Air-O-Swiss AOS Ultrasonic Humidifier - 7135
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Our Price: $179.99 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $99.99 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Air-O-Swiss AOS Ultrasonic Humidifier - 7135
Customer Review: Getting Rid of It
Summary: 1 Stars
I got one of these at the Sharper Image going-out-of-business sale about a year or so ago for 50% off. It's very quiet, and very well put together, but I'm glad I didn't pay full price.
The water in my apartment isn't super-hard, but no matter what I did, it always created lots of very fine, white dust that got everywhere and that dried out my skin whenever I touched something with it on it. It came with a demineralization cartridge, and I bought extras and refills, but they never seemed to do anything. Either they'd be used up quickly (refills are about $15 for a 3-pack) or they didn't do anything in the first place. If I'd spend a lot of time removing the dust from my apartment, it would all be back in a week or so.
Cleaning it was a real chore. You'd have to take it apart, fill the base with water mixed with a special descaling powder (~$5 a 3-pack) and scrub the inside with a little brush. Since the mist is pretty cool, even in warm mist mode, I always had this red stuff growing in weird, hard to clean places in the nozzle and in the channel through the reservoir, so I'd have to scrub with a toothbrush and push paper towels back and forth through the places where the brush couldn't reach.
You can only set the maintain humidity mode in 5% humidity increments.
I felt like I was being nickle-and-dimed with this thing. Not only it it expensive in the first place, but you always have to buy supplies. Demineralization refills are $15-$20 for a 3-pack, and Amazon doesn't sell them so you always have to pay shipping. Cleaning powder goes for $5-$10 per 3-pack. And then there's that silver stick thing. I never got a replacement, since I wasn't convinced it was doing anything, but they're $30 a piece!
I gave up on this model, and bought a Honeywell HWM450 Quick Steam Warm Moisture Humidifier that's everything I wished this Air-O-Swiss was. I've had it for about a year, and I highly recommend it.
Customer Review: Great product but costly to maintain
Summary: 4 Stars
I live in an apartment in downtown New York City. In the past, I have used cool mist and warm mist humidifiers. I bought the air-o-swiss for my bedroom, which is approx 400 sq. ft in size.
The primary reason I went for a more expensive humidifier is because I wanted more output and less maintenance, compared to the warm mist humidifier that I had before.
Here is my experience with air-o-swiss after 6 months of usage:
PROS:
1. Very silent indeed. But then any warm mist humidifier would is quiet silent.
2. The output of this humidifier is quiet sufficient for a medium size bedroom. Although, I must say that, for our bedroom to stay at 30% humidity, the air-o-swiss must be cranked up to the highest output setting. Which means that it runs out of water in about 10 hrs.
3. Maintenance Free. Due to the filter that this humidifier comes with, the heating elements do not get calcifications and hence do not need to be scrapped over and over. And the humidifier does not loose its performance.
4. Quiet modern looking piece of appliance.
CONS:
1. The filter gets used up almost every 2-3 weeks. This may be due to the fact that downtown new york city water is very hard. Never the less, it costs me a filter every month.
2. Output. The air-o-swiss box says that the output is good for a upto 600 sq. ft. My living room is 500 sq ft and the air-o-swiss is not able to keep the room at even at 25% humidity, even at max output. However, its output is enough to keep the bedroom at 30%.
3. Digital. May be its just my individual case, but the digital humidity measurement, built into the air-o-swiss, is off by atleast 10%. The other options are quiet useless since I use the humifier output at max in order to achieve th 30% humidity in the room.
4. Design. The vapor mist is thrown out in such a way that air-o-swiss cannot be kept the floor, else the mist will "fall" on the floor. It needs to be place on a platform, at least 3 feet from the ground. In an apartment, that means countertop or table top real estate wasted.
5. Tank capacity. I think a larger tank capacity would be helpful since the at the full output, the tank lasts for only 10 hrs.
In all, I would recommend this product. Although, you can skip the digital options. And stock up on those filters.
Customer Review: Clean, quiet, and efficient
Summary: 4 Stars
You can add my voice to the previous reviews lauding this product. Although the cost was steep, I'm quite satisfied with this unit. As this is my second humidifier, I have something to compare to. What do I like?
- Very quiet. You barely hear it.
- Clean! The ionized silver stick, combined with the water heating, works! This is what killed my last humidifier -- too much microbial growth that I aggressively cleaned with bleach.
- Lots of control - you can set the humidity, put it on a timer, and decide if you want the water preheated.
- Preheated water makes the room feel warmer in winter.
The built-in psychrometer also makes this more efficient. I fill the unit less than I used to (for a similar volume of water in the tank) primarily because the humidifier only puts moisture in the air when it needs to.
