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Product Details
- Binding
- Misc.
- Brand
- Air-O-Swiss
- Label
- Air-O-Swiss
- Publisher
- Air-O-Swiss
- Studio
- Air-O-Swiss
- ItemDimensions
- Weight:130
- PackageDimensions
- Height:390
Length:720
Weight:150
Width:640
Editorial Reviews
The Air-O-Swiss Travel Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier 7146 is a high quality travel-size ultrasonic humidifier which is compact enough to take and use anywhere. The efficient ultrasonic technology uses high-frequency vibrations to generate a micro-fine cool mist, which is blown into the room where it evaporates into the air. Just add your own half-liter water bottle, and plug the unit in anywhere in North America or Europe using the included transcontinental travel AC adapter and exchangeable plugs. Stay healthy and be more productive at home, in your dorm room, or at work. Place the AOS 7146 on your desk, in your office, in your hotel room, or anywhere you need quick and easy added moisture.
This unit is tiny, and comes with a power adapter with both US and European plugs and a soft cloth carry bag.
I use it at McMurdo Station, Antarctica where the average humidity is in the single digits. It puts out less water than my full-size Air-O-Swiss unit at home, but a remarkable amount for a unit this size.
The blue light that others have complained about is fairly bright - as most blue LEDs are - but it's no brighter than most night-lights, and hasn't bothered my sleep. The blue light switches to a red light when the water runs out... kind of a nice heads-up feature if you don't have the output set high enough to see the "steam" coming from the spout.
Overall, I wouldn't hesitate to make this purchase again, and I'd replace this unit with the same if needed (unless or until Air-O-Swiss comes out with their own new replacement/upgrade). There are a couple other copies that are less expensive, but I haven't tried them - I went with the quality/service that I trusted at the cost of the higher price tag.
CONs: bottle neck adapter fits into inside of bottle mouth - it is not a 'screw on' adapter. A positive about this is that it'll work with standard sized bottles (supports two sizes) however removal and insertion of adapter into bottle neck is VERY tight. Some plastic bottles are very thin walled. Press fitting the adapter can be problematic as bottle's wall may collapse from applied pressure during insertion. Therefore thicker walled plastic is recommended esp. if/when larger bottle is being used. Seniors with limited hand mobility may also find it difficult to manipulate due to tight fit. NOTE: though unit comes with stabilizing pullout feet, filled bottle is simply inserted into receptor - there is nothing to 'clamp' adapter and bottle to hold it in place ergo care should be taken as bottle can be knocked off unit easily. The water tight adapter will prevent the water escaping from the bottle however weight from falling bottle can/might cause damage to surrounding objects.
WARNing: Due to relative ease with which unit might tip, use of glass bottle is not recommended. Use in child's room may also not be recommended.
SUM: at price point and intended use, pros out weigh cons and therefore worthwhile purchase. Had adapter come with rubber 'O' rings for easier insertion and if adapter could have been clamped in more securely, it would have deserved 5 stars. CONs however only earns it 4 stars IMHO.
I have two full size air-o-swiss ultrasonic humidifiers and a vicks ultrasonic at home. However, this unit is so easy to use and takes up such a tiny bit of space that I have been using it at home as well as traveling. My other big units are just collecting dust in the garage now.
Part of the beauty of this unit is how easy it is to fill - you just use one of your empty water bottles. No big heavy container to lug to the sink and hope you don't spill on the way back. In addition, it is super easy to keep clean because it is so tiny. you just need to brush the small chamber where the ultrasonic membrane is located and it comes with a little cleaning brush. The large humidifiers have so many nooks and crannies that they're a real pain to keep clean. Even those with the ionic silver that supposedly retards microbe growth still get gross inside.
I highly recommend this as both a night time at home and travel humidifier. If you live somewhere dry and need a humidifier 24/7,then perhaps it's not the right one for you. But for intermittant use it is perfect!
NOTE: I first tried the similar unit by sunpentown and it had very poor performance so I returned it for this one. Perhaps I just had a bad unit, but based on that experience I cannot recommend the sunpentown unit despite the similar look and size to this one.Sunpentown SU-1051W Travel-Size Personal Humidifier, White
Cons: Won't work in a large hotel room. Have to keep in the minimum setting or else it soaks the area in front of it. I basically keep it right on the nightstand on the lowest setting.
First off, this product works well. I use it with a 600ml bottle because we didn't have any 500ml bottles, and it worked fine. We generally run it at full steam (no, it's not steam, but you get the idea) for about an hour before bed to pre-humidify the room, then refill the bottle and run it at slightly less than half power. This lets the bottle run most or all of the night. It does keep the room humid enough for our needs--it's a bit big for a standard sized bedroom (well, before the McMansion craze), so in a smaller room it might work even better.
