Vicks Warm Mist Humidifier for Small to Medium Rooms, White

This humidifier exceeded my expectations! It’s very quiet, easy to set up, and works perfectly throughout the night. The mist output is great, and it helps keep the room comfortable without making everything feel damp. I noticed a big difference in the air quality, especially while sleeping. It also has a sleek design that looks nice in any room and is very easy to refill and clean. I’m very happy with this purchase and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a reliable humidifier.

There are some changes to the New Vicks Warm Miist Humidifier vs the Vicks Warm Mist Humidifier from years past. From the off, the mist has a strong metallic smell that is somewhat overwhelming which leaves a silver film that covers everything in its path. This film is not noticeable by the naked eye. I discovered it during routine cleaning a couple of hours after the device was being used. Let me explain. One of the items use frequently is an aluminum baking pan with an attachable coated baking rack. Prior to using the humidifier, I washed the baking pan, made and cooked some biscuits. The humidifier was delivered. I was excited and anxious to get it up and running so I left the kitchen to read the complete instructions to setup my new humidifier. Fun fact: I grew up with, raised a family, with and passed on the Vicks family of products to my families. Long story short, Vicks products is/has been a staple in my life so purchasing the item was a no brainer. Still excited with a huge smile on my face, my new Vicks humidifier was up and running. Spewing a strong stream of warm mist. I immediately noticed the metallic smell which was overwhelming! I immediately vented the area by opening my windows and turned on a floor Fan. This helped elevate some of the smell. Oh, forgot to mention that I live in a small one bedroom apartment. So charming. NOTE: I thought that this metallic smell may have been a due to manufacturing and would dissipate. It did after the second water refill. After dealing with the humidifiers smell, I went back to the kitchen to finish cooking. The biscuits completed baking and was placed in a covered warmer. I stated wiping down my baking pan and noticed a grey film covering my baking pan. My baking pan sat on the counter for while I opened the windows to help with the smell. The biscuits had already been placed in the warmer. I threw them out anyway for safety and made more later. After cleaning the pan, I noticed the same film on my kitchen counter other pieces of furniture. I cleaned everything thoroughly (it was cleaning day anyways). Incentive to deep clean. NOT TURNED OFF BY THIS! COME ON, THIS IS VICKS! Generations of taking care of the world's allergy safely!!! I turned off the humidifier, cleaned the element with vinegar and tried again. Refilled the reservoir, turned it on. No smell. No grey film. Problem solved. PLEASE READ INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USE. EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! TAKE THE TIME! (Not yelling! Emphasizing the importance before use) Before plugging in any newly received device! READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! Next, MY humidifier does not automatically shut off with low water level or any water level. I took a nap while humidifier was on. The reservoir had plenty of water in it and the air was comfortable. I used the high setting so the water dissipated quickly. Whe I woke up the display showed a red light and the reservoir was bone dry. The device was still running. The device did not automatically turn off. When I took my nap, I confidently thought, 'In the event the water level drops significantly, the device would automatically shut off, so no worries'! The device DID NOT AUTOMATICALLY SHUT OFF. Turns out, the automatic turn of is the red indicator light which warns of low water level. I/YOU have to actually turn off and unplug the device then reset the device by letting the device cool down (because of the warm steam feature), refill the reservoir with water, plug it back in and then turn it back on. This is what is considered the automatic shut off and reset. Laughing hysterically! Apologies! I guess actually seeing the low water level isn't sufficient to indicate a water refill is needed. MORE LAUGHTER!! Apologies again. Get this, there is actually the word "reset" on the heating dial. The instructions call it "the reset button". There IS NO RESET BUTTON! So don't waste time looking for one or pressinh the word "reset" on the dial repeatedly!! It is just the word painted/stenciled on the dial. Yes, I pressed the word "reset" repeatedly, as if I would make it so. You can stop Laughing at me now!! Okay keep laughing. So funny! Now to the GOOD BITS. Before I bought my Vicks warm humidifier, I bought an air purifier and cool humidifier (NOT vicks brand, shame on me)! The purifier is actually a nice surprise and works beautifully removing unwanted smells quickly. And once plugged in, after a few seconds (the automatic feature actually works). The device turns on and automatically calculates the configuration and removes unwanted smells quickly. The cool mist DID NOT perform as designed. However, if you lead a calm, stress free life and looking for a change. Get a cool mist humidifier. Your frustration level will soar, giving you the much needed change desired. More Really Good Bits: I SO LOVE this device. In spite of the initial quirks!!! The air is completely free of dryness. I breathe comfortably. I no longer experience dryness in the air, my throat, nasal passages, eyes, fingernail breakage, crunchy hair, dry scalp and more are now nonexistent. Try this device! Buy this device! Take care of this device after purchase and it will love you back! Thanks guys for reading my post! I hope this information is/was helpful for/to you! Katherine

