Homedics Ultrasonic Personal Humidifier – Small Portable Air Humidifiers for Bedroom, Plants, Office, Travel – Top-Fill 200 ML Cool Mist Humidifiers, White

My family recently bought a new pellet stove; while it keeps the house nice and toasty, it does dry out the air significantly. When I mentioned how much it was bothering me, all I got was confused looks. My family claims the humidity level is fine and they don't need any change. So, I decided that all I needed was a small, personal humidifier, not something to put in a central location to fight the stove.This one works perfectly for what I need! I just set it on a small shelf next to where I work, and it puts out enough mist to keep my workspace comfortably humid. Yeah, it's not the highest output humidifier I've ever used, it doesn't have an auto shut-off or anything fancier than a power button, and you do have to refill it about every 3-4 hours, but you know what? It's all I need.It's quiet, it's cute, and it works. I don't have a sore throat all day, I don't constantly feel like I'm coming down with a cold, and if I run it in my bedroom for a while before bed (then close the door so the stove doesn't dry out my room), I don't wake myself up coughing in the middle of the night.I like that it comes with both a wall plug and a USB plug, so if I ever find myself somewhere with only one outlet I don't have to choose between technology and comfort.

I bought this because where I work, it gets rather warm in the winter at my desk with the heat running. It tends to be a dry heat and sometimes just to much for my sinuses to like. So I found this Homedics Cool mist humidifier and installed it at my desk. It does what it says, it produces a steady stream of cool mist from the water tank it has. I have it plugged into my monitors side USB port for power. You can use any USB port or charger to power this guy, so making it mobile is a nice addition. You could take this with you if you travel a lot and use in a hotel room, offsite work places, etc. It also comes with an AC wall plug to power normally. You get about 4-5 hours mist from a full fill of the water tank. You have to be careful though, if you run it dry it, I imagine you could burn up the motor. I ran it dry but caught it pretty quick and it was already getting hot. Don't forget its running, or you may be out one Homedics Cool Mist Humidifier pretty easy. Other then that, It works and works well. You do have to buy a filter stem replacement at some point. It comes with three, you use one at a time to reach into the water reservior to produce the mist. I'm still on my first after two months of use, so they last a bit. Overall this is a good purchase for what it does and advertises.

I have a few older 'desktop' humidifiers, similar to this Homedics Personal Cool Mist Humidifier, and have written a review of another model that I have been using for a couple years. I decided that I would do even better with more humidity in my very dry office, and the employer will not allow use of larger humidifiers since all the wiring is in floor troughs under the carpeting, and they are concerned about one or more gallons of water spilling and running into the wiring troughs. So I tried to buy another desktop humidifier like the two I already have, and guess what....they don't seem to be available anymore. Typical Chinese made products that are sold without a known manufacturer or brand, they are made in batches and there is very little production continuity. So I searched for a similar desktop humidifier and ended up buying this Homedics one.The older humidifier was, like this Homedics one, generally spherical in shape, and it appears that the water capacity is about the same (perhaps 7/8 cup). Both models have a clear bottom bowl for the water, and an opaque domed plastic top that contains the ultrasonic membrane to produce the water mist, and the top on both models attaches to the bowl part with a slight twisting motion.It is estimated that this humidifier will run for something like 4 - 5 hours before it needs to be refilled. The unit has an integral timer that shuts it off after 7 hours to prevent damage (the ultrasonic disk seems like it might overheat or otherwise be damaged by running dry). It seems odd to me that the timer is set so much longer than the estimated run time based on water capacity.Like my older one, this Homedics model nominally runs from a USB power source and comes with a USB power cord that is roughly 3 feet long. The end of the USB power cord that plugs into the humidifier does not use a normal USB style connector; it is a small barrel connector, and this allows you to easily disconnect the power cord from the humidifier during filling, cleaning, transportation or storage.Unlike my older one, this Homedics model ALSO comes with a USB power supply 'wall wart', which would make sense if you are not going to use it nearby to a computer.Also like my older one, this Homedics model seems to mist out approximately the same volume of water in a given amount of time, and indeed the amount of water misted is also consistent with my much older model that has since stopped working. It is my impression that there is basically one ultrasonic mister design, and it is being used on many products of this sort.Unlike my older one, this Homedics model does NOT function as a night light; its only illumination is a dim LED under the off/on power button.A big improvement over my older desktop humidifier models is that this Homedics model uses a spring-loaded chamber to hold the wick. This keeps the wick pressed against the ultrasonic disk, presumably assuring good consistent water transfer/wicking action. This was something my older models did NOT have, and I found that their failure mode involved the wicks no longer making good water transfer to the disks, so they would stop working, or work but not put out much water mist. I anticipate that this Homedics model will work better in this regard.Some other reviews have complained that this Homedics model gets the desk top/table top wet in its vicinity; I have not experienced this problem exactly, but my older model shoots the mist straight up from the top of the unit, while this Homedics model shoots the mist out at about a 45 degree angle; I suppose if the air is not very dry, that this angled mist might not evaporate before some of it settles to the desk/table surface.This Homedics model seems to be well designed and manufactured, and I expect good results using it.A big difference between this Homedics model and my older ones, is that while those other came with little or no documentation, this one comes with a lot of printed documentation. It also comes with two replacement wicks, which is a plus.

I haven't had any problems with this little humidifier doing what it's supposed to do. When I turn it on, a nice cool mist is immediate and it is completely quiet. It sits on my desk right next to me at work. However, it just doesn't produce enough moisture to do what I need it to do, which is help me fight my dry eyes. The little cloud of mist doesn't quite reach my face and it's only about 18" away from me. So I don't notice much difference as far as my eyes and nose are concerned, but I still use it because I think a little moister air probaby does help even if the benefits aren't noticeable right away.Update March 2014 - after just a couple of weeks of use at the office, this started to smell like an electrical fire was going to break out at my desk. I unplugged it right away, and since then have only used it for an hour or so at a time. But it's clearly not going to last much longer; based on what happened when I had it plugged in at my desk for 4 hours or so, I would certainly not run it next to my bed overnight.