AIRCARE Digital Whole-House Pedestal-Style Evaporative Humidifier (Espresso)

I give this product 5 stars because after a ton of research, I think it is about as good as you will get, so it deserves to be ranked at the top. In terms of doing what it is intended, generate humidity, it is excellent ! That said, there is defiantly room for improvement of a few accounts. As per many other reviews, it is noisy on the higher speeds. Speed 1 is the slowest which is quite quiet, but you know its there. Speed 4 or 5 is about as fast as I like to run it when I am within 10ft of it. Speed 9 is loud, but very effective. I've not had it long, but I plan to run it fairly low during the day when we are near it. At night, while we are quite a way from it, I will run it on a high level. Given the range of noise produced, I thing having nine speed settings if the right number of speeds to find a level you are comfortable with. As per many other reviews, it appears to over read the humidity level. I expect its probably accurate and the humidity immediately around the humidifier is higher that say, 10 for away from it. This is more of a learning exercise than a problem. I have mine set on 50 while my echbee(s) report around 35. It only took a day or two to get the desired effect. The max fill water line is rather close to the top of the water container. I am quite cautious to move it slowly and cautiously when its full to avoid any water sloshing over the top. I have had no spillage to date, but its good to be aware of this fact. I made this comment as I read some people wheel it over to a water supply. I bring the water to the humidifier in a watering can. I do not like the design for refilling it much. Its quite annoying to have to get the little funnel each time you want to refill it, and find a place to store it. I read numerous reviews about people being unable to fill it without spilling water. I have found it easy to fill with a little caution. I have been using a watering can with the sprinkler piece removed. The end of the watering can must not be rested on their funnel as it would be knocked off and result in a mess. I intend to buy a foot of flexible plastic tube to put on the end of the watering can so I won't need the clumsy funnel. One of my reasons for choosing this model was the fact that you did not have a removable refillable container. I am very pleased with my choice and find this approach much better that my previous experiences. The first time I filled it up, I had to get a light so I could see the maximum fill line. This seem quite a pain. Then I plugged it in only to discover it has a small light inside which makes it very easy to see. Plug it in when filling, lol. The two pictures I attached are from two of my ecobee thermostats. The vertical line is positioned at the time I started the unit. The graph shows my indoor humidity shooting up over an hour or two as the outdoor humidity drops, This unit seems to provide a good amount of humidity to a much larger area than advertised. I was planning on getting a second one if I liked this one, but it seems that I probably do not need to. It looks quite presentable and is not an eye sore in a newly renovated kitchen. I also like the exchangeable tile recessed in the top which you can replace. I quite like the one provided though and so I stuck with that. All in all, its not perfect, but its solved all my humidity issues better that all my previous attempts.

Works very well in my 1500 sq ft bottom floor. The humidistat works well although I am still adjusting the level for optimal effect. I’m using distilled water because my city water contains haloethanes that would be thrown into the air. You can get distilled water for a dollar a gallon so I’m not bothering with water additives. I am 72 with asthma so I don’t want anything to pollute my air. The severe dryness, sub desert level was wreaking havoc on my health. It works well at lower fan speeds with not much noise. It will just need to run a bit longer. Obviously I cannot speak to long term reliability but it is mostly plastic and will not be subjected to sunlight which weakens plastics. Only thing is you cannot see into it to determine remaining water level.

