Warm Mist Humidifier for Medium to Large Rooms, 1 Gal Tank

There are some changes to the New Vicks Warm Miist Humidifier vs the Vicks Warm Mist Humidifier from years past. From the off, the mist has a strong metallic smell that is somewhat overwhelming which leaves a silver film that covers everything in its path. This film is not noticeable by the naked eye. I discovered it during routine cleaning a couple of hours after the device was being used. Let me explain. One of the items use frequently is an aluminum baking pan with an attachable coated baking rack. Prior to using the humidifier, I washed the baking pan, made and cooked some biscuits. The humidifier was delivered. I was excited and anxious to get it up and running so I left the kitchen to read the complete instructions to setup my new humidifier. Fun fact: I grew up with, raised a family, with and passed on the Vicks family of products to my families. Long story short, Vicks products is/has been a staple in my life so purchasing the item was a no brainer.Still excited with a huge smile on my face, my new Vicks humidifier was up and running. Spewing a strong stream of warm mist. I immediately noticed the metallic smell which was overwhelming! I immediately vented the area by opening my windows and turned on a floor Fan. This helped elevate some of the smell. Oh, forgot to mention that I live in a small one bedroom apartment. So charming. NOTE: I thought that this metallic smell may have been a due to manufacturing and would dissipate. It did after the second water refill.After dealing with the humidifiers smell, I went back to the kitchen to finish cooking. The biscuits completed baking and was placed in a covered warmer. I stated wiping down my baking pan and noticed a grey film covering my baking pan. My baking pan sat on the counter for while I opened the windows to help with the smell. The biscuits had already been placed in the warmer. I threw them out anyway for safety and made more later. After cleaning the pan, I noticed the same film on my kitchen counter other pieces of furniture. I cleaned everything thoroughly (it was cleaning day anyways). Incentive to deep clean. NOT TURNED OFF BY THIS! COME ON, THIS IS VICKS! Generations of taking care of the world's allergy safely!!!I turned off the humidifier, cleaned the element with vinegar and tried again. Refilled the reservoir, turned it on. No smell. No grey film. Problem solved. PLEASE READ INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USE. EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! TAKE THE TIME! (Not yelling! Emphasizing the importance before use) Before plugging in any newly received device! READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!Next, MY humidifier does not automatically shut off with low water level or any water level. I took a nap while humidifier was on. The reservoir had plenty of water in it and the air was comfortable. I used the high setting so the water dissipated quickly. Whe I woke up the display showed a red light and the reservoir was bone dry. The device was still running. The device did not automatically turn off. When I took my nap, I confidently thought, 'In the event the water level drops significantly, the device would automatically shut off, so no worries'! The device DID NOT AUTOMATICALLY SHUT OFF. Turns out, the automatic turn of is the red indicator light which warns of low water level. I/YOU have to actually turn off and unplug the device then reset the device by letting the device cool down (because of the warm steam feature), refill the reservoir with water, plug it back in and then turn it back on. This is what is considered the automatic shut off and reset. Laughing hysterically! Apologies! I guess actually seeing the low water level isn't sufficient to indicate a water refill is needed. MORE LAUGHTER!! Apologies again. Get this, there is actually the word "reset" on the heating dial. The instructions call it "the reset button". There IS NO RESET BUTTON! So don't waste time looking for one or pressinh the word "reset" on the dial repeatedly!! It is just the word painted/stenciled on the dial. Yes, I pressed the word "reset" repeatedly, as if I would make it so. You can stop Laughing at me now!! Okay keep laughing. So funny!Now to the GOOD BITS. Before I bought my Vicks warm humidifier, I bought an air purifier and cool humidifier (NOT vicks brand, shame on me)! The purifier is actually a nice surprise and works beautifully removing unwanted smells quickly. And once plugged in, after a few seconds (the automatic feature actually works). The device turns on and automatically calculates the configuration and removes unwanted smells quickly. The cool mist DID NOT perform as designed. However, if you lead a calm, stress free life and looking for a change. Get a cool mist humidifier. Your frustration level will soar, giving you the much needed change desired.More Really Good Bits:I SO LOVE this device. In spite of the initial quirks!!! The air is completely free of dryness. I breathe comfortably. I no longer experience dryness in the air, my throat, nasal passages, eyes, fingernail breakage, crunchy hair, dry scalp and more are now nonexistent.Try this device! Buy this device! Take care of this device after purchase and it will love you back!Thanks guys for reading my post! I hope this information is/was helpful for/to you!Katherine

