AIRCARE Valiant Digital Whole-House Console-Style Evaporative Humidifier (Brushed Nickel)

I had an old Kenmore humidifier that was about 20 years old and was having a hard time finding proper replacement filters. Since the old unit was so trustworthy, I want a new one as close to the original as I could find. This unit has exactly the same cabinet construction as the old unit, but it has better controls and water system. I give it five stars for the following reasons: 1. Higher efficiency. I filled the old unit by pouring water from a bucket until there was about 5" of water in the bottom of cabinet. When the cabinet was fully filled with water, the water covered about 1/2 of the filter thus allowing only the top half of the filter to moisten the air that the fan was pulling through the filter. As the water level dropped more and more of the filter was exposed to the air allowing for more humidification. The new system has two plastic tanks that can be filled from the kitchen sink (see photo). The right tank trickles water into the bottom of the cabinet very slowly, and when it’s empty the left tank starts trickling water. During the humidifying process there is no more than 1” of water in the bottom of the cabinet thereby allowing the entire filter area to be available to moisten the air all the time to provide humidification. Also I think the two tanks have more total water storage capacity then what the old system had so I don’t have to fill the humidifier as often. 2. The solid state controls on the new humidifier have an added feature that the old unit did not. There are the same 3 fan speeds, and yes the high speed is noisy, but that’s just the nature of this type of humidifier. At the low and mid fan sitting the fans are relatively quite. Although I could not find it explained in the instruction manual, there is an “A” setting which I assume means” automatic”. When set to “A” the control will throttle the fans between low, medium, and high speed, depending on how far the room humidity differs from what is set on the humidifier. Also, there is a “CF” check filter display to tell you that 750 hours has passed and it’s time to check the filter. If the filter looks okay, unplug and then plug in the power cord to restart the humidifier. 3. Excellent customer service and warranty support. When I first got the humidifier I had a question; called customer service and got a quick answer. Two weeks later the left water tank started to leak around the filling cap area. I couldn’t find a reason for the leak and again called customer service on the 800 number supplied in the instruction booklet. After about a 15 second wait, I talked to a customer service rep and had a warranty replacement tank on the way. It was received two days later. 4. The filters look to be a higher quality then what I could find for my old Kenmore unit. I am a little concerned about how durability of the water tanks because of having to screw and unscrew the caps every time you fill the tank. Only time will tell. However, it the worst case I could through the tanks away and just fill the bottom of the cabinet with a water bucket just like I did with the old unit.

I have used this humidifier for the last 3 years. It has not been the same machine--but that is only because of my moving and thinking that I did not need it. Initially, I got it under the Sears name, but it was exactly the same machine. Now I bought it as the Essick Air EA1407 machine. I have never been disappointed in it. It was bought because I have a grand piano that needs to have the humidity in the proper range not only for proper care of the piano, but to prevent the worse event of a cracked soundboard. It has been used to humidify my piano in a home that was open enough that it was not possible to enclose the piano in a smaller, enclosed area. It worked very well. My homes have been about 2,000 sq feet. The evaporative humidifiers are the way to go as opposed to those which produce a mist and propel it in the air which can leave a residue on furniture. The design is simple--there are four channel-like pads which sit in water and the fans are above them pulling air in from the back of the unit through the wick-moistened pads then up and out the top of the unit. This design does not allow for anything to be put on top if it. It is made of thin plastic which makes it light, but may not survive a solid, strong accidental blow or fall down the steps. Once a year probably at least the wicks should be replaced which is not difficult. One easily takes off the top section of the unit (which includes the fans) and reaches down to get the wick units. The tops snap off the wick units where the channel-like wicks are located. These can be easily removed and new ones put in. The lid snaps back on the wick units and they are placed in the bottom of the humidifier cabinet. The top portion of the unit, is placed back on the cabinet and that is it. I was worried that this design with the standing water would, after a while smell bad like a wet basement, or stagnant pond or even moldy, but I use the proper bacteriostatic solution and have never had a problem. I don't use it during the summer months and let it run dry at that time before I put it away. Eventually for me, the wicks became encrusted with salts (I don't have softened water). But for me, they lasted one winter. They needed to be replaced for the next year. The two plastic water containers that one fills up with water and a partial capful of the bacteriostatic solution lasts for varying amounts of time depending on the humidity already in the air and how dry one wants the air to be. In my 2000 sq ft homes it would last at least 2-3 days when there was nothing else humidifying the air. I now have central humidification, but it does not work well enough to keep the humidity around the piano at the right range (40-45%) so I mainly use this unit to supplement it. The water will last from the two water containers about a week. If one has a 2000 sg ft home and not other form of humidification, and there is nothing really to limit the humidified air from going all through the home, and it is the dead of a cold winter, I would not expect this unit to last more than a few days--maybe a weekend, but one may come back with it dried out. It can be set automatically to run to a determined level of humidification which is how I use it. The humidity sensor is in the cord or the unit going to the electrical outlet, so it should sense the air coming into the unit which makes design sense. When I have other humidifier gauges around the home, it seems to be just as accurate as them. The range of automatic humidification is between 25 and 65%. There are other controls to run the humidifier different, but I have never worked with them and have always used the automatic mode and set the degree of humidification that I wanted. Of all the humidifiers I have used over the years, this definitely the best. I would highly recommend it.