This is a recent purchase but its left quiet a first impression. I have only small experience in humidifiers but none were good. Would buy again but thought I would mention some things. The only feature not mentioned is the auto-shut off, I have not had to see if this feature works because I have never had an empty tank as of yet. Some Points ------ HUMIDIFIER It does its job nicely, on high it pumps out allot of steam, would probably go through an entire tank throughout the night but I keep it on low and it goes through about a half a tank. ------ NOISE It is not a silent machine, while on low it is quiet enough I can sleep with it but on high not so much, though to be honest I could only see one keeping it on high for large rooms or to get the room initially humidifier before putting it on low. If you are one of those people that need perfect soundless sleep, don't plan to keep this on all night. However if you can live with a fan on low while you sleep, you can live with this. ------ POTENTIAL MOLD It was a concern of the owner of the house the humidifier would cause mold, I don't see this being a problem except for maybe if I keep it on 24/7. The humidifier itself isn't too far from both a wall and a bed and neither seemed damp upon touch when I woke up the next morning after leaving it on all night. However the air was a nice humidity so I know it was working. I would not keep this on high for more than an hour or two however in a small room and I would not keep in on low all day. ------ NIGHT LIGHT I read allot of complaints about this night light, maybe its a recent change or just my model but the green light is dim, though that being said I still face it away from the bed. ------ INHALER DISPENSER This...doesn't work, at all, literally. I put both a vicks and there and tried out lavender essential oil and I could not smell neither. Perhaps it works on high but I don't keep this unit on high long because it just gets too humid. This is prolly my biggest complaint with the unit but by no means a deal breaker because I have other electronics that get that job done. ------ MAINTENANCE This is gonna be a touch one to clean simply by the shape of its parts, while they do separate for easier cleaning I can see allot of scrubbing with a toothbrush after a vinegar soak every week this winter. However its kinda the downside of every humidifier.

