This is the fourth humidifier I've used during the past 2 years. This one is the best. But the competition is such that it only takes a little quality to be the best. This one has its issues, but I am very glad I bought it.
Pros:
1) Lots of vapor; brings humidity up in the room fairly rapidly
2) Almost totally quiet.
3) The filter does a great job in removing particulates in the water. No white dust on any of the furniture in my room. Supposedly also kills bacteria, as well.
4) Has a warming feature; better than nothing but only raises the temperature of the vapor by a few degrees.
5) Looks like it will be very easy to clean. The instructions say to use no chemicals, bleach, or vinegar to clean, unlike most humidifiers. They even give you a little brush to clean the metal part of the ultrasonic unit. Nice.
Cons:
1) Needs a side handle on the water tank so that after filling the tank with water one can easily lift it and carry it back to the humidifier. With only a handle at the top (which is upside down after one fills the tank), it is very difficult to flip right side up especially since it now weighs 8 pounds with all the water in it.
2) As many reviewers have already stated, the humidistat reading is worthless. Get a hygrometer and then figure out what humidity level you need to set the humidistat to so that you can have a comfortable humidity level in your room. For example, my digital hygrometer reads 47% (I like the room humidity to be in the high 40s) and the humidifer's humidstat reads 40%. So I set the humidstat to 40% to get the humidity level I want.
*** Five Week Follow-Up Note: It started to leak the other day and I will exchange it for another one. Also, the humidity indicator started to not work correctly. I hope I have better luck with the second one. Pain in the you know where. Like I said in my initial review, this one was really great-when it worked!
*** Five Week and Two Day Follow-Up Note: No, this is not my blog on humidifiers. So I got the second one the other day. I discovered that the vapor CAN come out warm. So the first one I got was defective in that the vapor was staying cold. Now the bad news-the humidistat is so far off that the humidity in the room has to get to 52% before the humidifier will shut off! The humidifier "thinks" the ACTUAL humidity in the room is 35% (it is 17% off!). (35% is the lowest DESIRED humidity level you can select on the humidifier.) I will exchange it for another one tomorrow. It's the last one. After that one, I get my money back. I spoke to a nice enough guy at the customer support line for the Korean manufacturer; he agreed, there is a problem with their humidistat. He suggested I unplug the unit for one or two hours and then try it. Yeah, right, that'll fix it. Why don't I just unplug it for an hour or two when the humidity gets to the desired level in my room and then plug it back in? That will definitely work. Okay. There will be one more entry and then I will wish you the best of luck with this unit or whichever one you wind up buying.
*** Now 1 year later! It works just fine. Very happy with it. Ordered two new filters from an Amazon vendor that just arrived. Only $10 each and will last the entire season. Cheap. That's it. No more entries. Good product, worth a try.
I purchased two identical Venta VS207 humidifiers to use in separate bedrooms. After reading the manual, I set up the first one with no problem. But the second one--as another reviewer said-would only blink at me and not start misting. After some trial and error, I discovered the problem and was able to fix it: The screw cap for the water tank, onto which one first screws in the demineralization cartridge, has a small rubber gasket. In my non-working unit, that gasket was too far down against the outer screw cap, which meant the spring loaded button would not work properly to let the water descend into the base tank . The solution: push up on that small rubber gasket so that it is as far up and away from the screw cap as it can be without falling off, and voila! you get mist!!
Another problem: I suspect the relative humidity readings may not be accurate: both of my units show an RH of 35% when other hygrometers in the same room show about 50%. My solution is simply to set the RH desired level on 35%, which really means the unit will cut off when I think the real RH is around 50%.
Also,due to the design, it's a bit awkward to replace a full water tank onto the base. It requires controlled strength.
On the positive side, the units are very quiet and produce lots of mist.
Buy Venta VS207 Sonic Digital Cool and Warm Mist Ultrasonic Humidifier Now
Having looked around for more a month in preparation for the cold weather and our "dry as desert" heating system, we picked up this unit at retail. We walked into the store with the intention to purchase the Air-O-Swiss however after a litte hesitation walked out with the Venta as the Air-O-Swiss was out of stock.
First time setup was a breeze. We only needed to remove a couple of plastic covers, two pieces of tape, soak the demineralizer in warm water, fill the tank and in under 3 minutes, we were blasting at full steam.
The settings are easy to operate even though they are digital with single button operation for each function (a total of 4 buttons, one per function: on/off, vapor, warm/cold, and humidity level). Some people may prefer the older dials over the buttons as they are easier to operate. You won't have to keep pressing until you catch the right setting as you do with the single button feature.
