Honeywell Hwm-705B Hwm705B Filter Free Warm Moisture Humidifier, Black

I only realized this until I read the manual, but I got a US plug and I need 110-120V for this thing. I live in the UAE, HOW!! :))) It’s so hard to find a good converter. The very good ones are heavy, huge and expensive.

Nothing is more inefficient, electricity wasteful, and expensive than adding humidity to your air by boiling water, which is what this Honeywell warm-mist humidifier does. Do you remember "immersion heaters" -- the coil of wire you submerge into your coffee cup that boils a cup of water for making a mug of tea? This humidifier works similarly. The large tank of water keeps a small reservoir in the base filled. The reservoir has a heating element in the bottom, and steam goes out the chimney. An equally expensive way to boil water is with an old-fashioned vaporizer, which can use 600 watts if you put in the maximum amount of salt -- that's half as much electricity as an air conditioner.Extremely much less electricity is used with ultrasonic or cold mist (a big wet wick) humidifiers. Ultrasonics need a strategy to keep dissolved minerals from the water from being dispersed, or else surfaces everywhere in your room will get filled with white dust, including inside the ventilation holes of your hi-fi stereo.Cold mist humidifiers, also extremely less electricity than boiling water, create a cold draft, which can be compensated by turning up the thermostat a degree or two. The evaporated water they eject is mineral-free. But, the sponges (wicks) can get smelly-mildewy, and they deteriorate from mineral deposits being left behind by the evaporating water. There are magic solutions you can buy that improve the performance regarding sponges' mineral destruction and mildew, but you have to wonder about those solutions evaporating into the air with the water vapor. Those solutions also mean you're signing up for subscriptions if you choose cold-mist, but it's still cheaper than boiling the water.The heating element in this Honeywell will get layered with mineral deposits as it boils water, deposits that are similar to concrete. So, you need to disassemble this and fill the reservoir with standard 3% vinegar to soak the heating element, every week or two. Of course, that's soaking with the power disconnected; you're not supposed to boil vinegar. If you tilt the base, it will more completely submerge the heating element in the vinegar, and let it soak.Regular vinegar is 3% ascetic acid. I bought a quart of 30% ascetic acid, Amazon item B094CLLP2D. I only used it once, adding a quarter cup to the usual pool of vinegar, and the mineral deposits got removed SO FAST, I think I will add only a couple of tablespoons of 30% to the vinegar, next time. I don't want to get into trouble using stronger acid than necessary.The instructions for the Honeywell warn against using anything hard that might scratch the heating element. I use a turkey basting brush, like Amazon Item B08LNF724G to scrub the heating element submerged in vinegar. Don't let the metal band around the brush scratch the heating element.The real trick is that boiling water as a strategy for humidifying your air -- which avoids the cold drafts, mildewing wicks, and dispersing mineral dust -- is only viable if you're ok with significantly increasing your electric bill. I think I recommend an ultrasonic, if you can find one with a big enough water tank and some kind of filter to remove the minerals before they dust your room. Also, get a few hygrometers, I like Amazon item B07S396LHG. You need to see if you're humidifying effectively, too much or too little. You'll need a meter to quantify the humidity if you're going to regulate it.I use a humidity Controller, Amazon item B01FQKXRXA, to regulate the room's humidity, since the Honeywell does nothing to regulate the room's humidity. The controller regulates the room humidity within 1% or 2%. Watch out for the 10 Amp current rating of the $42 controller -- you don't want to burn it up by plugging too many humidifiers into it.I bought the Honeywell because my vaporizers are made with such low quality, I wanted to add a different kind of humidifier to reduce the amount of time the vaporizers run. Mostly what I've been doing, I plug the Honeywell direct into the wall so it runs continuously, which lasts about 6 or 7 hours. And the vaporizers plug into the Controller, turning on and off, running less often with the Honeywell boiling continuously in the background.As the weather's dewpoint rises, the vaporizers come on less and less. If the vaporizers stop coming on at all and the room's humidity keeps increasing over my chosen set-point, then I turn the Honeywell's setting from Hi to Lo. If the humidity keep rising, I disconnect the vaporizers and plug the Honeywell into the Controller. Anything to keep the vaporizers running, because today's vaporizers are built using electrodes that disintegrate in one season -- or less! When I was a kid, vaporizers lasted for decades, so it's really abusive planned obsolescence.Seems to me that if you keep the minerals from building up on the Honeywell too thickly, if you keep the whole thing clean, it should last a very long time. There seems to be a thermostat in the Honeywell that will turn off the heating element if it gets too hot -- if the tank runs out of water. But that is probably a stress. Even with the thermostatic protection, if you want the Honeywell to last as long as possible, I would try to avoid letting it run out of water. Also, the mineral build-up on the heating element will probably be harder to remove if you let the tank run out of water and the heating element dries out, heats up, and the mineral deposits turn into concrete.

