Customer Reviews

Vornado 4-Gallon 4 by 4 Multi-Room Humidifier

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

First to address the Glug noise. THUS FAR It is no louder than pouring a glass of milk from a plastic one gallon carton.

There are certain brands that I'm loyal to. High on the list is VORNADO. I've paid for and thus own several of their home products and NO, I'm not an employee of Vornado. Just enthusiastic to find stuff that works great!
...The VORNADO 4 Gallon Multi Room Humidifier WORKS as claimed. It gives you a range of humidity and has a three speed fan.

Several features that deserve mentioning:
1. The bottles are high guage flexible plastic similar to plastic milk cartons. They should last forever BARRING any damage such as shrapnel punctures, etc. They are rectangular in shape, lay on a flat side to fill, and have a over size opening to facilitate filling. We have a long stemmed kitchen faucet with a "hose". I set the bottle on the counter and fill it. I timed the fill time - 1 1/2 minutes PER bottle at a slow flow of water. The bottles will lay flat in a sink if you prefer. The bottles tip in easily to the base unit for operation
2. The design is fully functional. It's easy to fill, the "power unit" comes off by lifting, the bottles tilt out for removal, and easily tip back in without worrying about gaskets and such to misalign and cause spills. It is NEAR spill proof. Unless operator error is the problem.
3. Because of the design it is easily portable AFTER taking off the power unit and the two bottles. THere IS water left in the "pan". Either move carefully or drain this out prior to moving it.
4. The design also lends itself to keeping the unit clean. Accessibility is very good to surfaces that may accumulate the usual ickies.

Any Downsides? The wicks are expensive. I've seen the price of the wicks fluctuate by 30% SO WATCH FOR SALE PRICES on the wicks! DO NOT LET THE WICKS DRY OUT COMPLETELY, the manufacturer points out that this will shorten the life span of the wicks.

This product is so much easier to use than our old hard plastic, single bottle unit. It would invaribly leak because you didn't seat it just right. It would dump water vapor quickly into a room, and literally soak bedding. The single bottle was of less capacity so it didn't last as long and was miserably heavy. It also was exceptionally noisy and cumbersome.

All of these shortcomings are solved with the VORNADO 4-Gallon 4 by 4 Multi-Room Humidifier.

I'm exceptionally happy with this purchase!
John Row

After reading the reviews here and elsewhere, I decided to give this humidifier a try. It lasted less than one night.

The glug-glug of air entering the water bottles is both louder and more frequent than the two other brands I've tried (Honeywell and Bionaire), and we found we couldn't use the humidifier in the bedroom. In truth, I could sleep through the noise, but my wife couldn't, so we returned it the next day.

Two other negatives: first, the unit both looks and feels like it is made of cheap, thin plastic; it's a fairly ugly addition to the bedroom.

Second, the water bottles are surprisingly awkward to fill. The bottles have very narrow openings (no more than about 1" in diameter) which greatly restricts water flow into the bottles (there has to be enough room for water to flow in and air to flow out - the only way to do this is with a slow water flow). The review that estimates 1.5 minutes per bottle to fill in the kitchen sink is probably accurate. The two other humidifiers I've used had MUCH larger openings (3" probably) so you could hold the bottle under the tap in the tub and fill a 2-3 gallon bottle in only a few seconds. Also the Vornado bottles have no cap - just an opening - so carrying a full bottle is a little more exciting than it should be.

On the other hand, except for the glug-glug, the unit is very quiet. Also, the capacity is much larger average, so if you want to humidify more than a room, this might be a good choice.

Bottom line: if you need a high-capacity humidifier AND you can tuck this one out of both sight and sound, it might be a good choice. But, for the bedroom - especially the bedroom of a light sleeper - look elsewhere.

I purchased this humidifier to relieve some of the snap-crackle-pop that is generated in a house that has a heater running all winter. We couldn't touch our pets without static shock, the 4-legged critters were getting dander, the human critters were getting dry skin and stuffy noses...all common problems during winter in Alaska. Having tried several different models of humidifiers over the years, I am confident to recommend this Vornado.