Long term update: I first bought this humidifier back in 2012. I have run it almost continuously every winter since. It has held up great. I just recently in 2023 bought another and I was VERY happy to see they have not changed a thing since 2012. If something ain't broke, don't fix it. This is a great and simple warm mist humidifier that will crank out warm mist for many years. ----- I think I read every review of every humidifier on Amazon. It seemed like every one of them is destined to leak, burst into flames or turn into a level 3 biohazard. In the end I decided that I agreed with another reviewer and it just made sense to buy one of the cheaper ones and see how it worked out. To start off this review I think I have to let everyone know a little basic biology. Any time there is standing water it is a potential breeding ground for mold, bacteria, etc. This isn't only true in your little Vicks humidifier--it is true everywhere on the planet. If you have ever had a leak behind a wall you know how quickly standing water can turn into a problem and fast. However, there is not an abundant food source in your humidifier so the risk is manageable with some precautions. I'm just going to list them in no real order of importance because they are all important: 1) Don't let water sit in your unit when it is off. This includes the water in the little reservoir below the big tank of water. Yes, empty that out too if you won't be using it for a while. 2) It is much easier to prevent a mold or bacterial overgrowth than it is to clean up once one starts. In fact if you get any serious overgrowth (which can happen to any humidifier) it probably makes sense to just throw it out and start over. 3) Clean the plastic on your unit with a thymol based cleaner. I use Seventh Generation Disinfecting Multi-Surface Cleaner, Lemongrass & Thyme 26 fl oz (786 ml) . It's great. It will leave behind just a tiny bit of thymol on the plastic parts and thymol is a natural germ fighter (derived from thyme). 4) Wash out the tank with bleach regularly. They say a tablespoon but I just pour in a bit of bleach and shake it. 5) Practice getting a good fit of all the pieces. There are, if memory serves, 6 pieces to this that need to all fit together like a Lego set. If you played with Legos as a kid this will be easy. If you didn't, don't panic, take a careful look and make sure you've fit all the parts together right. If you don't it will leak and you will be unhappy. If you feel like taking things apart and putting them back together isn't your thing you must look for a different unit. 6) There are only 2 settings--low and high. Low is really low and high is really high. In my roughly 10x15 bedroom the low setting will raise ambient humidity by about 13% with the door open and by about 20% with the door shut. So if I start at 30% humidity I'll get to 43% with the door open and 50% with the door almost completely closed. Note, I said "almost" completely closed. I find that in my size bedroom low will take the humidity routinely up over 50% if I close the door completely. That is too much moisture. 7) You need to also buy a humidistat. I like P3 P0270 Mold Alert Electronic Thermo-Hygrometer as it is responsive to small changes in the humidity level. Without a hygrometer you'll really have no way of knowing if you need to use high, low or just turn the unit off. Most people should be shooting for between 30-50% humidity. In fact when I get home most nights I don't even need to turn on the humidifier because the level will already be between 30-50%. Lastly on this topic you can't estimate the inside humidity by getting the % from the weather channel. It just doesn't work that way. The humidity inside your home will depend on a lot of factors beyond just what the outside humidity is. Do yourself a favor and get the hygrometer too. 8) Water has stuff in it. Even distilled water has stuff in it. So eventually you are going to have to clean the heating element with vinegar. When you do this it will be helpful to use an old toothbrush to scrub the metal part that heats the water as this will accumulate the most stuff. Also, don't blame Vicks for stuff in your water--talk to your local water department or building owner. 9) Don't ever ever ever use an abrasive pad to clean the plastic. Why? Because abrasive pads will leave tiny little scratches in the surface of the plastic. Those scratches make for a perfect home where bacterial colonies can get established. Only use non-scratch cleaning products to clean the plastic surfaces...nothing abrasive. So yes, that is a lot of rules and guidelines. There is just no easy way to have standing water in your living space. If you are going to attempt it you have to be vigilant and attentive to the care of your Vicks.

I've owned several humidifiers over the years. None last forever and with a warm mist unit after 4-5 years they get pretty skanky and probably should be replaced anyway. The unit is small and stylish as humidifiers go. Does not have an adjustable dial to pick a certain humidity level, but any unit that I had in the past, I've just set the dial on the highest setting and left it there so having a dial is not a necessary option in my opinion. This unit has two settings, low and high. Low is as quiet as any unit I've used. On the high setting it does make a little more noise than any other unit I've owned. It is not obnoxiously loud but if you have it right next to your bed and you are a light sleeper, you'd either want it on low or this may not be the unit for you. Having said that, on the high setting this unit does push out a lot of moisture. There is the possibility it is louder because it pushes out more moisture than other units but I have no way to know for sure. A big plus for me is it is extremely easy to clean. The heating element is easy to get to and shaped in a way so you can easily get to every inch of it to get it clean. Bottom line, for the price this is a great little machine. If it breaks down in 2 years, I'll buy another and if that one breaks down in two years, I'll still have saved money over a more expensive machine that lasts four years. I've never used one more than that long anyway. Save your money and buy this. Water lasts as rated. On high it will last just over 12 hours. On low it lasts much longer. I bought two of them and they are both working great. If either breaks down in less than a year, I'll come back and add to this posting to report the problem. If there are no additional add-on postings here from me. Then the machines are working just fine. ------------------ **Update 10/16/2010** I used two of these last winter to keep my whole house moist. It is worth mentioning that these types of devices are electric hogs. I'm sure it is not just this brand but all warm mist humidifiers are like this. The electric use should be no big surprise as a warm mist humidifier is essentially boiling water the whole time it is turned on, but it would be nice if the manufacture had estimated electric usage on the box. How bad was it? We were running two of these every night at bedtime and turned them off during the day while out of the house. In an average winter month, the electric bill was just as high as it was when running the central AC during the summer. We were running them on high. This winter we will run them on low to see if we get enough humidity and save some money but paying an extra $60-90 a month on electric bills to keep our skin moist throughout the house was a bit much to swallow.

