AOS 7144 Ultrasonic Digital Warm/Cool Mist Humidifier
From Air-O-Swiss
Humidification System This Digital Ultrasonic humidifier uses high-frequency vibrations to generate a micro-fine mist when blown into a room immediately evaporates. Choose the pre-heating function and mist exits the appliance at a pleasant 104 °F. «ITCTM» technology (Intelligent Temperature Compensation) monitors the temperature and automatically adjusts the output when conditions change. A replaceable demineralization (Ag+ Ionic Silver Technology) cartridge ensures water mist without lime scale or mineral residues, and the AIR-O-SWISS quad-band microbial protection system prevents microbial growth in the water base. This is particularly important when the humidifier is not used for some time with water remaining in the base.
Amazon Sales Rank: #1327 in Kitchen & Housewares Brand: Air-O-Swiss Model: 7144 Dimensions: 9.30 pounds
smart, sleek and quite the work horse My family and I moved from Southern California (where we slept with the windows open nearly year round for wonderful, well rested sleep) to Phoenix, Arizona (where the humidity hovers at most to 15% in my house according to my hygrometer.) After a month (and before we got the humidifier), my kids (3 and 1) were absolutely suffering. During the night, they were choking and hacking, wheezing and just plugged up. I was no different. Needless to say, our sleep was badly affected. I knew it was the air situation. After 3 nights of researching the different types of humidifiers, I finally settled on buying two Air O Swiss 7144 units (one for each kid's room). Although it was expensive, I buy things for the long haul and figured better to spend up front then have problems with cheaper models down the road. I have since turned it on absolutely every single night for them and the difference is short of miraculous. Here are some points: 1- a full tank lasts two nights running at 8 hours a night with the windows closed and the door nearly shut (about an inch ajar at most) 2- tank is not difficult to fill. I use one 3 gallon water bottle (normally used for my drinking water dispense) to completely fill up both humidifier units 3- to maximize space and thus get the most water into the humidifier, I removed the demineralization cartridge and use only reverse osmosis drinking water for my unit. I have had ZERO WHITE DUST. The R.O. water is purified enough that there are no remaining minerals to be churned out as white dust. This trick also saves me from having to replace the cartridge. (BTW, our tap water is VERY hard so I didn't want to use it even with the demineralization cartridge because why make the machine work harder than it has to?) R.O. water is perfect and again, NO WHITE DUST AT ALL!!!! 4- It's so quiet, it's ridiculous. I LOVE that. 5- The warm mist feature is perfect. It does not raise the temperature of the room so it's never like a sauna. The air leaving the machine even at warm mist feels somewhat cool (and the first night I kept checking in on the kids to make sure I wasn't freezing them) but the unit actually heats the water to 104 degrees which is just the right temp at maintaining room temp (no moist saunas!!) and/or preventing steam burn to your finger in case a curious little one chooses to wave his/her hand in the mist. 6- I've religiously used the units each night for the last 3 months with absolutely no problem. 7- The buttons don't light up or create distracting glows. Important for me because I wanted the kids' rooms to remain relatively dark as that's what they're used to. 8- There is no leaking or condensation on the unit. The mist is so fine that it evaporates before it touches the little folding dinner tray table that I have each unit placed on. The carpet underneath doesn't feel soggy or anything. It truly produces an ultrafine mist that dissipates almost immediately. 9- I can adjust the flow and humidity to my liking (to get 2 nights' worth of output from one tank, I set it on warm mist at the lowest air flow at 55% humidity) 10- It automatically shuts off when it runs out of water. There is a blinking light that indicates that the machine is on "On" but there's no water. I usually press the off button the after the second night's use. If I forget to press off and fill the tank up on the third night, I noticed that since the machine is technically "on" (even though there's no sound or movement indicating that), as soon as I put the filled tank back on the unit, it immediately starts working on the settings I last set it on. 11- I have yet to use the cool mist (since it's still winter) but I read that it actually helps to maintain (at the very least) or slightly lower the room temp which is convenient in summer months. All in all, I love this machine. By the way, on a few occasions when my older child needed me to sleep next to him until he fell back asleep (usually a nightmare woke him up), I noticed within 10-15 minutes that my breathing was VERY different in his room where the unit had been running for several hours into the night. No clogged sinuses or difficult inhalation. Once he was appropriately tucked in and I would go back to my room, within 5-10 minutes, my breathing would get adversely affected. That's how dry the air is in our house. So, that's why after 3 months of enjoying how well it's worked in the kids' rooms, my husband and I are looking forward to our own good sleep after just purchasing our 3rd machine. I Love this Humidifier! I have been using this humidifier for about a month. I live in the mountains of Idaho and our only heat is from our woodstove. Burning wood dries the air out horribly. We have always had trouble with our sinus' in the winter because of the dry heat. This humidifier brought our humidity level up from 34% to 50% in a little over two hours. Even though it is only meant to work in a single room we have noticed a higher humidity in our breakfast room (two rooms away) while this little machine is running. We are looking forward to a much more comfortable winter this year. A Better Humidifier This unit is much better than the evaporative type. I owned an evaporator for 2 years but it had problems with mold in the wicks and filter. Air-O-Swiss uses ionization, not evaporization, to put mist in your air. Ionization is faster and more efficient. It doesn't require a fan to do it's work, as all evaporitive types do, so it is quiet. For compairison, see the Essick Air 336-500 3-Speed Tabletop Evaporative Humidifier, this is an evaporitive type that I owned before buying the Air-O-Swiss. The Air-O-Swiss is easier to clean, more efficient and it looks pretty cool too! It seems that most air cleaner/humidifier makers don't care much about how the product looks in a room, but this one is sleek and subtle, blending well with my modern taste (I hate taupe/beige appliances, but that's me). Whatever it looks like, it needs to be effective, as this unit is. The higher price seems justified by the very useful controls (which are completely absent in cheaper models), the superior design and efficiency. The unit has many settings and digital controls that allow timed use, heated or cool mist, and humidity control. It flashes a symbol to let me know when to fill more water. No need to keep logbooks about cleaning, a different flashing signal tells me whenever I need to do the simple descaling. It's easy to loose track of cleanings without this feature (who has time to keep notes on such a thing?). All humidifiers need some cleaning and filter replacement. The Air-O-Swiss replacement filters (for cleaning the water, replace about 4 times a year), the silver stick (needs replacement rarely, maybe once a year or less) and descaling packets for cleaning the tank (cheap and must be used once every week or two). The costs for all of these are reasonable, perhaps somewhat lower that the costs of the extra things needed for other units I have owned/checked out. Do not neglect the replacement/cleaning processes. This unit, or any other brand, will begin to fail quickly if you do not keep up the maintenance. This is true with any humidifier, but the Air-O-Swiss manages to make these steps easy and relatively hassle-free. I would never go back to the evaporative type, the filters for them are much more expensive, they seem to mold no matter how carefully maintained (a big problem for sensitive people) and they use more electricity than the Air-O-Swiss. The Air-O-Swiss costs more to start, but consider having to buy the other, cheaper type, 2 years worth of replacement wicks, filters and descalers, then scrapping it all to buy this one anyway. This one is a pleasure to use and own. My advice is to consider my experience and buy the more expensive, but much better, Air-O-Swiss.
