucet. They need to have a flat top in order to do this, and this one does have that. On the downside, the fill hole is small, which makes it harder to fill, and the tank is opaque, so that you can't see how much water is left in it. The clear area you can see in the photo is not part of the tank's interior. There is a blue light there that you can turn off or on, but it's very bright which makes it unsuitable as a nightlight, so in our house it's useless. To vary the amount of humidity it puts out, you simply turn the outlet spout for the mist, which allows you to block part of the outlet hole. It can put out plenty of mist. In my opinion, ultrasonic humidifiers are the best because they are quiet (except for a random dripping sound which I find soothing, like a rainy night) and they DON'T HEAT UP THE BEDROOM! But they sure don't last very longa winter or twobut others kinds of humidifiers don't last any longer.

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During the cold winter months turning on the heater leaves my skin feeling dry and itchy. I decided to buy this humidifier to run in my bedroom and it has made a dramatic improvement. The dry itchy skin problem is gone and the increased humidity in the air makes the room feel warmer when I have the heater too.

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Buy Luma Comfort HCW10B Cool & Warm Mist Humidifier, 2 Gallon Output

Luma Comfort HCW10B Cool & Warm Mist Humidifier, 2 Gallon Output and Automatic Humidity Control
Customer Ratings: 4 stars
List Price: $129.99
Sale Price: $95.00
Today's Bonus: 27% Off
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This is a great humidifier. Very Quiet and very easy to use. My only compliant is that it the full tank doesnt really last the 40 hours. I have mine set on a 40% humidity level (which is recommended) and I run it only at night when I sleep. Most of the time night I find it is not running because the levels in my house are around 37%-42% but I still find myself filling the tank after 2-3 days. An alarm goes off when it is empty, which can be annoying if you are asleep so I try to make sure it is filled at all times. That all being said I am still happy with my purchase and helps on those really dry nights.

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PRO: It's very quiet

CON:

1. A full water tank lasts a bit under 6 hours, and the machine has a handy alarm that beeps (and keeps beeping) when the tank is empty. That means you have a rather inaccurate alarm clock that won't let you sleep more than six hours.

But wait; there's more.

2. The vapor from the nozzle on top of the unit doesn't travel very far. In fact, it drops within a couple of feet of the unit. That means you also have a very wet floor. Not damp; wet. We sopped up water with a towel.

I have asked the seller (not Amazon) to accept a return and will try to report here their response.

UPDATE: The seller (Wayfair) will accept the return, though they are making me pay the shipping costs both ways. That's not as good as Amazon's return practices, but not unreasonable for a small firm. BTW, the return is going directly to the manufacturer's (Luna) office in California and the shipment to me came from them as well, so Wayfair seems to be acting as a selling agent only.

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Bought this as a gift for my daughter and her husband -they said it is so quiet and works like a charm! They are happy and so are we!

Honest reviews on Luma Comfort HCW10B Cool & Warm Mist Humidifier, 2 Gallon Output

This came in a pre-printed green,white and black product box with tight packaging inside box and delivered by UPS from Whitestown,IN.

This is very easy to program your settings into and it remembers your settings that you entered and is interesting to watch as well.

Through my trial and error tests i found it best if i use cold water with a warm setting also set on high and have the timer set for 6 hours and have it set for 70% this works for me hopefully it will for you too.

Auto shut-off on the timer one beep then shuts down and display goes dark very happy with this option,so you can(set it and forget it)at least in the timer mode anyway.

When you first plug it in it beeps twice and also when you first press the power button it beeps one time.

This only has Low,Mild,and High Settings on the display.

If no hours are set then the display shows % numbers only.

You might want to put this in an old shallow refrigerator tray or a pan to catch the residu water only after the tank is empty,because you will have some left in the cradle.

After many tries this finally went from cool to warm couldn't really tell a difference so it took awhile.

I have hard tap water for my house and no problems so far running this on that,they recommend distilled.

When first using this i used warm tap water as my first test and i forgot to time it,seemed like it used up the water fast.