The basic concept of this humidifier is great. Unfortunately, it is also highly impractical and expensive to operate. The first thing to realize is hidden cost. This is a water boiler with a heating element going 24 hours a day. The electricity cost alone of such a device needs to be considered. At 248 watts, this consumes 1kwh every 4 hours. That means if you run it 24 hours a day (as many will in the winter), at a standard cost of 10 center per kwh this unit will cost $18.60 per month to operate. That is almost double the cost of a standard filter-based humidifier of the same size. Then there's the deal-killer: calcium in tap water. This unit has no way to filter calcium and other hard minerals. The heating element isn't buildup-resistant, so it literally bakes minerals onto the heating element, requiring one to either use distilled water, or to take time every day to clean the unit. Few people have that much time, as it requires dismantling the unit and using a brush (not provided) to get down inside the small spots and scrub away what calcium has accumulated. If you don't do this, if you wait say, a week to clean it... the calcium builds up so thickly even straight vinegar won't remove it. My unit lasted about a month and a half before I had to just give up on it, as it got to the point that even with effort the mineral deposit removal became impossible. It was so encrusted that soaking it overnight in vinegar didn't help. If you use distilled water it works great. But this unit can easily go through 2 or 3 gallons of water a day... bringing monthly operating cost to well over 60 to 90 dollars just for water (in addition to sucking down electricity). All in all the unit simply isn't practical. If they had a way to remove the calcium and other minerals from the water, some kind of filter (as my replacement unit has), then it would be great. If they had used a heating method a bit less intense than 240 watts (one would think 100 watts sufficient), it would be less-expensive to operate. But as it is, this is a unit that will either cost a fortune to operation... or is doomed to failure as the calcium and other minerals encrust on the heating element beyond all fixing. I definitely do not recommend this unit. Vicks had a great idea, but didn't bother to address the problems of water contamination and power consumption. The idea of using distilled water is ridiculously expensive, and there's simply no way to keep it clean when using tap water. That they didn't include a cleaning brush is simply inexcusable.

I've had it only a day and my bedroom feels much improved. I have asthma and live in a desert. The air here rarely hits higher than 30% humidity. As of late, it's been closer to 20%, and during the summer it gets at low as 5%. I've had to use my inhaler almost daily due to how taxing it is on my lungs to simply breathe, I get winded just walking across the house, and leaving the house is a big nope. For several months my breathing has gotten worse. I did a lot of research on humidifiers, spoke to my doctor, visited several asthma websites, and went with this particular model. To make cleanup easier, and prevent a lot of problems, I'm using distilled water. Yesterday I set it up and began running it about five hours before bedtime, running it on the lowest setting. By the time I went to bed the air in the room was vastly improved. Over the course of just 12 hours the tank is only half-empty. I don't have a humidity detector in my home to measure the amount I need (45% is ideal for asthma). When I woke up this morning I could feel a difference. Made me want to just stay in there all day. A second identical humidifier is due to arrive any day now. That one will go into my living room. I read over the good and bad reviews before purchasing this. The first one I ordered arrived with a huge crack in the tank, but I was able to return for free and had it replaced with no cost to me. Those who had a damaged model when it arrived: contact Amazon about it. This was taken care of within ten minutes of that conversation (I use the chat option because I can't talk without losing my breath and my voice). I did a full examination of this one before using it, read over the instructions for operating and cleaning. With distilled water this will be very easy to clean because there aren't any minerals that will build up on the heating unit. I went over the motions of cleaning it and found the entire thing very easy to do. Folks who had the water leaking through the dial, you didn't have the tank secured properly. A full examination showed me this little quirk and I was very careful about how I secured it and sealed in the water. The dial does make for a rather bright light, but turn the humidifier at an angle took care of the problem. A tall item in front of the dial would also work. A stack of books, a figurine, just tall and wide enough to cover. The light didn't bother me or my husband. If any problems do develop, I'll do a troubleshoot at home and post the info here. With the manufacturer and Amazon warranty, I'm not too terribly worried. It's an inexpensive model, but with proper care it'll last me a long time. This will be use year-round unless we move somewhere with humidity that meets my needs.