For two seasons I was in charge of deciding which humidifiers to buy residents at McMurdo station in Antarctica. So I've researched A LOT and I've had a lot of experiences with humidifiers. I worked in the housing office and it was my job to give these out to residents and collect them and clean them and make them ready for new residents (people live in dorms for approx. 3-13 months so there's constant turn over). There had been previous brands used before so we had a wide variety of humidifiers floating around the station. So I've handled a lot of humidifiers and seen all sorts of ways people have managed to eff them up. For the price these were the best. Are there nicer humidifiers? Definitely. Are they really expensive? Heck yes. Were they worth the extra cost? I'm not sure. Residents would probably have said yes. I personally would have said no since cleaning them ended up falling on me and these were always the easiest to clean and salvage.When I stopped deploying I started researching which humidifier I wanted to buy for myself and I kept coming back to this one. I live in CO so it gets pretty dry. I figured at that point in time they had to have come up with some upgrades. But... it didn't seem that way. I found some that were better, but they were also well above my budget. So this is also my own personal humidifier.If you're having trouble with your humidifier it could very well be a "PEBCAK" of sorts (but not on a computer obvs). Seriously, the problem is most likely you. I had residents return this machine to me completely coated in mineral deposits and gummed up with essential oils and run around the clock until it stopped working. After some cleaning (and some cursing) I was able to get most of the humidifiers returned to me in this state working again. I wasn't able to save all and had some casualties, but it was the least with these machines compared to the other types we had on station.You really do need to clean it. You need to clean any humidifier you get. Sorry. That's just the nature of it. Want to decrease the cleaning? Only use distilled water in it. Are you going to do that? Probably not. I most certainly wouldn't. But, even if you do put in that extra effort, you're still going to have to clean it occasionally. For reals people, just follow the instructions and soak the heating element in distilled white vinegar. Be an adult. And if you aren't going to do that then stop whining that it breaks. You're car won't run without occasional maintenance, you can't keep going without some basic health and hygiene, your home doesn't stay clean without you actually cleaning it, a humidifier isn't any different.Now, after ranting a bit, I have noticed a few things about this humidifier. First, if you don't turn it off before removing the tank to refill it it will stop working and you'll have to deep clean it after each use. In other words, when the tank gets empty make sure you flip the switch to off then remove the tank and refill. If you leave it on something seems to happen and when you put the refilled tank back on it will still register as out of water and won't turn back on until you deep clean it. No clue why. I'm not an engineer. So that's pretty simple to keep in mind, remember to turn off before removing tank.Also, if you follow some cleaning guides online you might end up with melted plastic in the tank like I did. Some recommend putting tea tree oil inside to disinfect (or other essential oils). While that might work for some people it melted the plastic on the inside of my tank. Is this the humidifiers fault? Absolutely not. I included a pic of what it did (that's not hard mineral deposits, it's the actual plastic that's been warped). I knew some essential oils could ruin plastic (citrus oils especially) but I trusted whatever blog I had stumbled across and did it anyway. So learn from my stupidity and just stick to distilled white vinegar to remove hard mineral deposits.If you really truly feel it needs to be disinfected more use a small amount of bleach diluted in cool water. Hot water decreases the efficiency of bleach. And never mix anything in with it (especially vinegar, so rinse super duper well if you've just used vinegar in it). Bleach and water only and always! Otherwise you subjecting yourself to some pretty nasty gases. Also, use less bleach than you think. The recommended about is 2 tsp per 1 gallon. That's very little bleach. Most people will dump in a cup or more. You're just wasting bleach though if you do that.So, the basics of cleaning any humidifier crazy well is to soak it with distilled white vinegar overnight to remove hard mineral deposits (following the manual for where to apply vinegar). Scrub off deposits with a soft sponge, brush, toothbrush, and/or qtips. Rinse until you're positive the vinegar is gone. This is where I usually stop, but if you want it to be extra sterile make a bleach solution and soak it in that for a short time (again only put the liquid where the manual directs). Rinse really super well once again until you're positive the bleach is gone. Let it air dry completely. Then you're ready to store it