humidifier Oskar, very quiet, large rooms up to 540 sq. ft.

I did a ton of research before I reluctantly bought the Oskar. Fortunately, I didn't read the reviews here on Amazon until I had already placed my order! I'm pretty sure I'd have been dissuaded from buying it had I read the horrible ones from the disappointed folks. First off, what the Oskar is not. It is not a "Cool Mist", AKA Ultrasonic humidifier, that sends a pulse through the water creating a very visible mist that spews into the air. I've owned a few cool-misters, and they all broke after a season or two. They also tended to leave a little bit of rain within a 3-5 foot radius around the device, severely limiting how much you could use it, or where you might place it. Second, it is not a traditional steam humidifier, that you might use to help soothe a cough or something along those lines. I've owned many of these through the years, they work fine, especially for when you have a terrible cough or something like that. Every one was ugly, and noisy. I think they both make the glug-glug sounds as everyone I've owned had a gravity fed water system that was cumbersome and messy. None of these devices lasted more than a couple seasons, and you definitely didn't want to leave them out with your decor! The Oskar is an evaporative humidifier. It doesn't use heat, or ultrasonic waves to distribute the moisture. Instead, it uses two honeycomb filters to absorb the water, and a fan to draw air across, and through them. This produces no visible steam! If you hold your hand over the top of it while it's running, your hand will not get wet! This may be disappointing at first, but when you see that you still have to fill it up twice a day, your realize that it's really pumping a lot of moisture into the air, all while sitting pretty, and silent, in the corner of your room. So far I have spilled zero drops of water with my Oskar. The Base is very sturdy, and somewhat weighty, zinc, I believe. on top of that sits the reservoir. If you don't over-fill it, the filters are in place, and the top is on, it should withstand some bumps, and not spill. Still, the fact that it doesn't spew steam everywhere means I can sit it on a wooden shelf, under a painting, and not worry that I'm going to bump it. Since you can fill it without taking the top off, I simply take my gallon of water right up to it, and fill it up. No spills. What I love most about it is that it doesn't over humidify. I can let it run constantly and my windows don't fog up. Theres no light misting all around on the floor. What I hate about it, is the cost of ownership. The filters are not supposed to last very long, and of course, It's pricey!

This product is great. Every year I end up purchasing a new humidifier and this is the first one I will not be quickly replacing. It’s nearly silent, eliminated my morning dry sinus/dry skin, and looks great. I also appreciate you can turn off all lights on the product, so it doesn’t annoy me when I sleep. It’s clear this product was not a copy/paste of basic humidifiers, but a thoughtfully designed product meant to be durable and effective - that includes appropriate materials, ease of use, size/design, and mechanical quality. Its great value for the money in my opinion. Usually I buy Dyson products, but I may switch to buying this companies products next time I have a need.

UPDATE AFTER 1 YEAR - JAN '16 I am going to return or sell my humidifier as (mentioned in my original review below) it is simply not very good at humidifying. I live in NYC and humidity levels go down to 18-19% when it's cold. I would have the Oskar run in my room (approx. 14x8 feet) starting at 5pm, the entire night until 7am. Humidity levels hardly reach 35%. Not worth all the effort in my honest opinion. I use a professional hygrometer. I feel like people posting the positive reviews rely on the hygrometer that is supposed to be integrated - but in fact is completely off. Disappointed in this product! Form over function. ---------------------------------------- Original Review: I just purchased the Oscar White humidifier and tested it yesterday for the first time. I want to caveat this is my first humidifier so I can't really compare to other more traditional ones. I chose this product because of the design and its simple function. I am not a big fan of the other hot and ultrasonic models with visible steam and the possibility of getting white dust. I am very happy with the looks and quiet operation of the product. The negative side is that in my experience the built-in hygrostat is not accurate at all. Yesterday my room had a 25% relative humidity, and when I started using the Oscar it quickly reached a 33% level. However while the Oscar was set at the 55% desired humidity level, it already shut off automatically, indicating that level was reached. That is a difference of TWENTY percent. My room is aprox 120 square feet and the temperature aprox 67 degrees. Therefor I just set the Oscar to the "always on" level and set the fan speed to maximum. Last night my room reached a humidity level of 41% at the same temperature of 67 degrees, I didn't seem to be able to go beyond that. I can live with that but am somewhat disappointed the humidity doesn't go any further, towards 50%. I will report back if the humidity goes up in any further in the future. Also worth noting, because of the lack of a built-in timer I use an external timer on the socket. If you do this, the humidifier will shut on on the maximum (always on) level, and the lower fan speed - so not necessarily the setting you had set it to last time. This is fine for me but good to know beforehand if you plan to use a timer! I would still recommend this product to someone who simply wants to keep humidity levels at an acceptable level and is looking for a device that blends in with your interior.