However:
* There is a blue "I'm running" LED. This LED is WAY TOO BRIGHT for something that is to be used while sleeping. Seriously. Most studies sleep studies show that the darker the room the better you sleep. This thing is almost bright enough to read my kindle by.
* As the water runs out the hum gets a little louder and a red light goes on. (the blue goes off). This is really stupid. The machine is smart enough to know when it's running out of water, but not smart enough to just shut itself down (at least IME, the louder buzzing wakes me up and I shut it off). It's kinda like our politicians, smart enough to realize we're in trouble, too in love with their own agendas to do the right thing.
* This is supposed to be a travel device, and I guess the included plugs work where they say they do, but it would have been nice to include an Australian plug. Not that I blame the company for this, it just would have been nice.
To work around the too-bright-light issue I tried to paint it with some of my wife's fingernail polish. I may try another coat or two as the first coat helped a lot. I may also try wrapping the thing in Duct Tape.
Upon operating, I see that it puts out quite a bit of water mist, and it is very quiet. I really can't imagine it being any more quiet. The only issue I confirmed that other reviews have said is that the tiny little LED bulb inside makes the unit glow very bright. I have uploaded some photos of the unit operating in a very dark room, and you can see that it lights up the corner of the room. If you have any issue with anything but near complete darkness when sleeping then this will surely be a problem. I fixed this by simply putting several coats of black acrylic paint on the bulb. I put up photos of a closeup of this as well. (Originally I planned on maybe taking the unit apart and just cutting the wires to the bulb, but there are no screws to be found on the outside.) So, the reason I didn't give this 5 stars is because I had to do this. There really should be an option to turn the light off. I understand that part of the reason it is there is because the light turns red when the water runs out. I really don't see that this is necessary for my use because I only run it for 6-8 hours overnight and running on high it still doesn't run out of water. I just fill it up each night before bed.
On another note, some reviewers complain that it doesn't do much to raise the overall humidity levels in the room. Well, I would say what do you expect from a travel sized unit? That being said, I just set it on my night stand and point it toward the bed. Why would I care if the other side of the room gets humid? My sleep has greatly improved!
If it ever malfunctions in the future I will update this review.
And there seems no tech help out there... anybody?? Thanks in advance
I was surprised by a couple of things. Ignorantly, I'd never seen a cool mist humidifier and I now prefer it. The blue light wasn't small; it lights up the entire spout.
When it worked initially it was great. Went with the large Aquifina bottle for 1.5 days of operation before refill.
Light was ANNOYING! Way too bright.
Bottom line is the product failed to operate in less than 2 weeks and is going back to Amazon for a full refund.
keeping this as clean as I can, I am smelling a mildew type smell coming from the unit after about a months use. The smell is
bad enough that I have stopped using the unit. If anyone has suggestions on how I can remedy this, I would appreciate it.
The light is bright as others have said and may in fact give me nightmares tonight about bluelight specials but Im pretty sure that some advil pm will take care of that issue. Plus, you can see the bubbles and the vapor coming out... kind of trippy and fun if you like that sort of thing.
Overall, unless the thing implodes while I am sleeping, Im pretty happy with it.
Other than the noise, I knocked off a star for a couple additional reasons:
- It doesn't generate enough mist to really humidify a moderately large room. My bedroom is 20'x20' and it simply isn't powerful enough to raise the entire room's humidity to what I'd consider comfortable. The same for a typical hotel room. I ended up putting it on my headboard so the mist falls over me as I sleep. In a hotel I'll put it on the nightstand next to the bed pointing at me; rather than on the dresser.
- At full power it'll empty a 1/2 liter bottle in about 5-6 hours. That isn't enough for a full night's sleep. While the misting does shut off on its own (and the LED turns red), the motor keeps spinning. I was a little worried that might damage the unit long-term since the misting helps cool the water and the unit. I eventually found a larger 1 liter bottle whose mouth fit the cap, but most of the larger-than-1/2-liter bottles I tried didn't fit.
But don't be dissuaded. If you need a portable humidifier for travel, this is a good unit which, while it might not completely humidify the room, will at least take the edge off if you're in a dry climate. Be sure to clean it regularly or some discoloration will build up which doesn't seem to want to scrape off. I use an electric toothbrush with an old bristle head for the base. The included brush is pretty much the only way to clean inside the cap though.
I can't emphasize this enough. Take out the water bottle, empty the remaining water in the device, and let it dry. Done. (If you don't use filtered water, maybe there will be scale you need to clean.) Even if you do need to clean it for whatever reason, all areas are easily accessible.