***UPDATE for purchase of NEW AIRCARE EP9 500; 2/1/2017*** I loved my first humidifier so much, after a few years I decided to purchase another one to help humidify the rest of my home. The EP9 500 humidifier that I've had for a few years now is made by ESSICK whereas the new ones are made by AIRCARE. I'm sure it's pretty much the same company, but I can say that the new unit is not as good as the old one. First, the LED lights are now BRIGHT blue, versus the subtle green on the old unit. This is not a major issue, however it does tend to keep a dark room lit some; almost like an unwanted night light. Also, the tile on the top of the new unit is plastic and locked in. It is not easily interchangeable like on the old unit. This is not a big deal for me, but it may be for some. The biggest issue that I have is the inaccuracy of the humidifier's hygrometer. This thing reads about 15-20% higher than my older ESSICK EP9 500. My old one is pretty accurate, when compared to my in-home weather unit's hygrometer, but this one is way off. In order to keep my house at about 45% relative humidity, I have to set the humidifier to 55% or higher. It's definitely not an accurate reading.....which is displeasing because the old one worked just fine. To address the fan noise - it's really not that bad. Actually, my newer AIRCARE unit is a little quieter than my older ESSICK unit. I run them both on 9 (highest setting) and I can still hear the TV and others just fine. Yes, they make a little noise, but no more than a box fan. If you want this thing to really put out some moisture, you'll have to accept a little noise and run it on high, otherwise - run it at 4 or 5 and you'll never even know it's on. Overall, the AIRCARE unit still wicks water and operates just as the older ESSICK unit does. I'm not particularly thrilled with the issues specific to the newer unit, but I can make due since it does work to humidify the home. The old ESSICK remotes still work for this unit as well. Hopefully, AIRCARE will take a look at these reviews and fix their issues. Their units are pretty solid, they just lack some QC on their hygrometers.... ***UPDATE 10/31/2016 (ESSICK VERSION)*** STILL GOING STRONG!!! No issues with this product, all is working flawlessly. Still humidifying, light still works, remote still works, and fan is not noisy. I'm very happy with this humidifier. I'm considering purchasing another for my house to keep up in the really cold months when the wood stove is burning hard - just waiting for the right price! **UPDATE 1/28/15 (ESSICK VERSION)** I'm using the humidifier daily again this year and I still love this thing! The remote issue was worked out - turned out the cheap batteries that were supplied with the remote were not powerful enough to control the humidifier, so when I changed them over to Duracell's, all worked fine. The unit was easy to clean after last winter, and changing the filter was a breeze. I still have nothing but good things to say about this unit! Sure, the humidity readouts on screen are definitely a little off, but it still keeps the air in my home moist (about 40%)which is perfect! I'm hoping this thing will last a lifetime! ***REVIEW FOR FIRST ESSICK EP9 500 PURCHASE*** Ok so I am writing this review even though I have only had the humidifier for about a week. So far, I have nothing but good things to say. I'll start by saying that I was VERY skeptical to buy this because I spent a lot of time reading reviews and they were not too impressive. Most people complained about the noise, the inconvenience of the fill port, and the disability of not being able to tell when it is full. THIS REVIEW IS BASED SOLEY ON THE EP9 500 HUMIDIFIER THAT I RECEIVED. Let's start with the noise. Yes, this thing is semi-noisy. Noisy enough to make me knock a star off, heck no. Come on people, no matter what, fan's will be noisy. This thing has a POWERFUL fan, which gives it the ability to humidify the entire house. It's not that bad, even on 9. As far as the fill port goes, I have absolutely no complaints. Maybe the port has been changed, but I think the fill port is a great design. It's approximately 5" wide and opens more than enough to fill with a pitcher without spilling. It is much better than using tanks. Next, (this is the best part), MY EP9 500 has a LIGHT inside of it. IT WORKS AMAZING!!!! This light enables you to see the MAX FILL line on the wick assembly when filling. It is very easy to look in the door and see when the humidifier is full. There is only one downside to the light - it stays on all the time, even when the unit is turned off. Once again, this doesn't bother me enough to drop a star. It seems like Essick may be reading reviews and took some advice because the LED that they added to the inside of this unit is a great idea. I'm not sure if Amazon is shipping out variations of this product, but I'm happy with the one I received. On to the next praise - PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT ALTHOUGH THE IMAGE FOR THIS PRODUCT DISPLAYS A REMOTE, IT IS NOT INCLUDED. I was disappointed to see that it did not have an included remote, so I contacted Amazon about it. They were AWESOME and credited my account for the cost of a remote ($25.00) and I went ahead and ordered one from another website. Only one downside; I received the remote and it only works when it wants to. I'm thinking this is a remote issue, so I'll see if I can get a replacement. If it works, I'll be thrilled. The unit has done very well humidifying my entire home (2300 sq. ft, 3 floors). I keep the humidifier in the basement where the return can pull the warm air from the wood stove and the moist air from the humidifier. Although I'm sure the entire house isn't the same humidity, I have not been getting shocked since I set this up. Final Praise - The quality of the packaging was great. It did take about 4 business days to get here (even though I have prime) but after I saw the quality of the packaging, I was grateful. A+ for the boxing. Like I said before, I have nothing but good things to say about this humidifier so far. As long as you receive the same humidifier that I described in this review, I would indeed order another if needed later down the road. I'm not sure why some of you are getting units that you aren't happy with, but I am very satisfied with mine. I'll update this review If I have any negative feedback that sprouts up later down the road. A+ on the improvements Essick, now ONLY sell the reimaged humidifiers and get rid of the bad stock, and you'll have more satisfied customers like me.

