Hunter 33222 Care-Free 2.2-gallon HumidifierPlus with Exclusive NiteGlo Night Light
by Hunter Fan Company
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List Price: Category: Home See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Hunter 33222 Care-Free 2.2-gallon HumidifierPlus with Exclusive NiteGlo Night Light
Customer Review: Love It!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've used other humidifiers before, but this is by far my favorite! It's easy to use, it does the job excellently. It's made a huge difference for my health. I wake up after sleeping with it on and I don't have the sinus problems that I usually have.Customer Review: Great Product and very Low Maintenance
Summary: 5 Stars
Use on my 3year old room and works great. Low maintenance and nice Nite Glow Lite. I recommend this product for anyone that wants a Humidifier that works great and is low maintenace.
Two Thumbs Up!
Customer Review: Good Product
Summary: 5 Stars
This humidifier works great but the light went out after the first 2 weeks. Overall I would buy it again!Customer Review: Pump and Circumstance
Summary: 4 Stars
I have tried all three kinds of humidifier over the years and prefer evaporative units like this one.
The cool mist (ultrasonic) units are quiet and output a lot of humidity, but they also leave white dust all over the room, even if you change their filters conscientiously.
The warm mist units use a lot of electricity -- as much as an air conditioner, in my experience.
The evaporative units use little electricity, but they usually require replacing wicks as often as every other month -- an expense of $30 or more each winter -- and their humidity output drops as the wicks pick up mineral deposits and lose their ability to sop up water from the unit's reservoir.
Enter this Hunter Care-Free evaporative unit, which claims to eliminate two of these problems with "permanent" wicks and a built-in pump that soaks the wicks with reservoir water from the top down, promising to keep humidity output from decreasing as quickly as with traditional no-pump bottom-up units like my old Vornado.
I just got this puppy last night, after the motor on my Vornado conked following several years of service. Thus I can't comment yet on the Hunter's durability or ease of maintenance.
My initial impressions are favorable, however. The Hunter seems to put out a lot of moisture. The motors are noisier than the one in the Vornado, but the unit doesn't make the loud "goop goop goop" sounds the Vornado did as its reservoirs emptied into the wick tray.
I'm not sure what the benefit of the built-in night light is, but it does make it easier to check the water level at night before you go to bed. The only feature missing here is a built-in humidistat, but I've never found evaporative humidifiers guilty of providing too much moisture, so that's not a concern for me.
I'll report back later in the winter to confirm or reconsider my thumbs up. At the moment, I think the Hunter provides some useful benefits missing from older evaporative humidifiers.
UPDATE: Wow -- other folks here sure hate this humidifier! It isn't the most silent unit I've heard (at least at top speed), but medium and low speeds shouldn't keep anyone awake. Now using it for a second winter, I was bothered by some rasping, rattling sounds the machine was making at high speed. I checked the instructions and cleaned mineral deposits off both the water diffuser cap and the dispersion tray; now it's running like new again. The "Permawick" filter is a bit of a hype, however; the two here are definitely showing signs of deterioration halfway through their second winter and will probably have to be replaced. Still, that's better than the two or three sets of filters I replaced with a Vornado each winter. I still think that a pump-driven evaporative humidifier offers the best combination of low power consumption, absence of white dust, and minimal filter changes, but maybe another manufacturer makes a better such unit. Given how many complaints have appeared concerning this unit, you would do well to check reviews of comparable models...
Customer Review: Good machine, but takes some experience.
Summary: 4 Stars
Most of the people here seem to not have much experience with these types of evaporative humidifiers. Short of installing a dedicated humidifier unit onto a central HVAC duct, these are the cleanest, most energy efficient humidifiers available. Hunter's Permawick with water pump design is very effective and eliminates the need to buy expensive paper filters two or possibly even three times each winter.
The humidifier doesn't require the weekly or even daily maintenance of paper wick filters IF you follow some simple guidelines. First, add a couple spoonfuls of bleach to the tray every few days; don't waste your money on expensive "humidifier treatment solutions". Yes, it will smell like you just cleaned a bathroom, but it will dissipate by the end of the day and is enough to prevent bacteria growth. Doing this prevents bacterial sludge from building up in the machine and prevents clogging and leaking. It takes 30 seconds and you don't have to take apart the machine each week to clean it. Second, at the end of winter, you must clean out the mineral deposits. The most cost effective way of doing this is to soak the metal permawicks in a bucket of boiling vinegar. This is much cheaper than wasting your money on CLR crap. After the bucket cools, rinse out the permawicks and dry. Use the standing vinegar to scrub out the tray and water pump impeller parts with a soft plastic tub scrubber or sponge.
The instructions for the humidifier don't tell you how to do these things. Then again, anyone with half a brain should understand: 1) the need to sanitize a machine that cycles room air through a moist chamber and 2) the need to demineralize a machine that churns through hundreds of gallons of water each winter.
I'm on my fourth winter, now, with my Hunter humidifier, and it's so much cleaner and less of a hassle than the stupid paper-wick model I had before. And no white dust like the misting model I had before that.