Honeywell HWM450 Quick Steam Warm Moisture Humidifier
by Honeywell
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List Price: Category: Home See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Honeywell HWM450 Quick Steam Warm Moisture Humidifier
Customer Review: The best humidifier I have used till now.
Summary: 5 Stars
I tried many different humidifiers in the past. The wick types require extensive cleaning every week/15 days and the wick needs to be replaced every month or so, the wick life elongated only by using chemicals (unhealthy for humans?)= cost of $40/season. And the wicks start to smell as they get old. The humidifiers themselves lasted only a couple of seasons with their fan motors giving up on a 12-hr/day use at our small apartment.
I used the Honeywell HWM450 for last 3 years, 12 hrs/day every winter (Nov--April), using Michigan tap water, and it still works like new. I just finished using the four extra pads they sent with it. New ones, a pack of 10 cost me $10. So hardly any replacement cost. Earlier the cleaning was a big problem and then I found an easy way out:
1. Every Sunday I empty the base and fill the heating plate with White vinegar. I tilt it about 20 deg to get more vinegar in. Then cover it with the funnel shaped piece. Leave for 2-3 hours. Then clean with an old tooth brush. All the sediments come clean and the plate is clean like new in couple of minutes. One drawback: I miss cleaning one week and next week I need to put in much more efforts. Also try removing the concentrated salt-filled water in the lower part every other day or so. Reduces my cleaning efforts.
2. The filter pad: Do NOT wring/bend it when it is hard: that reduces its life. I put it in a small plastic box with base the same size as filter pad. Most ready-made dip boxes are of this size. Pour white vinegar till the pad dips completely in it. Cover with lid and keep for 6-7 hrs or overnight. Rinse under tap water to remove all salts. Now you can bend it if you wish. In the meantime use another pad in the humidifier. This way your one pad will last for at least one season if not more. White vinegar come quite cheap too: about $4/gallon, last you a couple of seasons.
Very easy to fill the tank as the opening is twice as large as on any wick-filter I used. Do not keep it near a glass window as the vapor condenses. Made my floor carpet quite wet. I am buying another one this year at Home depot as my other permawick-humidifier is almost dead.
Also, the warm humidifier means my home heating systems does not have to work as much. And the steam is clean: no dust like the ultra-violet ones.
Customer Review: Worked for 4 years
Summary: 4 Stars
The Amazon Product Overview says it puts out 4 gallons per tank--this is incorrect. The tank holds about 1.3 gallons; the unit is rated capable of putting out 4 gallons a day, presumably running full tilt. My guess is that it can actually put out a bit more than that, because the tank can empty in less than 8 hours if the air is really dry and the unit's cranked up.
On my second mineral absorption pad, the unit would turn itself off after a few minutes, presumably because it was overheating. (The boiling sound would get more airy just before it shut off.) I tried it without the pad and it works fine, and I think it's putting out more steam now, which suggests that using the pad requires more electricity. I'm not noticing much difference in how quickly the plate develops scale without the pad, but I apparently have very hard water. I've taken to cleaning the plate daily, because it's easy if I do it daily but very difficult if I do it weekly.
I got this one in November, it's now February, and I haven't had any other problems (though I'll second others' comments about the clumsy design of the tank). I do wish there were an always-on setting, in case I want to use it for medicine dispersal along with humidifying. My last Honeywell humidifier died after 2 winters.
Update 20 Nov 2010:
There <em>is</em> an always-on setting.
After 4 winters, it's dying--it now shuts itself off after a couple hours' operation, with the reset button coming on on. (That's supposed to happen if it runs out of water or the boiler plate is crusted with minerals, neither of which has been true.) I also sometimes get random things showing up on the readout when I push buttons. I assume something funky is happening in the electronics, which is how my last Honeywell humidifier died. I suppose 4 years isn't bad; I'd replace it with the same if the price hadn't gone up by 60% (wtf?).
Something not obvious: the medicine cup is part of a relatively small part that can be removed; this is very helpful. The medicine you put in there will get gunky and need to be cleaned out, and not having to clean a great big piece of contraption, or something with electronics attached, is definitely helpful.
Customer Review: Excellent product in use, poor reliability and quirky in execution
Summary: 1 Stars
I have purchased one of these humidifiers years ago
I was extremely pleased with it... at first. Controls are nice, very easy to use, quick to create steam and produced plenty of humidity.
Lets start with the big whoppers that matter though. My first unit failed by the end of the winter season and would no longer turn on.
