Air-O-Swiss 7144
Details
- Move & Cool mist!
- Humidifies rooms up to 650 sq.ft.
- 3.5 gallon per day create!
- Ultra-temperate operation!
Description
Humidification System This Digital Ultrasonic humidifier uses grave-frequency vibrations to generate a micro-fine mist when blown into a room straightaway evaporates. Choose the pre-heating function and mist exits the devotion at a pleasant 104 °F. «ITCTM» technology (Intelligent Temperature Return) monitors the temperature and automatically adjusts the output when conditions metamorphose. A replaceable demineralization (Ag+ Ionic Silver Technology) cartridge ensures profligately mist without lime scale or mineral residues, and the AIR-O-SWISS quad-belt microbial protection system prevents microbial growth in the water cheap. This is particularly important when the humidifier is not used for some time with water unconsumed in the base.Customer Reviews
Stationary but a pain to handleTHe section is nice an quiet, but there are a few items that need to be improved:
1. The force ejecting the mist is not very noisome, so a lot of water tends to fall on the piece of furniture the humidifier is on, and has to be continuously cleaned.
2. When empty and the tank requirements to be taken off, there is a lot of condensation on the unit, so when the tank is lifted, there is a lot of water that drains/drips down. One has to be carefull to pocket the tank, tilt it so it is over the bottom of the humidifier so that the water drips there, before QUICKLY removing the tank and the unused water dripping off. Otherwise, it is a big mess to clean the water from the furniture the humidifier is on.
3. When refilling with spa water, it is extremely uncomfortable to hold utank pside down and refill (opening on bottom), since the top of the tank is not a devastate surface and has the mist openings. One essentially has to put the tank on a cushy towel, or hold it in air as it is being refilled.
4. Lastly, the proposal of how the tank fits on the unit is strange. When replacing the full tank, one has to be very carefull how to align the tank and more than once I have pinched my fingers as the tank slides into unsuitable.
The functioning of the unit is great. Very quiet. But, bad design IMO. I just do not understand why the tank is not made to be refilled from the top. Why can not the manufacturers of these humidifiers effigy this out. Just add a refill opening on the top of the tank. Then one would not even need to remove it from the base. No spilling, transportation, etc.
Inhale a Little Easier!
I am script this review after reading the other reviews prior to purchasing this Air O Swiss humidifier. I think it is impressive to start by mentioning that I have had 3 other humidifiers in the past 5 years, so I know a little (maybe a lot!) about them. The senses I was on the market for a humidifier is because the one I have had for the past two years is such a pain to clean (requires cleaning every duo of days to prevent from spreading bacteria, mold, allergens, etc.) and my 9 week old son caught his first unsympathetic. Considering that the humidifier I would be purchasing was going to be in my infant's room, I wanted to be sure to acquire one that wouldn't create additional respiratory problems as a result of releasing bacteria, mushroom, allergens, etc, back into the air. This requires buying one that has a built-in anti-microbial system. This also greatly reduces the maintenance requirements. Although the price was about $200, I am very pleased with this unit. I use it in my son's room and have no problem maintaining a humidity of 50% regardless of exterior temperature. Running it at 50% humidity from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM requires about half the tank of salt water. As for the noise level, it is as quiet as humidifiers get. In fact, I have "supersonic" hearing and the very quiet disturbance circulate doesn't bother me even if I am right next to it. It isn't even as lound as my computer fan. Every once in a while you hear the air bubbles pass through the tank and those are a tad bit louder, but all humidifiers create this same noise. The white dust that some people have complained of has not been an issue for us. We use tap water in the humidifier, but we do have a thin out softening system. Even with the added salt in our water, we have not seen much in the way of white dust. The only dust after 1 week of using for 12 hours at continuously is the standard layer of house dust that furniture collects. Although I am happy with this purchase, there are two things that could be improved with the piece: (1) They should have added a cap on the top of the tank that allows you to add water. Instead, you must remove the tank from the section and refill in the tub or kitchen sink. When you lift the tank from the unit, there is some water that drips at first, so I make attractive holding it above the unit for a few seconds to let the water drip off into the unit. (2) The buttons on the front of the item each have a graphic icon. It is difficult to know what the icons mean without referring to the manual. In the final analysis, you will remember, but it has been a couple of weeks since I purchased this and I still can't remember what each button does. All in all, I do recommend this output. It functions well, looks modern, and is quiet.
