review – It’s winter and it’s cold. This means the heat is running a lot and the air in our home is drying out. This irritates my skin and makes breathing more difficult, especially when I’m sleeping at night. The solution to this problem is to run a humidifier in the winter, so I’ve been testing a new cool mist humidifier from PARIS RHÔNE.
What is it?
This is a top-fill cool mist humidifier (model PE-AH017) with a capacity of 4 liters. It has four modes (manual, automatic, timer and sleep), allows the addition of essential oils, and has a built-in night light.This humidifier is Paris Rhonewhose goal is to “create products that add convenience to customers’ daily lives and enhance their quality of life.”
What’s in this box?
- humidifier
- User manual with 16 pages of English instructions
- 3 Aromatherapy Pads (1 pre-packed)
- 3 dust sponges (1 pre-installed)
Hardware Specifications
- Fuel tank volume: 4 liters (1.06 gallons)
- Mist output: 100ml/h (low), 200ml/h (medium), 300ml/h (high)
- Full tank time: 14 to 30 hours
- Timer: 1 to 12 hours
- Recommended room size: 107 to 322 square feet
- Noise: less than 28 decibels
- Weight: 3 lbs
- Power: 20W
- Dimensions: 12.5 x 9 x 6 inches
Design and Features
The humidifier has an elongated cylindrical shape. It’s mostly made of matte black plastic. There is a grill pattern on the top and a small nozzle that sprays out the mist. The front has an elegant touch interface and a white LED display. On the edge of the base is a downward glowing night light. At 12.5 inches tall, it takes up some space in the room, but the payoff is that it can run for a long time. Overall, it’s a nice, pleasing design that looks great on my kitchen bar.
installation and setup
The humidifier comes in a rather flimsy box, although inside has custom cardboard liners on the top and bottom to protect it. I took it out of the bag and removed the five pieces of tape that kept the parts from moving in transit. Another long piece of tape warned me to remove the foam pad in the reservoir before the first use, so I did. I also removed a bright yellow warning label reminding me not to put essential oils in the reservoir, not to put the humidifier on the carpet, and that I should clean it once a week.
At this point, I read through the manual. Apart from the very small font, I like this manual. It’s clear, the pictures are well labeled and the layout is easy to understand. To use a humidifier, I need to do two things. First, I removed the tank cap from the top and poured in the water, taking care not to avoid filling it beyond the height of the fog tube. Two, I pressed the power button to turn it on. It’s working!
Performance
Unlike most humidifiers, this one has three parts. At the bottom is the base; it’s powered, it has controls, and it turns water into mist. The middle section is the tank with a tube that transfers water from the base to the outside of the nozzle.
At the top is the lid of the water tank and has a nozzle that can be rotated 360 degrees to direct the mist.
Six capacitive touch controls are located on the bottom of the device:
- The power control turns the humidifier on and off.
- The fog adjustment control sets the output to low, medium or high.
- The timer control sets the timer in one-hour increments.
- Auto Mode Control activates Auto Mode.
- Sleep Mode Control activates sleep mode.
- The night light control can turn the lights on or off.
The humidifier has four operating modes. The standard mode is to simply use the fog adjustment control and specify how much fog should be generated. This is the pattern I use all the time. The PARIS RHÔNE humidifier produces a lot of mist. Up high, the mist shoots about two feet into the air. Despite this height, a pool of water occasionally collects around the counter under the humidifier, which is probably why it warns me not to put it on the carpet. I keep it low or medium most of the time. PARIS RHÔNE says it’s suitable for rooms up to 322 square feet, but I think that way underestimates the capabilities of this humidifier. I use it in the kitchen, it’s in the middle of my single story house, and it easily provides enough humidity for the whole house, over 2000 square feet.
This humidifier has a sensor that detects the humidity in the air; the value is displayed as a percentage on the LED display. In automatic mode, the humidifier will try to keep the humidity level between 60% and 65%. The levels are fixed, but I thought it would be more useful if I could set the levels myself.
Humidity sensor readings must be taken with a grain of salt, as the sensor is located beneath the resulting fog plume. When in the lows, it recorded around 39%, and in the highs it was 69%.Humidity sensor on My Ecobee ThermostatHowever, there was little change, only from 51% to 59%. If you want accurate readings, you will need a separate humidity sensor and keep it away from the humidifier. Even if you don’t have external sensors, that’s okay, because the sensors on your humidifier can give you a rough idea of whether there’s a lot of humidity in the air.
In timer mode, the humidifier will run for a specified number of hours, then turn off. This is not the mode I take advantage of when I run my humidifier nonstop in the winter.
The last mode is sleep mode. In this mode, the display and all LEDs are turned off. While the night light built into the base is subdued, it’s not what I need. This mode is great for sleeping and I use it all the time, especially at night. Thanks to PARIS RHÔNE for realizing that customers don’t always want more light pollution from their gadgets.
This is a “top fill” humidifier, which means I can remove the lid and pour water directly into the tank. I love this super handy feature, I’ll never buy a humidifier again, I have to pick it up, turn it upside down, open a release, and pour water in. I also like that this humidifier has a capacity of 4 liters.I can run it all day without refilling it, it’s twice as fast my last humidifier.
Engineers at PARIS RHÔNE have devised several ways to protect the humidifier motor. If I pick up the tank while the humidifier is running, it stops automatically until I put the tank back. Also, it will stop if the tank runs out of water.
This humidifier isn’t loud — PARIS RHÔNE says it’s under 28 decibels — but it’s not whisper quiet either. In the usual hustle and bustle, I couldn’t hear it at all, but when the house was quiet, I could hear the clear whistling of the motor. Even though it’s in sleep mode, I don’t want to keep it in my bedroom because I’m a light sleeper.
Humidifiers need to be cleaned regularly to avoid the buildup of mold and mildew. The best designs are those that make it easy to clean every part of the humidifier that comes in contact with water. On the one hand, the humidifier of the PARIS RHÔNE has a nice design, because the lid falls off the tank and the tank falls off the tank. Everything is visible. On the other hand, there are several places that are not easy to clean with a cloth, especially at the nozzle and around the moving parts of the base. While the manual says the humidifier can be cleaned with white vinegar or lemonade, in my experience these hard to reach areas require bleach, and I don’t like using bleach, I wish PARIS RHÔNE designed this gadget with less of this kind of place.
Extra features
There is a small tray at the bottom of the humidifier for adding essential oils.I put a few drops Essential oils from Norwex On the white pad, a few minutes later, a faint aroma filled the air. While I’m not a huge fan of essential oils, this system works well and isn’t overwhelming.
At the bottom of the tank, there is a dial that can be rotated from locked to unlocked. There is no explanation in the manual for this function or how I should handle it. I’m not happy with this undocumented “feature” because I don’t know why it exists or what I should do with it.
what do I like
- Large capacity, top-fill tank
- Lots of cool mist coming out of the top
- Stylish capacitive interface
- sleep mode
what would i change
- Allow user to specify auto mode level
- Make parts such as nozzles easier to clean
- Updated manual to include all features of the humidifier
final thoughts
The cool mist humidifier from PARIS RHÔNE has a large capacity water tank that produces a large amount of water mist. After trying four different modes of operation, I found that manually setting it to medium and turning on sleep mode worked best in my house. I only need to refill once a day and clean once a week. On these cold winter days, when the heat is running a lot and my house is drying out, I’m happy to have this humidifier running non-stop. If you’re looking for ways to increase the humidity in your home, I recommend you take a good look at this gadget.
Price: $69.99
where to buy: Amazon
resource: Samples for this review provided by Paris Rhone.