I was willing to pay 400 bucks for an easily cleanable humidifier. I cannot find one. This is perfect. The output isn't huge, though- it will not humidify a large room- but it's so cheap, purchasing multiples is definitely realistic.
I use a dasani bottle, which I clean out with soap every few days, and brita filtered water, and it works great.
Very happy to be able to leave a good review for something, finally. :)
Cleanup is very simple, there are no filters or anything, and mostly its just about slapping on a new water bottle and you're ready to go. The slide out feet are great and help stabilize the unit when a bottle of water is in it, but for the most part its very well balanced on a flat surface. I like to put the unit on a small towel as running it for hours can leave damp spots which could damage wood.
In addition, it simply looks cool!
UDPATE: Just bought another one of these units for my office. After not using it for one night in my dry brooklyn apartment, I woke up with a sore throat and stuffed nose. Now that I'm using it all the time I feel better and seem to have kicked the winter perma-cold.
This is day two, and the humidity is currently at 26%, which the thermometer says is "OK". It's also still slowly inching its way up, and I'd like it to get to around 34%, but that may be asking too much. Still, a 10% increase in humidity in my 10'x12' office with the door open is pretty good.
I'm using a 20 oz Dasani bottle and tap water which usually lasts about 12-15 hours with the fan set to about 50%. I really like the blue light and the cloud of cool mist that the humidifier puts out. I don't hear anything from the TUH over the fans in my computer, but in a silent room you would probably hear a small amount of fan noise if you were near the unit. Very occasionally there is the small water drop sound or little splash - a pleasant sound which I hardly even notice anymore. Overall the TUH is pretty quiet. I clean off a small amount of accumulated mineral scale with the included scraper/brush about every other month.
The TUH has outlasted two similar units from a different manufacturer that I got at a local drug store (same price). My Air-O-Swiss has been trouble free and attracts a fair amount of attention from co-workers. I know of at least one other person here that has bought one, and she likes hers as well. If yours is DOA or has problems, I'm pretty sure that Amazon will make it good.
I have used larger water bottles with good success. Great for travel. Very compact.
You can see the specs at: [...]
The only con would be the bright blue light while the base is in operation.
The unit is very tiny and sleek. It takes up very little space on my office desk and I set up in 30 seconds without even looking at the instructions.
I could feel the difference of the humidity level in my office within the 1st hour.
The best part is it comes with a European plug and a travel pouch so I can travel with this mini humidifier.
When it is working:
Pros:
1) Relatively quiet
2) Puts out enough moisture to stop nose bleeds and sore throat in a Las Vegas hotel room
3) Small size
Cons:
1) The blue LED is too bright in my opinion
2) When the unit runs out of water, it will sometimes rapidly cycle between running and not running. When this happens, the LED cycles between blue and red. This has woken me up when I forgot to refill the unit before going to bed.
One night of sleeping near this efficient little guy, and I felt like a new person. The good effects seem to last all day: no dry, clenched throat and coughing spells. You wouldn't think it, because all I can see - as soon as I turn it on - is a small puff of very fine mist. (I only turn it on from about the six o'clock to the nine o"clock position).
I'm refilling a strong plastic half-liter bottle from a gallon of distilled water, which is recommended to eliminate mineral dust from the mist. Lasts all night, usually. Seven refills per gallon. There is only one attachment provided for the bottle, and you have to use a little strength to twist it into the bottle opening. Not all small bottle openings are the same size; the instructions specify using a PET bottle. Mine is recyclable #1, "PETE."
The blue light doesn't bother me, I sleep with a night light anyway. You probably wouldn't want it in your face in a dark room, as the light at the bottom of the reservoir lights up half the top of the apparatus. Mine is 4-5 feet away; it doesn't have to be "in your face" to be helpful. It makes watery noises now and then: gurgles, drips, gulps.
It comes with two pull-out feet on the bottle side to hold it steady. The whole affair is plastic, though, and it's my opinion that it skids easily, so I position mine on a small piece of non-skid material. You wouldn't want to tip it over, as the reservoir holds a little water. The bottle is watertight when the fitting is attached, but occasionally drips a little as it's removed from the humidifier. Generally speaking, it's a very quiet, watertight operation. I think you should try it!
Pros:
easy to set up and use
comes with international plugs - no voltage converter or other adapters needed
comes with carrying satchel
light weight
easy to dry and clean for morning luggage packing
Cons:
light might be bright for some (not an issue for me)
seems a bit pricey, but so does a gallon of milk these days
Overall Impression:
It is now a permanent part of the luggage and will go everywhere I do in the future.