Customer Reviews

Hunter 34355 3-1/2 Gallon Humidifier

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am (at last) very happy with this humidifier, now that I have finally figured out how to best clean it (despite the unfortunately inaccurate owner's manual). This unit does require around 30 minutes of maintenance per week. Vinegar does not effectively clean the evaporation grid, as the manual states. You have to soak the grid in a diluted (~5 percent) bleach solution for about a half hour every week or so, or slime starts building up. The other parts of the unit (that stay wet) also need weekly cleaning, either by hand or by running them through the dishwasher.

On the upside, this humidifier does an excellent job putting water into the air, and that is the bottom line for a humidifier! With the fan on high speed, it puts 3.5 gallons of water into the air in around 24 hours. On low speed, it takes about 36 hours. The fan is pretty noisy on high, though. The best feature of this unit is that it costs almost nothing to operate. I do recommend buying an additional evaporation grid from Hunter, the price is very reasonable and well worth it. The base and grid frame are dishwasher safe, a nice feature.

If you're willing to spend the time doing routine cleaning, there is much to like about this humidifier. Have owned mine since 2002, and it's still running fine. Compared to humidifiers that use disposable (and outrageously costly) evaporation filters, it's a great value for the dollar in the long run. I like it enough that I bought an extra one, which I'm keeping in storage until the day that my original unit finally dies.

January 2008: After 5 winters of service, my unit died in off-season storage. For about $20 per year, I'm quite pleased with the value I received.

I originally purchased the Hunter humidifier based upon internet reviews. It certainly worked in the beginning to humidify the room quickly. The problem is that the unit is pretty noisy when new, and became awful as time progressed. It's worth noting that I can sleep through almost anything, living in noisy New York City as I do. As such, I returned the unit and got a Hamilton Beach instead. I think that it is the better, and quieter, humidifier.

I have owned this humidifier for over a year. It does a lot of things really well and have only a few complaints about this humidifier. First of all, let's talk about speeds. There is a low and high speed on this humidifier. The low is fairly low and you can hear the water trickling down the metal filters. Its a somewhat pleasant noise in fact. High is very high and powerful and makes a fair amount of noise. The noise is not disturbing to me and in fact, helped to drown out a lot of background noise so I can sleep peacefully. I could hear dogs barking, kids screaming through the neighborhood, but this humidifier is loud enough so I could barely hear the annoyances and sleep. If you live in a quiet area, you may then find it disturbing if you aren't used to it.

Next, the maintenance. This is where we run into some problems. The metal non disposable filters recommend you soak them in vinegar to remove mineral deposits that form. There is an antimicrobial coating on these filters to help inhibit growth of harmful bacteria and suggest that running these through the dishwasher will ruin the antimicrobial protection. Well, I've owned this for over a year, and there was so much hard water deposits on these filters that they were ineffective. I had to run it through the dishwasher to clean them up. The vinegar did nothing to help remove these things. It is also nice that the base is dishwasher safe, but after extended use, it is clear that brown algae like material was forming all over the inside of the unit as well, by the motor. This can't be healthy to breathe in, but you can't run that portion through the dishwasher. Also, the venting that brings in the are was getting filthy and some deposits were forming there as well. I've had to take the unit apart as much as possible, and put the plastic pieces I've unscrewed into the dishwasher as well to get the unit somewhat clean again. The areas around the motor are very difficult to clean and I end up using a thin brillo pad to try to wipe off the brown slimy scum that forms. I even take off the outgoing vent cover so I can wipe the fan blades. This unit is not easy to clean at all, but it works better then most other humidifiers I've bought before.

An improvement in design would be to perhaps blow air into the unit with the fan, rather then sucking moist air out with the fan. When you are sucking the moist air out of the system, more moving parts seem to get wet and slimy. I'm looking into the Venta Airwasher system which does this, but its very expensive.

The humidistat works well, but the refill light is on too often now. Some water has somehow gotten into the float that triggers the light. I'm not sure how to get the water out of the float.

This unit IS effective, but you have to keep it clean.

We purchased this humidifier and within 7 days, it was returned. The fans blades kept hitting on something inside the fan housing and on closer inspection, they have placed part of the electrical connection inside the housing and secured it with a plastic tighener - bad idea. The clicking sound drove me nuts. It sounded like the cards you would place on the rear tire of your bike when you were a kid. I have contacted Hunter about this problem and hope that they rectify it. The product works great and except for the noise, performed very well.

I've obviously had a run of bad luck with these humidifiers, I've gone through 3 in a matter of months. The motor on each quit. The company acknowleged that they were having a problem with them, and to their credit, mailed me a new one right away free of charge. I live in an area with very hard water, and have to clean it much more often than once a month. The manual is not clear on how to clean all the parts, and I also had a problem with mold getting into areas that are not accessible to clean. The company told me to put vinegar into the water in the base, and run it through the machine while on, that didn't help either. I've tried to make it work for a few seasons now, but this year I'm going to try a different brand.

I thought this was going to be great! From the start it was loud....but many are. As time went on it got louder and as another reviewer said it sounds like the fans are hitting something. If its not completely level it leaks ... we had stains on the ceiling underneath this unit. If you are going to spend the money buy the Slant Fin UV humidifier and get your money's worth!

I bought 4 of these digital units with the nite light. No. 1: Refill light stays on constantly, unit will run even with empty tank. Nite light burned out after a week. Water forms on top of unit. No 2: Refill light stays on constantly, fan is inoperative after a week, Placed unit in dumpster. No. 3: Unit was shipped from factory without water pump assembly. Took assembly from unit No. 2 and installed on No. 3. No go, put unit in dumpster. No. 4: Unit was shipped from factory without water pump assembly, put in dumpster. In the midst of these problems, I bought an Air-O Swiss 7135. O what a relief to find something that actually works. SOO quiet, no algae, beautiful engineering. Hunter unit No. 1 just started making squealing noises from the fan. Time for another visit to the dumpster!!!