Recently moved from New England to mid-Atlantic area. So although not as dry as the northeast, it gets dry when the temps go down. I hadn't used it for 2 years but dragged it out of the attic when this December/January cold snap hit the D.C. area. It works as well as I remember.Easy to fill. Just roll it over to the bathroom and use the handheld shower massager to fill it fast. You can also screw a hose adapter on to your kitchen sink and cut an old hose to 4 ft length to fill it really fast. I used a quick release adapter so I didn't have to screw the hose on.
Holds 6 gallons and will dump 6 gallons in to the air over a 24 hour period, which is nice because I only have to fill it once a day (before bed usually). It's nearly silent on low mode. Hygrometer is accurate and easy to set. I usually set it for 50 and it will shut off when the house gets to 55% (it's a little off). Running it on high will dump a lot of moisture in the air quick. I just wouldn't want to sit in the same room with it running on high.
I've had this one for at least 5 or 6 years and it's reliable, easy to fill, great automatic function, runs long time. I gave up on the heat-type humidifiers and the ultrasonic. They are a pain in the butt compared to something like this (and won't humidify an entire house).
Cleaning is a snap, about once a week you can just pour some humidifier cleaner in it and the anti-bacteria stuff, hit it with a sponge and rinse it out.
Automatic float function can be damaged if you're not careful with it. It's basically a foam block at the bottom with a piece of plastic going up to the float switch.
Oh one more thing...I've owned many humidifiers and always end up coming back to evaporation type humidifiers because they require the least amount of care. One thing to avoid...do not ever buy the type of evaporative humidifiers with the removable bottles (like the bigger BEMIS and Essick). I've owned a couple different of this bottle style and one thing is always certain, The bottles are a pain to fill, eventually leak, or come defective from the factory (holes on seams).
This console humidifier doesn't have bottles. Just a big open container. It has wheels and is easy to roll. I highly recommend you get this style if you can roll your humidifier to a bathroom or kitchen. For kitchen, get a garden hose adapter and a 5ft length of hose, and you'll fill it quick with no lifting. As I said before, I have a hand held shower nozzle in my bathroom next to the living room. I just roll this thing up to the tub and fill it with the hand held shower nozzle then roll it right back.
One more thing...since moving to D.C. the tank has stayed very clean after running 3 weeks pretty much non-stop. When in New England (also on town water there) I found it would crud up (brown gunk and sometimes mold) and the filter would gunk up quicker up there too. I suspect how much cleaning you have to do might be tied to the quality of your tap water. You could use distilled water but that would be a pain to buy, take home and fill.
Cleaning: I haven't had to clean it yet (the tank) this winter. The rest could use some dusting (as you can see by my pics). I should probably use humidifier cleaner but I don't. I bought Spray Nine cleaner (Home Depot as it and some hardware stores. I spray the whole interior tank, let it sit for ten minutes and rinse out in tub with hot water. Spray Nine is the best cleaner I've used and it will clean anything with a soak. Just make sure to rinse it really well with hot water so you don't get foam when you fill the tank again. Oh and don't clean it with the Spray Nine when the wick is in there or it will be foam city and you will have to throw out the wick.
I know this is a lengthy review, but there are so many crummy humidifiers on the market and this one is the best I've owned. I couldn't quite make out from the package how the controls worked hence my detailed captioned pics and review. I hope this has helped you decide whether or not this is the unit for you.
Pros-
Very Easy to refill No screw caps or tanks to carry.
Quiet in low mode
Large water reserve
Cons-
Lid is hard to get on right. Takes some time and patience, but you don't have to take it off to refill the unit.
It is loud on the high setting.
Buy Essick Air 821-000 Digital Control Evaporative Console Humidifier Now
I had been searching for a humidifier (or humidifiers) for my 1900 SF house, and was excited when I came across this model, as it was compact and not ugly like the console humidifiers I have seen. Floor space in my house is somewhat limited, so I liked the fact that its upright design would allow flexibility in placement. Also, I'd had good luck with Bemis in the past (had two H12 console units, in black, which for some reason Bemis no longer offers), so I thought I'd give this a try. My intent was to order a second one if it worked well, since the output ratings on humidifiers are generally quite overstated and I knew I would need more capacity.What a disappointment! The unit only has two speeds, and the high speed is LOUD. Now, I know that in order to put a lot of moisture in the air you have to have a pretty good fan blower, but this was ridiculous. Much louder than the H12 I'd had before. Also, the humidity setting only scrolls up, so you have to cycle all the way through to get back to the lowest setting. I guess that's really more of a minor annoyance, but it was disappointing nonetheless.