I had an identical humidifier for many years and it worked great. The only problem I had with it was that the humidistat stopped working and I couldn't buy a replacement part for it, although I could buy most all of the other parts. The humidistat was a dial, not digital, like the new one. This new one is more accurate because I can see exactly what the humidity is and can set it where I want it. The sensor is molded into the plug's wire and it sits where the unit sucks in the air, so it is pretty accurate. The two fans are pretty powerful and they push a lot of air straight up, so they do make some noise on settings #2 and #3. Number 1 is pretty quiet. After they were running for a couple of days I got used to it and maybe you will also. It beats having a dry house. My only complaint is that a different company (or the same company is getting lax) is molding the plastic pieces. Especially the filter holders. Some of the seams and edges have plastic flashings that should be trimmed off so that the tabs will stay in their slots and the cover over the bottles will close down flatly (in the center). Some reviews say that the plastic container is flimsy and it does feel that way, but when it is set up and has the water in it, it is very stable. It isn't made to be continually moved around the house. It should be tried in different places until you find the place where it works the best and then leave it there. It shouldn't be moved up or down stairs after it has been filled. It glides nicely on the casters. One last thing. There were two small plastic pieces that must have been just thrown into the box that must of gotten stuck in one of the fans. It took a bit of wiggling them to get them out without damaging the fan. They should have been put into a parts bag. The picture of them in the item list says they have something to do with the casters. My casters are working fine without them.

Delivers big humidity numbers in my 1300 sq ft house. I have forced hot air, and humidity levels plummet in the winter months. My old Kenmore humidifier bit the dust a couple years ago, so I got a Vornado humidifier. The Vornado was just too small, and really noisy. And the filters were expensive. So this year I decided I need another huge whole house humidifier. I put the AIRCARE Valiant in my kitchen. The humidity goes though the house through the ductwork. it has easily maintained 45% humidity in the house so far, and no condensation on my windows . It is not loud at all. I leave it in automatic fan mode, and it rarely goes into high speed except if I forgot to fill it and humidity drops a lot. The two tanks are easy enough to fill, but I think the tank fill caps could be redesigned to be easier to screw back on. The thread pitch should be larger. The filters wicks are not too expensive and I have been replacing them monthly. I use a humidifier bacteriostat in the water and it turns the wicks yellow and makes them dry out. I would recommended this humidifier to anyone with a small house. It really helps with healthy sleeping and knocking down static electricity shocking issues. No more dry air.