High-minded idea, but seriously flawed execution
I deficiency to keep my piano in tune through the tough Minnesota winter. I bought one of these this fall, and have used it for several months now.
In ethic, this should be a great product. Ultrasonic humidifiers are energy-efficient, quiet, and germ-ungovernable -- but they create white dust from minerals in the water, and give an unpleasantly cold and gummy output. This humidifier tackles those problems with an integrated water filter to get rid of the white dust, and an integrated modify heater. Brilliant! Right?
Wrong. The filter doesn't completely work, and after a few month's practice, there's a sticky white dust over everything in the room. I run an air purifier in the same room, and its filter is utterly gummed up. Our the highest is not unusually hard; the humidifier just doesn't work as advertised.
Furthermore, the tank is too trivial. Forget about these "room size" and "runs for *up to* XX hours" stats that humidifier makes try to palm on you. There are two numbers to pay attention to: the maximum output rate (volume per time), and the tank expanse. This humidifier does pretty well on the output rate, but the tank is way to small. The result: even keeping the space at not even 40% humidity, I have to refill the thing twice a day or more. People just running it overnight while they saw wood may not be bothered, but I'm trying to keep the room with the piano up to a good level 24/7, and this thing doesn't cut the mustard.
But respite, there's more! The controls are idiotic. They use a cryptic set of little icons that are not easy to figure out. The desired humidity only goes in 5% increments, and doesn't go cut than 40%. I want it at 35% for the winter. Tough luck! Worse still, it doesn't have up/down buttons for the desired humidity direct, so you have to cycle aaaallll the way around to get to the one you want, like resetting an alarm clock.
That might be acceptable if it remembered the settings, but every then it's powered off -- not unplugged, mind you, but powered off -- it forgets all the settings and you have to redo them. If the power goes off, even for 30 seconds, the portion stays off. I've already had to do an extra piano tuning because of an outage.
Even if the power doesn't go off, it's still a big problem: the only way not to get risible amounts of white powder is to empty the bottom of the unit regularly; otherwise minerals build up in the base. Every yet you unplug it, you have to redo the settings. However, you can't adjust any settings until the bottom tank refills. So my current replenish cycle is as follows: carry entire unit (tank+base) to sink. Empty debased while filling tank. Carry back and plug it in. WAIT TWO MINUTES for it to glug glug glug into the radical until it realizes it's refilled. Then redo all the settings the way I want. TWICE A DAY.
But wait, there's even more! The humidity sensor is wildly way off base cock-eyed, because the unit throws itself off. The mist doesn't disperse all that well, and the the thing bathes itself in humidity. That puts it into a thrash succession where it turns on because it thinks the air is dry, then turns off when it's covered in its own mist, then turns back on again.... The only upside of this is that the rough-hewn 5% humidity increments don't really matter, because the sensor is always wrong anyway (and not by a consistent amount).
One more affair: the manual says it needs to be at least four feet off the floor, or the mist won't have time to evaporate as it falls. That's a low thinking. I have mine five feet off the ground, and it still leaves the floor near it sticky with minerals and slightly damp.
For the assess, this ought to be a really excellent humidifier. It isn't. I really miss the $50 warm steam up one it replaced.
It Works OK
We have this humidifier in our bedroom, and however it generates the fog, it is quiet. We do, however, hear a gurgling all night as the water enters the working part of the unit, and my strife thinks it's my stomach. At least it's just a gurgle. The unit can run all night and the humidity reading does not interchange, but the room does feel less dry. My nose has not dried out near as much and we both seem to sleep better since we started using the humidifier. I purchased this type/model after reading many good reviews, but it is pricey and I think I should have checked Costco before making the obtain. One item sorta got to me. The warranty info says unless you register the unit within 10 life span that the warranty is void. That should not be.
