Customer Reviews

Venta VS207 Sonic Digital Cool and Warm Mist Ultrasonic Humidifier

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This is the fourth humidifier I've used during the past 2 years. This one is the best. But the competition is such that it only takes a little quality to be the best. This one has its issues, but I am very glad I bought it.

Pros:
1) Lots of vapor; brings humidity up in the room fairly rapidly
2) Almost totally quiet.
3) The filter does a great job in removing particulates in the water. No white dust on any of the furniture in my room. Supposedly also kills bacteria, as well.
4) Has a warming feature; better than nothing but only raises the temperature of the vapor by a few degrees.
5) Looks like it will be very easy to clean. The instructions say to use no chemicals, bleach, or vinegar to clean, unlike most humidifiers. They even give you a little brush to clean the metal part of the ultrasonic unit. Nice.

Cons:
1) Needs a side handle on the water tank so that after filling the tank with water one can easily lift it and carry it back to the humidifier. With only a handle at the top (which is upside down after one fills the tank), it is very difficult to flip right side up especially since it now weighs 8 pounds with all the water in it.
2) As many reviewers have already stated, the humidistat reading is worthless. Get a hygrometer and then figure out what humidity level you need to set the humidistat to so that you can have a comfortable humidity level in your room. For example, my digital hygrometer reads 47% (I like the room humidity to be in the high 40s) and the humidifer's humidstat reads 40%. So I set the humidstat to 40% to get the humidity level I want.

*** Five Week Follow-Up Note: It started to leak the other day and I will exchange it for another one. Also, the humidity indicator started to not work correctly. I hope I have better luck with the second one. Pain in the you know where. Like I said in my initial review, this one was really great-- when it worked!

*** Five Week and Two Day Follow-Up Note: No, this is not my blog on humidifiers. So I got the second one the other day. I discovered that the vapor CAN come out warm. So the first one I got was defective in that the vapor was staying cold. Now the bad news-- the humidistat is so far off that the humidity in the room has to get to 52% before the humidifier will shut off! The humidifier "thinks" the ACTUAL humidity in the room is 35% (it is 17% off!). (35% is the lowest DESIRED humidity level you can select on the humidifier.) I will exchange it for another one tomorrow. It's the last one. After that one, I get my money back. I spoke to a nice enough guy at the customer support line for the Korean manufacturer; he agreed, there is a problem with their humidistat. He suggested I unplug the unit for one or two hours and then try it. Yeah, right, that'll fix it. Why don't I just unplug it for an hour or two when the humidity gets to the desired level in my room and then plug it back in? That will definitely work. Okay. There will be one more entry and then I will wish you the best of luck with this unit or whichever one you wind up buying.

*** Now 1 year later! It works just fine. Very happy with it. Ordered two new filters from an Amazon vendor that just arrived. Only $10 each and will last the entire season. Cheap. That's it. No more entries. Good product, worth a try.

I purchased two identical Venta VS207 humidifiers to use in separate bedrooms. After reading the manual, I set up the first one with no problem. But the second one--as another reviewer said-- would only blink at me and not start misting. After some trial and error, I discovered the problem and was able to fix it: The screw cap for the water tank, onto which one first screws in the demineralization cartridge, has a small rubber gasket. In my non-working unit, that gasket was too far down against the outer screw cap, which meant the spring loaded button would not work properly to let the water descend into the base tank . The solution: push up on that small rubber gasket so that it is as far up and away from the screw cap as it can be without falling off, and voila! you get mist!!
Another problem: I suspect the relative humidity readings may not be accurate: both of my units show an RH of 35% when other hygrometers in the same room show about 50%. My solution is simply to set the RH desired level on 35%, which really means the unit will cut off when I think the real RH is around 50%.
Also,due to the design, it's a bit awkward to replace a full water tank onto the base. It requires controlled strength.
On the positive side, the units are very quiet and produce lots of mist.

