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Well, it's steam heat season, and my apartment has once again become hot and bone-dry. It's bothering me, and I can tell it's bothering my feline community. The humidifier I bought last year doesn't seem to be doing much of anything, and I don't want to be boiling water all night, or tossing random glasses of water at my bedroom radiator like I was in a sauna.
So, can anyone recommend a kick-ass humidifier that can handle a small NYC apartment?
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I suppose a pot of water on top of the radiator would be out of the question with cats, right?
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Actually, I do that a lot, too. But it's not enough.
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Essick Air H12 400, we have two of these and LOVE them:
http://www.essickair.com/products/humidi...se/h12-400
You can usually find them on sale for $99 or so. Great water tank, easy to fill and doesn't leak. Extremely easy to clean at the end of the season. We ordered a couple of extra water tanks directly from Essick so you don't need to fill the tank as often. We have a two-story house, for your apartment one humidifier would be plenty.
This is an excellent product; before I bought the Essick Air I tried humidifiers from Lasko and they were just junk.
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Over the years, humidifiers from Sears in all sorts of shapes and sizes have done the job in our home(s). None were overly noisy or difficult to deal w/, and each has operated better than its predecessor, doing the job efficiently and inexpensively. We run the beast from mid-November until somewhere in April, so replacing the filters and doing a cleanup is an annual job. Occasionally, if the weather's really cold and we've had to run the unit more than usual, we may have to replace the filters in mid-season.
The one running now is about 8 or 9 years old and is only the 3rd or 4th incarnation in over 35 years. We never looked back.
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The best one is whatever Costco sells. Their satisfaction return policy is great!
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space-time wrote:
Hi Yoyodyne ArtWorks,
are these ultrasound-type humidifiers? I looked quickly at the PDF manual but I didn't see it mentioned. Thanks!
No, they're evaporative. They have a big rectangular wick (maybe 16" wide by 12" high by 3" thick, just guessing) that fits across the inside back of the unit and a fan on the top of the unit draws air through the moistened wick. Works great.
The only operational oddity (and it's very mild) is an occasional "glug glug" sound as the valve on the water tank releases water into the bottom of the cabinet.
And as I noted before, these are so easy to clean and store when spring comes - that's a BIG plus for me.
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Est,
Air-o-Swiss. Expensive but rock solid and well worth the investment. Grab it at Bed Bath and Beyond with a 20% off coupon. I have this one:
My wife and I use it in our bedroom. We may buy another to use in our living room. Our apartment is that hot and dry during the cold weather months. Even with all but one radiator turned off. It's so hot and dry sometimes we literally have to bathe in moisturizers to keep from getting itchy dry skin.
If you choose not to get an Air-o-swis, just make sure whatever model you get has auto-shut off. That way, the humidifier will turn itself off when it runs out of water.
Robert
