Houseware Reviews

The A/C is very quiet. Like a regular fan. You can have it installed in the bedroom and sleep as a baby. 12000 btu. M1203R.
No autoswing. Does not show the room temp.

1) Quiet
2) Quiet
3) Did I mention it's quiet?
4) Drips water from rear constantly - Which is VERY GOOD, takes immense amount of moisture out of the air!
5) Nice air circulation controls.
6) Q U I E T !!!!!

This is an excellent air conditioner all round!

It runs quieter than our other much more expensive Kenmore of the same BTU power (which goes to show brandname and price isn't necessarily always better). It even has a timer which the Kenmore doesn't.

In terms of built-quality, the parts fit perfectly with each other. The inside of the unit appears to be very well made too.

Remote control is a breeze to operate and is strong enough so that you can stick it on a wall and operate it as a wall switch. Other remotes need to be directly pointed at the unit.

Soft-touch panel is easy and intuitive to operate.

Timer feature is really useful for setting it both to turn on when you come back home in the evening or to turn off when you sleep at night.

Filter is easy to remove for cleaning.

If there was ever an improvement to be made on this air conditioner, would be if the airflow vents could be motorized so that it "swings" from left to right automatically. But I guess I'm asking too much on a window unit air conditioner at THIS price range!

I reviewed several air purifiers before purchasing the Hamilton Beach 04160 with UV light unit. With all the misleading information on HEPA fitlers, ionic and electrostatic units on the market it can be hard to find exactly what you need. My son has asthma and we all have air borne allergies. Since installation of the unit, in the family room and bed room, the level of dust has decreased and my son has not had an asthmatic attack either. All air purifiers make noise. I give the level of noise a #2 with #1 being very quite. For the price of the unit, price of replacement parts and the quality of performance Hamilton Beach is the one I selected.

While not the most feature-rich air conditioner (there's nothing electronic whatsoever about the thermostat and fan controls), it certainly gets the job done for cheap.

Cools a single room reasonably, and in multiples of 2 or 3, it can take on most entire apartments.

lite weight, quiet when running, comes with vinyl slide out pannels for left and right sides, easy install in 36 inch wide window opening, plug into any 110 volt outlet, uses about 4 amps, the front pannel below the air outlet folds down on hinges for easy filter access. perfect to cool one room all the time, or keep in garage and use when the central air breaks down on friday and parts aren't available until monday. one cool room is better than no cool room. home depot has it under their housebrand of hampton bay for eighty five dollars with a five year warranty. keep cool.

In need of a humidifier and having read some of the reviews, I decided to purchase the Hamilton Beach Humidifer.
The pros: 1. On the "quiet" setting the water usually lasts 24+ hours before needing a refill.
The cons: 1. The machine is far from quiet on any setting.
2.It humidifies far less square footage than specified, even on the highest setting.
3.It eats filters, which are difficult to find by the way. If you decide to purchase this item, buy several replacement filters.
4.The tank cap is difficult to remove and appears to have been designed for the hands of a small child, but a child with the strength of an adult.
5. It is relatively expensive. I have a warm mist model that works just as well and requires only a bit more attention to maintain.

I have had this humidifier for about two months now and have found the following:

PROS:
1.This humidifier works well for me. I keep it in my bedroom and only use it at night and I like the white noise that the quiet setting gives off.
2. It does a fair job.
3. It has a digital readout (very nice feature).
4. It has a large water tank.
5. It is easy to use.
6. I have not had any mechanical problems with it.

CONS:
1. The filters have to be replaced about once a week, otherwise they get moldy and start to smell (and who wants to breathe in mold?)
2. The filters are WAY too expensive. Amazon sells them for seven bucks and this is the cheapest I have found. This is a lot of money to shell out every week.
3. Filters are hard to find. Not many places carry them.
4. The cap on the water tank is VERY hard to open. It takes forever to get it off.

Bottom line, I would not purchase this humidifier again simply because I hate shelling out 28 bucks every month for filters. Even though the cap is hard to get off, it isn't impossible and its something I can live with. Maybe HB will come out with a filter that can be reused by putting it through the dishwasher or something, but until then I would not recommend purchasing this humidifier unless you have a lot of money to put into buying filters. Even though it works well, it just isn't worth it.

I bought this humidifier a month ago after much research. So far, it hasn't shown any mechanical trouble. The filter is holding up just fine after 4 weeks, despite daily use. Surely the quality of water in your area dictates how frequently you will need to change the filter. Nevertheless, it is recommended that you flip the filter over (to prolong it's life)when you refill the water. In my case, filter change maybe warranted no sooner than 2-3 months.

The large capacity of the water tank is good enough for 24 hour operation (on quiet setting). I use it all day night long on the low setting and it uses up about half the amount of water in the tank. At first the low setting may seem noisy especially if there is very little ambient noise around you (like when you can hear the wall clocks in your house ticking). But after a few minutes it sounds just like a dull whirring sound that is hardly objectionable. I use it in my bedroom at night and it doesn't disturb my sleep.