I thought this would be a lot better than it looks. It worked really well for the first month but I don't have confidence in the longevity or functionality of this unit. First off it came with the wrong bottles. One of them just never drains. If you look on their website you can find a video about the unit and how to fill it. It's very obvious it came with the wrong bottles. Second is it just kind of functions as a fan now. I can't get it to actually humidify anymore. It might be the wick is cheap and has already gone bad but it's not soaking after about 3 weeks. I also found this on their FAQ and this is just absurd functional design. "Your Valiant will empty the right bottle first. The left bottle will not drain if you refill the right bottle immediately after it has emptied. Make sure the right bottle and the base of the unit are empty so that the left bottle can drain." So not only did they include the wrong bottles, it is designed so that you have to wait for the entirety of the unit to be empty and dry before you refill. This is just a little incompetent since most of the time this will dry out in the middle of the night and you can't fill it at night or it won't work right. You'll wake up to dry air. It's also supposed to last 55 hours but I've never had this run more than 24 hours because it seems to be built defective or again, the wrong bottles were included. The plastic is extremely thin. I didn't put the wheels on because they look designed to break the bottom of the unit over time. At highest setting it's incredibly loud and puts out a ridiculous amount of air. I suppose if you had a really big house or it was extremely dry this would be necessary but I'd rather have a couple more fan speeds than almost off, mildly annoying normal speed, and wake up your neighbors speed. The door hinge to cover seems designed to break after a couple years. The decorative plastic is just a thin plastic design that looks far cheaper in person than in the pictures. The plastic on the unit you get is way cheaper and thinner than what you see in pictures as well. Worst of all their customer support does not exist. Their chat never works and their emails never get a response. I don't have time to sit on hold to fix a humidifier. I'm probably just going to return this thing.

Update: It is just over a year since I acquired this, and after one season of use during the winter months, I began to use the recommended AirCare antibacterial liquid additive. Well, that was a mistake. The new AirCare wicks became 'rotted' from this liquid. And it left a residue that cannot be removed, somewhat like the minerals from hard water. And my water undergoes who house water softening. Never had this after the first months of using this device. But now that I used the antibacterial/antimicrobial liquid, I do now. It is ruined, a total loss of nearly $300 with the unit, the new AirCare wicks and the antibacterial liquid. Who wants to breathe that stuff anyway? I won’t purchase ANYTHING from this company ever again. Original Review: My 3-story townhome just had new bamboo flooring installed on the 3rd floor. It requires humidity levels to be consistent and above 40%. At this time of year normal humidity inside my home is between 25% to 33%, so well below the minimum required. The Aircare Valiant when placed on the first floor easily raises the humidity level above 40%. In fact, 45% was easily achievable on a daily basis. At about $200 it was certainly less expensive than having an HVAC bypass humidifier installed by a plumber. The noise level I found is only excessive when operating at fan speed 3, which is the greatest airflow. And you don’t see the humidity because it is not the type created by an ultrasonic humidifier, which emit a type of vapor. That type stained the wall it was next to and turned the flames of my gas range from blue to orange. None of this happens with the AirCare Digital Valiant. Highly recommended. Large dual water tanks that are easy to fill.

UPDATE: Essick Aire (AirCare) refused to honor their warranty 6 days after expiration, but they did try to help me troubleshoot. It seems the nozzles on the bottom chip over time, replacements are readily available on Amazon since most major brands use the same nozzle type. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AUNNAVS/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1) I'll start at the beginning. I was expecting it to feel "cheap" and thought I had a 50% chance of it arriving broken, because I read many of the reviews. It does feel cheaply made, and mine did arrive broken. However, Essick put a little card in the box stating that if there was ANY issues, call them first. So I did. They registered my product and sent me a replacement part for the broken one, easy. The capacity of this unit is 4.8 gallons. there are (2) 2.4 Gallon tanks. I had to figure this out on my own, because this information isn't specifically provided. Buy bacteriostat, it will help the wicks last longer and won't give you a damp musty smell from all the tap water. Most bacteriostats are the same as far as amount of active ingredients so I figured out that with the capacity of these tanks, you have to use 1 "shot" of bacteriostat per tank (yes I use a shot glass). Fan speed 3 is RIDICULOUS, I would only use this speed if the unit is going to be on a different floor. Fan speed 2 is fine in the hallway outside the bedrooms, you can hear it, but it's just fan white noise. On cold days, on fan speed two, you will have to refill the tanks twice, if you don't have a bathtub and don't feel like going outside, the tanks are a pain to fill (see picture) they wont fit in ANY sinks in your house (including the kitchen sink) but Essick air conveniently sells a hose attachment separately if you need it. The humidity reading is about 5% high on my unit which isn't terrible since the unit can be adjusted to any set point you want (25-60% RH) Just be aware that unless you spend a LOT on a hygrometer, they usually aren't that accurate. If you have any friends who smokes cigars, or collects guitars, you can borrow a calibrated hygrometer from them and find out where your unit stands, or just adjust it to your liking. Overall the unit works, and it works well, it's a little oversized for my house but I'd rather have too much than not enough, and I believe as long as I change the filters (4) every season, this unit should last several years. By the way, it was a lot larger than I expected I included a picture to try and give a reference.