Benefit the money and more!
This is my 2nd get of this same unit...we needed another one for the living room. I have not had a single issue with either of them. One has been running for ~8 simple months with no need for cleaning (because there's nothing to clean off it). My newest one is only 2 weeks old. They both work flawlessly.
You want to realize that this humidifier is ultrasonic, which has many advantages over "swamp cooler" style humidifiers, but they have a few things to keep in humour. If you didn't know, an ultrasonic humidifier uses a piezoelectric transducer element that vibrates at ultrasonic speeds. This causes be unfeasible molecules to break off from the rest of the pool and it becomes vapor. In doing so, it also rips the mineral deposits independently from the water. This is that "white dust" you hear about. It's bad. It will accumulate pretty much everywhere in, on, and around the humidifier...including the ultrasonic environment. Minerals are abrasive...and they *could* essentially "sand" away the finish on the element over time. That's bad, but it's not the producer's fault by any means...it's *your* fault for using hard water.
Now, with that elementary stuff out of the way, RO A-one good enough for daily use with the demineralization cartridge. The "white dust" may be non-existent to your eyes, but there are still speck minerals in RO water and the cartridge in the tank can't remove everything, so they'll build up over time. That's why you have to clean it every few months. I removed the videotape and use a mix of distilled water (from the store) and free de-ionized water from my work. I get the best execution this way. If I ever get my reverse osmosis system fixed, I might us a mix of RO water and DI water to save some $$$.
So how about some features to consider:
1. Film control - There are 3 levels: "barely any", "a good amount", and "old faithful." I keep both units set at 50% humidity and on the highest vapor environment. This is able to keep my living room and master bedroom at an optimal humidity. The tank will last 1.5 to 2 duration depending on usage and relative humidity.
2. Near silent - When it's on, the little fan (that you don't have access to) is always on. It's only there to lift the vapor get up and out of the unit. It's about the same volume as a single low-speed computer fan. You can only hear it if it's dead silent in the area. When the unit is producing vapor, you can hear the hum of the ultrasonic element doing its thing, and there's the auxiliary "blurp" sound of air bubbles in the tank. Total noise level is less than 25% of a in character house fan on the "low" setting. In fact, when my fan is on, you cannot hear the unit at all.
3. Pre-Heating - It has a pre-heat function that *warms* the vapor. By the period the vapor leaves the unit, it's slightly above body temperature. It adds the same energy convention as a light bulb, so don't be scared off by it...it's by no means a steam humidifier. If you put your hand 3" to another place from the nozzle, the vapor will be cool already. Speaking of nozzles...
4. Dual adjustable output nozzles - Marvy for putting the vapor where you want it. If you line up the thumb tabs, the nozzle comes out for tidiness...snazzy.
5. Buttons/Display - The buttons have a nice feel to them, and the display is big and bright...it's somewhat brighter than my alarm clock's display. If it's too bright for you, leave the protective film on the expose and color it in with a sharpie marker. You'll still be able to see the display...just a little darker.
Now for the drawbacks...
1. No rubber feet. I like things to retard where I put them. Because it has plastic feet it will move if you bump it.
2. It does drip a bit when you remove the tank. Now understand me: this is unthinkable to avoid. Warm vapor + cool water tank = condensation in the vapor tube. Also, the bottom of the dispute comes in contact with the water that's about to be pre-heated/vaporized. Pick the tank up, let it drip for 2 seconds, tip it at a snub angle, let it drip for another 2 seconds...no spilled water. Or you can be quick and flip the tank upside down in one fast motion like I do. The tank itself does not leak.
3. The only way to fill it is to flip the tank over and unscrew the cap. I've brooding about drilling/tapping a 1" hole in the top that's big enough for a funnel...but I've never got around to it. Having to flip the tank over to fill it isn't merit the effort/time.
So that's it. The 3 "cons" are so minor they don't even matter, but I thought I'd still bring them up.
