Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I usually don't write reviews, but this product really let me down and I figure I should warn other potential customers. I ordered this humidifier for my apartment, I live in New England and the winters are very cold and dry and I figured it was time to make them a little more bearable. I did a lot of research into which humidifier to buy, I liked this one because of the dual tank system, the warm mist, the medicinal cup, but most of all the UV function which was supposedly going to prevent or slow microbial growth. I had a very very bad cold when this arrived, and it was really fantastic the first few days. It put out a lot of humidity, warmed the room, soothed my throat and lungs, and I was looking forward to using the medicinal cup. The dual tank system is flawed, because you need to switch out the tanks if you want them to be used sequentially. That is, once I replaced the left hand side tank, in the morning (~12 hours per tank) the unit doesn't switch to the right-hand side tank. That means unless you physically switch the right and left hand side tanks, your right hand side tank will just be standing water which will cultivate microbes. I was worried about this, but it turns out I should have been more worried about what happened in the warm water chamber. Anyhow, I'll get to that. The unit also failed to shut off or indicate that the tanks needed to be refilled, which was frustrating because overheating is a big safety concern. Anyhow, after less than a week of use, I replaced one of the tanks and was greeted by some fungal growth in the base of the unit. I know that humidifiers require diligent maintenance to avoid these things, but I really didn't expect to have to start doing weekly cleanings on a unit whose high price was mostly due to the addition of this UV lamp that was supposed to slow this kind of growth from occurring. I decided to go ahead and open the unit up to clean it out because it would give me a chance to check on the mineral absorption pad (I don't know how hard the water I have is, so I wanted to check to see if I would need to replace this more or less frequently than the manual stated). To my horror, I found a truly terrifying fungal colony inside the central part of the unit. It had dominated the hot water chamber, and had grown ALL over the nozzle and was starting to climb up into the removable plastic carriage. I don't even have a good way to clean the carriage because it's so awkwardly shaped. Also, the mineral absorption pad (still soft! at least I don't have very hard water) appeared to be colonized as well. The entire pad was swollen and a sickening brown hue. I can deal with some maintenance, but to deal with such a huge fungal infestation every few days is definitely not compliant with the product advertising. I've shut the unit down, and have yet to be able to really clean it out, as the fungus has gotten into some really hard to reach nooks and crannies. I definitely don't want to be inhaling fungal spores, so this unit is pretty much out of commission as far as I'm concerned. Thankfully Amazon fully refunded my order, and profusely apologized for what happened. Buyer beware, the UV functionality on this unit is NOT going to prevent the microbial growth that demands daily cleanings to prevent. I'm still trying to find a good humidifier, and I think I'm going to have to just cave and get one of the expensive air-o-swiss units that have special add-ons to guard against this kind of terrible microbial growth.