Vicks UV 99.999% Germ Free Humidifier
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Customer Reviews of Vicks UV 99.999% Germ Free Humidifier
Customer Review: I REALLY wanted to like this humidifier.....
Summary: 1 Stars
After going through ~5 cheaper cool mist humidifiers in the past year, I finally decided to spend a little more and get a "better"/more expensive one in hopes that it would last longer. I hated having models with no output and worrying that mold and bacteria might be making my kids sick. I wanted this humidifier to be my salvation. The main reason for getting this particular model was the 99% Germ Free guarantee. I didn't really care if it was warm mist or cool mist I just liked the idea of not worrying about mold or bacteria.
The problem I have is that "humidity control with multiple output settings" doesn't have multiple settings on our machine, seemingly it just has 2: ON and OFF. I turn the dial almost half-way and no water comes out at all. Days will go by and the water tanks don't move. But, if I nudge the dial a fraction of an inch more the output is so high that we have to open the windows in the room for the condensation to rain off the window pain. So, the water itself may have no mold but the amount being released in the room will definitely cause black mold to grow on everything.
Consequently we can't use it and it was a huge waste of money. I am so irritated that it has prompted this review, which is probably the second one I've written in my life. I don't know why I gave it one star, maybe for the idea that IF it worked I like all the other features.
In response to the noise, when it (over)works, I hardly notice any. I actually wish there was more to create some white noise for my baby to sleep.
Customer Review: too loud to sleep
Summary: 1 Stars
This unit makes far too much noise to have anywhere near a bedroom. I was surprised to see there is no adjustment for the fan; just 1 setting-full bore.
The unit definitely pumps out plenty of moisture,but the noise is unbearable.
Customer Review: Potential hazard?
Summary: 1 Stars
Like Honeywell warm mist humidifiers, this humidifier is actually made by Kaz and simply branded by Vicks. (Does anybody besides Kaz make warm mist humidifiers?) This isn't necessarily a bad thing; Kaz makes some good humidifiers.
However, this particular humidifier gets such a low rating (and inspires my first rating ever, for that matter) for one critical reason:
WARNING: This humidifier must be ABSOLUTELY LEVEL (even a 1-degree tilt is too much) or else it will boil itself dry and never shut off. This could pose a fire hazard, and I had to return the unit for this reason. See "PLACEMENT" below for more.
I wanted to like this humidifier, so if the above isn't a worry for you (or for more details on the problem), please read on:
OPERATION:
* There's no hygrometer (humidity meter) on the unit. There's just a dial that seems to range from "never turn on" to "always boil". I have no idea whether the hygrometers on other humidifiers are even remotely accurate (especially since they're right next to a source of humidity), so this might not practically be a downside, but it's worth mentioning. I missed having one. (It's clear from the pictures that it doesn't have one, I just didn't notice until it arrived.)
* It doesn't seem to put out much steam, compared to other humidifiers I've used. It's nice to claim that you don't need to refill it more than every 24 hours, but that just means you're putting out less than 4 gal/day. In contrast, our old humidifier (also 4 gallon capacity) could put out over 8 gal/day.
* It does look easy to clean, and it's certainly easy to disassemble, but I haven't had it long enough to determine whether it really is easy to clean. I suspect the deep cylinder of the heating element will be harder to clean than humidifiers that just have a flat heading element.
* As others have mentioned, the "ON" light is blindingly bright. I knew this when I bought it, so I just put some electrical tape over it. It's also behind a translucent bezel, so you'll probably want to cover a bit of the bezel as well. Note that the "refill" light is not nearly as bright, so you don't need to cover it.
* Being a warm mist humidifier, it's relatively expensive to operate, but it doesn't have the white residue that ultrasonic humidifiers have, and boiling the water has some antibacterial benefits.
VERDICT: It puts out steam, but lacks most of the bells and whistles and attention to detail you'd expect for the price. I suspect you're paying for the UV lamp and for the Vicks name (though, again, it's actually Kaz).
UV LIGHT:
* Using a UV lamp to kill bacteria seems like a potential plus, but I'm somewhat skeptical that it actually provides any benefit beyond the boiling that all warm mist humidifiers do.
* It's yet another consumable replaceable part (though it's supposed to last about a year, and the humidifier will work when it's burned out).
* Despite the lamp cover (and warnings not to look at the lamp), there are still a few places where the UV light is visible while in operation: (1) if you pick up the right tank, the hole which leads to the UV lamp has a blue glow, hopefully attenuated; (2) the lamp is visible from underneath the humidifier, so if you have this on a table top, you might be enjoying a little more UV light in your eyes than you intended.
VERDICT: Seems like a gimmick that introduces a lot of problems. Not really worth the trouble and potential risk.
NOISE:
* The boiling is very quiet.
* As Shane's review observed (sadly, after I bought this), there's a fan that's always on. I presume the fan is required to cool the UV lamp (another strike against the UV lamp), since it's on even when the humidifier isn't boiling water. Thankfully, the fan is quieter than the large fans in filter/wick-based humidifiers, but it is louder than the boiling. So while the unit is quieter than filter-based humidifiers, it's loud for a warm mist humidifier.