until next season or run it!Next I want to talk about the medicine cup. That's one of my favorite parts of this machine! Most humidifiers in this price range don't come with that. This one is intended for medicine though (Vicks humidifier additive for example), not essential oils. However, that being said, many residents who used our humidifiers were determined to use essential oils at any cost and if there wasn't a place to put oils they'd put them in the humidifier tank itself. Don't do that! Ever! First, like I said earlier, you run the risk of damaging the plastic inside the tank. Second, it's going to ruin and break your machine. Humidifiers are designed to evaporate water and nothing else. So if you're determined to use your humidifier as a diffuser then please buy a humidifier like this one that has a medicine cup and just put the oils in the medicine cup. It'll get gunky, but that's loads better than ruining the machine itself. Plus it's possible to still clean the cup, even if used incorrectly.You can soak the plastic piece with the cup in vinegar and that'll help a wee bit but you'll most likely need something that can really cut through the oil residue. Dish soap (that's intended to cut grease) will work very well if you make sure to clean the cup out regularly. However if you leave oil in it and/or use it for long periods without cleaning and it gets really bad you'll probably want to spring for an actual degreasing agent (G510 was what we used on station, but it's only available commercially). I'd recommend buying an oven cleaner (they also de-scum bathtubs really well!). Just make sure whichever one you pick is safe to use on plastics. Spray a little in the cup and the greasy oily residue should dissolve almost magically. Rinse really well, continue with your vinegar soak for the heating element and tank (and bleach if you want) and then call it good!All in all, this is a great and cheap machine. It has a lot of features that many equally priced humidifiers don't. If you love it it will love you back. And I know this because I've seen how many unloving people have treated many kinds of humidifiers. The golden rule applies to your belongings just as well as it does to people.

The warm mist is nice. The size is decent. The product performs. It provides comfort. The noise is okay. It could be softer in my opinion.I am not a fan of the water calcification. You must clean this machine every 3-4 days depending on use. Overall good product.

Edit Nov 14 2020In working with this unit again, I realized I had not taken it completely apart. To get to the heating element, you first need to remove the "tower" from which the steam comes out, by releasing the lock at the base. Under that, there is another second piece with another grid, that pulls out, again releasing the lock. I needed pliers to carefully pull up it, while holding the release to the right side. I soaked everything in vinegar overnight. But underneath the second piece, there is a third piece, a smaller round tube that I didn't know came off just by pulling straight up. Once it was off, the scale around the heating element was easy to remove, and the humidifier is working fine now. The problem was, that the scale around the element made it think it had gone dry of water, and activated the auto shut off. I will try to be more diligent in cleaning the unit with vinegar every few weeks as well.Thanks to the Seller/Manufacturer for your Reply, but I think it will be fine now. I increased the review from 2 to 4 stars. It would have 5 if the design was a bit easier to take apart and clean compared to others I have owned.I think I've had at least 5, maybe 6 or 7, of these warm mist humidifiers. Some were Honeywell, and some were Sunbeam. They've all worked fine for several years, until the heating element finally burnt out, possibly due to the years of getting scale deposits and soaking in vinegar every month or so. I realize had this been weekly, I might have gotten more use, this is my fault.I think my luck has finally run out, tho, with this one. It has a different design than the others, which were more round. A few weeks after I got it, from time to time it started shutting off anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours of being turned on, all with plenty of water still in the tank. The orange light comes on as if it thinks it has run out of water. You can turn it off, then on again, it will run for a random time, and then it often reoccurs. I think I've only been able to use up a full tank half the time without this happening. I have been struggling with it ever since I got it almost a year ago, going through periods of not using it, monkeying around with it, and trying it again. Still no dice. It also sometimes whistles quite annoyingly. Never had that happen before.In the meantime, I got the same type one made by Vicks, which runs fine, and holds a bit more water without seeming bigger. It's the one with the blue tank. I also got a cool mist ultrasonic one, by Homasy, and it's fine as well. It was nicer in summer, and doesn't seem to make a white film on surfaces as I had feared it might.

