Air-O-Swiss

[Hesh1956]

Not sure if these are available in your neck of the woods but I wanted to do a review on a new humidifier that I just turned on in my shop in the last week.

Where I live in Michigan our summers are typically in the 80's and the winters can be 6 months of 0 - 40F. As such the forced air heating is on for at least half the year and this means that we have to humidify our shops in an effort to provide a stable environment for wooden instrument making.

I try to keep my shop in the 42 - 48% RH range and I don't worry much if it approaches 50%.

Over the years I have tried many humidifiers and in all honesty they all have sucked big time. They are either not powerful enough, noisy, smelly or the filters don't last very long. If you can clean the filters that is a real drag to have to do too....

The best humidifier that I had found until recently was a Beamis but it had filters that need to be cleaned every 5-7 days.

My water has a lot of iron in it here in the Michigan prairie and it also contains tanons which can cause the sulfur-like smell that you may have experienced when turning on a tap. So when I moved in I spent over 3K to have a 3 stage water purification, softener system put it and that system works great and my water is very clean, does not stink... and tastes great too.

The Air-O Swiss humidifiers are very high-tech and do not use filters that have to be cleaned or replaced. Instead the water is filtered through a demineralization cartridge prior to entering the working part of the humidifier. The humidifier uses ionic silver to kill bacteria and contains a replaceable ionic silver stick that lasts a year and requires no servicing.

This unit also preheats the water to a temp of 195F also killing germs and uses the juice of a 40 watt bulb. The unit uses ultrasonic sound to excite the water molecules which again is heated to 195F and then it exhausts the humidity through a series of duct work which cools the mist to a very pleasant 105F.

You can see the unit humidifying the air as the mist comes out which is kind of cool when you are used to wondering if your moldy old filter based unit is even working.... And my shop hosts visitors several times a week and in the age of swine flu Heshie here appreciates devices that automatically kill germs.

It's completely automatic with a built in hygrometer that tells you what the RH is and surprisingly this hygrometer is not too far off from my calibrated lab quality hygrometer. You set the level that you desire and set the speed (low, medium, and high are available) and the damn thing just works.

It's also completely silent. Hell - I like this thing so much I may even marry it...

Other than adding water to the removable tank with a great handle and design so it sits fine in a sink it's all very easy to operate.

Needless to say I am new to this technology so I'll be looking to see how it does over time and let folks know if interested. Air-O-Swiss also comes with a 3 year warranty which is way better than the competition and they make units that are bigger and smaller than this one.

When I factored in how much I spend every winter replacing humidifier filters when they just won't come clean anymore (north of $80) the $200 price tag, convenience, completely automatic and accurate operation, germ killing, and NO stinking filters I thought that it was a good deal.

Here are some pics - you may be able to see the mist coming out of it. Maybe it's time for a feature length motion picture called "Luthiers In The Mist"

[kiwigeo]

Looks like an extra out of "Doctor WHO".....

Range of dehumidifiers available in Oz is limited. Mitsubishi have stopped importing their machines but theyre readily available in New Zealand.

[Rick Turner]

Kiwi, note that this is a HUMIDifier, not a DEHUMIifier. This is for adding moisture to the air, not sucking it out.

This is for those folks who live in dry desert areas or places where the winter heating systems tend to suck moisture out of the already cold air.

[Bob Connor]

Looks like a nifty unit Hesh.

Mostly down here we need de-humidifiers.

The yearly average humidity in Melbourne is 65%RH and the winters tend to be wet and not too cold and the summers will get really dry only when we get a northerly wind.

Last year we had three days at around 50 degrees Celcius(122F) and the humidity dropped lower than anything I've got to measure.

Generally the summer temperature will be between 25C and 35C and the humidity behaves itself enough not to need a humidifier.

I've just spent this winter building a 3 x 5 metre insulated plasterboard (drywall) room in the shed for critical glueing operations, wood storage and for drying out the wood that we resaw.

I find that any wood cut from the tree will dry to around 13-15% moisture content here unless you give it a little help along. It'll get down to the required dryness over summer but will jump back up a little the next winter.

We're also putting a small kiln in that room for drying wood.

I've just ordered a DeLonghi dehumidifier for this room (20 litres per day)which I'm hoping to get hold of next week.

I'll put some pics up once I get the room sealed and the dehumidifier in situ

[Allen]

Oh, don't I wish for the day that I need a humidifier. Never an issue here, as I don't think I've ever seen the humidity drop less than 35% for more than a few hours, and that was with a hot westerly coming in from out back.

[Taffy Evans]

Very interesting Hesh, thanks. Does it come with that fire extinguisher.

[Hesh1956]

OK my mistake - you guys have a very different climate than I do.

I have to be either taking moisture out of the air or putting it back in - we only have a couple of weeks every year in which the RH is suitable for building. So my shop has to be on life support at all times which kind of sucks since some of these devices make enough noise to really grind on you after a while...

[Dennis Leahy]

Well, in Duluth Minnesota in the wintertime, I throw 2" long sparks off my fingertips when I reach for a doorknob. It's drier than a popcorn fart.

