Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had been using a cool mist humidifier and was tired of the white, fog-like haze throughout the house and weird white "dust" that would coat every surface. After doing some research on types of humidifiers I came across an article written by the EPA called "Indoor Air Facts No. 8 Use and Care of Home Humidifiers." It listed four types of humidifiers in two categories. This is directly from the article: "The two types of humidifiers which generally appear to produce the greatest dispersions of both microorganisms and minerals are: • Ultrasonic, which create a cool mist by means of ultrasonic sound vibrations. • Impeller, or "cool mist," which produces a cool mist by means of a high-speed rotating disk. Two additional types of humidifiers can allow for growth of microorganisms if they are equipped with a tank that holds standing water, but generally disperse less, if any, of these pollutants into the air. These are: • Evaporative, which transmit moisture into the air invisibly by using a fan to blow air through a moistened absorbent material, such as a belt, wick, or filter. • Steam vaporizer, which create steam by heating water with an electrical heating element or electrodes. "Warm mist" humidifiers are a type of steam vaporizer humidifier in which the steam is cooled before exiting the machine." Anyway, this warm mist humidifier falls into that last category, which is why I purchased it. I now use two of these and have been running them daily for about 6 months. There is no white dust or fog from these humidifiers. Understand that instead of the minerals in the water being put into the air as a fog (and breathed in) and being dispersed all over the house as dust, they stay behind in the machine. Just the water evaporates. This means the minerals must be cleaned out of the machine from time to time. Follow the cleaning directions on the machine. It cleans very easily. If you have a lot of minerals in your water you may need to clean it more often. If you don't remove the mineral build up, the unit will eventually show an orange light and will not run until it is cleaned. I am very happy to clean up the minerals from this machine rather than breathe them in. There are many contaminants in tap water, and in my area arsenic is one of them. Even though the water district sends out letters every year or so showing the arsenic levels and assuring us that the levels are below the "acceptable" range, I choose to drink filtered water and would think it is best not to breathe arsenic powder (and who knows what else) into my lungs. On low it runs about 24 hours. On high about 12 hours. When the tank is empty the green light turns orange and the unit turns off. It is simple to use, fill and clean.