I bought this in Jan 2018 after my furnace humidifier went out and the cost of replacing that was overly expensive. After reading many positive reviews, I decided to go with this unit. I did not get one with a remote, but with it's automatic features, I really do not need one. It was fairly easy to assemble and set up and get running. My house is probably about 2,400 square feet with 2 floors. I set the unit in a central area and has been able to keep the house about the correct humidity level during the winter when the gas furnace is running. Some of the back rooms, further away from the unit, do not get the same humidity level, but I believe this unit does a pretty good job, especially for the price. It looks good and the top plastic tile is a nice accent. The humidity sensor/display does seem to read about 5% higher than the actual humidity level. I checked this with a separate hygrometers to make sure of that. No big deal. I wanted it about 40%, so I just set the unit for 45%. I only use the fan speeds below 4. From 4-9, it is pretty loud, but does work faster. I found that leaving it on fan speed 2, it works pretty well and does not make too much noise. The unit shuts off the fan when empty, and has a low speed setting when it is getting low. Filling the unit is easy, and I don't even use the extension piece that came with the unit for the fill door. I do not move the unit to fill the reservoir , but it does have wheels where you could. I just use a gallon container I bought at a dollar store to fill it and make 3 or 4 trips to the sink. It is no problem at all to fill this way if you can walk to the sink and back. I have had this unit over a year and have had no problems. I purchased extra filters, and usually just use one per season, even though the Change Filter (CF) appears on the display. The filters are a little difficult to change out, but not too bad, especially if you only change them once per season. Overall I am very happy with this and it sure saved me $ from not having to replace the furnace humidifier system with would have been more than three times the price of this unit.

We live in northern Colorado, in a 2 story 1200 sq ft home, with standard 8 ft ceilings. The winter relative humidity (RH) in our home would typically run in the low single digits, causing lots of static electricity and other issues. After looking at many humidifier units, and considering a professionally installed HVAC humidifier, we opted for this pedestal style wicking humidifier. We've had the unit for 3 weeks. It's simple to put together out of the box, with simple instructions. I didn't realize when we purchased it that a remote control was an option, but I don't think we'll ever get one. It's easy to fill with water, easy to set controls, and it's fairly quiet at low fan settings. At medium to high fan speeds, it's not what I'd call quiet. Fan settings are from 1 (low) to 9 (max). The noise is a white noise, and ironically, white noise generators are for sale on Amazon (lol). I just checked with a decibel meter, and at 3 feet away at fan setting 1, I measured about 58 db. At fan setting 5 I measured 65 db, and at fan setting 9 I measured 69 db (As i'm typing this review, at 1 foot from the keyboard I'm measuring about 70 db). The db meter indicates 58-70 db as in a "normal conversation" range. If we're in the room with the humidifier watching tv, we turn it down to 1 and never notice it. Above 3-4, we'd begin to notice the fan noise. I personally like white noise. We set the fan speed to 5 or below when we're home, and turn it up to 9 when we leave the house. Filling with water is easy, although sometimes I spill a little on the floor. For the first 10 days typically I would add about 2 gallons of water in the morning, and 2 gallons in the evening. Over the last week, I've been adding 1 - 2 gallons each time I refill the water bath. It took almost 10 days for the whole house to reach about 30-35% relative humidity, and for the first several days we didn't see much improvement in RH. I knew we were adding about 4 gallons of water a day to the inside air, but it took that long to have a measurable impact. The unit's humidity sensor (hygrometer) is on the power cable a few feet from the unit, and understandably reads higher RH than the other hygrometers that I have: 2 hygrometers downstairs, and 2 upstairs. We run the HVAC fan most of the time to circulate the humidified air throughout the house. As an experiment, we turned the HVAC fan off for a few hours, and the downstairs RH increased to almost 50%. After a day or so, the wick developed a light brown-ish color on the topmost air intake side, presumably from minerals in the water drying out, but the wick in that location was still wet. The discoloration was perhaps the top 1/5 of the wick surface area, and stabilized after a few days. After a week, I rotated the wick so that the brown portion was in the water bath, and the brown color went away. The new topmost air intake side discolored again, but the wick was still wet. Running the fan on high probably contributes to the brown color, and now that we've got the house humidified, we've been running the fan on lower speeds, and the brownish area seems to be smaller in size. I've used the bacteriostatic solution occasionally (2-3 times a week), and it hasn't caused the wick to become dry, like some reviews have mentioned. After 3 weeks, we haven't noticed any musty smell. We're very happy with this unit thus far.

