To combat the dry air commonly found in winter, I have used humidifiers for as long as I can remember. I have used various types and I tend to prefer the ultrasonic humidifiers due to their low noise and the lack of required filters and other parts that other types of humidifiers commonly use.
Let us start with the basics. The HERA ultrasonic humidifier is basically another ultrasonic humidifier. The basic functionality of the product is not much different than any other ultrasonic humidifier that I have ever seen. The unit creates a spout of water mist, which in theory will evaporate before hitting the ground and humidify the air. The product does this and does this well.
However, the HERA Ultrasonic Humidifier has a pretty hefty price tag compared to many other models. What sets the HERA brand apart from the rest?
The HERA Ultrasonic Humidifier has touchpad controls that allow the user to customize the humidifier settings to their own preferences. The humidifier has a warm mist feature that helps take the cold, wet feeling out of the room. There is the option of three different output levels. The humidifier can be set up to shut off when it reaches a predetermined humidity level and there is a digital hygrometer to show you the humidity level of the room. The night mode will dim the LCD display if the light bothers you at night. The unit is equipped with a filter cartridge meant to reduce the hardness level of your water and an ionic silver cube meant to help keep the water bacteria free.
I personally found most of the functions on the humidifier pretty intuitive. I did have to refer to the manual a few times to figure out exactly what certain buttons did. I felt that the manual was very poorly designed. I thought the content of the manual was fine, but the layout of the manual was not very user friendly in my opinion. While I did not have problems figuring out how to fill the tank, my wife did have to take some time to figure out where the water went.
There were some things I really liked about the unit. I thought the output level of the unit was powerful. On the highest setting with the unit 2 feet off the ground, the water did not evaporate before it hit the ground. I thought the unit was very aesthetically pleasing. It is an attractive box form that can fit in a number of areas easily. I thought the warm mist was a nice option that I felt made a difference in the feel of the air in the room. One of the things I liked best was that the tank is square, which makes for easy filling. I have had other shaped tanks that were a pain to try and hold while filling with several gallons of water.
The hygrometer seemed to be fairly accurate for the most part. I put another hygrometer in the same room and the readings were pretty close. The only exception to this is when I filled the tank. The hygrometer on the humidifier would read too high for a few minutes after filling the tank. If the auto mode is being utilized, it will usually shut off until the reading corrects itself.
What I did not like about the unit is the concept of the filter cartridge. I live in an area with pretty hard water. There is a water softener in my house, but I know many people do not have one. I have used ultrasonic humidifiers for years before I put my water softener in and I will admit after about 3 or 4 winters, I will usually have to clean the humidifier out with vinegar and a soft brush. While the idea of the filter cartridge did intrigue me, it is a disposable part and one that might need to be changed frequently.
The humidifier comes with a test strip. The test strip appears to be German and measures in units of Degrees of Hardness (dH) and the instructions measures water hardness in "pink boxes." I took a sample of untreated water in my house and using test strips, I measured it to be about 250 ppm (parts per million) or about 15 gpg (grains per gallon). Using the provided test strip, it measured about 17 dH or about 3.5 pink boxes. In my later research, I found that the gpg and dH measurements are not identical, but for this purpose, they are close enough to use interchangeably.
So why am I spending so much time talking about water hardness? The filter cartridge life is dependant on water hardness. With 15gpg/17dH water hardness level at my house without the water softener, I can expect the filter cartridge to last for 20 to 40 gallons of water or 10 to 20 fills of the tank. At the time of this writing, a Stadler Form A-112 replacement cartridge runs $15 to $20. The Stadler Form Replacement Ionic Silver Cube is supposed to be replaced annually and currently that runs another $25.
My treated water is about 1 gpg. According to the manual, at this hardness level, the filter should last about 115 gallons of water or about 58 fills.
While I liked the humidifier, the price of replacement cartridges and silver cubes can be quite expensive. Both of these items are optional to use, but if you take those aspects away, then this is just another ultrasonic humidifier and then there are many more cost effective alternatives available. Those alternatives might not be as stylish and the controls might not be as user friendly, but when it comes down to it, without the filter cartridge, my $50 Sunbeam has most of the same functions as this one.
Overall, I thought it was an excellent product worthy of 5 stars. However, keep in mind that there is potentially quite an expense to utilize the product to its full potential. For that, I am deducting 2 stars.