My second test was with hot tap water and i timed it,i got 5½ hours on this i also had the setting on high and on warm for this.

It seemed to use up the water fast on this also.

Third and final test was with cold tap water and i got 6 hours straight with this and with settings on warm and high.

So i prefer the third test over all and that's what i'll use.

The humidifier % numbers fluctuated on the display and i had it set for 70%,which it never reached,thinking about all of this and the high price that i paid for this i probably should have stuck to a pan of boiling water on the stove like i did before buying this.

I have a Brookstone Humidity/Temperature wall display and i got the humidity gauge to go to 70% but just on this,and it didn't stay there to long either.

On my wall display it showed more wet/best setting for house humidity,this Luma humidifier cost me a little over $100 so i'm going to use this but also go back to,if i have to,to my pan of boiling water on the stove only not as much.

When you run out of water it flashes the empty icon at the top and beeps for two cycles,the first one has 7 beeps to it while the second cycle has 10 beeps and no auto shut off when tank is empty the beeps sound like an alarm on a watch,tinty high sounding.

They should have used a clear reservoir instead of a smoked one so you can see what's happening with the water level.

It can be messy at times from the condensation and sitting water left over from where the water reservoir sat in the cradle,i've had about 2-3" of water left over after the tank ran out which i think is a bit much.

I would not recommend this,i myself was a little disappointed in the performance of this humidifier.

This does have a really great timer on it very precise,also the reservior looks big but it really doesn't hold that much water like you might think.

I now have mine on a folding step stool with a towel on it and the humidifier is in a shallow container,hopefully will be less of a mess when tank is empty.

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This is one of FOUR humidifiers I tried recently. I liked the look and thought it would perform well at this price. But it was huge failure. It immediately soaked the ground around the unit. They hygrometer is absolutely worthless (as it is on other units). I didn't keep it long enough to experience the difficult cleaning. Warm setting made no difference (as it is on other units). The dark plastic also made it hard to see the water level. Quick return for me.

My criteria: I'm using it for a nursery with about 180 sq ft, normal ceilings with a small bathroom attached. Not that sensitive about noise (bubbling) but limited on space so don't prefer units that need to be on shelves or stools. NO FILTERS. Considered both warm and cool ultrasonic.

I've included reviews of all the units I've tried. At first, I thought heat was the only true way to add moisture. But warm mist units are only moderately more effective and uses way more electricity than I imagined. At this point, I wasn't worried about a toddler spilling the hot water.

Overall, I'm shocked at how poorly all these units are made. Look at Amazon ratings for ALL of them; most get 3.5 star average because there is always something faulty. So strange that a simple appliance is so difficult to master. It's not even a factor of price; the expensive ones are horrible too!

The short of it: Pure Guardian is the only that WORKED.

CRANE DROP SHAPE ULTRASONIC 2.3 GALLON ($45)

Pros: Small, quiet, very little bubbling noise, easy to refill.

Cons: NOT ENOUGH MOISTURE, no noticeable change. Didn't own it long enough to clean it.

HONEYWELL WARM MIST HUMIDIFIER HWM-950 ($35)

Pros: Did produce a nice warm mist, did not make the ground wet (placed on the ground), fairly easy to refill but did drip all over the place

Cons: It broke after 2 weeks, only stayed on for 2 mins then stopped even with a full tank. It was fairly noisy with intermittent bubbling. I can handle the humming but the bubbling was impossible to sleep through.

LUMA COMFORT COOL/WARM ULTRASONIC HCW10B ($99)

Pros: Compact design, cool looking (which is apparently unusual), easy to refill (there is a handle at top of tank although most don't seem to know that)

Cons (so many that I needed bullet points):

* SOAKED the ground around it. I placed on the floor and within 15 mins you can soak a towel with the moisture (this was on warm setting). I tried it on a 3 foot dresser but it still created light moisture on the ground.

