[HN Gopher] What's Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier
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What's Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier
Author : antigizmo
Score : 55 points
Date : 2021-02-01 20:36 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (angelalashbrook.medium.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (angelalashbrook.medium.com)
| ddoolin wrote:
| Curious what Wirecutter would have to say about this. I use them
| for a lot of my purchases if I don't know where to start and it
| does seem like some rare times they just miss the mark, though
| not so egregiously as this. Why stand on something that seems so
| widely disliked?
| stuckindider wrote:
| Affiliate revenue. The same reason they recommend all the other
| products on their site. It's advertising disguised as product
| reviews. You are a sucker if you believe anything an Amazon
| affiliate is telling you.
| ddoolin wrote:
| I have found their reviews very extensive, more than any
| other free alternative that covers so many product
| categories, and typically they match what you get if you
| purchase one of the products. You'd think having NYT behind
| them would lend some legitimacy, at least as far as it
| concerns outright fabrications. Typically I don't mind if
| their recommendations are sourced from just a handful of
| retailers in that case.
|
| All that is to say, that's quite alright with me.
| jnwatson wrote:
| There are a dozen other humidifiers they can earn affiliate
| money through.
|
| I have a low-end "Victsing" model and it works just fine (as
| evidenced by the hygrometer next to it), and isn't hard to
| clean. It isn't a complicated device to make.
|
| (I have no affiliation with the manufacturer).
| stuckindider wrote:
| You don't know what affiliate deals they have with the
| manufacturer. Amazon pays a flat percentage.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Last time I read the Wirecutter review, they _only_ looked at
| the wick style of humidifier. The stated reason for this was
| the propensity for steam and ultrasonic humidifiers to over-
| humidify. It 's entirely possible that the Honeywell is the
| easiest to clean and most quiet of this type of humidifier.
|
| [edit] Direct quotes from the Wirecutter post (emphasis added
| by me):
|
| > We recommend the Honeywell HCM-350 Germ Free Cool Mist
| Humidifier because it's quieter, more durable, and easier to
| clean than any other _evaporative_ humidifier we've tested,
| with a 1-gallon tank that will last all day.
|
| > ...In general, we prefer evaporative humidifiers because we
| find them less messy and less likely to over-humidify a space;
| however, you will need to replace the wicking filter on a semi-
| regular basis, and the fans might not be the best option for
| people who have pets or particularly dusty homes. The best one
| for you will be whichever one you're actually willing to deal
| with and maintain.
| thebean11 wrote:
| There are ultrasonic humidifiers, at the same price point,
| that have humidity meters built in so they don't over
| humidify. It's completely dishonest for wirecutter to claim
| that the entire category over-humidifies. It's just not true.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| I definitely think they need to revise that copy. The
| article actually has a recommendation now for an ultrasonic
| with an accurate hygrometer that wasn't there when I first
| read the article ~9 years ago.
| johnmaguire2013 wrote:
| I typically have good experiences as well, but sometimes I know
| of an alternative that's very popular - when I go to check the
| "Competition" section it's almost always missing.
| birken wrote:
| I don't use the my Honeywell humidifier regularly, but I use it
| from time to time and honestly I like it more than any other
| humidifier I've used. I've found it very easy to keep clean,
| works really well at increasing the humidity without turning the
| room into a swamp and I've never had any issues with the wick
| becoming gross. I exclusively use RO/DI water in the humidifier,
| never any tap water, so maybe that is helping with a lot of the
| issues.
| starclerk wrote:
| I use my Honeywell 24/7 and also find it effective [1] and easy
| to clean [2], even with our "hard" tap water. It might help
| that I use a good air filter nearby, which solves the dust
| problem.
|
| I used to use an ultrasonic humidifier like they suggest but
| definitely prefer the evaporation-based unit.
|
| The article read a little like one of the clumsy actors in an
| infomercial. The tank slides out and has a screw top! How can
| they spill so much while carrying it from the sink that it
| forms puddles?
