Humidifiers Reviews

We had one of these humidifiers and it worked quite well with occasional use over two winters. A few weeks ago, it caught fire for no obvious reason in our 4-year old daughter's bedroom. Luckily, I was present at the time and unplugged the unit and took it outside. We emailed Bionaire customer service twice to alert them of potential problems with this humidifier. We received no response which I find incredible given the potentially dangerous combination of water and electricity and the possibility of fire. This is a dangerous product and we will avoid products by this company in future.

I like this humidifier because it is small and compact with a clean exterior design. Last winter I bought my second one. Unfortunately it is going the same direction as the first. Initially it has nearly silent operation, which is extremely important to me. Over time it starts to gurgle more and more. I think there's a design issue of the internal components. Also, after a year of use, the heating element's material seems to be flaking off.

In short: Good, but only if you consider it to be a short term item-one season only.

This unit is fairly good in humidifying an average size bedroom (144 to 300 sq ft). The output moisture is in the form of warm steam, which is better and healthier to breathe than the cool moisture models.

Pros:

- Good steam output
- Clean, simple design
- No salt needed like older models

Cons:

- Inserting the tank feels imprecise and clumsy
- 1 full tank runs about 6-7 hours at most

The Product data on this page says "Other items by Holmes". Not sure what that means; this is a Bionaire humidifier with a remote sensor/controller. The feature set it great; it's quiet, cool "mist", no white mineral deposits/dust in the room, etc. But it also requires a complex weekly cleaning, expensive wicks regularly, cannot output much humidity (the wick dries out instead of keeping up) and the wicks are fragile.

The weekly cleaning includes sanitizing the water resevoir, scrubbing out the base, removing and deliming the float, and reassembling all. The wicks are fragile but also are harmed by minerals in the water, so replacements may be needed every month or two, at about $6 per when you can find them.

Humidifier technology still has room for improvement. This is one of the better units out there, due to the remote sensor (so the room is measured, rather than the air around the unit), but it's not just a plug it and forget it model.

Too bad I didn't come here first, at epinions nobody had the reset problem but I sure did. It's too bad too because this thing is a technological marval... except it's defective from the very start.

My water is somewhere between hard and soft but more to the soft side. I read that using distilled or water with no mineral content will allow the boiler to boil less and therefore not trip the automatic shutoff.

I now quote from the review of a Sunbeam on this site:

"A vaporizer only works well if the mineral content in your water is "ideal", so you may have to make simple adjustments if the water doesn't boil (add salt), or if it boils too rapidly (add distilled water). This will prevent "spurting", boiling over and overheated reservoirs."


The problem is it is ridiculous to buy a water distiller for a unit that already has a good filter in it already! The unit boils like the bejesus on low, putting it on high pushes it over the edge and it shuts off with the red blinking "reset/refill" light. I tried 4 times and even called tech support (they were pretty clueless, are you listening Bionaire?).

It's really a pity too because the humidistat can be placed away from the unit and it wirelessly communicates to make sure the room is evenly humidified.

I think the problem is that the water does not go high enough in the tray and you can't tilt it to fix the problem (most warm mist are designed that way for some reason.

We live in a very dry climate (Calgary, Alberta) and we have purchased many different warm mist humidifiers. It's always the same problem (the mineral build up on the heating element is hard to clean no matter what you do!). However, with this one, the heating element just wipes off and I only have to soak it in some vinegar once a week for a few minutes to remove a bit of build up that sticks to the element. I *do* like this heating element since it's extremely easy to clean.

We had the same "reset" problem as described above by other customers, and what we found is that when you plug it in (with a full tank of water), just start it on the LOW setting first, until the steam starts to come out, then you can put it on the HIGH setting (or leave it on LOW if you wish).

We figured out that if you go straight to HIGH to get it started, the machine shuts off (reset light comes on). It seems to get too hot too fast or something is too sensitive inside the machine. If you start on LOW, let it start steaming, then increase it to HIGH, we don't seem to have the reset problem.

We've only had the unit for a week... Let's hope it will hold up ok!

I've had other humidifiers, but this is my favorite. The digital hygrometer prevents over-humidifying (I've ruined the paint on my bedroom wall several times when other humidifiers over-humidified the room overnight). Also like the easy to clean heating element. Finally, I had the reset problem that other reviewers discussed, but when I read the owner's manual more closely, I realized that the reason for my problem was that I was not waiting for the water to filter through the system before starting it (the owner's manual recommends waiting 5 minutes between filling and running the machine). Don't know if the problem other reviewers had was different than this; if so I haven't had the problem they've had. I love that I can leave this humidifier running "unattended" and not worry that I'm going to have to get out the paint rollers again!

Got this humidifier to replace an older Bionaire model. This one has some improvements in the design (has water filter, teflon covered heating element, dishwasher safe water tray) but, unlike my old model which was totally quiet, this unit is horribly noisy. Makes loud crackling, popping sounds - like having a microphone close to boiling water and having the sound amplified. Very annoying and disappointing.