Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsIt's NOT a console..and that's good!
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2023
I was searching for a nicer looking console humidifier for the whole house and stumbled upon this beauty. It looked, and sounded perfect. The only thing I'm not a fan of is the cleaning every 3 days, but I just do it before refilling. Filling for me is a breeze, as I can roll mine right over to the kitchen sink and fill it with the faucet itself, as it extends just over the counter. So no, it's not as simple and easy as the fill and forget console style humidifiers, but for all the other features it offers..I can live with it. Biggest downfall for me..In trying to figure out what sensor wasn't working (bought 2 more hygrometers to figure this out, besides the one on my ecobee), I've come to the conclusion that this thing would benefit GREATLY by having it synced with the remote sensor Levoit makes for their thermostat. The humidifier sensor on the unit is the only one that reads differently, so it's basically useless, making it difficult to figure out the correct settings for the comfort level I'm looking for in the house. The humidifier has consistently shown (in the app) a temperature 5 degrees lower than the actual temperature, and a good 5% over in humidity from a sensor at the same level, 2 feet away. Keep in mind that the 3000 sq ft they claim, must be for a VERY open floor plan, like 1 room. I have mine by the return vent, and placed properly. As for "initial" quality, it's plastic, but what isn't? The "quality" is in the design, the energy saving DC motor, the pump, and the "smarts". The ONLY area that I might have concern down the road, as far as possible leakage (something we all think about with humidifiers), is the water level indicator window. Again, the biggest improvement Levoit could possibly come out with, is a compatible remote sensor that works WITH the humidifier to more accurately read the room...please?
UPDATE: Less than a month of use, and the filters are spotted with green. NO indication that they need to be cleaned, with 80% life left. I'm wiping the unit with every filling, which is about every 3 days as recommended. Running 24/7 as it's been very cold outside.
I'll be calling today (UPDATE: Called, again..nobody is EVER there to talk with..EVER) to see if the fan short cycling every 10 seconds is normal between low and medium. Set on auto, 50%, it's seems to start the short cycle between 44%-45%, bring the humidity up 1%, then down 1%, before changing the fan speed. Seems a bit chaotic to me. FYI..I've never seen 50% in the house, 41%-42% max..maybe at the unit itself, but not 2' away.
Temp at unit is 5 degrees off consistantly. I suspect it would throw off the auto settings slightly.
So I've come to the conclusion that one should not rely on ANY of the settings on the unit itself. If people are going to make these things "smart", they also need to be accurate, or just keep them dumb. All said, it's doing a good job at keeping the house humidity pretty level @ 41%-42%...set at 50% AUTO.
In the mean time, I have sent an email to Levoit, which you pretty much HAVE to do, and will now wait up to 2 days for a response to my questions.
UPDATE 2: 4 Days later. After emailing as instructed, I'm still waiting for a response from Levoit. Not sure if I'll be keeping a new product with ZERO product support.
UPDATE 2: 6 Days later, I received an email in the middle of the night, and thought I'd share the non- answers to my questions..
Sorry for the late reply due to high volume of emails around this time of the year. (6 days for product support?)
Your experience matters to us. And we would be happy to assist you.
For the humidity readings, it is detected automatically by the sensor located in the aroma box. This sensor is highly sensitive to humidity changes, which would have slight different humidity readings from other hygrometers. We appreciate your understanding. We are also appreciated for your kind suggestion about this. (this does not explain why it gets stuck short cycling between 44-45%, and why have an "auto" at all if your sensor can not get an accurate reading in the environment?)
For the green spots, they are impurities (just "green" impurities..good to know!) filtered by the filter. Then the unit can blow clean moisture out. Rest assured, it is normal. The harder the water (we have near perfect water in my region) is, the more spots there would be. Regarding this, we kindly suggest cleaning the wick filters frequently and using Dry Mode after the unit stops humidifying (good to know..its winter, and will be done "humidifying" in February)
Regarding the fan speed cycling, we would like to let you know that the Auto Mode will adjust the target humidity automatically based on the indoor temperature (which has been stuck on 68 (in the app)since I got it, while I keep my heat at 74-75). Here are the charts showing how it works.(as in the instructions)
To avoid this, we kindly recommend running the unit in Humidity Mode, which would automatically (ummm, auto mode?) run the unit constantly to reach the target humidity you set. (and then?)
Customer satisfaction is always our priority. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We are always here to help. (really?..6 day's later..in an email)
Conclusion..It's nice looking, does the job, and it's quiet! Once contact was made, they were VERY responsive and bent over backwards to make things right. I was also informed that they are working on "optimizing" auto mode (fingers crossed), hopefully making it more accurate with an update so it doesn't leave "smart-ish" people like me scratching their head.
UPDATE 3: Firmware update made AUTO mode COMPLETELY useless. House is kept at 74 degrees. Humidifier (now air conditioner) reads 66-64 degrees, instead of the usual 68, and AUTO mode now kicks it into HIGH gear, with those arctic breezes lowering the temp in my windy TV/dinning room to 69 (as read by external thermostat) degrees, with humidity reading 37.
Why would anyone want to run an AC on HIGH in their home, when it"s 0 degrees outside?!