AIRCARE MA Whole-House Console-Style Evaporative Humidifier (Console)

I purchased this to help aid in healing my dry hands that crack and bleed in the winter months. Summer months my hands are perfect with no cracking or bleeding. In the winter though, between washing dishes, giving kids baths, myself taking showers, and my furnace running in the winter months - my hands are raw, cracked, bleeding, and soar. I use globs of every hand cream imaginable to help ease the pain. If you have dry skin of any kind, this humidifier may help you.I would not say it is a complete cure, but it has given me a great deal of relief in my hands. They are just slightly cracked now and to look at them you cannot even tell they are slightly cracked. I still use hand cream, but only two to three times a day where as before I used hand cream 5 to 6 times a day. The soreness in my hands is gone! This is because they are not as dry, I do not itch them nearly as much, and they get the moisture from the humidifier putting it into my home.Now about my experience with the product itself...Regardless of what people say in their reviews, this device is very, and I mean very loud! You could not have it in a television room or entertainment room. On low, you can carry on a conversation and probably watch television but the fan noise would be noticeable if it is 6 feet away from you. If it was maybe 20 feet away you may not hear it as much on low. However, the device has 3 speeds past low and with each increase of speed, the fan blows much much louder. It just makes sense if you think about it. This unit is designed to humidify a 2500 square foot home. Do you think a tiny quiet fan can humidify that large of an area?I purchased a smaller humidifier for my bedroom and this particular one covers only 400 square foot. The fan is so small and silent that I can sleep without even hearing it. This whole house humidifier has to cover over 5 times that size - 400 * 5 = 2000 so yeah, it has a large fan in it that is loud. With that said though, I am more than willing to tolerate the inconvenience of a loud fan for the benefit that the device brings my hands - I LOVE IT!I leave mine set to the auto mode. This means it will run the fan very low if the humidity is close. It will automatically crank up the fan if it drops I think 3% below what you have it set at. For example, if you have it at 55%, and it drops to 52%, the fan will come on high and get it back to 55% then turn the fan back to low. So in my home I am hearing the fan go from low to high intermittently throughout the day. In my home, I am guessing this happens 3 to 4 times an hour. To get my home from 52% back to 55% takes around 1 minute in my home - your mileage may vary. I keep my thermostat set at 72 degrees but have very tight insulation.I literally just took it out of the box, it was fully assembled, and added water, turned it on, set the humidity to 55%, and that was it. It was a snap to get up and running. Some reviews mentioned struggling to put on the "feet" on the bottom of the unit - my unit came with them already on it.Filling up the water is a very easy task. It comes with a 2 gallon plastic jug that you fill with water then place it on the side of the unit. The water then comes out of the bottom of the plastic jug and into the bed of the unit. You repeat this fill/refill until the base of the unit is full and stops filling up. There is no way you can overfill it using the fill/refill method using the plastic jug. The design prevents overfilling. The base of the unit holds a little over 2 gallons and the plastic jug holds 2 gallons. It is actually a really cool concept... the 2 gallon jug stays full and as the water goes down in the base of the unit, water falls out of the plastic gallon into the bed so it can continue on humidifying your home.I've seen some reviews mention not needing to refill water for a week or longer. This really will depend on how well your home is insulated, how often your furnace runs, and what you have the humidity set at on the device. So your mileage will definitely vary. For me, I fill up the plastic jug twice daily. When I get up in the morning the base is full, but the 2 gallon plastic tub is empty so I refill the plastic jug. I also refill the plastic jug in the evening before bed.The unit only has three buttons on it - power on/off button, set humidity level button, and fan speed button - this button cycles with each pres between auto, and fan speed 1 through 4. The faster the fan blows, the louder it is in the home.Lastly, some reviews had mentioned that it is made out of cheap plastic. It definitely is a thinner plastic design, however, I don't have any plans of bashing it with a baseball bat or dropping it on the floor any time soon lol. It is sitting on a table in my living room just doing what it is supposed to do. I don't have any issues with the quality of the plastic used on the device.I give this device a 5 because it does what it is intended to do - humidify a 2500 square foot home. I also love the ease of use - it is effortless to get up and running. I also love the design of the 2 gallon jug and it continuously dropping water into the base of the unit as water is needed. That is great engineering.

