Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this diffuser a little over a month ago, and since that time I have used it nearly every day. I love scented things. So, over the years I've used candles, incense, reed diffusers, tart burners, scented oils and essential oils in diffusers with the tea candles underneath. Although there is something to be said for "no tech" oil burners that use candles, there is also something to be said for flameless scent distribution. Especially for those with pets, kids, people - and this is all of us! - who might possibly forget a tiny tea light candle is burning before they go out for errands. Is it likely your house will burn down from candle use? Probably not. But household fires aren't exactly uncommon either. And personally, as a pet-owner with a blind dog and with a naughty curious kitty, I like not having to use candles. After all, there are only so many times you can watch the cat jump on the side table, ignite her fluffy bum fur as she passes a large glass candle (that was full, though the wick was properly trimmed, the candle tamed and topped with one of those metal candle toppers) then instantly go streaking through the house because she terrified herself by being on fire and not knowing how to get away from it. I have to tell you, this is a horrible moment when - within a second or two of time - you think a million things like "GASP! Poor kitty!!" and "What do I do?!" and then "Oh my god, she is going to catch the curtains, rug, bedding, closet, etc. on fire, too!!!!" Luckily for us, and kitty, she must have run so fast she somehow quickly doused, rather than fanned, the flame, but this was a dramatic event and it is one reason why I love the safety of no-flame scent distribution! And hopefully you don't have to experience anything similar to feel the same way! :-) So, I love this diffuser. I use it was NOW and Aura Cacia oils, primarily. Here are the reasons -besides not being able to catch my cat on fire- that I love this diffuser! 1. It's pretty. There are a lot of decent-looking diffusers out there, but very few that aren't plastic. Though interior components are (BPA-free) plastic, they are encased in this lovely bamboo container. There is a NOW Solutions logo, but it's engraved in the wood, so it looks nicer than most logos do. The buttons are visible enough to read, but small enough to not be gaudy or obtrusive. 2. It has a small footprint. You can see the size if you refer to my attached photos which show me holding the unit. Its base it probably similar in size to a baseball to Naval Orange sized circle. 3. It's quiet as a mouse. It has a little sound to it, so it isn't 100% silent, but I usually have a small air filter and computer running that have fans that completely obliterate anything this little guy may do with it's whisper quiet motor and tiny poofs of scented "vapor". 4. It's completely cool vapor. In a small bedroom that seems to get the brunt of the heat of the sun, and to heat up quicker than the rest of the house - having a candle on or if this were to burst small puffs of hot air - would just be one more thing to make the room stuffy. If you have kids or pets it would also be nice to know this won't be bursting out a poof of piping hot steam, too. Steam burns are some of the worst kind so nice to be able to avoid that possibility entirely. Aside from comfort and safety this keeps the scent of the oil more pure, which is always a good thing! 5. If you put this on intermittent it will run for hours upon hours. I haven't timed it exactly, but I've put it on during the day and had it running the next morning. The scent is softer by then, but it's nice that it can go so long without needing to be refilled. 6. It's (mostly) easy. See my first con below, though. Take off the top, put a little warmish water up to the line, drop 5 drops of oil, plug it in, turn it on, maybe select intermittent setting and bam! Scented diffusion for hours! When it's done carefully pour and/or blot with a little cloth and go again. Cons or Things to think about: The plug input is on the bottom, in a little inverted area. It's either a hassle to unplug and plug back in - full of water - or you need to find a way to conveniently clean and bring water to the unit. I personally have just unplugged, drained, cleaned and refilled, but it is annoying to carefully hold the unit upright - full of water and oil - while you find the plug inlet by touch and/or hold it high enough and/or crouch to peek up at... you get it. A little annoying and something to consider. And for the manufacturer I would suggest a side plug in the future, for ease of use. The light - I can take or leave it - honestly. I like colorful things but I don't use this feature often. Probably because for some reason I have a hard time pressing the buttons to move the light from default red to rotating through the colors. I can't seem to nail down how fast to press the button twice to go from on to on-and-rotating. I can get it to happen. It just doesn't seem consistent and so I often press the button on off on off on off a million times before it switches to rotating. And for me rotating is so... disco. Honestly I would love to pick the solid color, because my single biggest complaint - though maybe I am doing it wrong like with the rotating light scheme - is that the default solid light color is red. Red is not really soothing to me. I like red but I can't say I want a glowing red light to relax to. Red makes me think "Star Wars Deathstar" more than "relaxing spa day!", if you know what I mean. So if solid had to be one color it should be something more soothing like blue, perhaps... or purple or green. Anything but red. If you know how to swap the default solid color on this thing I would love for you to leave me a comment. UPDATE 01/10/16: A kind commenter mentioned how they got their light to work for a new solid color other than red. Not sure why I failed to get this to work before myself, but such is life and I'm grateful the commenter helped me get my light going properly. Now I can swap between purple, green and blue! Hooray! :-) Final thoughts: Great diffuser. Like it a lot. Use it A TON! And would give 5 stars if the plug weren't annoying and the lights worked better. Probably should give it 5 stars considering how much I like it despite those two flaws but 4 stars feels more honest. Hope this helps! One final note: I use pure essential oils or pure blends, primarily. I once used a NOW Rose Absolute, which is rose oil blended with... I think it's Jojoba oil? Anyway, after a rather short while the essential oil scent was gone and it smelled like Jojoba oil, which isn't bad necessarily but it's not at all what I want my home to smell like. From then on I vowed to only diffuse full strength oils. Hope this helps! UPDATE 02/12/2016: ***********Important Note about Potential Dangers of Overfilling!*********** The other night I refilled this when I awoke feeling a bit dry and dusty - we've been running it on "Continuous" as we moved to a drier climate - and inadvertently I overfilled the unit. I didn't know this until the next morning when I saw the unit was on, but not spewing vapor. I touched it and it was quite hot! I took off the lid and it was still full - overfull - of water. Apparently overfilling causes the unit to be unable to expel the vapor bursts. Somehow the unit didn't break, but I still won't know if I caused it undue stress which may have reduced its lifespan. Also, I am super-glad I didn't start an electrical fire or something. So, please be very, very careful and DO NOT overfill your diffuser as it could possibly break your diffuser, or be dangerous! Hope this helps and best of luck, everyone! UPDATE: 05/23/2016: I wanted to update to mention that despite the above evening where I accidentally slightly overfilled and the unit was trying to be on all night, but unable to release vapor - getting super hot - I have had no issues with the unit. It still works as well as ever and I do recommend it. But again, be careful not to overfill, as that could be potentially dangerous. Hope this helps! UPDATE: 05/04/2017: So, the ol' girl finally went to diffuser heaven. I used her daily and will always wonder if that night where she "ran" all night with too much water was the start of her demise, but she lasted about a year and a half exactly. While I strongly considered buying another identical unit, I admit I was lured to try something totally different when I saw the pretty glass diffusers on the market. I bought Radha Aromatherapy Essential Oil Diffuser 200 ml - Wood And Glass Ultrasonic Cool Mist Aroma Humidifier with changing Colored LED Lights, which has a lot of pros and cons. I will review it when I have had it a little while longer, to be thorough, but I already know that while I like the new one I think I will get another one of these NOW Bamboo units when the new one "dies". I just prefer it for all the reasons listed above. Hope this helps and enjoy your aromatherapy - however you choose to do it! :-)