Venta LW44 Air Humidifier and Purifier All-in-one
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Venta LW44 Air Humidifier and Purifier All-in-one
Customer Review: Expensive, but very quiet and effective
Summary: 4 Stars
Having used a Venta humidifier in Germany several years ago, I was delighted to see that they are selling in the U.S. now as well. I had a case of sticker shock though, as they are now much more expensive than their older models used to be, but since I used to be very happy with them, I decided to go ahead and buy one anyway.
All Venta humidifiers belong to the class of cool mist humidifiers, which in my opinion is the best principle, as you don't "over-humidify" the room. Normally a cool mist humidifier has a filter that sucks up water from the tank and a fan blows air through the filter. Thus the water evaporates into the air and increases its humidity.
The difference in the Venta humidifier is that it doesn't use filters, but two arrays of plastic disks that rotate through the water. A fan on top of the device sucks suckes air through those disk arrays and the water drops that were lifted up from the tank evaporate.
One of my major gripes with other cool mist humidifiers is that the fan is very noisy even on the lowest setting. The Venta fan is pleasantly quiet. I keep the device in my bedroom at night on the lowest fan speed and I don't notice the fan at all.
While it is true that you won't have to replace filters every few months, you WILL need to replace the water treatment additive at every cleaning cycle (usually 10-14 days), so there ARE some maintenance costs. The LW44 comes with two fillings of the additive, afterwards you have to spent about USD 16-18 for a bottle of the water treatment which will last for 12 cleaning cycles (4-6 months). Venta also sells a cleaning solution, but according to their manual you won't need it in most cases. In any case the cleaning solution costs about $10 and is only good for one cleaning, so using it frequently will really drive the maintenance costs up.
All in all this is indeed the best humidifier that I ever had. I'm not giving it five stars, because I still think the price is outrageously high.
Customer Review: Good but you don't need their additive!
Summary: 4 Stars
It works as expected with a modicum of care, but its retail price is rather high. However, I have found that I do not need to buy the expensive additive they sell. Instead once or twice a week I dump it our, wipe the inside of the tank, refill it with water and put just a very tiny amount of hand dish washing detergent in with the water. The big advantage for me of using cheap dish detergent is that I can dump it frequently without buying lots of their expensive additive, so it never gets very dirty.
Their additive contains "surfactants" they say, but so does any detergent. Simple physics, actually: without a little surfactant water tends to bead-up on the plastic disks without wetting them as it should -- but the surfactants found in Joy dish detergent do the job equally well. Only trick is be careful to use MUCH less dish detergent than you would to wash dishes, because you do not want suds! Also, ONLY add detergent after dumping, not when just adding water because detergent doesn't evaporate.
In three winters of use the only problem I've had with mine was a small crack on the upper housing which I fixed with tape and it still works OK.
Unlike some users I've never seen much dirt accumulation in the water, because I live in a modern condo so my air has very little dust in it. And because I dump the tank at least once a week, I've not seen that much accumulation of mineral deposits either.
Customer Review: Great low tech - weird pricing strategy
Summary: 4 Stars
This humdifiyer does what it says: it humidifies the air in an adequately sized room to 40-60%. I bought this one for my bedroom to ease the dryness in the New England winter air and it works wonders. It puts up to 3 gallons of water into my bedroom air per day without any water condensation on my windows and walls. The fan is quiet for my standards. The only thing I found annoying is that the mechanism that rotates the discs moves the whole disc array around in the base which makes a silent but ennerving sound that kept me awake for a night. I solved the problem with two rubber bands wrapped around the disc holds. This works great, but I don't think you should have to do such tweaking on a $320 product. A simple 10c o-ring on each side would completely take care of this. For the money I invested I would expect a much better built quality overall. I guess the high price reflects the 10-year warranty the manufacturer gives, which is pretty exceptional these days. Why this thing won the "red dot design award" is completely obscure to me. Maybe this award is for products being asthetically offensive? But I don't care for the looks. All I wanted was humid air in my bedroom without the noisy bubble and condensation of a steamer or the health hazards of a sonicator. I got it - I'm happy.Customer Review: High quality humidifier, exceptionally easy to operate and maintain.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Venta LW44 Air Humidifier is as advertised.
First, it is exceptionally easy to set up, operate, and maintain. It took me less than five minutes to take the humidifier out of the box and place it in position in the front hall. Another couple of minutes were spent reading the few directions that tell you to add the cleansing ingredient included in the box to the water to make sure the fans function effectively. I filled up the tank, turned on the machine, and walked away.
Second, daily maintenance is a snap. I take off the cover in the morning and evening and fill the machine to capacity, put the top on, and walk away. At the end of almost two weeks I brought the machine to the sink, emptied it, rinsed and wiped it out, filled it, added cleaner, placed it back in position, and turned it on again. This might have taken five minutes or so.
Third, the machine quietly puts a couple of gallons of water each day into the air. The Venta is exceptionally quiet and extremely effective. I'm not sure how much cleaner the air is, but we are no longer sneezing from breathing dry, dusty air.
Summary, the Venta LW44 is exceptionally easy to set up, operate, and maintain. The technology of rotating disks works as advertised to add moisture to a dry environment. The air seems to be cleaner, but I can't attest to the extent or degree of improvement beyond saying that we are breathing easier.
Others have discussed the high price of this machine, but if it lasts ten years as advertised, it is well worth the purchase price. Cleaning solution is a modest cost I am willing to pay to keep the machine running effectively. Highly recommended.
Customer Review: Holy Mother of God!!! $439??? and for what?!
Summary: 2 Stars
Well, this is quite unbelievable. Have you seen this thing? It is one hysterical piece of engineering - just a small and noisy fan spinning over two sets of plastic disks that slowly rotate inside a water tank. If you think you can skim on water additives, you're wrong. Without those additives, the discs won't even rotate.
Also, the piece is as attractive and as elegant as a German WWI tank. Think of a car battery prominently featured in your living room. Now, try to find ways of making it blend with the rest of the room. And have I mentioned how noisy this thing is? It generates as much noise as a small fan - oh, well... it IS a small fan, that's the whole point. Nothing about this machine screams, "I am worth half a grand!" I'd say, 50 bucks tops; as for the "good looks" - $30 in Kmart. Oh, by the way... I bought it in "Bed, Bath, and Beyond." I had to return the item and get a replacement; all the insides are made of flimsy materials that break easily. So when I unpacked the original unit, and a few plastic parts fell out, I returned it to the store for exchange. The odd part was that the store manager and I went over several of them, and the three out of the four items we inspected were damaged. AND THEY COME DIRECTLY FROM DEUTSCHLAND!!!
So if you think that your 30-bucks steam humidifier is dreck because you need to spend time cleaning it with vinegar, think again. In fact, it takes about half an hour to clean this thing. The humidity output is less then that of a typical steam humidifier; again, the engineering is at fault: the fan sucks in the humidifier air faster then it can leave the unit's area. If you still want to buy it, think again.