I'm giving it 5 stars when I should really give it 4 only because the other reviews are really addressing the instructions rather than the product. You really have to read them carefully. This thing is engineered actually quite well. Admittedly it is not very intuitive.
TO FILL THE UNIT:
Lift the reservoir off of the unit using the built in handle on top
Carry it to your sink. It is a sealed unit. No water will drip from it.
Flip the reservoir upside down in your sink.
Remove the fill cover. The fill cover is about 3" in diameter. The filter is attached to the inside of it so when you remove the cover you are also removing the filter. It opens and closes with a 1/4 turn.
Fill the reservoir and replace the cover/filter
Walk the reservoir back over to the unit and put it in place. It simply sets on top of the base.
The most difficult part of this entire process is turning the reservoir right side up in your sink when it is full of water. It now has a couple gallons of water in it, so it's a bit heavy. It might be a bit difficult for someone very old or with weak hands.
For the person who said that the floor was wet, the instructions do clearly state NOT to put it on the floor. We have ours on our kitchen countertop which works quite well except when we have the gas range on. There is something about the charged ions this thing puts into the air that must mess with the oxygen and hence the flame on our stovetop.
For the person who has a problem with his hard water and this unit. I would suggest that it is not the fault of this product. You will face the same issue with ANY high-end unit that uses this technology.
The specifications are much better on the manufactures website.
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The function of the device is perfect. The warm mist setting is great in winter and cool mist in summer is great for providing evaporative cooling to your home.
I run this unit constantly at the highest output level and refill every morning (and night) and it is just about shutting off for low-water when I go to bed (about 15 hours for full tank cycle using max loads).
Just a couple complaints:
Refilling the unit is ridiculous. I recommend placing unit near a kitchen sink that has a hose attachment that you can spray into the tank as the tank needs to be held upside down. This causes you to set the tank on its "head" while you fill it. Thus this smashes the directional vents for the unit and creates a very fragile process. I have learned to set the tank on the edge of something while refilling so the vents are not bearing the weight of the entire tank.
Secondly I would say the tank needs to be larger. Yes I understand that this unit is made for easy carrying by most people etc, but a larger tank option would be nice.
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Humidifiers is one of frustrating product categories. Almost everything out there seems to get mediocre reviews or have some fatal flaw. My own requirements were as follows: (1) Something with a hot and cold mist. (2) Something with a very pleasing form. (3) Something that had the hope of not becoming a bacterial breeding ground. (4) Something with a precise hygrometer built in. (5) Something with the capacity to run at least one night. The Stadler form devices promise many of these. We chose the Hera over the the other model with a hygrometer (the William) for one main reason. There had been complaints on the William that the lights are too bright at night, and this was a very big concern with a baby in the room.
On to the Hera. It looks good, like a tapered black slab. It's just the right size (not a hulk). The control panel is very intuitive (with mist levels, a hot/ cold choice), and a humidity setting (in increments of 10%). There is a night mode that really dims the light to almost invisible. Really, what's not to like?
Two (and half) things. First, in night mode it automatically seems to go to a low mist level. Not sure why. Second, and the reason we returned this, is that that hygrometer didn't work. After running it two days in a small room it still showed 30% humidity. As I mentioned this was a key feature from our point of view. I didn't feel like trying again with a replacement because I had seen this complaint in other reviews (I should have listened!) The smaller complaint was that for the first few minutes there was water leaking from the bottom seam or joint on the water tank. Obviously this would be really bad, but the leak stopped after the first few minutes and did not return.
In fairness, I think this is an excellent machine, but don't get it for the built-in hygrometer. I suppose I should dock more stars for the fact that a promised feature seems to regularly not work on these machines, but I liked it enough otherwise.
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I apologize for being late in submitting this review but a stroke has put me further behind than originally planned.
This is a really neat package that contains just about all of the basic requirments in less than one-half of the space. Unlike other reviewers my unit came with an entry level type of review and it works as promised. The unit comes with a list of options including "Humidity", "Output", "Warm Mist", "Night Mode", and "Auto Mode" and they all work as directed. Unless I have missed something everything works as promised and really without any difficulty. I find the filling of the Transparent water tank a bit of a problem but overall it works as planned.
For me the unit works as directed. It shows once again that form and function can be combined into a really neat package. I like other humidifiers but this one is now the leader in both design and functiom.
I bought the eight oz. bottle and it holds my half full humidor exactly at 70.