We purchased a new one the next year and it just barely lasted the season. The units have VERY poor longevity - shouldn't this last for years of service? I will NOT be buying a third one.
But lets pretend they never broke and get on to problems with the execution:
Over time I have noticed a few things with BOTH of my failed units before they died
The control unit sits loosely in the base, and the controls are easy to wiggle out. You find yourself knocking it
out every time you put the water tank back and fussing with it just to get it lined up to turn back on again after.
The water tank needs to usually be wiggled to seat properly
The seal on the tank is VERY finicky. Expect to need to readjust and crank down the tank cap several times each fill after a month or so just to keep it from leaking all over your floor.
The top is rounded not flat - does not sit flat in the sink so it would fill easy. They recessed the handle halfway, how hard would it be to go another inch honeywell?
The humidistat drifts and misreports. We generally liked a higher humidity in our home in the winter but noticed that we had to set humidity to all the way (65+ which is always on) just to get a relative humidity around 30 or so. if you set it low we would get nosebleeds at 35 or 40% - and if you set it to 40% one day it was drastically different than 40% the next day. There was plenty of airflow in the room with a constant ceiling fan so it was not localized humidity.
All in all the old addage "they dont make them like they used to" rings true here. Spend your money on something that will last.
Customer Review: getting the unit to do what it's supposed to
Summary: 3 Stars
I spent a lot of time reading everyone's reviews of various Honeywell humidifiers, and sympathize, especially because I too got a 450 that was defective upon opening (I plan to contact my credit card company if Amazon gives me a hard time about the refund).... but I now have a 330 and a new 450 that I have gotten to do pretty much what they are supposed to do- the important thing being that they put out great steam and are fairly quiet, just a bit of gurgling, which I find sort of pleasant. As of now the 330 is 4 months old and the 450 is 3 weeks old.
Here's how we try to keep these questionable units running:
1)We place the humidifiers on a stepstool and check whether it is level.
2)We use distilled water, in spite of the filter thingy. We get it delivered from Poland Spring and store it in the garage, because the minimum order is 48 one-gallon bottles (8 cases). Another advantage of this is that it seems okay if we clean the unit less often than every 7 days.
3)We fill the tank just before bed because the air is extremely dry here, and keep an extra gallon nearby.
4)We leave the unit on high, all the time, and make sure the tank never gets near empty.
5)To unscrew the top, I sit on a chair and place the tank between my feet to get leverage, and use a t-shirt to open it. I also try to dry off the threads before screwing the top back in- this part works much better when the parts have cooled a bit
6)although it is not mentioned in the manual, there is another part that can be rinsed or wiped down with vinegar, namely the tube from which the steam exits. It can be removed from the main housing.
7)We follow the motto "easy does it," so as not to 'startle' this sensitive unit!
Looking forward to the day when some company puts out a reliable easier-to-use unit. We can go to the moon, so you'd think we'd have it by now! In short, I actually like the 330 better than the 450 because there are fewer things that can go wrong...
Customer Review: honeywell M450 rocks
Summary: 5 Stars
In my opinion you can't go wrong with the Honeywell HWM450. Here's why, We live in the NYC area of the country and the winters are very dry. There are not many places to live with central heat/air. We have rads throughout our apt which can make the air much drier.
My wife is a classical singer and was going to the doctor with vocal cord issues. His answer was to drink more water because she was dehydrated. We figured out that with her normal intake that she must be loosing water while w slept. Makes alot of sense if you used rad heat.
I searched here first because I knew that there would be options to judge an rewiew on other sites. I chose this model for the price, reviews, and product claims.
SIX MONTHS LATER
Now that the winter season is almost over I have to say that this model was the correct choice. With her normal water consumption and the HWM450 there have been no doctor visits and dry nights is not an issue anymore.
EASY TO USE AND CLEAN
The model comes in 4 pieces and very well tought out. The BASE: is moulded plastic with very little small crevises for th cleanning. The stainles hot plate is in the base too. There is a type of control module that seats right into the base to the front. The 1.5 gallon holding tank sits on the back and seats very securely. It is a very nice package.
CLEANING
Again I can't say a bad thing about it.... I use tap water which is or is not high in calcium not real sure but the unit gets cleaned every 3 to 4 weeks. there is build up in the nooks but nothing and hour of time can't fix for the whole unit. White vinager on the hotplate and a butter knife on the plastics usually work just fine.
BEST PART OF ALL......
This actually my second unit... the first one really didn't seem to do anything due to the quite factor. I sat and filled out amazons return page and was given a bar coded return printout with no questions asked. Before I got it sent out there was another unit at my door.