The only point against it for me so far is the system the manufacturer uses to try to get you to clean the unit and filter the water by purchasing their approved materials.
---Update a couple of years later---
My Air-O-Swiss started leaking, leaving a pool of water on the floor. You could hear it dripping inside somewhere. Given that it hadn't fallen victim to any blunt trauma (of which I'm aware), my first reaction was to curse shoddy workmanship. Then, on a hunch, I cleaned the base with a dishwashing detergent/water solution (and gloves). While I'd been using the brush and cleaning as advised, and even though I'd replaced the ionic stick, I knew that things were growing in there and figured that it had built up on the sides of the plastic walls. (I used to brew beer and you get the same problem in fermenting vessels.)
Sure enough, after a thorough cleaning of the tank exterior where it meets the base and the base itself, the leak stopped and the unit is performing flawlessly again.
The moral of the story: every once in awhile you'll need to go above and beyond on the cleaning or else it will eventually stop forming a good seal. You don't want to do it too often or use something too caustic or you'll destroy that rubber ring in the base unit. I think once a year would be enough.
Customer Review: Excellent. White dust is non-existent if you actually follow the instructions.
Summary: 4 Stars
My bedroom is an arid 16x12 rectangle with a vaulted ceiling and a poorly-sealed window. The low-resolution barometer on my nightstand clock always reads DRY. I purchased a $30 humidifier from home depot, and that barely got the job done. It was one of the types that uses a fan to vaporize water from a moistened filter. With the fan on 'high', it managed to increase the humidity in my room to the cusp of DRY/NORMAL after a few hours of operating. Unfortunately it was also loud, and naturally cooled my already cold room. I opted to go overboard and buy the Air-o-Swiss 7135 from Bed Bath and Beyond (I recommend utilizing one of those 25% off coupons that they periodically send in the mail). The Air-o-Swiss has been great. The creation of actual 'steam' effectively humidifes my room in much less time than my old humidifier, and is nearly silent. It keeps my room at 55% humidity all night long. And by selecting the warm steam setting, it does not cool my room any further. It does take an hour or two to increase the humidity from 25% to 55%, but overall I'm very impressed - my clock's hygrometer now reads "Normal". It's rated to humidify up to 650 square feet, and while my room is roughly 200 square feet with a vaulted ceiling I do not fault the humidifier for struggling a little more than expected. The square footage rating is always an estimate based on certain assumptions (8 foot ceiling, well sealed room, humidifer placed at least 3 feet above floor, etc). I certainly recommend buying a humidifier that is overrated for the room you are trying to humidify. You can always set a big humidifier to a lower setting, but you can't turn a small humidifier up beyond the 'high' setting. Anyway, you get the idea.
As for the white dust that some people complain about. The instruction manual clearly states that if you do not soak the filter for 24 hours prior to first use it may result in a fine white dust being emitted. You can also opt to remove the filter and use distilled/deionized water instead of using tap water in conjuction with the filter. I have not tried the distilled water method, though Air-o-swiss claims that you will get even better performance using that method.
Customer Review: Wonderful humidifier
Summary: 5 Stars
I've just developed dry eye syndrome and needed a new humidifier. I've now purchased three in the past month. I purchased this humidifier from a local linen store that regularly offers coupons. It far exceeds the other humidifiers I've owned. These are the reasons why:
-The filters are really very economical. Some reviewers complain of expense in maintaining the filters. You do not need to purchase a new filter, only the resin pellets inside. It is easily replaced and much less expensive than buying an entire new filter. The pellets are available in a pack of three at the above store. I would rather use a filter than have white dust all over.
-The instructions specifically say not to fill with water from a water softener or it may crack the tank. I use Pur filtered water to fill it. Filtered water extends the humidifiers filters life. I've never seen any white dust.
-I love the humidistat, but I don't consider it perfectly accurate (it rarely matches my household humidistat). Since the humidistat is built directly into the unit, it's going to read a little higher than my humidistat across the room. It is very simple to realize this and adjust accordingly. What's great is that you can set the humidity level you want and it will maintain it. Some humidifiers allow you to adjust the mist flow, but don't moderate the flow according to the humidity.
-It has an automatic safety shut off for when the water runs out.
-It is simple to fill.
-It has either warm or cool mist.
-It has a filter cleaner indicator.
-It is very, very quiet. I bought this unit to replace the much noiser SPT SU-4010 Ultrasonic Dual-Mist Warm/Cool Humidifier with Ion exchanger. That's a nice little humidifier, but it doesn't put out nearly the same mist and it's much noisier. I couldn't sleep with it in my bedroom.
-It is very well thought and and very well built.
-It is easy to maintain and stays very clean.
-A full tank of water lasts me for about 24 hours depending on the humidity level I want. I keep it running all day, every day without a problem.
I'd buy it again. It was well worth the money.