Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Winters in Wisconsin are very cold and dry, resulting in a lot of static electricity if you don't have enough humidity in the air. It was getting so bad in our house that whenever we touched a light switch, anything with fabric, or each other, we would would get shocked and I didn't feel safe about that at all so we decided to look into a whole house humidifier because we hoped the benefits of purchasing and maintaining a humidifier would greatly outweigh the costs. We did a lot of research on humidifiers but most of the ones we found had a lot of poor reviews and we didn't want to spend a lot of money on a humidifier that wouldn't last us for awhile. My husband came across this one and we both agreed that it was the best one we'd found so far so we ordered it. When we got it, we opened up the box and found that it is very easy to set up. This humidifier is approximately 14" by 20" by 20" and is fairly lightweight yet durable (I have three-year-old twins who are curious about everything and this humidifier is still in great shape after over four consecutive months of use). It is designed for homes up to 3600 square feet. Ours is about 3200 square feet, including the basement, and this humidifier kept the entire house moist enough so we hardly had any static throughout the dry winter. The humidifier has four casters so it's very easy to roll it around the house while it's filled, even on carpet. It holds 3 1/2 gallons of water between the base and the bottle and this can last as little as a day or as long as a week, depending on your settings, how often it runs, and how dry it is.The settings include four fan speeds, humidity control, and the power button. The digital display will also tell you the percentage of humidity it senses right by the humidifier, which may be different in other parts of your house. The humidifier will tell you when you need to fill the water bottle and check the filter. I really like the control lock feature since my kids would definitely play with it (and believe me, they tried) but since we locked it, they aren't able to play around with the settings. You just hold the power button down for five seconds to lock it and the same to deactivate it for when you want to adjust any settings. The humidifier seems to be nicely-designed and has withstood over four months of three-year-old twins trying to play with it. The housing unit feels a bit more flimsy than you'd expect but ours hasn't been destroyed yet. It also is very easy to clean and maintain. The humidifier comes with a filter but you'll need to purchase additional ones. The manual suggests changing the filter once every season you use it or more, depending on the type of water you have. We have very hard water and the initial filter lasted about three months, which is about what I would expect. We purchased the AIRCARE MAF1 Replacement Wicking Humidifier Filter and Essick Air 1970 Humidifier Bacteriostatic Treatment, 1-Quart with our humidifier. This humidifier is off-white and nice because it looks good without being an eyesore. We have ours between our bedrooms in our hallway and it worked so well for us during the time we used it. I included a picture of it so you can see what it looks like in our house. There is some noise from the fan when it runs but you can adjust the fan speeds and we keep our doors closed at night anyway so it sounds more like white noise and didn't bother me at all after the first couple days. I'm a light sleeper so I woke up quite a bit the first couple nights. Within the first 24 hours of having this humidifier run, I noticed a huge difference in the humidity in our house! I no longer got zapped when I put a blanket on myself, picked up one of my kids, and turned on a light. My hair also stopped standing straight up and I was so grateful. We also had none of the white dust come out of this humidifier like when we had a cool mist humidifier. Overall, we are extremely pleased with the purchase of this humidifier and feel the price we paid is well-worth the benefits we've received. We didn't notice a huge difference in our electricity bill either because once the humidity increased in our house, the furnace didn't have to run nearly as much. We now don't feel unsafe touching light switches, blankets, or each other and our hair no longer sticks up! I anticipate using this humidifier about six months out of the year, from about late October through late April, so this purchase has been very beneficial for us. I'd definitely recommend purchasing this humidifier if you are looking for a whole house one. It is nicely-priced, easy to maintain, and worked so well for us in the four and a half months we used it so far. It's now in storage for the spring and summer but we will bring it out again in the late fall once it starts to get dry. If I come up with any more information to add and/or my opinion of this humidifier changes, I will update this review. Out of all of the humidifiers we researched, this one seemed like the best fit for us and we have been very satisfied with our purchase!