It is easy to see the level of water through the tinted tank. The water tank is easily removable when handled vertically. There is no leakage/spilling when you do so. There is a wide fill hole at the bottom of tank for refilling water. There are two problems though with refilling ...firstly the tank is too large to fit under the faucet in the kitchen sink, so you need a jug or hose to fill it up or use the faucet in the bathtub...secondly, the cap on the fill hole is pretty tight (the upside is that it is spill-proof) so I wouldn't recommend the unit for feeble people.

The other part of the unit, housing the motor and fan, comes off easily too. I do wish it had a latch, because you need to be careful not to knock it off when removing the water tank. When the water tank is replaced on the base tray, some water from the container fills up the tray, making a gurgling sound. It makes the same tiny gurgling sound periodically during operation too. This water in the tray is taken up gradually by the filter (which sits under the motorized fan), to generate the humidity when the fan is on.

The digital panel is easy to read. I do not however agree with the humidistat's reading. I have another humidistat in the room that I compare the reading to. The humidifier's reading is always lower, usually by 8 to 10 percent. Setting the desired level of humidity is simple although it can be done only in 5 percent increments. The unit shuts of automatically when the desired hunidity level is reached.

The base is easy to lift if the unit needs to be moved. Of course it is much more convenient to do so after removing the heavy water tank. As long as care is taken not to slant the base tray, there is no leakage or spill.

One point to consider if you are paying heating bills in the winter is that, since this IS a cool-mist himidifier, it will make the room cooler. So you may need to turn up the heat in the room a notch.

Overall, I am very satisfied with the unit's performance and recommend it to any able-bodied adult considering a cool-mist humidifier. To sum up, here are the PROS and CONS:

CONS:
1. Water tank is too large to fit under kitchen faucet
2. Cap on fill hole is tight. Some strength required to turn it
3. Humidistat not accurate
4. Motor unit is not securely latched to base tray to prevent accidentally knocking it off when removing water tank.

PROS:
1. Very good performance
2. Low operating sound on quiet setting
3. No leakage or spilling when handled correctly
4. Portable
5. Dishwasher safe; Easy to clean
6. Desired humidity level can be set manually
7. Automatic shut-off when desired humidity reached

PRO/CON depending on whether you live in hot or cold climate: Makes the room cooler.

If you want a humidifier that will continue to suck money out of your pocket - this is the machine for you. In a three month period it has been necessary for me to purchase 8 replacement filters (for 2 humidifiers) due to them drying out. That cost has now exceeded the initial purchase price for the orginal product. I would not recommend this item to anyone!

This humidifier works well and is very quiet for a humidifier. However, here in Texas at least, the filter gets moldy in 3-5 days. So if I kept using it, I'd be spending more than the cost of the humidifer buying filters in less than a month. If there was a filter that could be cleaned and reused, this would be a great humidifier.

This line of humidifiers is unlike others I've seen. They do not emit mist, nor a high level of humidity. They operate by simply allowing the water to evaporate, then blowing it into the air. As a result, the only noise it makes is from a small (but powerfull) fan. I bought it to counter act my dry heater in my New York apartment. I would wake up dry and coughing. When I saw no mist coming from the unit I wondered if it was working at all- but after the first night of use, it proved itself as an indespensible appliance. The humidifier does not over humidify, it is very quiet, and there are no metal / corrosive elements. Filling it is really easy - and cleaning is even easier, unlike other more traditional (and stronger humidity) humidifiers. If you just need to normalize your humidity so the winter months aren't so dry- this is for you. If you want your windows to sweat, and grow banana trees in your bedroom, you won't get enough humidity. Overall, I love the conveniece, humidity level, and the quietness.

It cooled good for the first 4 mos or so then it just quit,the fan started making all kinds of noise,kept freezing up and then just quit. I guess I for got to read the box for 4 month use only.If you are on a low fixed income like I am don't waste your money.(took me 3 months to pay for it in lay-a-way )Now I am back to fans , at least they are cheaper.And work longer then 4 months .

This is not a terrible AC. In fact, I would have given it 5 stars. It has a wonderful power saver mode were it turns off completely and every once in awhile comes on to check if the room has gotten too warm. It cools very well and sends out nice cold air. While operating, it is nice and quiet. All in all, a great choice.... ....except.... EXCEPT. Whenever this machine goes from cooling to just air, the compressor inside gives a HUGE jolt and a very loud and startling BANG! You could never sleep with this thing around. It is scaring the crap out of us regularly and we know exactly what it's going to do, but it's just so loud and so surprising. Yes, the whole thing is very well mounted in place. It's not the machine moving against anything, it's coming from inside the machine itself. Now I know why this was a Gold Box item... Live and learn.

This air-conditioner works wonderfully. I like that I can choose the temperature and not have to think about it again. The temperature setting is accurate and keeps my SE corner apartment living room quite cool. Everything works well and it is easy to install and un-install in the Fall.