HoneywellHWLHWM845B - Warm Mist Humidifier

This is the best humidifier. Buy it! It’s quiet, it has no filter, It does the job perfectly with minimal hassle.

What a piece of trash. No steam at all.

If you use tap water you may find this humidifier impossible to clean.

Seems to work well the one time I used it, not for large spaces though. But it has a horrendous new plastic smell that I cant get rid of. Tried just letting it run, tried a vinegar soak, tried soap and water. I've read it'll just fade away eventually, but I really wanted it for immediate use. Hopefully it goes away soon.

This is my N-th humidifier like many people; my last being an evaporative one and I've begun to feel that it's perhaps inadequate so I switch to a warm mist one this time and I'll see how it works out in the long run.I've only used it for a few days so I haven't needed to clean it (will provide updates when I do) but from what I can tell, mineral deposits is what I have to deal with and if it's anything similar to the electric pot that I'm familiar with, I think I have it covered (with citric acid and/or vinegar) but I guess we'll see how it goes.The biggest issue I have it right now is the fact that it's bottom filled; I need to remove the bank, flip it upside down, twist open the lid, fill with water, do the reverse (repeat every 9 hours). While this might not seem much (well, it isnt'), it does get annoying and tedious after a few days and if I have a choice, I'd very much prefer a top-filled tank. There are 2 moisture levels and it takes about 9 hours to go through the entire tank when it's set to high. It does have a little cup for essential oil which I haven't had a need for it (but perhaps soon). Most importantly, I have yet to be able to determine if it's better or worse at increasing the humidity level for my place; the weather has been fluctuating quite a bit and there are also other environmental changes. Again, I guess time will tell.Update: 2021.11.23After 14 days of continuous use (24/7), a significant amount of hard water buildup has accumulated (pic 18-20) around of the base and on the heating element. This is quite normal if you live in a city where water is, well, hard. During that 14 days, I've refilled it 34 times (always running on HIGH).To clean it, I used 1-1.5 Tbsp of citric acid (bought them for other small appliances, you can find plenty of 'em here or at local stores), let it soaked for 1hr or so, then rinsed them with water. I used an old chopstick (or wooden stick, something nonabrasive to the heating element) to remove some of the stubborn ones. In general, I managed to remove 99% of all the buildups (I didn't really care about the remaining 1% around the edges/corners etc) and it looked like new. I probably didn't need to use a wooden stick had I used more citric acid and/or let it soaked longer.It is more involved than ultrasonic or the evaporative ones (both of which have their own issues); however, the warm mist type is the only one that really suits my needs. Although the buildup might seem unruly, they are just calcium, bicarbonates, or other minerals with water removed and don't generally pose any threat to our health.

A lot of folks in the reviews seem to not understand how this thing works. It's essentially an electric kettle that continuously simmers the water in the reservoir in order to produce steam. There are a few advantages to this method over ultrasonic or evaporative (fan-based) humidifiers.Ultrasonic humidifiers agitate the water molecules in the tank until they're dispersed throughout the air, which means that any bacteria or minerals (the infamous "white dust") that may be in the water get spread around with it. Gross! Evaporative humidifiers use a fan and a wicking filter to speed up the natural evaporation process which means no white dust but also no protection against bacteria etc. (unless you get one with tech such as a UV light to combat this, such as the Honeywell HCM-350). You still need to buy and replace the filters regularly to prevent mold from growing on them. Also gross.The HWM845 is great because it does away with these issues: no white dust and no need to worry about bacteria etc. getting released into the air you breathe, as the water is boiled before it's released into the room.So what's the catch? You need to clean it regularly. Mineral deposits from the water will build up around the heating element, causing the crusty brown/grey mess that you see in the negative photo reviews. This isn't a defect, this is just how it works. That stuff builds up because it's NOT being released into the atmosphere along with the mist. As with a kettle, you need to descale it regularly (every 1-2 weeks is best). Simply remove the tank, fill the reservoir with a 50/50 water/vinegar mixture and let it sit for a few hours. You can use a kitchen sponge or toothbrush or something mildly abrasive to remove the scale build up, and it usually chips off quite readily. Don't forget to sanitize the tank with bleach every now and then as well. (And rinse both thoroughly before use!)As per the manual, use distilled water to cut down on these mineral deposits. I personally use filtered tap water as I run the humidifier nightly, which is honestly fine but you'll need to clean it more often.So that's HOW it works, but how WELL does it work? IMO, this is the best deal humidifier for small-medium sized rooms. I have one in each of the 100-150 sq. ft. bedrooms in my house and I rarely need to crank the dial up past the first setting. The maximum setting is somewhat noisy (it sounds like an electric kettle approaching boiling) but the lower one is barely noticeable. The tank is large enough to run on max all night and still have some water left over in the morning. The auto shut off is a great feature as well.As others have noted, there are some holes in the base of the unit that holds the reservoir. Yes, it will leak out of these if you knock it, so just... don't. Just in case this happens, I set my humidifiers on top of placemats to protect the furniture underneath. Also note that (especially on max) this thing gives off quite a bit of steam, so remember to keep it spaced away from the wall (I think the recommendation is ~15") to avoid damage to anything around it. These are pretty minor drawbacks if you ask me, and much better than the tradeoffs that come with other humidifier types. The size is nice and compact, the price is excellent and the black is much sexier than the medicinal white plastic that a lot of these things come in. I've had one for about a year now and it's still working great.TL;DR: this thing is awesome. It's a much safer and cleaner alternative to ultrasonic humidifiers. You have to clean it semi-regularly but it's dead easy to do and you don't need to constantly replace filters or anything. Highly recommended and you can't beat the price.

The unit was simple to set up and operate.We have only used it for a week so far, employing the vapour cup--to help with head colds. We used the high setting and the steam lasted for just about 9 hours. We felt that the 'pickup' of the vapour could be stronger, but we have yet to try other scents. There has been no problem with leaks or other problems

It works pretty well and is bigger than the picture which was really good