The AIRCARE EP9 humidifier quickly increases humidity and maintains it. It is noisy if you have the fan speed up high, but quite acceptable at low speeds which one uses to maintain a particular humidity level. One can easily sleep in the same room with the unit on level 1. The humidity sensor does run a few percentage points high, likely because the sensor is on the power cord, not quite a foot away from the machine. I purchased inexpensive hygrometers to verify the humidity levels around the house, and found that I needed to set the automatic humidity level on the machine about 5 percentage points higher than the level I wanted to maintain. Note this machine runs until it reaches the humidity level you've chosen, and then it shuts off. If the humidity drops, it will start up again, allowing one to maintain a set humidity. Very convenient in that regard. It holds a good amount of water, but I prefer to keep the level at about two thirds of the max, to avoid any water spilling when refilling or bumping the machine. It comes with casters, which make it easy to roll the machine to different positions. I like it. I am a musician and have a collection of wooden acoustic instruments, and I also have wood floors throughout my home. A quality humidifier prevents damage and separation of the wood, and is essential in dry winters or when using a lot of air conditioning in summer. FWIW, I have a four level home with an open floor plan and I bought four of these units, only to discover that two units are plenty! I do have one unit relatively near the main HVAC air intake, however, and that may explain the fine distribution of humidity throughout the home. On another note, three units arrived in perfect shape, but one was damaged in shipping. I contacted Amazon and they sent a replacement immediately, although I did have to repack the broken unit and transport it to the local UPS store. Overall, these are nice units, especially when used on the quieter, low fan setting. They look nice, not fancy or expensive, but quite acceptable, and they do the job. Be prepared to get a large water can or big bucket to fill them... I bought a 6 gallon Igloo water container. It works!

As an excessively self-aware engineer by major, and number cruncher who might have had a little too much Tylenol in the womb, if you know what I mean, I thought it was important to let you the quirks I have figured out in 1 day of operation. In summary, it is designed to confuse you. It seems to work well in putting humidity into your air, but no one would read a 4 or 5 star review, hence, here's my 1 star review. Perchance. The "manual" is more like a quick start guide, it offers very little in details and troubleshooting. The "Everything you need to know about your PEDISTAL, ALL EP9 SERIES MODELS" , does not tell you much. I had to go to AI to figure out why it works the way it does. I'm sure they wrote the manual intentionally to not confuse people with details, which by definition confuses the people that want the details. It only operates according to the "target" humidity, which only occurs in 5% increments from 25% to 65%. But, the target isn't really the target like the thermostat is for your house. There's a designed buffer zone to minimize short cycling (excessive starts and stops). It isn't documented anywhere as far as I can tell. If you set it to "35", it will turn on at 31 and below and shut off at 37 and higher. I suspect other targets would behave in a similar way. So you will think it isn't working. I've come to learn that it was probably designed to work like this. For the speed control, at times you might think it isn't working. And it might not be. Maybe a bug, probably designed this way. It will get "stuck" on the speed you had it set to, and when you press the fan button to change it, the display will indicate a new speed, but the fan itself won't change to that speed. Once you change the humidity, it causes it to re-evaluate what it is currently doing, and it will change the speed. It is like you need to trigger it for the new speed to take effect. This doesn't always happen, sometimes you can just push the fan button and it will change speeds instantly like you expect. But sometimes it has this quirk. I haven't fully explored the circumstances for this to behave in this way. AI was trying to tell me it is like a undocumented child lock, control panel lockout or input lag thing. Again, this will make you think it doesn't work, but you probably just want to set it to a mid fan setting and it will be fine. Or just push buttons randomly and haphazardly until it works. You do you. If you keep pushing buttons, it will get there eventually. For those people complaining that the displayed humidity is inaccurate... I don't think it matters. It might be inaccurate, who knows. In my inital checking yesterday, I thought it was pretty accurate relative to my personal weather station indoor sensor. Today, seems to be off by 5% or so. But, I don't