* The hygrometer function is A JOKE! It can, of course, only detect moisture right next to the unit which is where the mist falls. So, the % reading goes up very quickly when the unit is turned on and when it hits the "max" setting, it shuts off. So, the machine turns on and off in 3-5 min intervals all night long. Impossible to sleep through.

* I used the timer function which keeps the unit with the hygrometer function. This worked fine. But I still got the ground soaking and the rest of the room was not any less dry.

* FYI, cool/warm mist ultrasonic's are a misnomer; none of them produce a "warm" mist. Just keep it on cool setting.

* The dark cloudy plastic tank makes it hard to see the water level.

PURE GUARDIAN COOL/WARM ULTRASONIC H4500 ($109)

Pros: Very simple controls. Huge tank that is easy to refill (although it gets heavy) with minor splashing. VERY quiet with almost no bubbling. Mist control is awesome; on high it puts out a huge mist but you can easily dial it back down. Within one hour, you can notice the change in moisture. Has auto shut off; no timer or hygrometer which is fine. Mist DOES NOT soak the ground when I put it on a dresser. No idea why they thought an "hour" rating was important; who runs it for 144 hours?. I ran it at 50% of the mist power and it lasted 10 hours overnight with ~15% water left.

Cons: It is UGLY and big! No idea why they needed to make the front dial so big. The night light function is just annoying so it is always off. Like my other reviews, the "warm" mist makes no difference. I'm sure their smaller units would have been just fine for my needs.

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Buy Vornado HU1-0021-28 Whole Room Humidifier With 1.8 Gallon Capacity

Vornado HU1-0021-28 Whole Room Humidifier With 1.8 Gallon Capacity
Customer Ratings: 3.5 stars
List Price: $147.95
Sale Price: $87.60
Today's Bonus: 41% Off
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Very Good Service I am not interested in writing 17 words I have already said All I Have to Say

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i got white dust or some kind of particles from it.. and it does take some scheduled maintenance to keep it clean .

I always wonder why filters cost so much.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Reviews of Filter Pad Replacement

Laguna PowerFlo Mechanical/Biological Pro Polishing Filter Pad, Fine
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
List Price: $54.99
Sale Price: $32.29
Today's Bonus: 41% Off
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Easy to clean and lasts a long time. Still using my first one and its 4 years old. Laguna has a lot of great products.

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Arrived on time & was as advertised. Had to cut-to-fit the pad because my filter box is rectangular. This pad was used in addition to several other types of pads to get the most out of my filtering system & it works quite well.

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Works excellent for removing fine debris from the water. Would recommend buying a second pad to double stack since a single pad requires regular cleaning. Single pad took only 1 day to remove the cloudiness from my 900 gallon pond

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Whynter 5 in 1 Evaporative Air Cooler (HAC-100S) Reviews

Whynter 5 in 1 Evaporative Air Cooler
Customer Ratings: 2 stars
List Price: $168.00
Sale Price: $145.87
Today's Bonus: 13% Off
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I bought this based on the other 2 user reviews, and now I'm convinced these were created by the manufacturer.

There's nothing positive I can say about this product, but as for the negatives...

It has barely any effect on the room temperature when set to air-cooling mode.

It's extremely loud and obnoxious. Seriously, it sounds just like an idling lawn mower.

Emits a nasty, exhaust-like smell.

Save yourself the time and money, you really don't want this product at any price.

EDIT (6/10/11): My suspicions about the other 2 reviewers (Ken Manning, Dave Martin) at the time of my purchase can be confirmed by their reviewing and tagging history. Look for yourselfBoth have only reviewed this product (with a raving positive review of course), and have tagged every Whynter product with an assortment of positive/descriptive adjectives. Ken Manning even went so far as to tag several competing products as "defective" and "not cold". Well, I know what brand NOT to trust now.

