Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Summary from this review: Get the blue one...its better than the color or white ones. Also, the light is annoying but can be turned off. I have an EE-5301 Blue Crane Drop Humidifier with a Date Code from 2010. The humidifier was quiet and effective. The only drawback was the bright green light that is on when the unit is running. I use this in a bedroom while sleeping. The green light changes to red when the water is out. I bought a new White Crane Drop Humidifier and modified both at the same time to turn off the "night light" and just have the red light functional. The details of the modification are below. By taking both apart, I found some important differences between the blue and the white humidifiers. Differences between the colored humidifiers and the blue humidifier: The Blue Crane Humidifier has better output and components: I just bought another Drop humidifier to replace what I thought was the same model I previously had. The difference is my old one is blue and the new one is white. My old EE-5301 has a date code of 8/20/10 printed on the bottom. The white one for sale on Amazon now is the same model number (with the addition of a "w" at the end) but it has some important differences inside and out. I took both units apart at the same time to turn off the green running light. However, you do not need to take the units apart to see the difference. The old blue EE-5301 has a ribbed dial on the front instead of one with just an indentation for your finger. The opening in the bottom of the blue humidifier tank (the hole that vapor passes through is 1/4" larger than the color/white humidifiers). I suspect the next change was done to compensate for the noticeably less vapor output. Crane changed the size of the opening in the cone-shaped cap that goes on top of the tank on the white model. The old cap on my blue device is 1/4" larger in diameter. This gives the appearance of more vapor coming out of a smaller hole. When you put the old cap from the blue device from 2010 on the new white device, the difference in vapor output is more obvious. The vapor is less and does not go as far on the newer white one (see pic in comment section). On the inside, the old blue EE-5301 has a much larger fan and a more robust transformer. There are some structural differences to the molded plastic too. The tank and top caps remain interchangeable on both units. The new fan on the white unit is much less substantial and looks like something off of a video card. The vapor output on the old blue device is noticeably more robust on the highest setting. The bottom line is that the model numbers are the same but blue one is better. It appears from the picture on Amazon, that the blue humidifier being sold still has the ribbed dial and is probably the same one as mine from 2010. It has better components. The other point of this review is that the green running light is bright and annoying. I would think most would use this in a bedroom. I'm too old for a night light. I modified my drop humidifiers to never have the green light come on and just have the red light functional. The modification to turn off the green running light: There are 4 screws on the bottom that need to be removed to get to the LED. Once inside, the LED for the green and red light (there is only one LED that can change color) is found behind the clear plastic directly above the dial. There is one screw that holds down the small LED circuit board. There are 3 small wires that are soldered to the circuit board for the LED. The wire that has small red "x's" was the power for the green LED on my units. When holding the small circuit board with the screw hole up and the LED bulb on the far side off the circuit board, it was the far right-hand wire. I de-soldered the far right wire (one with the "x's" printed on it) from the circuit board but cutting it would have worked too. I put a piece of electrical tape around the end and put everything back together. Mission accomplished. Problem solved. This took 10 minutes after figured out which wire to cut with a volt meter. I cannot post any links on reviews but I posted a picture of the wire I removed from the LED circuit board. In any case, now the green light never comes on but the red light comes on when the water is out. The typical caveats apply: I do not recommend to anyone to take their humidifier apart. You could cut the wrong wire, damage your humidifier or blow up the universe. Never take anything apart with the power on. Just because this worked for me, it may not work for you. Update 10/2014: It appears now even the blue humidifier on Amazon has an finger indentation on the knob (instead of a ribbed knob) which indicates to me that all the Crane humidifiers likely have the same configuration as the white one I ordered. If you can find a blue one with the ribbed knob, it has better components. However without a direct side-by-side comparison, I doubt anyone would be heartbroken over the differences.