|
| [1] It goes through a tank almost every day. That water is
| going somewhere.
|
| [2] I replace the wick and do a light bleach clean roughly
| quarterly.
| colordrops wrote:
| I used to live in China a decade ago and everyone used ultrasonic
| humidifiers there. When I moved back to the US, I searched for
| one of them and could only find steam and evaporative humidifiers
| like this Honeywell one. Having small children, I went for the
| Honneywell humidifier and hated it - I was stupefied that it had
| such good reviews. So I searched for "safe" steam humidifiers and
| couldn't find one, so I gave up.
|
| Last year, I noticed that ultrasonic humidifiers were now very
| popular and cheap on Amazon, and got one. The review sites
| recommended against them, due to supposed calcium and bacteria
| build-up, but I haven't seen any problems, and the Honeywell was
| definitely worse on these fronts.
|
| Get an ultrasonic humidifier - they are cheap and if they break,
| you can get another one. Just used filtered water in them.
| wavefunction wrote:
| I was able to buy an ultrasonic humidifier six years ago from
| Bed Bath and Beyond. I think I had to order it online but it
| didn't seem to be too rare and it wasn't expensive, or at least
| it cost a reasonable amount.
| philipkglass wrote:
| I wonder if there have been waves of "fashion" in humidifier
| design. My parents used an ultrasonic humidifier when I was
| growing up in the US in the 1980s.
| [deleted]
| eecc wrote:
| What about this comically expensive https://www.venta-air.com and
| it's ripoff: https://www.xiaomitoday.com/2020/06/30/get-the-
| xiaomi-smartm...
|
| It blows ambient air directly onto the wetted disks; it will
| empty a full tank in a day and haven't cursed anymore that usual
| while cleaning.
|
| I did use a disinfectant additive
| beervirus wrote:
| All humidifiers get gross. I've found that the ones that use an
| ultrasonic piezo transducer are less bad than the other types
| though.
|
| It works well and puts a lot of water into the air. Once a week,
| I rinse it with a diluted bleach solution out of a spray bottle.
| Problem solved.
| h2odragon wrote:
| A boiler humidifier has a nice random gurgle noise; that could be
| a plus for some. The water tank can be rather nasty and you know
| that the water vapor is safer because its steam.
|
| Propane heat emits water vapor too; and if you can have a lot of
| plants around they add moisture and lots of other good and bad
| things to the air.
|
| My issues are such that I can have happy plants and benefit from
| them. For about the power cost of a humidifier i can have an LED
| lit jungle shelf that transpires more than a gallon of water a
| day
| doublesocket wrote:
| Sat in a damp London flat, with condensation permanently dripping
| down the windows (despite the dehumidifier running virtually
| 24/7), I struggle to relate to a world where you would
| deliberately want to put moisture _into_ the air.
| [deleted]
| girvo wrote:
| And as someone who lives in Brisbane Australia I'm right there
| in confusion with you!
|
| We run our aircon on the _de_ -humidify setting haha
| vidanay wrote:
| When I was little, my grandma had a gigantic console style
| humidifier. This thing was a beast. There was a vertical conveyor
| belt that would go underwater (the tank held at least 10 gallons)
| and then it would pass in front of a low speed fan. The belt
| would then circle around and back down to the tank to pull up
| more water. That thing could humidify a damn hangar.
| mmebane wrote:
| I bought one last fall and have been using it quite regularly
| during the winter. The humidity in my bedroom has been dipping
| down to 20-30%, and I prefer it to be 40-50%.
|
| I started with distilled water, and it worked great - the
| wick/filter stayed in pristine shape for the 3 weeks I did so.
| However, buying distilled water was about twice as expensive as
| changing the filter every two weeks: $0.99/gal at 1-2 gal/day vs
| a $6.99 Walmart-brand filter. I haven't looked around to see if I
| can find cheaper reverse-osmosis water.
|
| I have not had to clean the fan yet, but that does seem
| difficult.
