Essick Air 4-Speed Tower Humidifier

Overall, this is a great humidifier.

SIZE: The tower shape of the unit makes it perfect for environments where there is more wall space to consume than floor space. It''s fairly large: as a point of reference, it rises a little higher than the arms of my living room sofas and it''s rectangular shape is about the size of a magazine, plus about 1.5" on each side for the two tanks.

CONTROLS: The digital controls makes it pretty easy to operate. It''s a simple, two-button interface with an easy-to-read display. The automatic humidistat can be set from 25-65% (at 10% intervals). The current and desired humidity level are shown side-by-side on the display using indicator bars. When set a desired humidity level, the automatic humidistat will run the unit until the current humidity reading is 10% higher than your preference, then turn it off until the current reading drops to 10% lower than your preference. This is a pretty nice feature it saves power and conserves water so you don''t have to refill the reservoirs as frequently. You can also choose to run the unit continuously by not setting a preferred humidity level.

FAN NOISE: There are four fan speeds. The first three speeds are all very quiet and wouldn''t be disruptive (or even noticeable) in most settings. The fourth and highest setting is more noticeable, sounding something like a microwave oven but slightly softer and quieter. It might be enough to make you turn up the TV a little while watching the news, but really no worse than that.

DISPLAY: The display also has a green power indicator and a red indicator to let you know when both reservoirs are empty (the unit will stop when this is the case until at least one reservoir is refilled). I did find it kind of odd that the product uses LED bars to display the humidity levels and two-digit numeric readout for the fan speed (even though the highest speed setting is only 4). It almost seems to me that these should be reversed, but that doesn''t really reduce the effectiveness of the unit and the interface is still pretty easy to read and use as designed.

SETUP & USE: The unit is fairly easy to setup and maintain. The two wick units and the plastic grill covers that enclose them can be a little cumbersome when snapping them in and out of place. This is not a particularly big problem, since the wick units only need to be replaced at the beginning of each season to avoid mineral buildup.

The two reservoirs, on the other hand, are very easy to remove and replace while the unit is operating. Each is the full height of the unit and about 2 inches thick with a simple click-latch fixing them snugly to the unit''s sides. Despite their large and odd shape, they''re surprisingly easy to fill even at a small bathroom sink. They each can hold a little more than their rated 1.5 gallons when topped off and the fill-caps hold this amount without leaking. The instructions say that the water level in these tanks is "easily visible" from the sides. The water level can be seen from the sides, but I wouldn''t describe it as "easily"; the dark tint makes it pretty difficult to see from any distance. I often have to gently rock the unit a little to find the surface of the water move before I can judge.

When this unit is running continuously at full speed, it can run through both reservoirs twice in a single day (that two times each, or 6 gallons total). Unless your environment is *extremely* dry, I think that''s about the max. With more practical and conservative settings, they only need to be filled every 2-4 days, which is a much more relaxed refill schedule to keep.

The unit does work well even for larger, dryer spaces. You''ll be able to notice an immediate difference in the air near the humidifier as soon as you start it, and the effect radius grows pretty quickly especially on the highest speed setting.

SUMMARY: All in all, this is a nice multi-room humidifier that looks good, fits easily, works well and is easy to operate with a nice feature set for it''s price range.

The first Humidifier I received, did not work properly. I called the "800" listed on the insert if you encountered a problem. Actually a live person answered. I explained the problem, she knew exactly what was wrong, said it was defective, send it back and we''ll ship a new one.

I received a new humidifier within a week. Put it together and it works perfectly. You can set the percentage of humidity you would like and the humidifier shuts on and off to keep the humdity at the selected level. I like the fans 4 speeds. Setting number 1& 2 are very quiet, although 3 and 4 are not bad. The humidifier covers 1300 sq feet which is perfect for my entire downstairs. There are two water tanks, I fill them every other day, but the humidifier shuts off and a red light appears when it is out of water.

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I''ve tried several humidifiers and this one is the easy to use and is easy to fill.

The design makes it very easy to find a place that is out of the way. The high(4) fan speed is noisy, but the 3 speeds below that are quiet. I set the humidity to one below the max with fan speed at 3 and it goes through one tank every 4-5 hours. I also use a Protec cartridge placed in the base of the reservoir and have had no problems with mildew so far. This one is a keeper.

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Having used an ultrasonic humidifier for the past couple of years (before it gave up completely), we wanted to try a different style humidifier. This one seemed to fit the bill.

First off, the build quality is terrible. The quality of the plastic is sub-par. It''s brittle, terribly molded and roughly finished. One side of the unit didn''t even have the plastic punched out for the latches that hold the filter cover in place. The latches that hold the water tanks in place are imprecise and difficult to operate, leading to difficultly latching and unlatching the tanks. I could see this as an obvious point of failure with repeated use.

Forgiving this, the unit works well to quickly humidify a decent sized room. The fan is quiet and effective at lower settings (1, 2). It gets louder at 3-4 but isn''t too loud. The humidity settings are reasonably accurate, tested against a calibrated hygrometer. Two full tanks will keep our large bedroom at ~50% humidity during cold, dry furnace-heated days for around 36 hours.

The tanks might have kept us humidified longer if the unit didn''t randomly overflow and leak water all over the floor. I would guess that whatever mechanism is in place to prevent the gravity-fed reservoir from overflowing just isn''t built to high enough tolerances to prevent this problem. We tried placing the unit on a baking sheet to contain any small leaks, but even that overflowed.

We will be looking for a different unit once the return process is complete.

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I purchased (2) of these units from the local Menard''s store. I really liked the narrow footprint and quiet operation mode. Unfortunately, they are of poor design and build.

The water bottles side load vertically, and if you don''t seat the bottle correctly on the small feed socket, you''re going to get a 10" inch puddle. This is managed by learning how to ''quick'' set the bottle into the unit. With a little practice one can get the hang of it. Still, I''d recommend you put down a water pan under the unit. I use a boot tray for winter boots.

After about 30 hours, one of the units had a fan failure. The second unit has had a problem with the control panel the switches stopped working. I was able to get it to run on full speed. I returned the first unit to the store within the grace period for a refund, but got stuck with the second unit.

Really, you''re taking a big risk buying this model.