Monday, July 14, 2014

X-Pack Military Water Filter

X-Pack Military Water FilterThe unit is heavy to carry, only purifies limited amounts of water, and and I was stupid to buy it. Just get a Katadyn microfilter and some empty folding 5 gallon water bottles, and be done with it. You do not need this device.

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Auramist AM11MF30-1 30 Inch Mist Fan Cooling System, Black

Auramist AM11MF30-1 30 Inch Mist Fan Cooling System, BlackFirst I will review the 30" Auramist Misting fan. It was simple to assemble and I used the U Tube assembly site. While it could be little better, it is a lot better than the written instructions. I assembled it in about 30-40 minutes by myself. I had one small issue after using it for a day and called the company. The issue was the air line was much shorter than the water line that connects at the quick connect. I was directed to another person and he also answered immediately. After sending a couple of photos from the cell phone, he told me to pull the airline supple tubing very hard, that it may have a crip inside the housing. I did as he recommended and it fixed the problem. The line gained about 2 inches and then seated into the quick connect easily. It made a big difference in the performance. I love this fan after a month. I live in Texas and we are getting up to the triple digits already. At first I was worried about the complaints that it was noisy, but it is not near as bad as expected. It sounds like a fan. We have a lot of wind here and you will not get the performance you desire if you do not use the wind to your advantage. I built a cart with bigger wheels and a handle to move it around and that has worked out great. If the wind is blowing from the south, place the back of the fan facing south. This will give you great performance as you can use the wind to keep the mist in a straight pattern blowing North. I think you get the idea. If you try and use the misting fan facing into the wind, the mist will just blow away before it gets to you. On the covered patio, it will shoot a good 20 plus feet. We ate out on the patio yesterday (100 degrees)and it was terrific. No one was even sweating. I have also used it to blow over us while we lay in the sun on the lounge chairs. Having the fan on the cart makes it a breeze to move around. I highly recommend this fan. It works well.

Amazon Experience: It was a little frustrating, but they hung in and finally we got to a level of satisfaction. I was shipped 3 fans, first was damaged by UPS. Without a long explanation, if you note on the Amazon Site, they offer this exact fan at two different prices. One for $599 and one for $699. Exact same fan as I got one of each. You do not have to be too smart to pick $599. The $599 is the exact same product number, but the specs say it is 18". Auramist does not make an 18" model. It is very confusing to the CS Group as they are just order takers. Bottom line, we finally worked our way through the problems and I am happy. At the time I was very frustrated as some CS Reps are excellent and some just do not know how to resove an issue. I love the fan, so that helps smooth over frustration with Amazon CS to get the returns and paperwork right.

According to the manual, Automatic Shutoff: The Misting Fan has a built-in safety feature to prevent water and air pump burnout. If the system is run dry the pumps will shut down prior to overheating." Last night, the water ran out and the fan ran for an additional 2-3 hours. Today, I refilled the tank and despite priming it, no water would come out.

I spoke with a very nice woman from Auramist who told me that she had no idea why the manual says this and, after checking with her colleagues, informed me that there is no automatic shutoff and that the pump had likely burned out. They are sending me a new pump. Of course, I will have to install it myself. Not impressive.

Also the adjustment between wet and dry was impossible to adjust accurately. Either it ran with a great deal of wetness or the water shut off completely. The idea of the fan is great but the engineering (to say nothing of the manual) is woefully lacking.

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This indeed has been the best investment yet. Once the unit is primed, it wil cool off the seating area on the deck. Easy build.

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this item is soso big, but many ppl surprised in japan. cuz this make hot place to cool place.

many walking ppl stoped walking and some minutes keep position front of this mist matine.

I like this sistem easy putting, and good makeing .

this is cool .

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Sunday, July 13, 2014

Sunbeam Ultrasonic Visible Mist Humidifier

Sunbeam Ultrasonic Visible Mist HumidifierBought this last year & we only used it 3-4x, for a total of maybe 16 hours of use. It worked great & we had no complaints. Dried it & stored it according to instructions & brought it out this year. After the initial use of about 2 hours it stopped creating mist. Turn to the instruction "leaflet" that was included with it when we bought it and the only "solutions" for the humidifier not creating mist were: 1. It ran out of water; refill the tank -OR2. It's not plugged in, or it is plugged in but isn't turned on high enough. Thanks, but I'm not an idiot, so it was plugged in, filled with cool water & turned on HIGH and still no mist. Tried cleaning it thoroughlyeven though it wasn't really dirty and made no difference. A vast waste of money & I will certainly check reviews before purchasing my next humidifier. Thought we could just pick up any one because we don't use it often, but clearly I was wrong.

I mostly concur with all the points made by the brimar's review. If you know what to expect from an ultrasonic humidifier, this one does the job adequately. However, to add or highlight a few points:

-if you set the unit on high, it will easily put out more vapor than it can disperse into the air, which will result in soaking the surfaces in front of the humidifier (not a problem unique to this humidifier).