|
| My biggest issue is the fan noise. The machine only works _well_
| when set to the highest speed, but the fan is quite loud at that
| setting. I have the machine a few feet away from my bed, and High
| makes it hard to sleep. Medium /Low are no problem, so I just
| leave it on all the time on Medium.
|
| Refills are only an issue if you carry the tank by the handle. I
| only use the handle to take it out of/put it into the unit, and
| carry it upside-down in my arm when taking it to the bathroom to
| refill.
| etrautmann wrote:
| I purchased this exact model a few months ago, and agree with all
| of the criticisms. One curious point, however, is that while I
| don't see _any_ difference in the hygrometer readings even when I
| put the hygrometer right above the device, the water tank does
| empty quickly. It 's not clear to me how much water the air in my
| apartment can hold, such that a few gallons doesn't change the
| humidity even by more than 1-2%.
| phs2501 wrote:
| I know it's not an option for a lot of people but a simple bypass
| flow-through humidifier attached to forced-air central heating is
| pretty hard to beat:
|
| * The only "active" element is a solenoid water valve.
|
| * Since water flows through once and then out a drain there's no
| standing water to grow mold (at the cost of extra water usage;
| mine is 3 gallons per hour though the humidifier is rarely on
| 100% of the time).
|
| * Maintenance is a new water panel yearly (about $20) and some
| cleaning, again yearly.
|
| * You need smart controls or to regularly adjust a manual
| humidistat to not over-humidify your house based on outdoor
| temperature, though this is exactly the same as with "portable"
| humidifiers.
| jedimastert wrote:
| Technology Connections just recently made a really good video
| about humidifiers
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHeehYYgl28
| cl0ckt0wer wrote:
| the TC video's conclusion is that the evaporative humidifiers
| are best, but TFA's main complaints would not be solved by
| that. It sounds like the TFA needs an air filter combined with
| an evaporative cooler. And maybe some expectation management
| concerning what happens to standing water at room temperature
| under a fan.
| Ajedi32 wrote:
| Actually just discovered that channel a couple weeks ago. Kind
| of amazing how interesting he can make such mundane topics.
| (Though I do prefer to watch at 1.75-2x speed.)
| tuna-piano wrote:
| The best humidity solution I've found is to set my shower up as a
| humidifier. Puts out a lot of humidity that spreads throughout
| the house. Doesn't need any cleaning, refilling, etc. Total cost
| on Amazon, like $40 (probably cheaper from Home Depot). Picture
| of my setup: https://imgur.com/a/Oca4USg
|
| I did that with 4-5 products: A shower head splitter, a
| shower->hose adapter, a mister, and anti-leak tape.
|
| Splitter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064TXLHA/
|
| Adapter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GYV8G7S/
|
| Elbow connector: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003BZD03K/
|
| Mister (I used just the nozzle and discarded the hose)
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004INGNPG/
|
| Anti-leak tape: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003D7K8E0/
|
| Alternatively tried this fogger nozzle which put out too much
| water and wet my bathroom floor, may work in some shower setups
| though. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FNYNZZM/
| SomewhatLikely wrote:
| The larger humidifiers come with a humidistat which will keep
| humidity within say a 5% range. A solution like this may over
| humidify and requires more frequent intervention.
| rexf wrote:
| I bought this (a few years ago) at Wirecutter's recommendation
| and had a bad experience with it as well. Like the medium post,
| the humidifier didn't work for me. Eventually, I got rid of it.
|
| Wirecutter simply isn't that reliable. I do check their
| recommendations as one input source, but their top recommendation
| is not reliable (and will change from time to time).
| ta1234567890 wrote:
| > Wirecutter simply isn't that reliable
|
| Agreed. Recently bought a handheld vacuum cleaner. Wirecutter
| had some recommendations and said the Dyson one was "the
| strongest" (also most expensive), I got the Dyson and hated it
| (very cumbersome, heavy, short battery duration, not that easy
| to clean). Ended up returning it and got a random one at a
| local store instead. The random one was $50 (instead of
| $250-400 for the Dyson), has same or better suction, way easier
| to use and the battery lasts about 50-100% longer per charge
| (7-10 min instead of 4-5 min for the Dyson).