The moisture is somewhat "soft"...no drenching and soaking everything around it, no mold. The highest setting is a bit loud...we use it only to rapidly "up" the level of moisture and then turn it to medium until bedtime. On low, this thing is incredibly quiet. I am baffled by the reviews complaining of the glug-glug noise. Unless you are a very light sleeper, this brief sound is trivial...(hardly like "drums in the bedroom" in my opinion) but not everyone has the same level of noise tolerance, I suppose. In this quiet home (just 2 adults and some non-talking pets) it goes unnoticed.

The unit is very easy to fill. I place the bottles in the sink and fill them straight from the faucet. The top of the unit lifts right off, which makes it easy to clean.

It seems that we are having to change the wicks every 4 weeks or so. Amazon.com sells them cheaper than any other place I've found and it is advisable to keep several packs on hand (the unit uses 2 wicks at a time.) The inconvenience of replacing the wicks would be my biggest "grumble"...but it's well worth it to have fewer sinus headaches and the benefit of moisture in dry, heated indoor air.

This is the easiest humidifier to maintain that I have ever owned, and it does a great job of humidifying my entire 4 room apartment, even in the coldest, driest weather. It can hold a lot of water, so you don't have to refill it constantly, and most importantly, it's really easy to clean (not a lot of nooks and crannies), a big problem for me with other humidifiers. The reservoir mouths are too small to efficiently fill in the bathtub but are perfect for the kitchen sink, and there are no caps to unscrew. It does make a little "glug glug" sound occasionally, so really sensitive sleepers might not want it in their bedroom, but otherwise it generally makes a pleasant white noise. Warm misters are quieter and don't require filters but they tend to have small capacities and they are a true nightmare to keep clean. Until they make a filterless, self-cleaning, self-filling humidifier, I highly recommend this one.

That is to say - it's really high performance, very simply built, and has a few rough edges.
PERFORMANCE: this thing pretty much humidifies our entire 2BD/2BTH 1450 sqr. ft. apartment, although the back room never gets above 40% (we keep that door closed a lot though). It's huge 4.5 gallon tanks mean that that even with steam heat drying out the air continuously, I only need to fill the tanks once a day. The large, dual wicks mean that a LOT of air can get moisturized quickly, and the large diameter fan is fairly quiet and very effective.
BUILD: 4 parts - 2 tanks, one "oil pan" base to hold the filters, and the top fan/control unit. This makes the unit VERY easy to clean - take off the fan/control unit, and everything else can get a water and white vinegar soak.
ROUGH EDGES: This unit relies upon vacuum pressure in the tanks to regulate the amount of water admitted - no complicated valves. That leads to "GLUG GLUG GLUG" when the water in the base falls - and it is loud enough to bother most sleepers. And there are very basic, simple controls. No readouts, no remote humidity sensors...

But WHO CARES? This unit works so well that most people don't have to place it in the bedroom - simply put it in the living room or hall, and it will put out enough moisture that in 1 - 2 days the entire space will be humid. I've tested this two ways: 1) my children stopped coughing from dry air, and 2) I own a humistat that measures the relative humidity. Both indications tell me that it works over a large enough area, and all I did is place it in the front hall.

SUMMARY - a great large area humidifier with a few rough edges. Place it out of the bedroom, let the air circulate by just keeping the doors open, and it's fantastic.

This is the best cold air humidifier I have used in several years. It really puts the needed moisture back into the hot box I call my apartment. My throat and my skin are not itching from the arid air and I can sleep regardless of the thing going bump in the night. Nice white noise sound on high and whisper or no noise on low.
I place mine in the hallway and it refreshes 2 bedrooms the bathroom and much of our small dinning room.

I also like its Miami in the 1930"s look with the bright aqua water tanks.
It is idiot proof to use and easy to clean. As there isn't anyway to make carrying those Jugs lighter I would say this was as to near to perfect as one could get.