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I bought this,and it really does suck, it broke after 4 months and did not work that well in the first place, and it was really loud. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY

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After reading the other reviews, my story is hardly unique here. The product worked (marginally, I might add) for about 3 weeks before beginning one night to emit a deafening, grinding noise. I disassembled the whole thing to see if I could figure out the problem. Didn't help. I emailed Whynter customer service and after several back and forth exchanges with basically useless ideas to fix it, I got a return authorization to send it back. I heard absolutely NOTHING from them for over six weeks until I basically hounded them about the whereabouts of my unit. After TWO MONTHS of waiting, it finally arrived again. I plugged it in and was greeted by...THE SAME HORRIBLE NOISE! After over two months, they fixed absolutely nothing. It sucks. They suck. Do yourself a favor and DON'T BUY THIS GARBAGE!

Honest reviews on Whynter 5 in 1 Evaporative Air Cooler (HAC-100S)

Whynter Air Cooler/Heater/Humidifier

Timeframe: 2 months

My usage conditions: 51F to 78F, Humidity 60% to 80%

Functions used: Heater, evaporative air cooler, humidifier.

Design:

I selected this primarily for the design and color scheme. I did not want another white/beige appliance or some psychedelic blue or pink candy painted device. Conventionally shaped and subtle in overall appearance. Top marks.

Functionality: The Whynter air cooler is a misnomer, while it does a solid job cooling a 150square foot space, it does a whole lot more than cool. The heat was nice to have when the temperature dipped and the humidity control is very useful when dealing with dry air resulting from heater use. Intuitive and easy to control. The water tank at the base take a bit of jiggering to slide in and out but otherwise I do not have any issues with it. The filters built into the unit do provide some degree of purification. My room air purifier lasted about 30% longer before the indicator light came on. It is light weight and portable, but be careful when you move it with the water tank filled.

Quality:

Well built with softtouch controls. The remote control was responsive and fit nicely into the attached holster on the unit. Material is were primarily plastic. Easy to clean and maintain. Pre-filter is easily removed and cleaned. No fuss device.

Price:

Quite reasonable for all that it does. I would take this over 3 or 4 separate devices any day.

Overall:

One of my better purchases this year. top scores across the board.

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Whynter Eco-Friendly 5 in 1 Evaporative Air Cooler (HAC-100S)

Never quite experienced an air cooler before, it is decidedly a good product that does well for the price. This unit does a good job cooling at a fraction of the cost of an air conditioner and without the power consumption or setup needed. Don't expect the room to cool down significantly, air coolers don't work that way. This provides superior comfort in a 15ft radius.

In fact, I prefer to have this on compared to an air conditioner on dryer days.

I'm not an uber technical person but from my understanding, what it does is to use water to and the cooling effect of an evaporative process. This is especially useful for sensitive or dry skin. Currently used in the bedroom but am adding an additional unit in the den.

Not real setup is required, just fill the unit with water and set it on, it makes an odd noise when the water bucket is empty but just fill it up again and you'll be fine. The louvers are a little flimsy but can be popped back into place quite easily. It's easy to move around and small enough to put in most spaces. Oh, and it comes with handy heater mode too.

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Discount Venta Airwasher Venta Demineralization Replacement Cartridge

Venta Airwasher Venta Demineralization Replacement Cartridge
Customer Ratings: 4.5 stars
List Price: $19.99
Sale Price: $15.21
Today's Bonus: 24% Off
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Since I didn't see it listed either in the specs or the reviews, I'll just note that (according to the box it comes in), this is the replacement cartridge for Venta-Sonic models:

VS 100

VS 205

VS 207

I can confirm it fits properly in the VS 207, since that's what I have.

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They don't carry it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond anymore, so this is the only place I could find it.

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We had difficulty to find the product. Thank Amazon.com. I found it here. The shipping is fast. I will order in the future.

Honest reviews on Venta Airwasher Venta Demineralization Replacement Cartridge

The filter was an exact replacement for the system we have at home; after ordering it it arrived within a week (sooner than expected) and it cost us less than half what was been advertised by their competitors. I would definitively buy again from this site.

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It's fantastic!

Actually, I recommend this particular humidifier (and its lovely filter) highly. It continues to work year after year and is easy to clean and fill. Great buy.

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