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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Bought a fancy Venta filterless (but it still requires a canister replacement) model last year for the bandroom. Ten year warranty. It lasted a few months before the contacts corroded out. I rebuilt the contacts and managed to squeeze another 10 months out of it, but now it just smells hot and there is no venting produced. The website for the USA distributer is no good. Nice waste of about $250. Anybody have a recommendation for something simple that I can set at about 45% and then forget about (other than refilling and occasionally changing out the filter)? Need something for about 300 square feet. |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 1225
Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | I have a Honeywell 6 gallon unit which I've been using for about 5 years. It works fine, and was not expensive. |
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March 2005
Posts: 5563
Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | Brad, the wife bought a ReliOn at Walmart last year for around $20...it works great and keeps the humidity at around 45% (in several rooms)... |
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Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 12755
Location: Boise, Idaho | I've got a smaller Honeywell that has worked well for a couple years. It only cost about $40 and I have to fill it a couple of times per week during the winter. I had a different brand that the replacement filters crapped out early. Last night I noticed that the humidity wasn't staying where I like it and checked the "permanent" filters. They were really cruddy, but the directions say I'm supposed to clean them once a week. I cleaned them for the first time last night. I hope they recover. |
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Joined:
February 2008
Posts: 247
Location: Delaware | Check Sears. They have a pretty good line of humidifiers from whole house to room size.I have a Kenmore (model 758.154200) whole house. Auto humidity setting, auto or manual fan setting, 14 gal capacity. It's a little noisy on high fan so I keep it on medium and humidity level at 45%, and it cycles on and off as needed. Paper cartridges need replacement once or so a season. Does the job well for me. Second year for it, no issues at a cost of $190. |
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November 2006
Posts: 3969
| Move to FL - been 70% in the house lately. |
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Joined:
March 2008
Posts: 2683
Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | You probably have hard water like we do here in the Hills. I use only distilled water in my humidifiers. I use reverse osmosis water in my coffee maker for that matter. (All these minerals are supposed to be good for the body, but if they plug up the machinery, they'll probably plug up the body's machinery too, so I drink R.O. water too.) |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Honeywell or Holmes(like John B. recommended).
The filterless ones generally use an ultrasonic mechanism, and require periodic flushing with a special solution t'keep impurities from corroding the mechanism. i couldn't be bothered. |
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 4413
| The Holmes is the 12" model isn't it? |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | 13, but who's counting?? |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | I have Bill O'Reilly make "afterhour" calls to each of my guitars regularly. |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Brad, get the big white one from Sears. Been using it for almost 3 years nonstop without a hiccup.
Kenmore 12 Gallon |
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Joined:
November 2006
Posts: 3969
| Jeff - as long as he doesn't use a loofa on the guitars... |
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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4044
Location: Utah | This is our 2nd year with the same Kenmore 12 gallon unit as stephent28. It works great. On whisper mode it is very quiet. In the music room it is far more than enough capacity. It did a passable job when it was in the open downstairs, but it worked pretty hard. Two of those would do our whole house very nicely. 300 sq ft would be a piece of cake for that unit.
We have to replace the paper filter every couple of months due to hard crud buildup. |
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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 1673
Location: SoCal | We picked up a couple Bionaire(BCM630) humidifiers at Costco to get us through the dry spells. They make a few tower models and rate them at 500 square feet. They are easy to attend and are digital. Same thing is found under the Holmes brand.
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Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 4619
Location: SoCal | I have the Honeywell 13gal "QuietCare", picked up at HomeDepot for about $60. Leave it on all year but really only need it when we get the Santa Ana winds off of the desert. |
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Joined:
July 2003
Posts: 3111
Location: Nashville TN. | or you can put a sause pan with water on your cast iron rad-e-atar |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Thanks, all. Going shopping this weekend. |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Let us know what you bring home! |
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Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I got the Honeywell and I combine it with a hygrometer. It keeps our upstairs, about 600 sq feet at 42% humidity on low. I like the warm air humidifiers
The one I have looks like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-2%252e5%252dgal%252e-Warm-Moisture-... |
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Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | This is what we have. It works great.
http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-HWM2030-3-Gallon-Moisture-Humidifie... |
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Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | So what did you get? |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Went back to Bed, Bath and Beyond and couldn't find the Venta model that had failed on me, but I nonetheless put on a pretty good display of disatisfaction. They told me to bring it back in, which I later did, and they gave me full credit! I then used the credit towards another less expensive Venta model with "improved design" (I think the model number is 207) but no digital controls (they're all mechanical), along with four extra carbon filter canisters, and walked out of the store with about $40 store credit in my favor. There is no humidity readout on the new model, but I can watch that with a remote gauge. I immediately dismantled the entire unit and I couldn't find any exposed contacts, so I'm hoping this model won't crap out through corrosion like the old model. |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Just checked their website. The humidifier that failed was the Venta-Sonic 370. It is considerably cheaper today than a year ago. I replaced it with the Venta-Sonic 207. |
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Humidifier recommendations?