I am a seasoned humidifier guy. I've had them all. I seldom do a review when I just received the product. However, I know "Tis the season" for dry heat/air and I have cancer. And clearly it really doesn't matter if you've been naughty or nice and you don't need cancer to require a humidifier (I admit, I've been a little naughty.) Last year, I decided NO humidifier because I was tired of the ultrasonic dust (yes, my city's water is not nice) and then I went to the humidifiers that boil the water and you think then, that you are scot-free. Um....not so much. There is a heating element which will begin to have a plaque similar to your teeth. The instructions say, "just a little bit of vinegar and you're all set." That is not true. I will try to keep this short. Buy this product with the intention of using it only for this winter. Then buy another of its kind, when you need it next. My last humidifier that was NOT Honeywell, I struggled with. Weekly cleaning was more than a chore......it became a hobby. I bought "Milliard Citric Acid 5 Pound" here on Amazon and at first it was a Savior. But once my hard water got a hold of my humidifier, I was doomed. As a reminder, distilled water works in ALL types of humidifiers. I do not have a distillery, and if I did, it would be for beer. Lastly, I will update my review as I get through the holidays. And as always, I thank all of you who leave helpful reviews to help guide us to a product and help avoid a travesty. Happy Holidays to all who read this and to the Amazon workers and editors of my comments. W.UPDATE as of 12/18. I've used this humidifier now for over a week. I just did my first cleaning. I apologize, I should have taken before/after pics. I will next week. I'd like to clear up some misconceptions. This is NOT a top filling humidifier. Also, for those who are complaining that there is "no handle," they are incorrect. There is a small handle on the underside of the tank where you fill it. I suggest using this small handle if the tank is empty and you are bringing it to the sink. Once the tank is filled and you screwed the cap on, you will find a firmer handle located at the top of the tank....like a little alcove where you can grip. Then carry it firmly back to the base. This is a small unit, so weight of the tank is not an issue as it can be with other brands. As for the "smell" that people are complaining about. It is not the smell of burnt plastic. It smells like Honeywell may have sterilized the inside of the machine/tank. Vicks (Kaz) brand does this. The smell is reminiscent of the Operating Room of a hospital or when you smell a clean gauze pad.Cleaning: There is a spring-loaded lever (for lack of a better term) that has to be pushed over, in order to remove all of the parts that need to be cleaned. Please remember, everything has to be back under that switch before you release it back. It keeps everything locked down and in place. I actually cleaned this in my bathroom sink (off the bedroom). I keep the humidifier in my bedroom. I used full strength white vinegar, just enough to cover the heating element and allowed it to soak. When I was done washing the attachments, I then used a toothbrush and gently cleaned the heating element. It took less than 10 minutes (if that) to do it all. It has earned the additional 5th star! Here I was prepared to don my wetsuit and battle the Honeywell in the shower. I was pleasantly surprised that my scuba gear is not needed at this time. lol The video pic I uploaded is meant to show the steam, click on the pic to make it bigger and you can see the steam. I mentioned the Milliard Citric Acid (before the update) which I purchased to battle a former humidifier. It does work, but I suggest waiting to see if you need something so strong. I scrubbed so much it (another popular brand) ended up (over time) causing a hole in the heating element which I immediately discarded. I see the review about one's electric bill and i don't see a big difference. However, when I was in grad school, I purchased a wonderful Honeywell Air Cleaner and that was the death or me in regards to my electric bill skyrocketing. Great machine and did what it was suppose to do, but I was a starving student. It was either Ramon noodles or pay the electic. I opted for the former. lolI use the Artizen Eucalyptus oil avail here on Amazon. Only put the oil into the cup which is situated on top of the steam chimney. https://www.amazon.com/Artizen-Eucalyptus-Essential-100-NATURAL/dp/B06Y2GTH9X/ref=sr_1_7?crid=25KUS65SKBYS9&keywords=artizen+eucalyptus+essential+oil&qid=1671409368&sprefix=Artizen+eu%2Caps%2C3697&sr=8-7