While it took a while to get here, my husband agrees with me that the Avanti Hot and Cold Water Dispenser was well worth the wait.
After our old dispenser gave up the ghost after twenty plus years, we looked at each other and said, 'what do we do now?' We tried shopping for another one locally but nobody had what we were looking for and we were, quite frankly, spoiled.
What do we like about the Avanti?
As the poet put it, let me count the ways.
First of all, because of its Energy Saver feature, the Avanti consumes less electricity than our old dispenser which ran constantly. It was also noisy. The Avanti, in contrast, is very quiet.
The Avanti features a neat little safety lock on the hot water faucet, which the old dispenser did not The storage space in the bottom, while it doesn't keep anything cold, is quite handy.
The Avanti's white plastic square design looks clean and nice. Our old brown metal dispenser did not. Also, unlike some of the round dispensers we looked at, the Avanti is not 'tippy'. Since it sits next to the kitchen doorway and a heavy traffic area, this was a real concern.
We also looked at dispensers that pumped from the bottom as well as the reviews and decided they were not for us.
The only CON was a chemical, almost musty, taste in the water for a few weeks after we got the Avanti, but that is now gone.
All in all, we are extremely pleased with the Avanti. It's much, much better than our old dispenser and we definitely give it 5 stars.
Update 7/3/2012
Now there is a problem. (Another reviewer had the same thing happen to them in December 2010 and, in their case, it was a broken hot water line.).
When I changed the three gallon bottle for a fresh one yesterday, everything seemed fine.
As recommended, (and as usual), I left the unit unplugged, ran 4 cups of water out through the hot water faucet then plugged in the unit and turned it on.
My husband woke me at around 11 p.m. with the news that there was a huge puddle around the dispenser and what should he do? I unplugged the unit, removed the bottle and emptied the reservoir through the hot water faucet. A seam along the top of the bottom cabinet door was wet and the drip catcher under the faucets was full.
Not wanting to spend the rest of the night working on the problem, I unplugged the unit and removed the bottle altogether.
After carefully drying everything off this afternoon, I replaced the bottle, removed another 4 cups of water via the hot water faucet, plugged in the unit again and turned on the hot and cold water. At first everything seemed fine. Then an hour later, I found another puddle. This time it appeared to be the result of an overflow from the reservoir, and the water level, which I had carefully marked on the outside of the bottle, had gone down about 25%.
We have spent the rest of today trying this and that. Now the new bottle is empty, there is still a puddle of water on the floor, tomorrow is July 4th and it's too late in the day to call Avanti's Customer Service. However, first thing, Monday, I'm going to call them and see what they have to say.
Film at 11.
Update, Tuesday, July 10, 2012
I called Avanti's Customer Service number yesterday. Once I reached a technician, she questioned me about the problem in detail and I listed all the steps I had followed.
She said, in her opinion, we needed a service call and gave the number of an authorized repair shop in our area.
The repairman arrived first thing this morning. After he checked out the entire unit and found no problem, he called Avanti's Customer Service.
The Avanti technician suggested that he look at the water bottle. He did and, sure enough, there was our problem. We'd been using three gallon plastic molded bottles which we'd purchased from the same health food store where we get our distilled water.
The bottle has four seams around the top, which fits snugly into the collar above the reservoir. When we examined the last bottle we used, we noticed some extra material on a couple of the seams. This extra material is known in the plastic molding industry as 'flash' and it's supposed to be trimmed or buffed off as soon as the part comes out of the press. (More years ago than I care to count, I worked as a press operator in a plastic molding plant which made glasses for American Airlines. So I know all about 'flash'.)
The Avanti Customer Service technician said this is not an uncommon problem with these plastic bottles.
As the repairman explained, the Avanti dispenser's operation depends on maintaining an intact vacuum seal between the bottle's top and the reservoir. When a defective bottle is installed, the sheer weight of three gallons of water creates the necessary vacuum seal and it'll stay that way with no leaks until a certain amount of water is removed from the dispenser. However, as the bottle's level goes down, it weighs less and raises slightly. This, in turn, exposes the four seams around the bottle's top. The space between the the extra seam material, or 'flash', creates an air space between the bottle and the reservoir collar. When this happens, the vacuum seal is lost. The bottle level then starts gradually going down by itself for no apparent reason and, after an hour or so, there's water all over the floor.
Because our dispenser is over two years old and out of warranty, we had to pay for the service call. However, it was worth it to us and I will still give the Avanti Water Dispenser an unequivocal five stars both for their Customer Service department's helpful and courteous response and the excellence of the product itself.
December 9, 2012
Update: Our Avanti dispenser is still working fine and, to date, we've had no more problems. I will say though, for anyone who might be interested, we only use distilled water which we purchase at a local health food for .89c per gallon. It's also very important to remove 4 cups of water from the dispenser via the hot water faucet immediately after replacing the bottle.
Very powerful fan. From my experience, the amount of noise it makes is fairly normal for a fan that can deliver this much air. I got them to replace the Sunon fans that were cooling the LED signs for my company, which were making strange buzzing noises. Compared to the Sunon fans, these appear to have a higher quality grade in terms of materials, about the same noise and more air power. The seller was very knowledgeable in helping me find the proper replacement and shipped fast.