But the real problem was that the unit just plain didn't add moisture to the air. We left it running all night, and barely any water had evaporated by the next morning. In looking at the unit further, there is a major design flawunlike most humidifiers, which draw air into the unit through the wick (where it then picks up moisture), in this model the air is drawn in near the top, and also expelled at the top, while the wick is lower in the unit, so the majority of air just bypasses the wick.
I am returning this unit, and will have to bite the bullet and purchase another H12 console unit. I already own a Honeywell HCM-300T, but it's only rated 3 gallons per day and used in my bedroom at night. I am waiting for it to "die" because I don't like the fact that the cold air blows out of the BOTTOM of the unit, making an unpleasant draft on the floor. I did consider the Honeywell 6011i but don't like the fact that it has two water bottles (less convenient), and also the air blows out the side rather than the top. Bemis will get my business after all, but I can't believe they produced an inferior model like this.
UPDATEDecember 2012
Some of the comments suggested I hadn't set up the unit properly, and disputed my description of the air flow. I purchased and returned the unit a long time ago, so it's possible I missed something on the setupand the fact that it didn't really add moisture to the air might point to that. However, the unit does not have any vents on the sides or lower down on the unityou can see that from the pictures. All of the air flow happens near the top of the unit, which logically would only dry out the top of the wick and would be a less efficient way of adding moisture to the air than if the air went through a greater portion of the wick. After I returned this unit, I purchased a Bemis/Essick H12 and a Kenmore 12 gallon unit (http://www.amazon.com/Kenmore-12-gal-Humidifier/dp/B001UFK9WI/ref=sr_1_12?s=appliances&ie=UTF8&qid=1356893546&sr=1-12&keywords=humidifier+12+gallon). Both of these units draw air through the entire wick and worked well for methough they, too, could be finicky in terms of placing the fan unit properly once refilled.
Ultimately, however, I ended up getting an Aprilaire whole house humidifier attached to my A/C ductwork (we have radiator heat). This solved all the hassles of console humidifiers for good!
Read Best Reviews of Essick Air 821-000 Digital Control Evaporative Console Humidifier Here
This humidifier is convenient to refill, easy to use. The problem is that the fan/motor rattles most of the time, and the noise is unbearable. The rattle persists on both low and high speeds. When the rattling stops, the sound is very tolerable, but the quiet does not last. Moving the unit from tile to linoleum made no difference. The Sears models are much quieter.Another problem is that the filter was in place rather than in a sterile package, so it was dirty on arrival.
Want Essick Air 821-000 Digital Control Evaporative Console Humidifier Discount?
I purchased this humidifier to replace a Lasko 1128 that had broken, and I'm in love.First of all, no more holding awkward containers precisely under the tub's water spigot--with this humidifier, just fill a bucket and pour it in--SO much easier!
The low speed is very quiet and still puts two to three gallons of water into the air daily. (The high speed is loud as people have said, but not any louder than the Lasko's speeds 2 and 3. And the Laskos' low speed was much noisier). On low, this humidifier keeps the room between 45 and 50%.
I like that this humidifier has a large reservoir to hold the water, so I could, in theory, skip a day in refilling it (Something I often did with the Lasko). I haven't skipped a day though, because it is so easy to refill. Ah!
As to the other complaints, since I am always refilling it, I'm hoping not to run into problems with the shut-off. The "set the humidity you want" button does only scroll up--but who cares? You set it once and leave it (or, at least, I do...). The wick holder is very wimpy, as Nick has said. Overall, it's still awesome because ease of use and performance are tops in my book.
Also Amazon got it to me in three days or something--crazy fast! Thanks, Amazon.