The humidifier I was shipped did not have the larger tank opening and cap as stated in the Product Description section, and as shown in the video on this page. (I'm going to the trouble of writing this review in case anyone else is concerned with those particular features.) I've owned a few of these Vicks warm mist humidifiers over quite a long time, usually 2 at a time, in different rooms, and I will say, in general, they have always been quite good, reliable, and long-lasting. So you won't really go wrong getting one. However, after many years of use, there were a couple of issues that made me want the model that specifically had the wider tank opening and cap as were shown in the video here, and described in the Product Description. All the models I had in the past had the smaller tank opening and cap (as you can just about see in SOME of the product photos here, as well as some customer photos, but NOT in the video.) Because of the small size opening into the tank, there were always parts of the tank I could not wipe out. Sometimes (after long periods of use) a pinkish film accreted in the tank corners and did not disappear with regular cleaning and bleach solution soaking and swishing process. The tanks really needed to be wiped with some pressure, but there was just no way my hand could reach in to access those areas of the tank firmly, nor could I find a brush or tool that was flexible enough to reach the inside corners. Since my hand could not fit inside the tank opening, I could not wipe any corners, really! (I did the best I could, contorting my hand and using chopsticks or spoons to drag a cloth or paper towel around inside, but it wasn't really satisfactory!) Additionally, because of the small opening and inability to wipe them out, the tanks would also take a really long time to fully dry out. If you are not going to use the humidifier for a few days you are supposed to dry it out, or when getting ready to store it at the end of the heating season. It would literally take 3-4 days for the tanks to dry... there was always a small amount of water left at the bottom of the tank that seemed to take forever to dry, no matter how much I would shake it, or try to wipe it with a cloth or paper towel inside, I could not reach it. So when I viewed the video and description shown here, I was delighted because it looked like the V745 now had a wider opening and cap that would solve these problems. (I assumed someone had figured out and designed this improvement.) Unfortunately, when I received the item, however, it had the same old small tank opening and cap. I called the Vicks Humidifer Co. to find out what model was the model with the larger cap, as shown in the video, but apparently both the large cap as shown in the video, and the small cap (as shown in some of the other photos on the page) are all labeled with the same model no. V745, differentiated only by the letters after the model number which simply denote the color of the product. Vicks Customer Service actually did not know whether one was a newer version or what, or even that there was any difference in the tank openings or caps in this model. (Hard to believe that they did not bother to differentiate in any way.) It seems possible, if the small opening is older and if the larger opening is a newer version, that I was simply shipped the older version, because Amazon still had it in stock. Without a different model or product number to differentiate, it seemed impossible to imagine that Amazon would be able to ship me the humidifier I wanted in exchange. (Someone would have had to open the boxes and check the tank opening before shipping until they found one with the wide opening; and that was not realistic to expect!) So I had to return the humidifier. I did appreciate that the return was really easy; I was able to drop it off at the Amazon return center in my local Whole Foods store.) I've ended up purchasing the Vicks Model VWM845, which does have the wider tank opening and cap, (and also has a "scent pad door" which I don't particularly care about and probably won't use much). I was able to get it at the same price as this model due to promotional discounts (at another vendor; it's a lot more here).

excellant product we receive it before the delivery date .same product we got what we order exactly..thank u for u excellant service

Good product. Used it while I have my radiator on and it helps makes the atmosphere soothing and relaxing.

It's getting the job done.

Like how much humidity it puts into the air. Don,t like having to clean calcium build up on heating element.

It's a nice product. Using it in my daughter's room. Working great.