Having looked around for more a month in preparation for the cold weather and our "dry as desert" heating system, we picked up this unit at retail. We walked into the store with the intention to purchase the Air-O-Swiss however after a litte hesitation walked out with the Venta as the Air-O-Swiss was out of stock.
First time setup was a breeze. We only needed to remove a couple of plastic covers, two pieces of tape, soak the demineralizer in warm water, fill the tank and in under 3 minutes, we were blasting at full steam.
The settings are easy to operate even though they are digital with single button operation for each function (a total of 4 buttons, one per function: on/off, vapor, warm/cold, and humidity level). Some people may prefer the older dials over the buttons as they are easier to operate. You won't have to keep pressing until you catch the right setting as you do with the single button feature.
When we first turned the unit on, we heard a noticable gulping noise coming from the water intake. As I had read about noisy operating humidifiers in my research, I was a little concerned that this would be the standard operating noise. Don't be alarmed. To my relief, once the intake was full within 2 to 3 minutes, the noise level was reduced to a minimal hum. Barely enough to hear, the noise is comparable to a small 4-inch fan operating at the lowest setting. There won't be anything to complain about even for the extremely light sleepers.
Also during the first couple of minutes, the internal hygrostat which monitors the current humidity level in the room jumped around for a while until it later settled and seems to now display a believably correct level.
Having left the unit operating at full warm vapor for 45% desired humidity on a high dresser, we did NOT wake up to find a puddle around or on the dresser or anywhere else in the room. This had been one of our fears as it had been mentioned in reviews for several other units. The unit however had gone through a full tank of water overnight. This more than likely means that it operated almost none stop through the night.
My wife mentioned having experienced a noticably better sleep and our 3 year old who sleeps in the same room with us and for who in fact we purchased this for, was not snoring as heavily as she normally does.
Upon refilling the unit for the second evening, I realized that the fill cap which is at the bottom of the water tank was a little tough to remove as I had tightened it well per the instructions in the manual. The fact that the cap is large and wet made it a little too slippery to loosen.
Once the unit is filled with water, it may not be a smart idea to keep moving it around as it needs to be level. The fact that there is loose water around the water intake in between the blue tank and the white units base may result in a spill and wet carpet, clothes, etc. (The blue part on top is the water tank and the fill cap is at the bottom; it separates from the white base and there is maybe a one or two cup full loose water on top of the base which I believe is normal during operation. It will not spill unless tipped.)
Overall, we are very pleased with the operation and the aesthetics of the unit. It has a modern look and in no way is an eye sore like some other units we looked at in the past. The price tag is a little above average however the added features definitely make it a worth while investment.
Pros - Easy Setup. Low operating noise, Correctly Functioning Internal Hygrostat, Aesthetically Pleasing Design
Cons - None

I can't vouch for longevity yet, as I just purchased the Venta this week. I am much more pleased with the noise level than with the Holmes I returned after one day (a humidier with LOUD fan that cycled constantly), and our previous wicking humidifiers. This unit sits near our bed and is almost silent.

When I was looking at the boxes of various humidifiers, one thing I didn't like is that there is nothing on the box indicating the size room this unit can handle. I just compared the output size to some others and figured it would work for our 225 sq. ft. bedroom. Living in a northern state, I liked the idea that I could use warm mist for now, but change to cool mist when the warmer weather returns.

Having owned large humidifiers in the past with the very big tanks, this one is much more user-friendly. I don't have to wait for my spouse to lug the tank, and this one fits under our reverse osmosis tap in the bedroom. It does seem to drip a lot when you take it off the base, so be careful.

I was worried when I first plugged it in and it blinked at me, not working. My suggestion for new units is to wait a few minutes after you soak the filter and fill the tank to start the machine. I did that after being blinked at, and it worked fine from that point on.

I've never owned a warm mist humidifier before, and was amazed at the volume this puts out. I'm happy to say I don't notice dampness beneath the unit, but I would recommend a rubber mat under it just for the drips when cleaning/filling the tank.

My main issue is that you should not rely on the humidistat on the machine. Mine has yet to read over 34% humidity, but the separate humidistat I have and trust places the humidity at 46% right now. Getting an exact 40% seems impossible, but I am definitely breathing better.

All in all I've been pleased so far.

May 15, 2009
Still have two humidifiers, still work perfectly. Yes, there is a bit of white dust, even with our reverse osmosis filtered water, but it isn't heavy. Very pleased with this product. I am pretty religious about the weekly cleaning and haven't seen any mold/mildew.

