Vornado HU1-0021-28 Whole Room Evaporative Humidifier

Vornado HU1-0021-28 Whole-Room Evaporative Humidifier

After owning this for some 2+ years, I have updated this review and raised the rating. The following text is updated:

We have owned a number of humidifiers in the past. The last one we owned (& liked) was the now discontinued Vornado model (the ugly gray box w/ 2 water tanks and a fan that sat in the lid). This new version, solves some of the problems of the old design and creates new problems of its own. As another reviewer has noted, the beauty of the old system was its simplicity (read: fewer parts to clean). That simplicity, is somewhat gone.

The biggest improvement is the noise level. The old design made a loud gargling sound periodically as the air bubbled into the tanks. Further, the lid with the fan, sometimes did not sit right and made a buzzing vibration sound.

The other major improvement, that it has taken me sometime to appreciate, is that there is less water sitting around in a basin that can collect junk and grow nasty stuff. This ended up needing less cleaning than the orignal model. On the other hand, the black color also makes it harder to appreciate mold inside the unit.

The new tank now has a filling cap that locks into the tank. There is a separate fancier spring loaded drain for water to move into the basin. I had some concern abou the top of the tank not being flat and making the filling more difficult. However, it seems sturdy enough as long as you are careful and don't use as much high pressure to fill it. There is no longer an option for two tanks, so more refill runs.

As for the rest of the design, there is now a physical separation between the evaporation chamber, and where the water tank is placed. This is mostly nice, since you don't have to worry about bugs and other junk falling into the evaporation chamber. You have to be a little more vigilant about mold buildup inside the chamber since it is closed off and not visible on every refill.

On the plus side, the fan is more securely attached to the rest of the humidifier, thus reducing noise.

As far as humidification, it still works great. The fan is quieter and just as efficient (if not more). The fancy electronic humidification settings seem to work well and allow for less over-humidification (fewer refills). So in summary:

quiet

efficient

not as simple a design as the older model

more parts but seems to need less cleaning.