We initially bought one for our basement to get rid of the mildewy smell. It worked so great that we bought another for our bedroom and then another for our motor home. I run them continously, clean them about month and my allergy problems nearly disappeared. My sister lives in a very old house and the basement has been wet more than once. She refinished it and put her bedroom down there and suddenly started having one sinus infection after another. I gave her the one from our motor home and within two days she had symptom relief. Now I am researching costs because my parents want to purchase one or two of them. The white noise that they produce is just an added bonus.
I got one of these about five years ago when my daughter got a ferret. It never did anything for the odor. The light that is supposed to light up when the unit needs to be cleaned, never did. I cleaned the unit monthly and there was a lot of dust on the filters, but I could still see a lot of floating dust in my 12'x15' living room. Maybe I expected too much. It still works, although it is now so noisy it gets turned off whenever anyone is in the room.
I will start by saying that finally, after installing two of these units in my 1500 sf workshop, I am very happy with them. They cool and heat very efficiently and quietly and there are not many units on the market which have the power and features of this one.
We just got this unit a few days ago took me all of 2 minutes to read the instructions and crank it up. I placed it in our large bedroom (about 280sf) and hit the turbo button (great feature that in essence makes the unit run at a super high speed for 20 minutes to quickly process the room's air) and left. My wife opened the door to the room about a half hour later and said "wow it feels so fresh in here". We both smelled the difference. it's really what you don't smell nothing seems to be in the air. No dust, odors, nothing.
The product met my expectations. The filters work perfect in may Robitussin Humidifier as espected. The only problem, they came in an open bag, it was not really the most apealing package
This filter is the one bad part of the system. I have not really noticed the bad smell, but the plastic piece came loose and much of the charcoal escaped. A poor construction on a otherwise good system.
The cataloge is inaccurate for this filter. It was recommended as a replacement in the XL model. It would not fit this unit. It would appear that Oreck is at fault here with the wrong part numbers. Do not buy this with expectations of it working in an XL Oreck.
I bought two of these filters. I haven't yet installed one but I was very interested in the quality of the product. It seems to be just a slight grade lower in construction/materials than the original but I am sure it will work just fine. Considering the cost savings, I feel it is an excellent alternative to paying $50+ (as I had been) for the OEM product.
So honestly I can't say that it has changed my life, etc. There are just too many variables when it comes to allergies and mold and stuff to reasonably attribute to 1 source.
A common problem with basements is mold and the odor that high humidity can cause. I have succesfully removed the mold spores with high efficiency furance filters mounted to several 20 inch box fans sitting in the basement. However, as high humidity arrived in the Spring the odor of a damp basement began to develop. This carbon filter, mounted with a 6 inch duct booster fan from a local hardware store, has successfully removed the mold/odor from my basement. The carbon filter from this vendor came very quickly and was well packed so that no damage came to the filter.
Talking about a subject that's not a very comfortable one is not easy, but I have to share. So here goes...This spray is AMAZING! One spritz in the bathroom, 5 minutes and the stinky smell they, or you, left behind is gone. This stuff should be called the miracle spray. It lasts us a long time since you need so very little. If you over do it then the fragrance is overwhelming and will make you cough. 1 spray and the stink is gone.
The year's supply of filters costs much more than the unit. Note, however, that you can get them from the holmes site for cheaper if you buy a larger pack four filters cost around $50.
I've been waiting for a forced air ionizer/air cleaner like this for awhile. I use fan based HEPA air filters, and this is by far quieter than any of those. On medium and low settings, the Oreck is nearly completely silent. Even on high, for the amount of air it puts out, I still consider it moderately quiet. Remember, I'm accustomed to fan based HEPA filters, so this is by far more quiet than any.
This DeLonghi DD45P Dehumidifier is so far advanced over other dehumidifiers I have owned over the past 15 to 20 years, it is like a newly invented appliance for 2010.
I love this Oreck purifier!! I have 3 cats and 3 dogs. One of my dogs is very old and another is a puppy, they both have accidents on my wood floors. My house started smelling like a kennel, even after mopping. After I started running the Oreck 24 hrs. a day, there is such as difference, not even a slight odor in the air (Even after the house has been closed up all day long and I come home to little puddles). It's very attractive and quiet on the lowest setting, and thats all I need to reduce the the odor in my large open plan living room/dining room. My sister loves how it worked in my house and purchased one and placed it next to her daughter's rat cage, what a difference this product has made for those of us who live with our animal friends!
I have had this heater for over a year and it helps heat up my entire downstairs because of the fact that it uses warm air with the water feature. I have gone through tons of different heaters that half the time I am lucky if it heats up a room, this one heats up my living room, kitchen, dining room and a half bath plus the heat goes up the stairs and helps to keep that area warm too. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a heater that really works.
This fan is perfect for my bed room at any time. I needed a nice fan for sleeping and this works perfect, level one blows just enough air onto me for a great breeze and sleep. The fan is super quiet for the amount of air it pushes,no fan will ever be silent. You cant hear the motor at all. totally worth it!
I don't use this product to clean a humidifier but as a cleaning product. It takes hard water off of any surface like you would not believe. I sprinkle a little of this on on get some on a toothbrush. It bubbles and just eats away the hard water. You can then rub it with the toothbrush and it will general vanish.