Honeywell QuietCare Cool-Moisture Humidifier, 3-Gallon, HCM-630

Every item has pros and con's. Those change sides depending on such criteria like price. This is one of those items. Pro's: 1. its pretty. 2. its quiet. 3. it has an architecturally pleasing shape. 4. its cheap. Con's: 1. tiny 1 gallon tank [if you are lucky]. 2. They lied about the 2 gallon capacity; that's 2 gallons it can put into the air per day, meaning you have to fill it every few hours. 3. functional design is one of the worst I've seen. 4. Wants you to purchase little balls that keep microbes from growing in the tank [new one required EVERY 30 days; so much for nickel and dimeing you to death]. 5. a filter only lasts one season or less [n&d again].I had a Duracraft for over 10 years before this one. It was an intelligent tower design. The fan was on the back and the water on the front so you can see when its about empty. Not this baby. Tank is on the back so you can't see anything till its empty, which happens a lot.The Duracraft tank was flat on both ends [top and bottom] with handles on EACH end for easy carrying and filling. Set it down in sink or tub, remove the cap, fill, replace cap, turn over and carry by the handle [true 2.3 gal per fill design]. Not this baby. The water tank is CURVED as is the top handle, which becomes the bottom when filling. You can't set it down or it will fall over. Its slick plastic so you stand a good chance of dropping it and breaking it, adding to the n&d expense of this unit. You have to balance the tank in the air with one hand, while trying to operate the sink faucet with the other, then screw on the cap, the turn it over and carry the water tank through your house with the valve down, leaking a bit of water all over and adding to the risk that the whole tank will dump on your new carpet or solid wood floors.Where does the filter go? Why UNDERNEATH the power fan unit of course. There are no built in handles of any kind, and with its sleek Jetson styling, tries to slip out of your hands and smash itself. I swear this unit is suicidal.It is quiet which is appreciated, and the price is cheap, which is also appreciated. But you certainly are not paying one dime for practical functional design with this unit. Oh and now I see up in the corner of this review window that the unit is a "3.0 gallon" unit. That means you will have to fill the tank 3 times a day to feed it. Have fun!Save yourself the money poorly spent, and buy a better designed unit. Go look at them up close and hands on before deciding. Think about filling that slippery tiny tank 3 times a day. Get yourself something this is functional. BTW this thing does indeed humidify the air. Whoo Hoo!24Apr10 Updated this review. The unit almost put me into the hospital. Twice. A year ago I didn't buy the Protec ball units which are supposed to stop the mold. I got really sick for weeks and my dr finally figured out it was mold. I tore my bedroom apart, found the molded wick, sealed it in a plastic bag and threw it out. Disinfected the unit and put it away.A year later I got it out again. Ordered a brand new wick, and 3 of the Protec balls. Each is supposed to last 30 days. I had not used the unit WITH the ball and brand new wick for more than a month. Humidity went up so I ran the unit for several days to dry everything out so the wick would not stay wet. It went completely dry. The unit sat for a month not running. I got sicker than a dog, much worse than the first time. Went to bronchitis and my dr could not stop my wheezing. Almost put me into the hospital. I laid in the bed for 10 days, could not eat, and lost 15#. All the drugs they put me on made me nauseous and dizzy. He asked me about mold and I said it was not possible since I had a brand new wick and used the recommended disinfectant balls. Sure enough. Could not see anything on the wick but I removed it anyway[put it again into a sealed plastic bag, and threw it outside the house in the trash]. Within 2 hours I started to feel better.Honeywell is lucky I don't sue them. This is the worst Chinese crap I've seen in a long time and why they would use a material for the wick that molds easily even with the Protec balls is beyond me. Definitely stay away from this product. It caused me to be sick for over a month now, created large dr bills [each inhaler treatment was $600+], and all for a little water vapor. I won't use anything but a warm mist unit from now on [no wick].

I bought this to use in a fairly sizable master bedroom, because high rise living is surprisingly dry. My boyfriend and I were getting a lot of nasal irritation and coughing, and a smaller humidifier was only helping one of us at a time. This unit has three times the capacity of the humidifier it replaced, and it keeps us feeling much more comfortable.It's advertised to run up to 24 hours, and my best guess is that would be on the "auto" setting. Once you've been running the unit on high for an hour or so, you're supposed to be able to switch to "auto" and it will cycle on and off to maintain that level of humidity. So far, I haven't been able to get that to work. It's not a deal-breaker for me, as we only run the unit at night, but it would probably be convenient and give peace of mind to know that the humidity is staying constant throughout the day.I personally have noticed a big difference in stuffiness and nasal irritation - both are significantly decreased since we started using this humidifier. While it doesn't put out a visible mist, like units I've used in the past, I can tell it's working because I breathe easier and sleep more comfortably. So far, we have not had any issues with excess humidity or condensation. For reference, I set it on the highest moisture output, and the lowest fan setting.As far as the noise level goes, it's rather quiet, especially when it's on the lowest fan setting. Just be aware that it's not completely silent, so if subtle noise bothers you or might keep you from sleeping, you might want to seek out a different solution. I find it to be much like "white noise" and it has something of a lulling effect on me.If the auto setting could just work, I'd give it five stars, because otherwise it is great.

I've been using this humidifier for a couple days now. First thing I noticed is how loud it is. On high speed it's about as loud as a box fan, but with a higher pitch. Medium isn't much quieter, and low is still quite loud to me. Maybe I've been spoiled by my previous humidifier which was an ultrasonic model. It was nearly completely quiet (only heard a slight gurgle of water occasionally). I used that one every night, but due to the loudness of this model I'll probably only use it when necessary.Another thing I wish it had was another handle on the side or bottom of the water container. When I hold it under my bathtub faucet to fill it up it's quite hard to hold since there's no clear place to hold it upside down. The best way I've figured to hold it is to put my hand inside of it and hold it by the same opening the water is going into. This results in a wet hand, but better than dropping the thing.The built in humidity control seems prone to error. After leaving the unit off for some time and the humidity control set at 3 I turn the fan control on, but it thinks the room is humid enough. My hygrometer says it's about 32% humidity in the room, and the previous day the fan turned on at 32% humidity. So I temporarily set the humididy control to 4 then came back and set it to 3 after about 30 minutes. Then the fan stayed on until I turned the humidity control down to about 2. So it appears the sensor is prone to being saturated when air is not flowing through the unit, thus making it think it's more humid in the room than it really is.Other than that, it DOES humidify the air in the room. For example on high speed it increased the humidity of a 400sq ft 72-degree room from 32% to 36% in about an hour. Now only if it could do it more quietly I'd be happier.