Whole Home Humidifer... yes finally! This claims to cover over 3000 sqft and it does! I have an open, vaulted ceiling open floor plan. I placed this in the kitchen central to the main living areas (not including the upstairs) and it easily covers the 2000 sqft of main living area to include a master suite that sits right off the great room with little effort. It works so much better than the ones that spit out mist as this one is evaporative and the fan disperses the moisture out into the air better. It is quiet for the type of humidifier it is aka it uses a fan to blow the moisture throughout the home.Noise: It’s quiet. Based on the unit sitting approx 17ft from the tv and main living area: The noise is barely detectable at fan speed F1 (unless your home is super quiet as in no tv or radio). Fan speed F2 is like a very subtle white noise again nothing that impacts everyday living in the home. After a few minutes of F2 you won’t notice it. Fan speed F3 is noticeable but again I can still watch tv without it annoying me. Fan speed F4 (max) is loud and I only used that for about an hour on initial set up.Efficiency of Fan Speeds: I find that the unit works best at F1 and F2 unless I have a drastic drop in humidity (the unit might run out of water as I sleep or if I’m out running for the day).The Auto Setting: This setting works great but you must be sure to have independent Hygrometers in your rooms to gauge the humidity because the one that is on the cord reads higher because of it’s close proximity to the unit than 10, 20, 30ft from the unit. I have one set near where we sit most of the time as well as one in the master suite. Be sure to use the salt/water n cup method to test your hygrometers as they can vary. My living room one is digital and reads 1 to 2 lower than what the actual humidity is so I just add 1 or 2 to whatever it is displaying. The hygrometer in my master reads 3 low. In my home the unit hygrometer that is on the cord reads about 6 to 7 higher than the area we are actually sitting in. Once I figured that out I was able to set the unit on Auto at 60 and it keeps my area around 53 to 55 humidity depending on outside temps and how much my heat or fireplace is running. These settings will vary from owner to owner so be sure to test your hygrometers and then vs the cord hygrometer and see what works for you. I have asthma and 48 to 55 is a comfortable level for me but if higher than say 58 for too long and i can start having issues as anything higher than 60 can start to produce mold and mildew issues.—With all that being said about the fan speeds and the use of auto I tend to like manual control and use the F1 to F2 as my homes needs change. At night or if I’m going to be away for the day I will use Auto mode to be sure that the humidity won’t get too high.Filling the unit: the side container that comes off is easy to handle and easily fits over/in a kitchen sinks to fill. On initial set up you will need to do two full fills and if you are like me after the second one glugs (it does gurgle on fill up) in i then top off the container.Maintenance: This unit is easy to maintain and clean to include the filter it comes with. I did purchase the bacteriostat to add to my tap water fills. I only use about 1/8th of the cap per fill up of the tank. It would cost me too much to purchase distilled water for my homes needs as I do fill it first thing in the morning and then just before bed (about 14 hours later). That can vary depending on the fan speed you’re running. Every morning I flip the filter to keep one end from drying up more than the other. I recommend doing a full clean of the unit about once every 5 to 7 days. Cleaning it is very easy. The base Is light with very few grooves in it and it is easy to clean in a kitchen sink. I use dawn dish soap but I know others use vinegar. Either works as there is very little to no build up cleaning it at this frequency. It’s is important to keep it cleaned, remember you and your family are breathing the air that comes from it.Filters: The manufacturer of the filters state that one filter can do one full season. I personally will require a filter every two months because I’m very cautious about what I’m breathing and after a couple months the filter will start to dry out, get yellow and even brown. That is what it is supposed to do, it’s catching the bad stuff so you don’t breathe it. Once mine begins to look more yellow than white I change it. You don’t have to, it is just something I do and the filters are not expensive for the peace of mind it gives me.Warnings: I noted some reviewers saying that the casters for the wheels crack the unit so I decided to not use the wheels. The unit does not require the use of the wheels. Mine sits on my kitchen tile level and it moves with ease. If you want to give it a little lift or you are placing it on a wood floor then I would recommend getting the felt round pads that you can stick to the bottom of things for protection. Wallyworld sells them and they are very inexpensive.Wrap up! This unit exceeds my expectations. It is quiet and efficient in comparison to many other more expensive units I tried before this one that claimed extra large square footage and efficiency.