|
| Similar thing happened with another appliance. Wirecutter is
| not very reliable.
| csours wrote:
| The author mentions living in a New York apartment - I wonder if
| the lack of central heating and air means that their air is
| unfiltered, thus the only thing to collect the dust would be the
| humidifier?
|
| I also have one of these and the only thing I really dislike
| about it is the 'glug glug' sound randomly throughout the night.
| But it is worth pointing out that I live in Texas and so I don't
| have extreme low humidity very often or persistently.
|
| I wonder how a tote full of water with an aquarium pump, washable
| furnace filter, and fan would do.
| dragontamer wrote:
| Cool Mist humidifiers are just hard IMO.
|
| 1. Warm Mist humidifiers work by boiling water. This has the
| downside of... well... boiling hot water hanging around the area.
| But otherwise, these are the simplest and are only ~$20 or $30.
|
| 2. Cool Mist humidifiers try to get around the boiling water
| issue. Since they humidify at room-temperatures, they're a lot
| more efficient... but now bacteria / mold is growing constantly.
| You can somewhat fix that with chemicals / filters / whatever,
| but now those filters need to be cleaned, or those chemicals need
| to be replaced on the regular.
|
| In both circumstances: minerals in the water will harden into
| 'slag'. More so in warm-mist humidifiers actually (because
| boiling water separates water from minerals very naturally).
| Cool-mist humidifiers often carry the slag into the air, forming
| "white dust" all over your furniture.
|
| The slag dissolves with vinegar in ~20 minutes or so (unless its
| been building up for a while). But its never an easy job to
| clean.
|
| I prefer my warm-mist humidifier. Centralize the slag into one
| spot and clean it with vinegar every few weeks. Better than
| dusting off all my furniture in the room.
| xyzzyz wrote:
| The slag issue can be solved by using demineralized water, and
| reverse osmosis water filter, which remove almost all minerals,
| can be had for pretty cheap these days.
| contravariant wrote:
| Convincing water to just evaporate on its own was always going
| to be a bit tricky. The energy needs to come from somewhere so
| your best bet is to just get it into contact with enough dry
| air and hope for the best.
|
| Besides if you're trying to restore humidity lost by heating
| your room then pure energy wise there's not that much
| difference in evaporating the required amount of water using
| ambient heat or evaporating the required amount of water using
| a different energy source. The only thing you'll achieve by
| using ambient heat is that your room will cool by the amount of
| heat required to evaporate the water (a good thing in the
| summer, somewhat pointless if your aim was to make a room both
| warm and comfortably humid).
|
| Fundamental thermodynamics will probably mean the 'wait and
| see' approach is more efficient in the end, but it makes no
| promises on efficacy. The difference in efficiency probably
| lies in the fact that you can heat a room with an efficiency
| >100% if done right, if you haven't managed that yet it
| probably doesn't really matter which way you humidify the room.
| Ajedi32 wrote:
| Even without a system that has >100% efficiency (i.e. a heat
| pump), home heating systems often use a source of heat that
| is significantly less expensive per watt than electricity.
| (For example, natural gas.)
| contravariant wrote:
| Well that depends on what you're optimizing for, but yes.
| pushrax wrote:
| Gas-fired humidifiers exist, though I'm not sure if you can
| get small ones easily.
| lmilcin wrote:
| There is better way to humidify which is to just have cold
| temperature evaporation. It is slower and you need bigger
| machine for the same volume, but it requires very little energy
| and the only real electronics is a fan that moves air.
|
| I got rid of all mist humidifiers because of residue, noise and
| some health concerns (no, I am not feeling safe inhaling those
| fine particles) and I am happy for it.
|
| Most importantly, it doesn't get things wet and it is safe to
| just leave it 24h.