I read about the glug-glug before my purchase. It is about as bad as I had read. I love to sleep to white noise, but the glug-glug woke me up. I tried putting it in our bathroom, leaving the door open. That helped a lot, but I think it restricted the humidifying affect by making the bathroom moist, thereby reducing the amount of water that could evaporate in the unit. Now it's in our hallway and pumping lots of moisture into the air.

The design is very simple. I actually like it's simplicity and design and disagree that it's hard to fill. I had no problems filling it in our kitchen sink.

It appears to be very easy to clean, although I haven't had to clean it yet. I did have to replace the wicks, though. They got a little crusty (we have very hard water). I tried a humidifier that had wicks that you could clean and it's humdifying performance was awful. I'd rather pay for replacement wicks anyway...my time is more valuable.

Bottom line, this unit does a great job of putting water into the air. It won't win a beauty contest nor will it give you silent operation. Just ask yourself what you really want a humidifier for and you may find that this unit fits your needs.

I have written in the past about their space heaters which I love and thought I need to put a few thoughts down about this humidifier.

I must admit that like some say, it is kind of loud for a Vornado. However, with that said, I live in a 1,600 sq. ft. house in Colorado that has vaulted ceilings and a very open floor plan. This makes humidifying the air in the winter difficult. This is where this particular product comes in.

I have it placed in an area in the large part of the house where it can be taken advantage of. This is not for the person with a small/medium sized bedroom. For that purpose, I would choose an ultrasonic humidifier that is silent and really more suitable for your space. The 4x4 is made for larger areas and this humidifier suits me fine for the space I am using it in.

Depending upon the cycle of my heater (less on warmer days, more on cold days) the humidity levels range from 10%-15% higher which is pretty impressive. I run it about 24 hours on the same fill (both tanks) at high humidity and high fan speed. This is very convenient in that I only need to fill them up once a day.

The main drawback is the nature of this humidifier as it's an evaporative humidifier thereby needing to buy replacement wicks which unless you order online can be difficult to find, not to mention the cost. I would love to see that Vornado invest some research into using a wick more along the lines of those used in evaporative coolers so you only have to change it once in a season. Having lived in a dry climate, swamp coolers use the wood from aspen which may get kind of stinky but they last far longer than these paper based wicks. My other complaint is that they make them in a more suitable color...those tanks are really something. < grin >

Anyhow, when you live in a dry climate like I do this is a great humidifier and I would recommend it if you realize a few of the minor drawbacks. My skin has really been more tolerable than in past years with other humidifiers that can't do the job in larger areas.

To make this a five star -- better wicks and tanks that aren't so freakish looking in color. I can tolerate the glubs and the fan noise as it's in my living room.

If you have a very small one level house or an apartment, buy something else. Otherwise I give this four out of five thumbs up.

Over the last 30 years, I have purchased MANY cool mist humidifiers. I like this one best of all. It is the quietest unit I have used and the 4 gallon capacity is very convenient, as it seems one is always having to fill these things up. I also like the cool contemporary design. The two tanks system is a little strange at first, but great when you get used to them. I will never purchase a different unit!

OK first of all, I'm typically too lazy to write reviews for products I buy. But I just had to write one for this because the reviews on here do not justify the product. Many complain about the -GULP- loud sounds but really it isn't that bad at all. Nothing is perfect but I give this 4 stars because it performs well. The moisture isn't overkill like some other humidifiers I've where everything felt wet. This humidifier keeps the room moist fast and the 2 tanks last the entire night/day. And refilling it was a breeze compared to other humidifiers we'd bought. It doesn't spill much at all cause you could take the tanks on both sides with ease, just as you would be holding a gallon of distilled water from the store. It has a handle on it for easy handling. As for the small opening to the tanks, I agree but hey, nothing is perfect and at this price, you would just hope that it performs well and with no major issues. I would say go ahead, this is a good humidifier to get. In fact, I came on the website planning on getting another for another bedroom!