When we first turned the unit on, we heard a noticable gulping noise coming from the water intake. As I had read about noisy operating humidifiers in my research, I was a little concerned that this would be the standard operating noise. Don't be alarmed. To my relief, once the intake was full within 2 to 3 minutes, the noise level was reduced to a minimal hum. Barely enough to hear, the noise is comparable to a small 4-inch fan operating at the lowest setting. There won't be anything to complain about even for the extremely light sleepers.
Also during the first couple of minutes, the internal hygrostat which monitors the current humidity level in the room jumped around for a while until it later settled and seems to now display a believably correct level.
Having left the unit operating at full warm vapor for 45% desired humidity on a high dresser, we did NOT wake up to find a puddle around or on the dresser or anywhere else in the room. This had been one of our fears as it had been mentioned in reviews for several other units. The unit however had gone through a full tank of water overnight. This more than likely means that it operated almost none stop through the night.
My wife mentioned having experienced a noticably better sleep and our 3 year old who sleeps in the same room with us and for who in fact we purchased this for, was not snoring as heavily as she normally does.
Upon refilling the unit for the second evening, I realized that the fill cap which is at the bottom of the water tank was a little tough to remove as I had tightened it well per the instructions in the manual. The fact that the cap is large and wet made it a little too slippery to loosen.
Once the unit is filled with water, it may not be a smart idea to keep moving it around as it needs to be level. The fact that there is loose water around the water intake in between the blue tank and the white units base may result in a spill and wet carpet, clothes, etc. (The blue part on top is the water tank and the fill cap is at the bottom; it separates from the white base and there is maybe a one or two cup full loose water on top of the base which I believe is normal during operation. It will not spill unless tipped.)
Overall, we are very pleased with the operation and the aesthetics of the unit. It has a modern look and in no way is an eye sore like some other units we looked at in the past. The price tag is a little above average however the added features definitely make it a worth while investment.
Pros Easy Setup. Low operating noise, Correctly Functioning Internal Hygrostat, Aesthetically Pleasing Design
Cons None
Read Best Reviews of Venta VS207 Sonic Digital Cool and Warm Mist Ultrasonic Humidifier Here
I can't vouch for longevity yet, as I just purchased the Venta this week. I am much more pleased with the noise level than with the Holmes I returned after one day (a humidier with LOUD fan that cycled constantly), and our previous wicking humidifiers. This unit sits near our bed and is almost silent.
When I was looking at the boxes of various humidifiers, one thing I didn't like is that there is nothing on the box indicating the size room this unit can handle. I just compared the output size to some others and figured it would work for our 225 sq. ft. bedroom. Living in a northern state, I liked the idea that I could use warm mist for now, but change to cool mist when the warmer weather returns.
Having owned large humidifiers in the past with the very big tanks, this one is much more user-friendly. I don't have to wait for my spouse to lug the tank, and this one fits under our reverse osmosis tap in the bedroom. It does seem to drip a lot when you take it off the base, so be careful.
I was worried when I first plugged it in and it blinked at me, not working. My suggestion for new units is to wait a few minutes after you soak the filter and fill the tank to start the machine. I did that after being blinked at, and it worked fine from that point on.
I've never owned a warm mist humidifier before, and was amazed at the volume this puts out. I'm happy to say I don't notice dampness beneath the unit, but I would recommend a rubber mat under it just for the drips when cleaning/filling the tank.
My main issue is that you should not rely on the humidistat on the machine. Mine has yet to read over 34% humidity, but the separate humidistat I have and trust places the humidity at 46% right now. Getting an exact 40% seems impossible, but I am definitely breathing better.
All in all I've been pleased so far.
May 15, 2009
Still have two humidifiers, still work perfectly. Yes, there is a bit of white dust, even with our reverse osmosis filtered water, but it isn't heavy. Very pleased with this product. I am pretty religious about the weekly cleaning and haven't seen any mold/mildew.
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This is a very good humidifier that produces lots of mist. The water capacity is such that it lasts well through the night (I only run mine at night for sleeping). I have a fairly large bedroom and this unit does a good job of covering the entire room. It has helped me sleep much better and I do not wake up nearly as "bronchy". I am very happy with this aspect of the humidifier.
On the down side, you must turn over the water tank to fill it. The tank does not fit under my bathroom spigot so I have to take it down to the kitchen to fill. It is rather heavy and cumbersome to carry it back upstairs and turn it over on the the base be careful when doing this. Also, the lowest humidity reading is 30%, so you really do not get an accurate measure of humidity in the room if it is under 30% and the unit will shut off when it reaches the requested humidity setting. However, for me (in arid Denver) all I really care about is that the unit stays on all night. I just set mine for 50% requested humidity and this is not a problem.
Overall for me, a very good purchase.
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If you have ever had to constantly keep tabs on your hygrometer and add more water or try to dry it out then this product is for you. It is so easy it's unbelievable.
