Honeywell HWM450 Quick Steam Warm Moisture Humidifier
by Honeywell
|
List Price: Category: Home See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
Tools and Hardware Reviews of Honeywell HWM450 Quick Steam Warm Moisture Humidifier
Customer Review: So far, so good - what a difference for a dry house in winter!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm jumping the gun writing this after buying 2 of these from Amazon just one week ago, but both have been running non-stop with no problems for one week.
Before using these units, our house was at 23% humidity - awful!
One unit is in our second floor master bedroom. We keep the door shut & fill this unit once daily with it running non-stop & set to low or medium and 45% humidity.
The other unit is on the first floor & is covering approximately 1500 sq ft with a 2-story foyer which doesn't help. The foyer opens to 2 other rooms with no doors. We just put a small, cool mist unit in the dining room that requires 40% humidity for our piano in there. Because this room opens to both the foyer & kitchen, some of this room's humidity is likely getting into the foyer & kitchen. (I give all this info to try to help you compare coverage) Bottom line - the new warm mist unit is getting a bit of help via the humidity from the dining room.
All that being said, the 1st floor warm mist unit was placed in the dryest room, far from the dining room. At first, we tried it on high & 40% humidity, but it needed to be filled 3 times/day to get to 40%. We are now trying it on low & 40%, hoping for less refills. As of tonite it is reading 35% humidity, so the low setting is probably not enough for this large space meaning we probably have try it on medium & see how that does.
All family members (4) living here have noticed a BIG difference. And we only went from 23% to 35-38% (downstairs). We like the operation even if we have to refill often. The comfort is worth it.
Customer Review: Don't let it run out of water
Summary: 3 Stars
I Inititally purchased both a HWM450 and a HWM330. As many reviews said for the 330, it died after a week. It ran out of water and turned itself off, then wouldn't turn back on.
I bought another 450 as I liked it better, and then after a couple of weeks the unit ran out of water, turned itself off, then wouldn't turn back on. So I figured with the one remaining unit, I wouldn't let let it run out of water!! It works quite well if I watch it like a hawk to keep refilling it.
The pros (of my remaining unit) is that it does the job well in my medium sized bedroom. I have horrific sinus problems and the warm mist has helped considerably. My eyes are not as dry, and my skin isn't cracking this winter like it usually does. Tank is easy to fill and the wide mouth is easy to clean. I love the design, sleek and takes up less room. The thermostat and gyrostat work well also.
The cons are that cleaning it is not nearly as easy as the promos say - hours of soaking in vinager and a pick axe are about right. And can anyone find mineral pads for this thing? I had to order them (hmp-12) from another company only to hear that the manufacturer would be out of them until at least February or March. Not even Amazon sells replacement pads for a product they sell on their site. It would be nice to know where to get some, or what an alternative would be.
Will I pay the postage costs and $10 (each) to replace my two defective units? In spite of how well I like this product when it works, perhaps my money could be used better to find a better humidifier.
Customer Review: Best humidifier I've owned
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent product. I have had three humidifiers over the years: a Duracraft, Homes and now this Honeywell. This Honeywell is the best I've owned so far. The humidistat is accurate and can be adjusted in one percent increments (I use 42%). It turns on the humidifier at 2 percent below your setting and off at 2 above. It comes apart for easy cleaning. The other humidifiers had heating elements that hung down into a tray of water, where this one has a stainless steel hot plate built into the bottom section. Less than a half inch of water sits over the heating element, so it heats up fast and doesn't heat a large volume of water which produces less waste heat. When you take it all apart, the bottom section with the hot plate can be easily rinsed out with water then cleaned with a little white vinegar that dissolves the mineral deposits. I put a piece of tape across the water inlet to hold the vinegar in the hot plate section to soak for up to an hour. An old tooth brush finishes the job. You can soak the mineral pads in white vinegar to remove the deposits and reuse them.
My only minor complaints are: 1) The tank is rather small for its output capacity. On power level 2 it needs to be refilled twice a day. 2) The tank doesn't sit well when you refill it because the top isn't flat and it is tall so I have to fill it under the tub spout. 3) When you turn it off/unplug it then turn it back on, it resets to power level 3 and 55%, so you have to set it each time it is powered up.
Make sure you read the directions before operating.
Customer Review: It's weak and a hassle to maintain.
Summary: 1 Stars
I don't know how this humidifier received over 2 star rating, but I'm guessing it works better for some people?? Size of my room is about 12-14 and my humidity level never goes over 37%, even when I turn it on max around 55-65% humidity setting. I sometimes wake up in the mornings with dry mouth, nasal passage, dry throat, etc. The way this humidifier works is by boiling water into a round heated metal plate - no bigger than 3-4 inches in diameter. The steam from boiling water is how and what makes this system work - which also kills the water-borne bacteria and fungi, but the steam gets REALLY hot. (Make sure you place it around the areas where little kids can't reach.) However, because it constantly boils water (3 gallons worth) the hard water will mineralize rapidly and start building up right on the metal plate, which will require you to clean every 2-3 days. If you fail to clean and maintain it often, you will have your very own rock cave. Furthermore, the mineral pad/filter will be required to replace every other day, depending on the hardness of you water. So if you are planning to make the purchase, by all means buy couple sets of mineral pads. I went through all 5-6 of them in 2-3 weeks.
I also noticed my humidifier started to leak REALLY bad once, but I noticed that water flow from the tank was an issue, but since then, it stopped leaking (don't ask me how and why).
Update: This thing is now a leaking faucet!!! ruined few of my furniture because it kept leaking nonstop... Avoid this like red death or The Kardashians.
Customer Review: Worked great...while it lasted
Summary: 2 Stars
The humidifier worked fine for the first couple of weeks I had it - and had a lot of good qualities. The steam built up quickly and my small bedroom could be taken from a parched 20% humidity to a balmy 60% in short order. The machine wasn't super quiet, but the sound it made was pleasant and gurgly.
After a couple of weeks, however, the humidifier's "fill" light came on even though the tank was full, and it refused to start. I discovered that if I pressed the tank down towards the rest of the unit for a few seconds I could convince the sensor that the tank was, in fact, there. It was annoying, but not insurmountable.
I used the humidifier regularly for about a month, and it continued to be annoyingly fussy, but always worked after a few minutes of messing with it. I put it away for a few months, and when I took it out again and tried to get it to start, it refused. And continued to refuse. I've been messing with it for days and NOTHING. I cleaned it, replaced the mineral pad, tried all the tricks I'd learned when it was fussy before, but no dice. The unit comes on and shows a humidity reading, but nothing else happens. The "clean me" light is on, but I cleaned it!!!
So many people claim to have had pretty much exactly the same problem that I would advise everyone out there to avoid the gamble and BUY SOMETHING ELSE. This would have been a nice little humidifier, but it's so faulty that it's just not worth taking the chance. I spent 60 bucks and got a month of service. Go with something that's got a better track record.