| JonathonW wrote:
| The Honeywell in question is this type-- it calls itself a
| "cool mist" humidifier, but it's an evaporative humidifier:
| basically all there is to the thing is a water tank, a wick,
| and a fan to move air over the wick.
| mc32 wrote:
| I just put up with the dryness and static.
|
| Boneco makes ultrasonics I like but the humidity on the other
| hand makes mold more viable. Plus you have to buy filters and
| cleaners.
| thebean11 wrote:
| I count myself among the victims of this wirecutter article. What
| a piece of garbage, I can't believe I got tricked into buying a
| humidifier that requires wick and heating element replacements
| when modern devices don't.
| mmebane wrote:
| Heating element replacement? The Honeywell HCM-350 I got has a
| UVC bulb which will eventually need to be replaced, but there's
| no heating element since it's an evaporative humidifier.
| lincolnq wrote:
| Gotta say, I've had the Honeywell for a couple years and I'm
| quite happy with it. I haven't had any of the problems that the
| article cites -- it works well, easy to clean, easy to refill.
| I'd be quite confused about whether article has the same product,
| except that the photos match my model.
| superseeplus wrote:
| As someone living on the east coast and having a very sensitive
| nose, I have tried different humidifiers and sadly no humidifiers
| have been perfect. There are three main types of humidifiers:
|
| 1. Warm mist humidifiers boil water and generate steam which
| humidifies the air. But, they are a burn hazard and consume a lot
| of energy.
|
| 2. Cool mist (non ultrasonic) work like miniature swamp coolers.
| They are essentially fans which draw air through a wet paper
| wick. The Honeywell mentioned in the article is of this type. The
| fan is however very underpowered and it doesn't work well in
| anything bigger than a small bedroom. Vornado makes a version
| with a much more powerful fan which works very well in large
| rooms, but their tanks are finicky and prone to breaking and
| leaking. The wick absorbs minerals in the water and will
| eventually have to be replaced.
|
| 3. Ultrasonic humidifiers: A vibrating diaphragm will aerosolize
| water. Unless you use distilled water, minerals in the water will
| turn into dust and reduce air quality.
|
| I happen to like the non ultrasonic cool mist ones because they
| use less energy than the warm mist ones and replacing crusty
| wicks is cheaper than using distilled water in ultrasonic ones.
| The problem is everything currently on the market has issues. Any
| company making incremental improvements to existing cool mist
| humidifiers will probably get a lot of eager buyers.
| csours wrote:
| We used Ultrasonic humidifiers in a server room (to cut down on
| static risk) and I can confirm they get covered in minerals
| superseeplus wrote:
| Amazon reviews on ultrasonic humidifiers complained that
| their expensive home electronics died because of the dust.
| throwawayboise wrote:
| FWIW I have an AirCare humidifier and no complaints. It has a fan
| and a big cellulose filter/wick of some sort for the water to
| evaporate from. Works fine.
| sjg007 wrote:
| I found that one to be junk too, it grows mold everywhere
| unless you are super on top of adding chemicals. Maybe I'd have
| had better luck if I ran distilled water only. I use a warm
| mist honeywell/vicks one now and it's great cost about $35. But
| I'm pretty sure that I will add steam to my hvac though next
| season and be done with it.
|
| The vicks giant bulb thing for $20 that they recommend gets
| pretty gross because you can't get all the water out and the
| slag accumulates as it doesn't work with distilled water.
| T-R wrote:
| I have one of these; the complaint about the fan being
| inaccessible is legitimate, but it's otherwise clean, and easy to
| clean - the tank and the base can be scrubbed by hand or just
| thrown in the dishwasher, unlike any vaporizing humidifier I've
| used. I think the other complaints may be regional - and the fact
| that the proposed solutions all seem to be vaporizing humidifiers
| (or boiling water) seems telling.