I've owned several humidifiers over the years. None last forever and with a warm mist unit after 4-5 years they get pretty skanky and probably should be replaced anyway.The unit is small and stylish as humidifiers go. Does not have an adjustable dial to pick a certain humidity level, but any unit that I had in the past, I've just set the dial on the highest setting and left it there so having a dial is not a necessary option in my opinion.This unit has two settings, low and high. Low is as quiet as any unit I've used. On the high setting it does make a little more noise than any other unit I've owned. It is not obnoxiously loud but if you have it right next to your bed and you are a light sleeper, you'd either want it on low or this may not be the unit for you. Having said that, on the high setting this unit does push out a lot of moisture. There is the possibility it is louder because it pushes out more moisture than other units but I have no way to know for sure.A big plus for me is it is extremely easy to clean. The heating element is easy to get to and shaped in a way so you can easily get to every inch of it to get it clean.Bottom line, for the price this is a great little machine. If it breaks down in 2 years, I'll buy another and if that one breaks down in two years, I'll still have saved money over a more expensive machine that lasts four years. I've never used one more than that long anyway. Save your money and buy this.Water lasts as rated. On high it will last just over 12 hours. On low it lasts much longer. I bought two of them and they are both working great. If either breaks down in less than a year, I'll come back and add to this posting to report the problem. If there are no additional add-on postings here from me. Then the machines are working just fine.------------------**Update 10/16/2010**I used two of these last winter to keep my whole house moist. It is worth mentioning that these types of devices are electric hogs. I'm sure it is not just this brand but all warm mist humidifiers are like this. The electric use should be no big surprise as a warm mist humidifier is essentially boiling water the whole time it is turned on, but it would be nice if the manufacture had estimated electric usage on the box. How bad was it? We were running two of these every night at bedtime and turned them off during the day while out of the house. In an average winter month, the electric bill was just as high as it was when running the central AC during the summer. We were running them on high. This winter we will run them on low to see if we get enough humidity and save some money but paying an extra $60-90 a month on electric bills to keep our skin moist throughout the house was a bit much to swallow.

I live in the northeast US and winter is too dry on acoustic guitars. Yes, a sound-hole humidifier takes care of the body, but what about the neck? Since moving east, I have noticed that the guitars I keep out to practice on have required truss-rod adjustments and some fret-reduction during the winters; due to the heating required here. As the humidity decreases there is a real danger of warped necks, popped frets and the attendant buzzing. My practice room is about 15 X 20 feed (approx 300 sq ft.) and it's too much hassle to constantly get the guitars out of their cases to play throughout the day. A humidifier should be able to resolve the issue, but which one is best?As I began to research the issue, I soon discovered that there is much variability in price and quality. After many hours researching the reviews, I decided on this simple unit as a "proof of concept" experiment. If this can keep the humidity around 45% I will consider the trial a success. There are many more expensive units, but the reviews indicate that, to a certain extent, all of them are flawed in one, often several ways: Leaks, cleaning inconvenience, noise, lack of accurate built-in humidity-control, and quality control issues from assembly errors to short life-times. Rats! What to do?Fortunately, this unit is simple to operate, is very quiet and fairly clean during use, provided I use distilled water. As I already steam-distill my own water for health reasons, this is not a problem for me. Certainly, there will still be some clean-up to do, but I'm willing to perform the necessary things to ensure the health and longevity of my instruments. Here are my results so far.A gallon of distilled water lasts about three days, as i monitor the humidity and have found that intermittent operation (after an initial hydration of the room and furnishings) is adequate to keep the humidity between 35-45 percent. This does require a digital hygrometer, but as I already own one of those, it is not a problem to monitor the relative humidity throughout the day. My routine is to turn the unit on low for a few hours, then off again for a few hours. If measurement indicates a lowering humidity, I turn the unit on for half an hour and the humidity levels stabilize within that period. In the evening I run it for a few hours before retiring and the humidity levels stay relatively constant throughout the night as our exhalation adds to whatever is already present in the room. There is no easy way to maintain humidity levels constant without expensive equipment, and so far I find this unit fulfills my requirements. Since using it, my truss rods have not needed any adjustment, and the guitars stay in-tune.Is it perfect? No. My only gripe is that a small amount of water stays in the well in which the water-container rests. it doesn't leak on the surface it's on (a wide window-sill), but I do monitor it just to be sure. So far, no issues. It would be nice if it had a feature to control it's run-time according to a hygrometer, but reviews of units with this feature indicate it fails after a short time. It's an added plus that the increased humidity benefits our noses as well; they are not as dried-out and breathing is easier.It is a pain to have to do this over the winter, but I cherish my instruments as friends, and need them to be stable for when I perform. When I need to travel I simply place the guitars in a case with their body-humidifier and they stay closed until opened on stage. No problems so far.Now that I know this system works, I will keep searching for a reliable automated unit, and give this one to my son to keep his guitars humidified in his room. All in all, I'm quite pleased with the Vicks unit.