-it lacks a humidistat. (That's a dial like a thermostat that automatically turns off the mist output when the desired level of humidity is reached.) You can find other humidifiers in this same price range that include this feature.

-the tank is very tall, and you fill it from the bottom, so don't be surprised if you end up having to fill it in your bathtub. (This is also a problem many current humidifier models suffer from. Most have awkwardly shaped tanks that either don't fit under a typical bathroom sink tap and/or don't balance when turned upside down.)

In summary, this unit has some of the same flaws seen in many current humidifiers, making it average.

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This is a good humidifier, not great. I'll keep this simple:

Pros:

-Large enough tank so you don't have to refill often, once every couple days if you run it for 3-5 hours in the evening

-Very quiet, can't hear the fan but you can hear the bubbler (ultrasonic metal disk in the bottom)

-Doesn't require filter

Cons:

-If the water runs out, the ultrasonic disk will get VERY hot (trust me, I touched it) and mine didn't shut off automatically -Now it only puts out half as much vapor

-Blower isn't large enough, the bubbler puts more vapor than the fan can blow, so the water vapor will get your floor soaked if you turn it on high

-approximately $40, too much. should cost about 20-30.

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Use caution when using this appliance if you live in a hard-water area. I used it in a very dry room for about 4 weeks while recovering from surgery. The water in our area contains a lot of minerals, however there was no "danger" warning regarding this in the instruction manual. I am now under the medical care of several doctors for a chronic lung problem resulting from breating in the white powder the unit produces with hard water. I never had a problem before, and now regret this purchase wholeheartedly. I wouldn't want to see this happen to anyone else. Please, please! Purchase a humidifier that uses a filter.

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I bought this after going thru many filters on other humidifiers. Thought it was a good idea, wrong. Worked well for the first few days, now no mist. I have cleaned it did everything the instruction manual, another big joke, suggested to do. So now I have this thing that doesn't do anything but make noise. Next time I'll spend the money and get filters.

Tefal 982628 Deep Fryer Charcoal Filter Square

Tefal 982628 Deep Fryer Charcoal Filter SquareWhat I was sent looks nothing like the picute and this item should not be advertised as it is from the original manufacturer. This is not a "Tefal 982628" filter. It fits the deep fryer but it is a cheap replacement. It does not have the paper which shows that the filter needs to be changed and it is two black layers with white in the middle. I guess it will work but its not what I thought I was buying.

This was bought as a replacement filter for my deep fryer. It works well. I am planning to order another one when it comes back into stock. I recommend this for anyone who owns a Tefal Deep Fryer.

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Saturday, July 12, 2014

Quality Importers Versailles 100 Cigar Glass Top Humidor, High Gloss Cherry Finish

Quality Importers Versailles 100 Cigar Glass Top Humidor, High Gloss Cherry FinishThe pictures look good, but the actual humidor looks so much better. No flaws in the finish and solid construction. The lid provides an excellent seal. It took a little over a week to season, but this isn't unusual with new humidors. The negatives are related to the built-in hygrometer and humidifier. The hygrometer certainly looks nice, but is unreliable and inaccurate. I bought a small digital hygrometer and installed it inside the lid. The humidifier isn't strong enough to maintain relative humidity with more than 20 or 30 cigars. I added a small Xikar crystal humidifier and it maintains a consistent 68% relative humidity, even when fully loaded with 100 sticks.

What a beautiful piece and of such quality! I cannot tell you how thrilled my husband was to recieve this as a gift. You will not be disappointed. After looking for some time for the perfect humidor...who would have thought it would have been here on Amazon. The picture and information does not do it justice. It is even better then I expected.

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This humidor is a very nice piece. High quality and heavy construction. Spanish cedar lined interior is flawless. Took about a week and a half to season and stabilize humidity. Im using the included pad humidifier with a glycol solution and the humidity maintains at consistent 70%. The analog hygrometer that comes with it looks cool, but isn't very accurate out of the box. However, it is adjustable with a screwdriver. I bought a digital and adjusted the analog to match. Now it actually reads within +/2% of the digital. Still giving this thing 5 stars.

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Lovely humidor. Appears to be well constructed and very handsome. Lid feels solid and heavy and seals well. However, a star gets lost for the less-than-useless hygrometer that comes with it. If you decide to purchase this model, just go ahead and add a good quality digital hygrometer to your cart as well, cause the one that comes with this ain't gonna tell you the humidity in your box.

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My husband is just starting to collect cigars and we needed somewhere to store them. Being new to it, I wanted something reasonably priced but still attractive. This humidor offered both and we're happy.

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Aprilaire 700 Automatic Power Humidifier

Aprilaire 700 Automatic Power HumidifierI purchased the Aprilaire 700 to replace the model 110 that quit working after 15 years. Several reviews said this was a good choice so I thought I'd give it a try.

