Vornado Evap40 4-Gallon Evaporative Humidifier with Adjustable Humidistat and 3 Speeds

There is really no assembly. After you remove the packaging it is already assembled in the box. Because it is evaporative rather than cool mist, it does a much better job, and no risk of white deposits all over your furniture. Filling is easy, and I have been running it continuously with only the need to fill one of the two tanks daily. It preferentially depletes one tank before starting on the other. There is a fan, so there is some noise, but it’s white noise and I don’t notice it. (Same level of noise as my Honeywell air purifier.) It is twice the size of a cool mist humidifier, so it is about as big as anyone would stand for as a tabletop item. But, being evaporative, it does not need to produce a directed stream, so you can actually put it anywhere and get the health effect you need. My only (minor) issue is that the construction means that all four sides need to be about 6 to 12 inches from a wall in order to permit filling and proper air circulation without having to be constantly moving it. I love this thing.

So far I’m in love with this humidifier. I have a large output cool mist humidifier for my living room, so this one is bought specifically for my large bedroom. These are things that are not great for me, and could be a dealbreaker for some. First of all, the overnight output on low fan is not super great. It’s not bad, it kept me comfortable throughout the night, no stuffy nose due to dryness, so not really a problem for me. It’ll put out more moisture on high or medium fan speed but it’ll be noisy. Second, it makes gurgling sounds when more water is dispensed into the base. This is not a very tiny sound, especially in the middle of a quiet night. It’ll work if most sounds doesn’t bother you at night but you’ll hate it if you’re a light sleeper. I’m a light sleeper, that’s why I noticed and woke up every time it makes that sound, about 4 throughout the night. However it doesn’t bother me much because since I’m a light sleeper, my dog wakes me up in the middle of the night all the time, everyone of her tiny move wakes me up so no big deal, I don’t get grumpy and I fall right back to sleep. Choose carefully according to your sleep patterns.Now on the good side of things. This humidifier by nature incorporates vornado’s air circulator fan, which I actually use with my other cool mist humidifiers. With this humidifier, I only turn on one unit instead of two. It can be set on the floor, unlike my other humidifiers that need a raised flat surface. Lastly, this humidifier is just so easy to disassemble and clean, no tight and small hard to reach areas, and that’s the most important thing for me when it comes to humidifier.Coming from a long time cool mist humidifier user, I’m extremely careful when it comes to cleaning my humidifier. I don’t ever want to see any pink or black, mold or algae in my humidifier. Here’s how I maintain and clean it.I set it up as instructed, plus adding bacteriostat into the water tanks. I pull out the water tanks after each night of use, set them aside, keep the left over water in it if there’s still a lot. Then I remove the top fan part, which is very easy, took the base to my bathroom, dump the left over water in the base, also very easy. I keep everything open and separated, let the base and wicks air dry during day time. At night before bed, I rinse the wicks, put everything back and turn it on again. Took 3 minutes of my time to do all that in the morning and another 3 minutes at night before bed. Every week I clean the water tanks and the base according to the cleaning instructions. You might need to clean them more frequently if you don’t want to use the bacteriostat water additives. I also clean the wicks using white vinegar solution weekly and change them out every month.Yes it’s a lot of work, but the truth is keeping and maintaining a humidifier is a lot of work. Get the cool mist ones if you don’t want to spend more money on the wicks but be prepared to clean it even more.Once again I love this humidifier, highly recommend it. It’s the only humidifier that can be cleaned this easily at this level of performance and at this price point. Also, I’m not sure why so many reviewers say that the water spills every time removing the tanks. I suggest watching some YouTube reviews to learn how to properly remove the water tanks. They never spilled.

I did a lot of research before replacing my 4 year old dead humidifier. I find it very annoying that things are built to fail after the warranty is up. We love our Vornado humidifier. No LEDs to fizzle out after a year. No lugging jugs of water to pour down a spout. This product is easy to use and easy to clean. It is far quieter than our last dud. I love the two large containers that are easy to remove and fill. We have no trouble placing the containers back in, no spilling. It does glug now and then. A non issue for us. The fan is quiet. On the first level I can hardly hear the fan. On the third setting the fan is noticeable but not interfering with the T.V. or conversations. Also the wicks (filters) aren't expensive to replace. This humidifier is far and above our favorite. Love it!

