I purchased this last year and it worked fine once I figured it out. At first it would shut off after the first of the two tanks emptied. I thought it was broke. However, the trick is that it needs to be leveled out just right such that second tank can kick in after the first tank is empty. This took some experimenting with shims under the left side front wheel. It's an interesting design. The two tanks are offset such that the right side tank always empties first. But, if the unit is not leveled correctly the second tank will never drain. Actually, even if this is the case it will still "work", you'll just find you are constantly filling the first tank.
OK, first a few basic physics things you should realize about humidifiers.
1) They move lots of air.
2) They handle lots of water.
Given the above, they are going to get dusty and want to grow mold and mildew.
That is just the way it is and ALL humidifiers of this type (cool air) will
have these issues. The heat type have their own separate set of problems,
not addressed here as this is not that type of unit.
This means two things:
1) They need complete cleaning regularly
2) They need new "filters" (actually moisture wicks) regularly
So this unit does work and gets the room it is in reasonably moist.
The unit is able to raise the humidity by about 5-20 percent. 20 close to the unit,
5 further away. It is way too noisy on the high setting, quite nice on the low setting,
OK on the middle setting as long as you do not need to be in that room for a long time.
I have found that after about 2-4 weeks the filters will need to be replaced so factor that
into your cost.
A big tissue is that as with way too many products, this (and I suspect most alternatives)
have lots of nooks and crevices and crannies that are a total pain to clean very well. If you
want to get this unit really clean, plan to take it outdoors, use a high pressure hose on the
non-electrical parts, and partially disassemble the fan housings (thereby involving electrical
parts so be sure you know what you are doing). A complete clean can take 45 minutes to an hour
of work but you will not get it clean without the effort. Also plan to do this every 2-4 weeks.
Bottom line, works OK but is a pain to maintain. OTOH, I doubt the alternatives are much eaiser
just a fact of life with humidifiers.
Update: I have stopped using this on reccomendation of my pulmunologist. He says that this type
can spew fungus into the air. In addition, after checking the humidity in an adjacent room with
it running and then again after not using it for two weeks (similar weather, BTW), there was only
about 4-5 percent difference in humidity. I strongly suspect that if you want good whole house you will
need a unit built into your house's HVAC system.
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We purchased this humidifier to use year round (we moved to Nevada) and have used it daily for the last 6 months. The 2 tanks are fairly easy to carry, and are easy to fill. This system is much easier than bringing the entire unit to the sink. For the setting and the lack of humidity in the desert I need to fill them every day. We have had to change out the filters twice so far, and as long as you are gentle with installing them, there are no issues putting the new ones in. (we have very hard water, which does deposit minerals on the filters requiring replacement) The fins of the filters are glued on one side so that they flex to fit the holder.
The actual humidifier has 3 fan speeds and is quite accurate in measuring the humidity output. If you place the unit at a central location, or near an air intake for your HVAC system, it does do the entire house up to 2000 square feet. It can be cumbersome to clean out the interior of the unit which holds the 2 tanks (there is a left and right tank), and there seems to be no easy way to clean off the fan blades.
Read Best Reviews of Essick Air HD1407 Whole-House Humidifier, Black/Honey Oak Here
Another customer had a bad experience with this humidifier, but mine has been great. I got it online and it arrived in good shape and works well, with no problems for the last three years.
I got it to keep my acoustic guitars properly humidified in winter and it does the trick nicely. Set the humidity at 35%, fan on low and it works well keeping the whole downstairs of our 1900 sq foot old farm house properly humidified. My wife says it makes the house more comfortable in winter.
My only issue is that when the filter gets old (2 to 3 months), it grow bacteria, smells like a fish tank and blows that stink all over the room it's in. (I haven't tried the antibacterial water treatment.) So you will need a supply of replacement filters onhand.
It also needs to be refilled about every 24 to 30 hours when the humidity is especially low and the unit runs alot. It's a bit of a chore adding water, but it's worth it.
It needs to be pretty level or else you will get an error message, which is a bit of an issue in our old house where the room it is in (music room) has slanting floors.
On the upside it does not produce the powdery film on everything that you get with a misting humidfier if you have hard water.
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The molded plastic used in this unit is by far the lowest quality I've seen on any home appliance sold in the United States. Much of it is precisely the same consistency you find in the 25-cent plastic toys that come out of gumball machines at the laundromat. No, I'm not exaggerating.
The very weakest plastic in the unit is the flexible housing for the filters. Ours arrived with one, the left, twisted out of shape. The filters themselves, banging around the unit during shipping, had broken "glazing" -the little plastic strips holding them together.
The moving parts controlling the emptying sequence for the tanks are also made of abysmally poor quality plastic, which is why it failed almost immediately. Although my floor is perfectly level, the right tank (my right, when facing the unit) fails to empty unless I literally jack the unit up a couple of inches.
The design of the machine is excellent. It's a very efficient evaporative array. Properly manufactured with metal framing -or at least a decent quality polymer -it would function reliably for many years. Alas, there's absolutely nothing like that available in the American marketplace, and we have only ourselves to blame. It's the product of an ugly business model that not only erodes the quality of the consumer goods we buy, but steadily impoverishes the US by ensuring that most of our productive assets and consumer expenditure flow overseas, often to nations inherently hostile to our own interests.
The marketing literature for this unit says it is "assembled in the US with imported components". In other words, all the value-added takes place in some Chinese factory, where disenfranchised laborers earn $120 a month working 60-hour weeks with no benefits, using energy and other resources subsidised by the Chinese govt. What little production takes places in the US is low-pay, low-skill and unlikely to make any substantive contribution to economic prosperity. The company itself is at the mercy of the giant big-box retailers (and now, Amazon) that channel our sovereign wealth abroad, with only a few senior managers earning a middle class-wage, while the CEO and CFO earn millions.
It's an embarrassment. Think about this the next time your congressman champions "free trade".
I'm a medical professional and Mom of 3 kids. I researched this product extensively before using it. I thought I would share what I found: A clinical study was conducted in 2006, which showed this product was extremely effective at killing germs and mold in humidifiers (Journal of Water and Health, vol 4.2, 2006). Also, it's shown to be very safe and 100% natural (based on natural silver technology...the active ingredient in the cartridge is actually used in many drinking water filters found at the "big box" stores.) One point to mention: it doesn't remove minerals. If you get stains in your humidifier from iron in your water you'll need a demineralization product for that (or use filtered or distilled water). I use it and highly recommend it.