We've tried a number of different humdifiers for our daughter's room. Most of them are loud, spew white dust (hard water here), are difficult to fill, and don't automatically shut off. The Oskar, while more expensive than many others, addresses all of those concerns. Pro's -It's amazingly quiet -You can fill it without taking it apart -You can turn down the blue LEDs -Doesn't fill the room with white dust -Unlike another reviewer, I thought it was pretty easy to see the fill line (but that could be my room's lighting) -Stylish! Cons -Spendy -It's lightweight plastic, which isn't immediately apparent from the pictures. Not a major con, but I though it would be more substantial. Overall, it's amazing. So much so that I bought another one today.

Love this little guy! Super quiet, easy to use, easy to clean. Doesn't give me quite the humidity I need but I live in Colorado where the humidity averages below 20%. Makes for pleasant summers but winters are hard on the respiratory system. Keeps my bedroom around 40% running wide open. Will be getting the larger model for the living room so hopefully that will help. I have extremely hard water so the filters are clogging up fast. Oskar is evaporating 2 gallons of water a day so I opted to purchase a table top water distiller for it and an in home oxygen concentrator. It will pay for itself in about 6 months. The filters are $20 for a set and distilled water is $1 a gallon. No brainer. Oskar is a medium weight plastic, sturdy, well built, attractive, looks like art. Would have to bump it pretty hard to make it spill. I found the controls easy to use not flimsy at all. The led's cast a dim and pleasant blue glow on the wall. The only cons are the price and it could have a couple more features. For $160 it should have all the bells and whistles the higher end ultrasonics do. But, evaporative humidifiers are hard to find and the absence of the white dust more than compensates for the high price for me. Update: after 4 months of continuous use the fan motor on my Oskar burned out. Not happy. I still love the unit, as it has performed it's function adequately. Not looking forward to dealing with the hassle of packing and shipping it for warranty work after 4 MONTHS use. A single season. I also have to pay for the shipping. If I hadn't paid 160.00 for it, I'd chuck it in the trash. An evaporative humidifier has one moving part. The fan. That's the only thing that has to work. Downgrading the rating to a one for now. If the manufacturer honors their warranty with a new unit, I'll reconsider that rating.