--Background--I have had issues with allergies and a congested nose for years, and the Evap40 has resolved them entirely.I underwent an extensive allergy shot program that significantly reduced my reaction to environmental allergens, had multiple surgeries to reduce my nasal turbinates as well as correct my deviated septum. Despite these treatments, I still continued to have "allergy attack" days where I would be almost entirely incapacitated by constant sneezing and a a runny nose. Benadryl could significantly reduce the symptoms, but would nearly put me to sleep.Eventually, I thought dry air may be causing my symptoms, as my symptoms varied significantly from location to location. After owning the Evap40 for a few months, I can say that it has completely resolved my non-allergic rhinitis. I no longer need tissues on standby at all times, and don't need Benadryl every other day to keep me up. To anyone else with persistent non-allergic rhinitis, consider purchasing a humidifier, it may be dry air in your home that is irritating your nose.--The Evap40--As for the humidifier itself, the Evap40 is an excellent unit. It is comprised of two main sections: the upper half, which houses the fan and the control panel, and the bottom half, which holds the wicks, the two water tanks, and holds the water for the wicks. The unit is easily capable of humidifying my two bedroom apartment on its lowest setting. It is mostly made of plastic, but is well built, and if it is taken care of well, the Evap40 will probably last a very long time.There are two controls on the face of the unit. The right, larger knob controls fan speeds and shuts the unit off. Low is quiet, but you will be able to hear it if it is in your room. At this setting, it is a pleasant white noise and is not distracting. Medium and High are louder than I am comfortable sleeping with, but this isn't a problem if the humidifier is not located in your room. The left, smaller knob sets the desired level of humidity. Once you turn it past 9 o'clock, it keeps the unit on continuously. The time it takes to empty the tanks will vary depending on the ambient humidity level and the fan speed.Cleaning is very simple, I let mine run until it is completely dry, remove the wicks, and wash out the bottom half with soap and water. The tanks I clean briefly with a bleach solution and wash thoroughly before reusing. I boil the water I use in the tanks first.The wicks start to smell quite quickly, due to bacteria or minerals in the water. I use a Bacteriostatic solution from Essick which should slow things down, but it seems unable to prevent the wicks themselves from starting to smell after a 8 gallons or so. To combat bacteria and odors, you can clean them with bleach, which eliminates the odor, and kills any bacteria. By doing this, you can essentially make the wicks last indefinitely, until mechanical wear and tear finally breaks them down, as they fall apart quite easily when wet. Make sure to let the wicks sit in water (I use the boiled water that I use for my tanks to avoid introducing new bacteria) to remove any of the excess bleach afterwards.After the tanks, wicks, and bottom half of the humidifier have been cleaned, you can reassemble the unit.--Final Thoughts--The Evap40 was my first humidifier, and it has met all my expectations. Evaporative humidifiers lack many of the significant downfalls of other types of humidifiers (such as ultrasonic units), are easily maintained, mechanically simple, and work very well. The Evap40's high capacity, robust mechanical parts, and ease-of-cleaning make it an excellent unit for anyone looking for a portable residential humidifier.

Upon purchasing this humidifier, which was based on reviews, my sole purpose was to replace a fully working ultrasonic humidifier which left an awful dust deposit in my home. At 70 years old i got frustrated at having to dust my home every two to three days due to the calcium dust on everything. Those magic blue “pills” that you drop in the tank to prevent the white powder in the ultrasonic proved ineffective. So I purchased this evaporative humidifier which is a similar system to what you can install on your forced air furnace except that it sits on a table. The unit worked ok, as it is a simple system, although it seemed that it could not evaporate enough water, even though the claims are that it can put “up to” four gallons of humidity into the air in 24 hours. For about two weeks of running time the most I could get at most was maybe a gallon per 24 hours. I was disappointed. However, by sheer luck I decided first to fully saturate the evaporative filters and not rely on the so called “wicking” of the water from the tray. This proved to improve but not remedy the lack of moisture evaporated into the air. So I tried to re soak the filters once again only with hot water this time. To my surprise the wicking filters became more plyable almost to the point of falling apart, so I cooled them down with cold water and carefully put them into the humidifier. The hot water caused the filters to collapse as such they are not as thick as when new, but, maybe about half as thick. This helps with the wicking action and now the entire filter wick is wet when in the humidifier where prior to my hot water “treatment “ the filter would be wet only at the bottom third at best. Now my humidifier uses 3 gallons of water per 24 hours. That’s three times as much as before. Sadly there is no information in the owners manual regarding proper setup and lack of output. No mention of pre-soaking the filter wicks.As of right now, week 4, I am generally satisfied with the product although I had to figure it out for proper optimal performance. with the exception of the fan noise when operating the humidifier at maximum output I figured that the noise beats dusting my furniture every three days.My home is 2600 sq feet, split level with average windows and insulation and my humidity was at 30 percent at outdoor temperature of -5 degrees F. When it was 40 degrees F the indoor humidity was at 45 percent which is optimal according to industry standards.Edited 2/19/2024My first evaporator pad change with Vornado brand evaporator pads and I was surprised to find that the replacement pads are thicker and work considerably better than the evaporator pads that came with the unit. I did not need to go through the steps that i mentioned above and I am evaporating about 3 gallons a day.