I've had other Essick/Aircare Humidifiers over the years, this one is the best. The wick/fan design is getting more water into the air than the previous model (although this winter is much colder so perhaps the dryer air contributes to that). The bottle design has been changed, Theres a second opening in the SIDE of the bottle that allows you to fill it easily directly from the kitchen sink--no hose necessary. And finallly, this model has two bottles, so you don't always have to keep your eye on it. One bottle drains completely before the other one starts, so it's unlikely you'll run it to it's shut-off point. Lastly, the float system is much better than on my previous models, so if the water level gets low, the system will shut off, keeping enough water in the tank to keep your wick moist. The only thing about this system I'm not sure of is the digital hygrometer/shut off system. This reads about five to seven points lower than the analog hygrometer I've been using for years. Which is right? I don't know yet, but as I have no worries about the humidity being a few point too high, I don't really care. Like my other humidifiers, this model has three fan speeds. Also like my previous models, running on high speed is much too loud for us. Running on medium, this is louder than my older ones, but not so loud to be unusable. We got used to it quickly.

First off, the seller is awesome! We had an issue when we got this humidifier, and they were soooooo fast to respond and solve the problem! We heat by wood (only) ... we were constantly “zapping” each other or our dogs because if the dryness in our house. This humidifier has made a huge difference to BOTH floors of our house. The dual tanks are easy to fill, and last us about 24 hours. We’ve put it in a central spot, and it works well! The only complaint is that the amount of cool air it creates actually lowers our heat noticeably. Other than that, it’s a great purchase, not huge, but definitely a “floor model” We are extremely happy with it!

My previous whole-home humidifier with internal flow-over pump that works amazing has been discontinued for about a decade and I can no longer get the wicks. The very last wicks I got were so old the paper degraded quickly. So I was on a search for a similar product and sadly nothing similar is available so I turned to console type. I did a lot of research and settled on this model, specifically because it uses 2 smaller fans rather than 1 large fan which reduces the noise pollution by quite a bit. On low you can barely hear it run, medium speed is a light fan hum while the 3rd speed is extremely loud. The 4 wicks work well but with my hard water lasts about 4 weeks. The only issue I wish the wicks had an aluminum screen in the core to hold the wick together. The humidifier does a great job of maintaining the humidity level I set whether it is 45 or 50%. Our winters are very dry with a 5-15% humidity without the humidifier running. I give 5 stars however the cost is a little high for what you get. Overall I recommend it.

Overall a great buy and works to maintain the humidity in a 2000+ sq ft apartment. Pros: 1) Looks good 2) Easy to add water with the removable tanks 3) Digital controls easy to understand and they work 4) Fan at low is quiet 5) Easy assembly and operating instrucitons 6) Filters are included and remove the 'white dust' that other vapour humidifiers create. Cons 1) Delicate construction. (had to return the first one since it arrived broken, replacement was fine) 2) Fan noisy on High, when I fist installed and set at 'Auto' for fan speed it ran for half a day on high speed. Since then it has cycled on low to maintain humidity. So not an issue. Plus you can override and permanently set the fan speed. Overall a good purchase!

Just got it ...so far so good... not sure how it will do a 2 bedroom apt yet....well I have to say after a week our 2 bedroom apt. is fully humidified. ....in fact it shut off once to refill and within the hr. just on 2 all was good. WE only keep it on 1 and does the job. We are very pleased with this purchase.

On the medium fan setting, this humidifier, with brand new wicks, will empty both tanks overnight. You don't need to use the high setting. We have a larger home with a heat-pump/thermopump (which can't therefore use a standard humidifier due to the air temperature being lower). We ended up buying two of these (started with one for the main floor, then added one more for the basement), and that sufficed for over 4,000 square feet (even after the wicks were no longer new). They run pretty much continuously, but on medium they are quiet (and they automatically stop when the reservoir is dry). Great product.