So, I'm looking at your review, and I'm interested. I had an ultrasonic mist type unit a number of years ago, and if I remember correctly, it died when I failed to put distilled water into it (minerals coated the ultrasonic vibrating thingie and it could not be cleaned.)

So, I wanna ask a few questions:

Have you used this for a full season yet?

Do you have to put distilled water in, or is it recommended? (I realize you have gone to great expense to get your tap water cleaner than most.)

And finally, when I check around and read reviews (of course knowing there is always someone who seems to passionately love a thing that another reviewer passionately hates), I ran across several reviews that are contradictory: http://www.epinions.com/reviews/Swiss_A ... Humidifier

Especially the negative reviews made me wonder if this is founded at all:


What say you, Hesh?

Thanks,

Dennis

[Hesh1956]

Ah another Yankee who has a climate somewhat like mine...

Hi Dennis. This unit is new and new to me too so I have no experience with it over time but promised in my review to let folks know how it does.

I read the reviews that you posted a link to prior to purchasing this one. Time will tell but I suspected that although the negative reviews were on the level they were on the level for the experiences that those folks had in their specific situations. What I mean is that some folks may experience something different as you can see on the two positive reviews.

Regarding the tank being harder to fill I would completely disagree. What made it unstable for the one reviewer was that he/she neglected to realize that the export pops off for refilling and as such the top of the tank, now the bottom when inverted in a sink, sits nice and flat, stable as can be. And of course you have to remove the cap to add water so I wonder why they are complaining about that too.

As for not humidifying I could not disagree more. My unit can bring my shop up 5% in 15 minutes! My old Sears 1,200 square feet unit took an hour to bring up the RH 5%.

The white dust that the other user is complaining about is what I mean when I talk about the specific situations of others. As you know water hardness and the level of minerals can vary widely in different locations. My water starts off rock hard and rusty when I pump it out of my well here but because of my purification system it tests in the 100 ppm or below range when it comes out of the tap. So it's not RO water yet but pretty soft and as such a little soap makes a LOT of suds in Flushtone land here.

I suspect that the user complaining of the fog and dust had very hard water. My city water in Ann Arbor was over 400 ppm. I see a very slight amount of white dust on the plastic case of the unit after running it for two days but I don't see this anywhere else in the shop and believe me my computer screens and TVs are all to happy to tell me something is dusty.

I just reread the instructions and the manufacturer says that if you are getting white dust AND you have a salt based water softener use distilled water. If you have a salt based softener and the dust is minimal or nonexistent it is fine to use the tap water. Looks like my softener works better than the reviewer who complained of lots of dust.

If the unit required distilled water I would have never purchased it.

These units use a demineralization cartridge which traps much of the minerals and that was my hope knowing in advance that without RO water here (yet - that's in the plan since I need to reduce my own salt intake...).

So all I can do is keep folks posted over time if anyone is interested. So far so good though.

Oh regarding noise I can't hear it at all in my shop but I can hear it if I stick my head very close to it. So I don't understand the noisy comment either.

Also the ionic silver stick is optional, lasts a year, costs $35 to replace. The claim is that it kills bacteria which was attractive to me and they also claim that it makes the unit easier to clean in that it does not get as dirty. That's attractive to me too.

So yeah if you use this thing fully optioned out there are some costs associated with it. But after struggling with stinky, moldy, germ infested filters for 5 years the trade off is welcome here.

Also my shop is purpose built and a bubble of sorts with R-13 surrounding me except for on one wall and vapor barriers. One I obtain the temps and RH that I want it takes very little to maintain it. I am out of the wind, except for when I eat Mexican food which is often... and again this may be an example of how something works in some places and does not in others.

But man do I wish that someone would make a box that just maintained 45% regardless of the need to dehumidification or humidification.... I would much rather be building than worrying about these things...

[Dennis Leahy]

Thanks, Hesh

Yeah, I couldn't afford to buy distilled water by the gallon, and we have no in-home water softener - but we also don't have well water, which I'm sure would have more minerals. (We have "city water" which probably has less minerals and LOTS more chemicals.) So, I'm thinking that for me, the mineral filter is a must, and it seems silly not to use the silver ion cartridge, because where there is water there is mold, unless you go to extraordinary lengths. I have had to buy 2 of the wicking type sponges in a year, even using the anti-bacterial anti-fungal stuff in the water, so this unit would not be a lot more expensive to run (assuming just one silver cartridge and one mineral filter per winter.)

Dennis

[Hesh1956]

I should have mentioned that the demineralization cartridges according to the manufacturer need to be replaced too on average every 2 months. They sell the silver stick and 3 Demineralization cartridges in what they call an annual kit for about $80. So there are costs here and this the humidifier was $200ish.

So not the least expensive solution but the two things that attracted me to it are NO filters to wash/replace/stink and no germs.

We must be clean.... I'll let folks know if this unit performs as advertised or falls out of favor.

Thanks for looking.