VERDICT: This very nearly made me return the unit immediately, as it was unexpected. I much prefer the silence of our old humidifier.
TANKS:
* The use of 2 tanks makes each tank lighter than a larger single tank. This is an improvement over other humidifiers we've used, where I was the only person who could lug the full tank from the bathtub to the humidifier. Also, the handles are very comfortable. The down side of 2 tanks, of course, is that you fill them twice as often. A worthwhile trade in our case.
* The seal around the caps of the tanks was the best I've encountered in a humidifier. When screwing them closed, they turned easily and distinctly stopped turning when they were fully tightened, and at that point there was no leaking. It's possible that this would cause a problem over time (as the rubber seal gets compressed and you can't tighten the cap further), but in my brief use of the humidifier I was impressed. Most other humidifiers require really cranking the caps down to keep them from leaking.
* The tanks were a little too tall to fill in our bathroom sink, which was a little surprising. That wasn't an inherent problem, as we're accustomed to filling our humidifier tanks in the bathtub. However:
* The tank openings are smaller than on other humidifiers I've used. On the plus side, that means it's easier for small hands to screw them shut. On the minus side, it makes filling the tanks in a bathtub much harder. You either need to hold the tanks as you fill them (which get heavier as they fill), or you have to spend some time moving them around to just the right position if you put them on the tub floor. And if you turn the water pressure up or down at all, it'll probably miss the hole until you reposition them. On the plus side, the top of the tanks is flat, making them easy to put on the tub floor.
* The tanks have completely flat bottoms (apart from the cap), which causes residual steam to condense on the bottom of them. That means that any time you pick them up, you'll drip water everywhere (as others have noted). Other humidifiers I've used had curved bottoms, so that any condensation rolled down towards the cap and into the reservoir.
VERDICT: This is a draw. Having 2 tanks was nice, but dripping condensation everywhere was annoying. We had to keep a towel next to the humidifier.
PLACEMENT:
* As mentioned above, the humidifier must be ABSOLUTELY LEVEL. The manual does specify placing the humidifier on a "firm, flat, level surface" in multiple places, but who would expect less than 1 degree margin of error? I had to get out a bubble level to even perceive the slight incline. (And I measured it with a protractor.)
* Due to what I consider a major design flaw, if the humidifier is as little as 1 degree tilted forward, it will not shut off when the tanks are empty, and will instead boil dry. Compounding this flaw is that the humidifier does not have a temperature-based shutoff when it runs dry. It just keeps heating (and cooking the mineral absorption pad). I don't know whether it will keep heating until the pad catches on fire, but I don't intend to find out.
* It's nearly impossible to tell when the humidifier has boiled dry, because there's still water in the reservoir below the tanks, and because you can still feel heat rising from the top vent. (There's even still water above the little hole leading to the UV lamp!) And because this unit never puts out visible steam, and because the always-on fan is louder than the boiling, it's hard to tell that boiling has stopped. You have to disassemble the unit to see that the heating element has boiled dry -- but be careful, the cone is hot to the touch if you haven't waited the prescribed 15 minutes.
* The problem with a slight incline is primarily due to the use of a float switch to determine when the tanks are empty. In theory, this should be an improvement over other humidifiers that simply use an overheating sensor to determine that there's no more water and/or they need cleaning (thus confusing the issue). However, the float switch in this humidifier is placed too far from the water inlet leading to the heating element (it's on the opposite corner, in fact). Thus the inlet can run dry while there's still water lifting the float switch.
* Worse still, the manufacturer seems to have decided that the use of the float switch eliminates the need for an overheating sensor. As a result, when the heating element runs dry, there's nothing to shut it off.
* Because the path of the water from the reservoir past the UV lamp to the heating element is so complicated, even a 1-degree forward incline can cause the heating element to boil dry, but the reservoir (including the inlet to the UV lamp) to appear full.
* I tested other inclines (perfectly level, 1 degree in other directions), and they don't have this problem. It's only 1 degree tilted forward (tested multiple times) that's a problem.
VERDICT: The potential for catastrophic failure when only 1 degree off-level renders this humidifier unacceptable for my use. I don't want it in my house. I did check, and the box has a UL mark on it, so maybe there's a fuse somewhere that will burn out before the flames start, but I don't want to find out the hard way.
FINAL VERDICT:
* For me, the problems with boiling dry made this humidifier unacceptable.
* Apart from that, it seemed a capable though unremarkable humidifier. I'm not sure it's worth the price premium for the "99.999% Germ Free" label given that boiling kills most germs anyway.
* Does anybody make a truly good warm mist humidifier?
Customer Review: Best one so far
Summary: 5 Stars
The blue glow is bright but I just covered it up with tape & have it facing the wall. 2 seperate tanks make it really easy to fill. Customer Review: Use
Summary: 3 Stars
After a few weeks of us, it does a good job with adding humidity to the air. Some of the down sides that I have experienced would be the low hum from the fan that is always on when this is turned on, the humidity control does not work very well - seems to actually work in reverse of what it should so once you turn it till it clicks on, it never turns off regardless of how humid it becomes, and the final down side would be the annoyingly bright indicator lights.