think it matters. The readings from my personal sensor seem quite sensitive to location in my room, so I think it really depends on your particular setup and the air flow in the room. And who's to say which sensor is accurate anyway? At the end of the day, you need to find the setting needed to get your house to the humidity you want. In practice, that means you might need to set target 40 to get 30, or set target 35 to get 40. or whatever it is in your particular situation. Its all relative. You need to figure out the relationship between the humidifer sensor, how different humidity levels make you feel, and your secondary sensor if you have one, and pick the humidity target that works for you. Even if it is wildly inaccurate, there should be a setting that gets the humidity to where you want it, even if the actual number itself is BS. There seems to be people complaining about how to add water to it. I suspect that these people have a hard time pouring themselves a cup of coffee. The little door that you open seems fine. You pull it open, I've been using a wide mouth mason jar to transfer water, you pour it in. Not that hard. I don't seem to spill any. It comes with this funnel type attachment that makes the area to pour into a little bigger, I haven't seen a need for that yet. And, you can open the door and see the water level. Maybe you have to bend down to see that. I don't know. It seems fine. Is the fan noisy? at high or the highest level... yeah. But it also seems to put out quite a bit of humidity quickly. It's a fan that blows air, what do you expect? For what it is, I don't think you could make it any quieter. Don't run the fan at high speed and it is surprisingly quiet. It's like you go to the doctor, and you tell them "it hurts when i do this"...well, don't do that. They could have designed it such that the fan wouldn't go as fast, and then people would complain that the fan is too slow. I'd rather have the option of fast and loud, than be stuck with only slow and quiet. You have 9 speed settings available to you. Life has tradeoffs, pick the setting that works for you. It's a fan trying to blow humid air from a relatively small enclosure. If you sat in my basement where my home furnace is, you'd complain it is too loud. I'm not so sure you can really make such a device quieter. Put it somewhere where you can't hear it, or don't run it so loud when you care about the noise. You can figure it out. I don't really write reviews ever. This is the 2nd review I can ever remember writing. Hope you've enjoyed it.

I bought this to use in a two-story house with a basement that is just under 2,100 square feet. Our furnace already has a new humidifier on it, but it just can't keep up on a house this size in Iowa winters. We also have a radon mitigation system constantly sucking air out, which I think compounds the problem. Usually in the winter, even with the furnace humidifier, the humidity drops below 20%. I've had this running on the second floor since I got it and it is able to keep the humidity at about 35-40%. However, it runs almost constantly at speed 6. There are nine speeds and I would consider anything over 4 to be loud. Speed 9 is just obnoxiously loud, but it's there for someone who isn't going to be home or doesn't mind the noise. The higher the speed, the faster the humidity is going to get in the air. It is a cheap, plastic unit but it does it's job. I have only two real complaints about it. The built-in humidity sensor is garbage. It is constantly 20% higher than either of my calibrated hygrometers. So to get 35% humidity, I have to set it to 55%. The other issue is the fill line. It's INSIDE the unit. You can see it if you open the fill door and get on your hands and knees, or maybe if you are 3' tall. So while filling, you have to stick your head down there and look through the hole you're pouring through to make sure you don't overfill it. If you do overfill, it goes everywhere on your floor. I have to fill this about once a day. Lugging a milk container back and forth three to four times is kind of a pain, though. I think some people don't understand what these larger units are for. One guy said it was just a bucket of water with a fan over it. Well, that's kind of what they all are. Although, it's actually pushing the air through a filter that sucks water into it, but it's a pretty simple concept of pushing air through water to get it to evaporate. There is no heating element in these larger ones, not for consumer based units anyway. They are designed to evaporate water slowly and to cover small houses. Those smaller heated ones you see are designed to humidify a single room, that's it. Overall, It's an okay unit for the price. It has a few downsides, but it does the job. If I had to do it over again, I might have purchased the other brand that holds more water and has two removable jugs that you can pull out and refill. That would save me the numerous trips of filling this one daily.