This is over priced. However, only humidifier with this excellent ratings and very easy side fill. A funnel pops out from the side (and left open for my father who can't be bothered). A slim window lets me see the water level. All kinds of useless lights that must be turned off for sleeping (this function is included). Fan is noiseless. Some of the money went into sturdy housing and a good motor/fan. The wick is ok on price, but I think I'll look for better values. Smaller or larger (which can be cut to size). The silver antibacterial is over priced, but liquid bacteriostat or alternative silver product that computer builders use on a water cooler can be found at fraction of this cost. My parents refill the used water bottles and keep them in a bucket for easy filling. If it remains slime free and quiet into the future, I'd buy this instead of Air o swiss. edit 2/18/15: It's disappointing to find rust in the silver cube for the one I bought for my parents (about 2 months ago?). It must be silver coated steel. I am buying the silver from either air o swiss or computer parts. Demote one star. 3/5/15: Inside the silver mesh tube is a stainless rod (magnet won't stick). It must be very low quality stainless. Rust started there. I would not continue using it. It may damage electric contact points. I will try the customer service, and review its service. 3/7/15: Just checked the underside of the fan housing and it is dustless (eye sight good not perfect) to my satisfaction. Didn't measure anything, but the wick seems to be filtering the dust as well. Kudos to Oskar engineering. Air-o-swiss silver is no longer in market. Not even after market. I am using combination of silver mesh I removed from its cube and the rod and another silver called Kill Coil that the computer users are using with good review. Losing faith (faith is the word) with Oskar silver. First unit came with mesh that felt like a metal. Second unit had a mesh that felt like fabric. Silver infused fabric, or a fake? Record shows the first unit sold by R&B Distributors and second unit is sold by Good Life Sales. Initial search is all Good Life, now. "Other" seller search shows R&B. I guess I was naive about what gets shown on Amazon search. Even if silver is genuine, Good Life may be paying more for primary display rights. For the money paid for this item, Oskar's manufacturer (Stadler Form?) should give a public explanation of its silver and if it made any changes. This no explanation is irritating. After this winter, I plan to remove Oskar silver and just use Kill Coil. I think the rust is from interaction between the silver and stainless rod, facilitated by electric current running through the water. This may be the result of too much engineering. The dry condition red light is convenient, but it may be causing this corrosive condition (electrolysis?). 4/17/15: Used it over winter (NJ and especially long dry winter season) with 2 Stadler silver mesh (one is metal and another is fabric) and Kill Coil. Did not clean over the season. Room is baseboard heating and wood floor. Not much dust in the wick, almost no dust on fan housing or blades and no slimy feel anywhere in the water container. I think the Oskar is about the best humidifier for its quiet fan and simplicity in use (adding 1 star). I may continue to buy its wick, but definitely not the silver. Fan setting at 2 lights and humidity setting at 3-4 lights. During weekends, 2 fills. 1 fill lasts through the late evening and sleep.

I've now had this humidifier through two winter seasons, and am very pleased. The styling is simple and unobtrusive, making it easy to place. Other designs often look like space age toys, crying, "look at me." I particularly like that water can be added to the Stadler without shutting it down. As has been pointed out, the hygrometer control is not very accurate, but I've found this to be the case with 3 other brands that I own and use, all more expensive ultrasonic versions. I expect it is a challenge to design a device that produces water vapor while also controlling output based based on a hygrometer within the same device. The problem is the close proximity of measurement and vapor production, where natural convection currents cause a widely varying humidity near the humidifier. Trial and error is required to find the right humidity setting. In most cases, including mine, during colder winter months the humidifier runs constantly due the low relative humidity of winter air, and the space being a little too large for the device. I store the humidifiers during the summer, when local humidity is confortable for me.

Great humdifier for small spaces. Pros: Very quiet Actually humidifies the bedroom Lights can be dimmed or even turned off Easy to fill Easy to see the level of water when filling Level of humidity can be adjusted Nice clean design Can get in black or white (we have one of each) Cons: Only for small spaces (we have one in each bedroom) We have one of the old design and one of the new design, which allows the top grate to be removed to clean the interior of the machine. Otherwise, the units are identical. Being able to clean the fan area made this new design a five star. The main area which is the water reserve in very easy to clean in either unit.

this item has helped us with our sinus problems and dry eyes, it also removes smells from our solid fuel fires, I would recormend this item and have already done so to friends and family.

Recommemd both the item and this seller. The device design is excellent and very stylish - looks good in the room. Recommend this seller for good service and aftercare.

Super cichy i bierze bardzo malutko prądu.

Broken after 2 weeks

Diese Lüfter sind ein Traum! Sehr, sehr leise, hab schön öfter geschaut, ob er überhaupt noch läuft, weil man ihn so gar nicht nicht hört. Die gewünschte Luftfeuchtigkeit lässt sich einstellen, die Beleuchtung am Gerät kann man auch ausschalten. So kann "Oskar" auch im Schlafzimmer für ein gutes Klima sorgen, ohne dass man irgendwann mitten in der Nacht genervt aufsteht um ihn doch auszuschalten. Vielen, vielen Dank für diese beiden tollen Maschinchen!!!