I purchased this humidifier during the winter months for my bedroom since I kept on catching a cold and getting very congested and wheezing in my sleep.This Vicks humidifier was really helpful throughout the whole winter it lets out a nice amount of mist and you can really tell the difference its a great feeling waking up not as congested as before.I like that it has 2 settings on the high setting you can run it for around 8-9 hours which will last you the whole night on the lower setting it will last for around 19- 20 hours on average.I also love that it has a auto turn off so you dont have to worry about it staying on when the water runs out.Like any humidifier or anything that you let water sit in MOLD WILL GROW so dont flip out if you see mold whats good about this is that its very easy to clean out and with proper maintenance you wont have any major issues with mold or anything else like that.You can wipe it clean or use vinegar to kill the mold this one is very easy to clean.My only issue is that its just a little big so its hard to find the perfect spot to put it but thats just my preference so I cant take off a star for that reason alone.On the other hand a plus of having a bigger humidifier is that the water will last longer and will reach your whole room instead of just 1 small area.I also like that this is not to noisy its actually a soft soothing noise that helps me fall asleep.All in all this is a great humidifier it really works well does a perfect job easy to use easy to clean and a solid price point as well.If you found my review helpful it’d be great if you[...]. I am happy to leave reviews to help others make decisions prior to purchase and I enjoy reading your reviews to help me with mine

Long term update: I first bought this humidifier back in 2012. I have run it almost continuously every winter since. It has held up great. I just recently in 2023 bought another and I was VERY happy to see they have not changed a thing since 2012. If something ain't broke, don't fix it. This is a great and simple warm mist humidifier that will crank out warm mist for many years.-----I think I read every review of every humidifier on Amazon. It seemed like every one of them is destined to leak, burst into flames or turn into a level 3 biohazard. In the end I decided that I agreed with another reviewer and it just made sense to buy one of the cheaper ones and see how it worked out.To start off this review I think I have to let everyone know a little basic biology. Any time there is standing water it is a potential breeding ground for mold, bacteria, etc. This isn't only true in your little Vicks humidifier--it is true everywhere on the planet. If you have ever had a leak behind a wall you know how quickly standing water can turn into a problem and fast. However, there is not an abundant food source in your humidifier so the risk is manageable with some precautions. I'm just going to list them in no real order of importance because they are all important:1) Don't let water sit in your unit when it is off. This includes the water in the little reservoir below the big tank of water. Yes, empty that out too if you won't be using it for a while.2) It is much easier to prevent a mold or bacterial overgrowth than it is to clean up once one starts. In fact if you get any serious overgrowth (which can happen to any humidifier) it probably makes sense to just throw it out and start over.3) Clean the plastic on your unit with a thymol based cleaner. I use Seventh Generation Disinfecting Multi-Surface Cleaner, Lemongrass & Thyme 26 fl oz (786 ml). It's great. It will leave behind just a tiny bit of thymol on the plastic parts and thymol is a natural germ fighter (derived from thyme).4) Wash out the tank with bleach regularly. They say a tablespoon but I just pour in a bit of bleach and shake it.5) Practice getting a good fit of all the pieces. There are, if memory serves, 6 pieces to this that need to all fit together like a Lego set. If you played with Legos as a kid this will be easy. If you didn't, don't panic, take a careful look and make sure you've fit all the parts together right. If you don't it will leak and you will be unhappy. If you feel like taking things apart and putting them back together isn't your thing you must look for a different unit.6) There are only 2 settings--low and high. Low is really low and high is really high. In my roughly 10x15 bedroom the low setting will raise ambient humidity by about 13% with the door open and by about 20% with the door shut. So if I start at 30% humidity I'll get to 43% with the door open and 50% with the door almost completely closed. Note, I said "almost" completely closed. I find that in my size bedroom low will take the humidity routinely up over 50% if I close the door completely. That is too much moisture.7) You need to also buy a humidistat. I like P3 P0270 Mold Alert Electronic Thermo-Hygrometer as it is responsive to small changes in the humidity level. Without a hygrometer you'll really have no way of knowing if you need to use high, low or just turn the unit off. Most people should be shooting for between 30-50% humidity. In fact when I get home most nights I don't even need to turn on the humidifier because the level will already be between 30-50%. Lastly on this topic you can't estimate the inside humidity by getting the % from the weather channel. It just doesn't work that way. The humidity inside your home will depend on a lot of factors beyond just what the outside humidity is. Do yourself a favor and get the hygrometer too.8) Water has stuff in it. Even distilled water has stuff in it. So eventually you are going to have to clean the heating element with vinegar. When you do this it will be helpful to use an old toothbrush to scrub the metal part that heats the water as this will accumulate the most stuff. Also, don't blame Vicks for stuff in your water--talk to your local water department or building owner.9) Don't ever ever ever use an abrasive pad to clean the plastic. Why? Because abrasive pads will leave tiny little scratches in the surface of the plastic. Those scratches make for a perfect home where bacterial colonies can get established. Only use non-scratch cleaning products to clean the plastic surfaces...nothing abrasive.So yes, that is a lot of rules and guidelines. There is just no easy way to have standing water in your living space. If you are going to attempt it you have to be vigilant and attentive to the care of your Vicks.

