AIRCAREValiant Digital Whole-House Console-Style Evaporative Humidifier (Honey Oak)

I had an old Kenmore humidifier that was about 20 years old and was having a hard time finding proper replacement filters. Since the old unit was so trustworthy, I want a new one as close to the original as I could find. This unit has exactly the same cabinet construction as the old unit, but it has better controls and water system. I give it five stars for the following reasons:1. Higher efficiency. I filled the old unit by pouring water from a bucket until there was about 5" of water in the bottom of cabinet. When the cabinet was fully filled with water, the water covered about 1/2 of the filter thus allowing only the top half of the filter to moisten the air that the fan was pulling through the filter. As the water level dropped more and more of the filter was exposed to the air allowing for more humidification. The new system has two plastic tanks that can be filled from the kitchen sink (see photo). The right tank trickles water into the bottom of the cabinet very slowly, and when it’s empty the left tank starts trickling water. During the humidifying process there is no more than 1” of water in the bottom of the cabinet thereby allowing the entire filter area to be available to moisten the air all the time to provide humidification. Also I think the two tanks have more total water storage capacity then what the old system had so I don’t have to fill the humidifier as often.2. The solid state controls on the new humidifier have an added feature that the old unit did not. There are the same 3 fan speeds, and yes the high speed is noisy, but that’s just the nature of this type of humidifier. At the low and mid fan sitting the fans are relatively quite. Although I could not find it explained in the instruction manual, there is an “A” setting which I assume means” automatic”. When set to “A” the control will throttle the fans between low, medium, and high speed, depending on how far the room humidity differs from what is set on the humidifier. Also, there is a “CF” check filter display to tell you that 750 hours has passed and it’s time to check the filter. If the filter looks okay, unplug and then plug in the power cord to restart the humidifier.3. Excellent customer service and warranty support. When I first got the humidifier I had a question; called customer service and got a quick answer. Two weeks later the left water tank started to leak around the filling cap area. I couldn’t find a reason for the leak and again called customer service on the 800 number supplied in the instruction booklet. After about a 15 second wait, I talked to a customer service rep and had a warranty replacement tank on the way. It was received two days later.4. The filters look to be a higher quality then what I could find for my old Kenmore unit.I am a little concerned about how durability of the water tanks because of having to screw and unscrew the caps every time you fill the tank. Only time will tell. However, it the worst case I could through the tanks away and just fill the bottom of the cabinet with a water bucket just like I did with the old unit.

My previous whole-home humidifier with internal flow-over pump that works amazing has been discontinued for about a decade and I can no longer get the wicks. The very last wicks I got were so old the paper degraded quickly.So I was on a search for a similar product and sadly nothing similar is available so I turned to console type. I did a lot of research and settled on this model, specifically because it uses 2 smaller fans rather than 1 large fan which reduces the noise pollution by quite a bit. On low you can barely hear it run, medium speed is a light fan hum while the 3rd speed is extremely loud.The 4 wicks work well but with my hard water lasts about 4 weeks. The only issue I wish the wicks had an aluminum screen in the core to hold the wick together. The humidifier does a great job of maintaining the humidity level I set whether it is 45 or 50%. Our winters are very dry with a 5-15% humidity without the humidifier running.I give 5 stars however the cost is a little high for what you get.Overall I recommend it.

Easy to use. Humidity is easy to control.

I have used this humidifier for the last 3 years. It has not been the same machine--but that is only because of my moving and thinking that I did not need it. Initially, I got it under the Sears name, but it was exactly the same machine. Now I bought it as the Essick Air EA1407 machine. I have never been disappointed in it. It was bought because I have a grand piano that needs to have the humidity in the proper range not only for proper care of the piano, but to prevent the worse event of a cracked soundboard. It has been used to humidify my piano in a home that was open enough that it was not possible to enclose the piano in a smaller, enclosed area. It worked very well. My homes have been about 2,000 sq feet. The evaporative humidifiers are the way to go as opposed to those which produce a mist and propel it in the air which can leave a residue on furniture. The design is simple--there are four channel-like pads which sit in water and the fans are above them pulling air in from the back of the unit through the wick-moistened pads then up and out the top of the unit. This design does not allow for anything to be put on top if it. It is made of thin plastic which makes it light, but may not survive a solid, strong accidental blow or fall down the steps. Once a year probably at least the wicks should be replaced which is not difficult. One easily takes off the top section of the unit (which includes the fans) and reaches down to get the wick units. The tops snap off the wick units where the channel-like wicks are located. These can be easily removed and new ones put in. The lid snaps back on the wick units and they are placed in the bottom of the humidifier cabinet. The top portion of the unit, is placed back on the cabinet and that is it. I was worried that this design with the standing water would, after a while smell bad like a wet basement, or stagnant pond or even moldy, but I use the proper bacteriostatic solution and have never had a problem. I don't use it during the summer months and let it run dry at that time before I put it away. Eventually for me, the wicks became encrusted with salts (I don't have softened water). But for me, they lasted one winter. They needed to be replaced for the next year. The two plastic water containers that one fills up with water and a partial capful of the bacteriostatic solution lasts for varying amounts of time depending on the humidity already in the air and how dry one wants the air to be. In my 2000 sq ft homes it would last at least 2-3 days when there was nothing else humidifying the air. I now have central humidification, but it does not work well enough to keep the humidity around the piano at the right range (40-45%) so I mainly use this unit to supplement it. The water will last from the two water containers about a week. If one has a 2000 sg ft home and not other form of humidification, and there is nothing really to limit the humidified air from going all through the home, and it is the dead of a cold winter, I would not expect this unit to last more than a few days--maybe a weekend, but one may come back with it dried out. It can be set automatically to run to a determined level of humidification which is how I use it. The humidity sensor is in the cord or the unit going to the electrical outlet, so it should sense the air coming into the unit which makes design sense. When I have other humidifier gauges around the home, it seems to be just as accurate as them. The range of automatic humidification is between 25 and 65%. There are other controls to run the humidifier different, but I have never worked with them and have always used the automatic mode and set the degree of humidification that I wanted. Of all the humidifiers I have used over the years, this definitely the best. I would highly recommend it.

The unit does humidify the room. As other posers have mentioned the cabinet is thin and fragile. I was concerned I would break the cabinet trying to install the float, however I managed to get it done without breakage. We are a sedate couple so the thinness of the cabinet shoiuld not be an issue, once the unit is set up so long as it is not kicked hard.I have it set at 32% humidity. We use wood heat and air gets extremely dry. It is set in automatic mode. Our great room has high vaulted ceilings so the unit has much air to humidify. We set it out from the wall about 6 inches just to prevent issues with air being drawn in from the back of the unit to keep the wall clean. Normally, once air has been humidified, it runs on low fan speed, however once the sensor detects the humidity has dropped the fan speeds up to about 50db (guesstimate) and definitely audible even at low fan speed. Good white noise for sleeping I guess. For me, it uses the two easily filli tanks in about 3 days. I recommend filling the tanks one at a time as they are not interchangeable, and orientation specific.It does make the house "feel" much warmer due to the humidity, and the dry sinuses have cleared up. Works differently than the old ones used to, but design appears to work.I will be keeping this as it does the job intended, but it is a constant fan noise level and if fan noise bothers one they should consider a different unit or locate the unit where the noise is not an issue.I would recommend the unit if you have low humidity issues. It is a lot less work and does a better job than the two small mister humidifiers I replaced, that had to be refilled daily.