This is a very good humidifier that produces lots of mist. The water capacity is such that it lasts well through the night (I only run mine at night for sleeping). I have a fairly large bedroom and this unit does a good job of covering the entire room. It has helped me sleep much better and I do not wake up nearly as "bronchy". I am very happy with this aspect of the humidifier.

On the down side, you must turn over the water tank to fill it. The tank does not fit under my bathroom spigot so I have to take it down to the kitchen to fill. It is rather heavy and cumbersome to carry it back upstairs and turn it over on the the base - be careful when doing this. Also, the lowest humidity reading is 30%, so you really do not get an accurate measure of humidity in the room if it is under 30% and the unit will shut off when it reaches the requested humidity setting. However, for me (in arid Denver) all I really care about is that the unit stays on all night. I just set mine for 50% requested humidity and this is not a problem.

Overall for me, a very good purchase.

I've had sinus problems in the past so I highly value my humidifier. I bought this several months ago and used it throughout the cold season and even up until a few weeks ago when it was still less than 40% humidity in my apartment.

The VS207 pumps out A LOT of mist. The lowest setting was more than enough for my 200 sq-ft bedroom and usually enough for the entire 600 sq-ft apt. during the day. I only needed the high setting a few times when I didn't leave the unit on during the day and my place was bone dry when I got home. Then it quickly humidified the air to comfortable levels (i.e. > 40% when ~65F inside) in a few minutes.

And it operates very quietly, apart from the occasional glug-glug of the water intake. Certainly quiet enough to not wake up a somewhat light sleeper like me.

The humidistat is somewhat dubious, though. In the 200 sq-ft bedroom I always kept it at 40/45%, and my Radioshack hygrometer 10 feet away (which I trust more than Venta's humidity estimation algorithm) consistently read 5% more. The discrepancy was more variant, though, when I used it in the living room (effectively the whole 600 sq-ft). The Venta would register anywhere from 3-10% lower humidity than the Radioshack. So if you get this then I'd recommend having a separate hygrometer to get a more reliable reading.

One last word of advice: always use filtered water (distilled, Reverse Osmosis, etc.) Numerous people complained about white dust in other ultrasonic humidifier reviews, and hard tap water is always the culprit. I use RO and have had zero white dust.


UPDATE 2008-12-18:

The VS207 is still going strong in its 3rd winter. I'm writing this because I accidentally got some water inside the base while rinsing it off during a tank refill. So I had to disassemble it to dry off the electronics inside. Thankfully it worked fine when I re-assembled everything the following morning. (I let it air dry overnight).

The only thing different is that I unplugged the water heater from the circuit board, since I never use it anyways and don't want to accidentally turn it on. I presume that some of the complaints of water leakage are due to the heater rupturing the pipe from the tank to the mister. Plus I've never needed warm mist, because properly humidifying my apartment makes it plenty comfortable even when the temperature is low/mid 60s.

And still no white dust since I always use RO filtered water. Plus my ultrasonic plate is always shiny and clean, whereas a family member always gets mineral gunk on theirs because they use tap water.

I just bought this model (VS207 DIGITAL HUMIDIFIER), and I also own the less expensive model (VS-100), which is the same size and capacity, but does not come with the digital hygrometer.
Both models work fine and operate very quiet (which was an important criteria for me).
I selected this model despite the 50% higher retail price, because I thought it would be nice to have an accurate display of the current room humidity and also select the target humidity more precisely, the 'smaller' model has the same functionality but uses dials instead of a digital display. The hygrometer seems to be precise enough, about 2, 3 % different from my external units. But the 'current room humidity' displays only values of 30% and more, so even though your room humidity may be 20%, the unit will show 30%. That is somewhat disappointing and makes a target humidity value of 30% obsolete, the unit will shut off even though the actual humidity could be far less.
But aside from this flaw the unit works very good, so does the VS-100 for 6 months now and I consider buying another one of those. I would not spend the extra money on this 'upgrade' again.