Everything arrived in one box and the instructions were very clear. Since I was replacing an older power model, the wiring was already done for me but it looked easy enough. I did replace the water supply line which came with the new humidifier and had to cut a larger hole in the plenum and smaller hole in the return air supply for the humidistat.

In all, it took me about 2 hours to cut and fit the new one in. I did't use the outdoor temp. sensor because I prefer to use a manual setting. The unit has been operating flawlessly for a couple of months and the humidity in my house has risen to where it's much more comfortable. I'd recommend this unit.

We had an Aprilaire 700 system installed professionally, but the solenoid broke after two years. (the solenoid controls the water flow from your plumbing into the unit). This is the most powerful system Aprilaire makes, and was recommended for our house by the ARS professionals that installed it. The system never got our humidity over 30%, but in fact we have hardwood floors in about 1/6 of our house and lots of wood furniture, and about 3500 sq ft of floor space. The unit seems better suited for houses without much wood (floors and/or furniture) and certainly less than 3500 sq ft. Suitability aside, I'm not happy the solenoid, which is over $200 to replace/install, broke after less than two years. Unfortunately, we got only 1 year parts/labor on the unit.

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We purchased the 700 in 2004 and it has been nothing but a headache for us. The first two years the water panel wouldn't stay wet. The installer blamed it on the saddle attachement to the water pipe. He came out and cleaned the saddle and claimed it worked but we never had anything but dry air. About 2007 we had someone come out and tell us the panel holder doesn't distribute the water well and they came out with a new version that has fabric in it. Bought that and it helped for a year and the fabric came loose and had to buy another. (in addition to replacing the panel each season). Finally last year we had someone install a real valve to replace the saddle. Then this unit started pouring water all over the floor. Apparently the low-flowing saddle was masking other problems. Some low-flow, inlined device was broken. (read $.01 piece of plastic) I ordered a new hose for it and put it in. The new hose was so stiff that part of it broke on trying to install it. Duct tape helped hold it in place. Turn on the water and NOTHING... back to no water again and a dry panel = dry house. Generally this unit has me running to the furnace room every day since we owned it. It has never worked right despite having 3 different companies come out to service it. The general features of this thing that I don't like are:

water panel: I just don't believe that this puts as much water in the air as one could

fan: The fan is outside of the duct work blowing unconditioned air into the duct which is supposed to deliver humid air to the system. But I feel more air coming out than going in and isn't it reducing the heat in the duct by inserting cold basement air?

vent: The vent on this thing is a giant hole in the summer. The unit is off in the summer and the cold air just blows out. One may suggest that I leave this thing on all year and just turn off the water... that would help but the way these are wired is to turn on only when heat is asked for. We keep our house fan on all the time to balance the system and the 700 only comes on when heat is generated. So even in the winter, conditioned air is escaping through this unit.

water delivery: The pipe it goes through is entirely proned for error and anyone with harder water than us will suffer tremendously.

This is probably the worst house purchase we have made since 1998.

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Good quality humidifer but requires a 120 VAC outlet so be prepared. Took a few minutes to understand exactly how the rear housing frame mates to the duct opening. Must install the humdifier controller in the return duct upstream from the fresh air intake which required rerouting my fresh air intake. Also installed the Aprilaire Model 8570 Thermostat using a separate 24 VAC transformer. My furnance could not supply enough current from it's 24 VAC humidifier accessory terminal to run the humidifier. Aprilaire recommends not using the accessory terminal when installing the Model 8570 Thermostat so I already purchased the 24 VAC transformer. Pleased with both the 8570 Thermostat and Model 700 Humidifer. Like the ability to monitor outdoor temperature and humidity from the thermostat, and automatically control humidifier operation based on outdoor temperature because I have wooden casement windows. You will need some skills to install this unit.

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This is worse then having no humidifier as it breaks down and can overflow n flood into the HVAC unit.

Worked for two months then pad flooded one year.

Relay went out another year.

Now solenoid valve is broken and quote is 350 to fix.

Would suggest going with another brand that offers at least a 10 year warranty period or go with stand alone units.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Livart Warm & Cool Dual Humidifier L-281C (White)

Livart Warm & Cool Dual Humidifier L-281CWe bought two of these humidifiers but through a local store, not Amazon. This is an attractive unit with both warm and cool mist options. We really like that there are two nozzles that can be swiveled to where you want the mist directed. It has a capacity that lasts for about a day or so depending on what mist intensity you choose. It is easy to clean and can be run without a filter which leads to lower cost for the long run. It is also very quiet and can be used in a bedroom. I also appreciate that it has a small footprint so takes less room on a counter.

My two wishes for improvements would be to make it a top fill for even easier use and a humidistat so it would shut off at a desired humidity but theses are both minor requests. Overall I am very pleased with this unit.

Love the design and small footprint. We're using it in the bedroom, so far on warm mist.

There are two openings for the mist that can be place in different directions. It's easy to fill. We find ourselves filling it every other day, using it on a low setting which is sufficient for our mid to large sized bedroom. I hope it continues to work for a long time.

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