|
| I got one because in Arizona, the water quality's terrible, but
| the air is _bone-dry_ to the point it turns your skin to
| sandpaper. The hard water means that vaporizing humidifiers fill
| the air with white dust that coats _everything_ , because they
| vaporize the minerals. Evaporative humidifiers don't; the
| minerals all end up in the filter. And, while an evaporative
| humidifier has no trouble going through a full tank of water
| overnight on the lowest settings in AZ, it phsyically can't
| oversaturate the air like a sauna in the way that a vaporizing
| humidifier does.
|
| The air in the north east just doesn't get dry enough (maybe in
| winter, but then you don't have the AC fighting your humidifier),
| and if boiling a pot of water is what the author's looking for,
| an evaporative humidifier just doesn't do that.
| mmebane wrote:
| How do you deal with cleaning the handle part of the tank? It
| looks like the end can pop off, but I haven't tried.
| dragonsky67 wrote:
| I'm in Australia, and I've lived in a lot of areas both inland
| (hot dry) and coastal and humidifiers are that common here.
|
| What is it in the US that creates the need/demand for
| Humidifiers?
| sjg007 wrote:
| Winter.
| OldHand2018 wrote:
| Winter in a house with a forced-air heating system just makes
| everything far worse. If you have the opportunity and the
| means, you want to go with a boiler, radiant in-floor heat,
| etc. Anything but forced-air.
|
| By the way, in the winter we almost never use the dryer when
| washing clothes - always hang them up and they dry quickly
| and add their moisture to the air. We also open the
| dishwasher door as soon as it finishes and let the moisture
| evaporate into the air. Etc.
| pushrax wrote:
| Cold outdoor temperatures cause indoor humidity to get
| extremely low, because cold air can't hold humidity well.
|
| Today where I live, the relative humidity outside is around
| 50%, and temperature -5c. That puts the absolute humidity
| around 1.7 grams per cubic metre. At 20c indoor temperature,
| that equates to around 10% relative humidity. Far too low.
| b0sk wrote:
| Without a humidifier, you can actually feel the dry air and it
| gets pretty uncomfortable at night. The skin looks dry and
| flaky in the morning. If you happen to catch a cold, your
| symptoms get worse because your mucus tends to dry out (the
| only remedy is to then go and stand in a high humidity bathroom
| for some-time or inhale vapors. You need it for at-least 2-3
| peak winter months in the eastern part of the US.
| dumbfounder wrote:
| Saying it doesn't work is misleading. If you need to fill it up
| every so often then it is working. By working I mean it is
| converting water into vapor, and that's all a humidifier can do.
| They can't magically make a desert climate humid. Most build-up
| in humidifiers is due to crappy water. They can't do a whole lot
| about that either. Yes, they should be easier to clean, but when
| they are that cheap, then yes, they are easier to just throw
| away. But you get what you pay for.
| marcinzm wrote:
| I had a different Honeywell Humidifier which was hard to clean,
| didn't humidify enough and made a lovely (read: annoying)
| gurgling noise every so often.
|
| Last year I got the AairCare 831000. It's basically a large tub
| with wick and a fan on top. No gurgling, massive capacity, can
| humidify the whole apartment and you refill it with a bucket (so
| much easier and less messy). No nooks and crannies to clean and
| you can basically bleach the whole tub if you want to.
| jameskraus wrote:
| Ha, I just threw out this humidifier after it lingered in storage
| for years. It gets really gross really fast. Our new warm mist
| humidifier can basically run the entire season without being
| cleaned since it's more-or-less boiling the water.
|
| I understand there are "efficiency" gains with the evaporative
| style, but it's absolutely dwarfed by the horrible ownership
| experience. After my poor experience with this unit, I would only
| consider an evaporative humidifier if I had to humidify a large
| space.
| jmartrican wrote:
| I also just boil water. It's easy to adjust the rate of
| evaporation. For night time I lower the fire to its lowest
| setting, and if needed I just use multiple pots. Over night at
| lowest setting only half the pot is boiled away.
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(page generated 2021-02-01 23:02 UTC)