UPDATE 12/24/2006:
I used the unit for a few weeks now. The hygrometer settings and accuracy are still giving problems. I sent a mail to Venta customer service asking about this, but they chose not to answer at all.
Also, the 'hot mist' function does not seem to work on this unit, but I had nothing to compare it with. Now I am looking for a replacement and tried a Air-O-Swiss unit, and that one is really producing a 'hot' mist ...
I cannot change my original rating, otherwise it would go down to 2 or 3 stars ...

Review of Venta VS207 vs Venta 370 vs Enviracaire EWM-220, January 13, 2008
By Venkat (PA) - See all my reviews



I recently purchased three different humidifiers (Venta 370 @$200, Venta VS207 @$100 and Enviracaire EWM-220 @$90) for various rooms in our house. Below are pros and cons of each of these three units:

VENTA 370:
Pros: Quiet operation - perfect for bedrooms, vaporizes tank contents in approx 24 hours to provide ideal humidity, flexibility of cool or warm mist operation
Cons: Leaves a white dust like residue on objects nearby(perhaps an unwanted side effect of ultrasonic vaporization), Expensive $$$, Heavy on refill.

VENTA VS207:
Pros: Quiet operation (like Venta 370), vaporizes tank contents in approx 24 hours, Significantly less expensive than VS370 for comparable performance, Has cool vs warm mist options.
Cons: Heavy on refill, No handles for convenient handling during refill. Leaves a white dust like residue on objects nearby.

ENVIRACAIRE EWM-220:
Pros: Two separate water containers with side handles - convenient to refill water, Vaporizes both tank contents in approx 24 hours, UV light and boiling supposedly destroys germs/microbes in water (can't verify manufacturer's claim).
Cons: Noisy (continuous sound of boiling water from the unit - feels like I am sleeping with a kettle on the stove nearby) - I kind of got used to it after a while, but may be a problem for light sleepers. Unit warns of hot steam emanating from the unit - can potentially be hazardous with little kids in the house.

Overall, for price and performance, the Venta VS207 is the best product. Only wish it had more convenient carrying handles.

We have been using the Venta VS207 Sonic Cool/Warm Mist Ultrasonic Room Humidifier now for about two weeks. So far we are extremely impressed with the performance of this unit. We have installed it in our 16'x14' master bedroom, which gets quite dry durring the winter months. This humidifier was very easy to setup and was producing plenty of humidifying mist in just minutes. It raised the humidity level of our room by 10% within just a few hours. However, it also produces quite a bit of white dust on the front of our 32" LCD television, and was clearly visible on most other dark surfaces in our room as well. Using the "warm mist" feature helped a little but we ultimately had to start using distilled water (as recommended by other reviewers here on Amazon) in the Venta VS207 to eliminate the white dust. There is now virtually no dust seen in our room since we started using the distilled water (been using for about 1 week now).

As others have noted, the humidistat built into this unit is nearly useless. It was reading 50% humidity while the wall mounted Oregon Scientific temp/humidity station in our room showed just 38%. We have learned to set the humidistat of the Venta VS207 about 15 to 20% higher in order to achieve the desired humidity in our bedroom.

We are extremely happy with our Venta VS207 Ultrasonic Room Humidifier. Now that we are using distilled water we have no more white dust in our room, and we have found a work-around for the poor quality humidistat built into this unit. Our only other complaint is that the handle on the tank prevents us from sitting it on the counter, after filling, in order to screw on the cover. As the tank must be inverted in order to fill it, and since the handle is curved and does not allow the tank to sit flat while inverted, one must cradle the tank in your arm while screwing on the threaded cover with your other hand. I am afraid the weight of the full tank will crack the handle if we tried to balance it on the counter while replacing the cover. Still, this is a minor issue when compaired to the overall great build quality of this humidifier. It does its job well and is nearly silent during operation. I find it easy to recommend this model to anyone looking for a quality single room humidifier.

My wife and I both had sinus problems this winter until we got a couple of these units for our living area, and it's been like night and day. We feel better, no sinus problems, and have more energy. We keep them running 24x7.

The only problem is if we forget to fill the reservoir and the units run out of water overnight and the house gets dry, we wake up with sinus headaches. But that's hardly the humidifier's fault!

The units indeed register 30% when the humidity is below that. But we prefer the target humidity to be 35% or over, so that's not a problem for us.

I like them so much, I'm going to buy another one for my home office.