The basic concept of this humidifier is great. Unfortunately, it is also highly impractical and expensive to operate.The first thing to realize is hidden cost. This is a water boiler with a heating element going 24 hours a day. The electricity cost alone of such a device needs to be considered. At 248 watts, this consumes 1kwh every 4 hours. That means if you run it 24 hours a day (as many will in the winter), at a standard cost of 10 center per kwh this unit will cost $18.60 per month to operate. That is almost double the cost of a standard filter-based humidifier of the same size.Then there's the deal-killer: calcium in tap water. This unit has no way to filter calcium and other hard minerals. The heating element isn't buildup-resistant, so it literally bakes minerals onto the heating element, requiring one to either use distilled water, or to take time every day to clean the unit. Few people have that much time, as it requires dismantling the unit and using a brush (not provided) to get down inside the small spots and scrub away what calcium has accumulated. If you don't do this, if you wait say, a week to clean it... the calcium builds up so thickly even straight vinegar won't remove it.My unit lasted about a month and a half before I had to just give up on it, as it got to the point that even with effort the mineral deposit removal became impossible. It was so encrusted that soaking it overnight in vinegar didn't help.If you use distilled water it works great. But this unit can easily go through 2 or 3 gallons of water a day... bringing monthly operating cost to well over 60 to 90 dollars just for water (in addition to sucking down electricity).All in all the unit simply isn't practical. If they had a way to remove the calcium and other minerals from the water, some kind of filter (as my replacement unit has), then it would be great. If they had used a heating method a bit less intense than 240 watts (one would think 100 watts sufficient), it would be less-expensive to operate. But as it is, this is a unit that will either cost a fortune to operation... or is doomed to failure as the calcium and other minerals encrust on the heating element beyond all fixing.I definitely do not recommend this unit. Vicks had a great idea, but didn't bother to address the problems of water contamination and power consumption. The idea of using distilled water is ridiculously expensive, and there's simply no way to keep it clean when using tap water. That they didn't include a cleaning brush is simply inexcusable.

I bought this for my baby based on a recommendation and it's really good.I recommend pairing it with the Vicks VapoSteam from the same brand to get the most out of it — together they work great for keeping baby healthy, especially during cold and flu season.Really practical and reliable as the colder months approach

I was overall disappointed with this humidifier—while it did everything it was supposed to do (namely, emit hot, humid air at a constant rate throughout the night), I realized that this kind of humidifier is not the best for soothing my colds.For reference, I also have a Honeywell warm-mist humidifier and a Levoit cool-mist humidifier. My Honeywell has served me well for the past few winters, esp during sickness, but it recently gave out (probably be size I run it on high, and it gets the room HOT and steamy). My Levoit cool-mist humidifier works great and is easy to use (designed well and simply, with tank that fills from the top). The fine mist cascades like a waterfall, which is great. However, I prefer warm air when I’m sick in Fall/Winter.What is lacking for me in this Vicks humidifier is that the “steam action” is minimal. I can definitely feel the HEAT (like boiling water if you put your hand over the opening), and I can technically see the steam, but it doesn’t carry over onto me like I thought it would. No hot shower effect, and I wake up with a dryish-feeling throat. It’s also a little louder than my Honeywell, and significantly louder than my Levoit. I do like the Vapopad option for soothing a cold, but that’s not enough to keep it in my opinion.I decided to go with the Levoit Oasismist that emits warm and cool mist to get that warm AND steamy effect I’m going for—haven’t received or used it yet, but comparing it to the Vicks, I think I’ll be much better pleased. Giving the Vicks 3 stars because it operates as advertised; however, I realized after using it that I have different goals than what it’s meant to do.

excellant product we receive it before the delivery date .same product we got what we order exactly..thank u for u excellant service

Good product. Used it while I have my radiator on and it helps makes the atmosphere soothing and relaxing.

It's getting the job done.

Like how much humidity it puts into the air. Don,t like having to clean calcium build up on heating element.

It's a nice product. Using it in my daughter's room. Working great.