Portable Mini Humidifier, 500ml Small Cool Mist Humidifier, USB Personal Desktop Humidifiers for Baby Bedroom Travel Office Home, Auto Shut-Off, 2 Mist Modes, Super Quiet, White

The first one I had of these died on me. The button for power and all the adjustments just stopped working. I also thought it strange that I didn't need to refill or top off the water after a night's usage. Hm...Then I got this one, and OMG, what a difference! It shoots steam like there's no tomorrow, even on the intermittent setting. The button is easy to use and I have to fill the canister every morning, as it uses almost all the water, even on intermittent. The only problem I have, and I had it with the other one, too, is that it's a PAIN to screw back together after you've filled it.

I purchased this for my work desk while recovering from a sinus infection. It worked great! Setting it up was easy. I personally like to wipe down all my products and inspect the interiors. There were no exposed wires and the cotton filter was held in place without falling out. Nothing too cramped, but I worry that I won’t be able to replace the cotton filter, and it would easily grow algae or mold- so watch out for that. After I wiped down the interior with a clorox wipe, I let it dry and filled the bottom resivoir with filtered water, popped the top on and was able to get started! Note that you will need a power block because the cord attached is USB based, and won’t go too far. It’s about a foot and a half, so I could still get it to the wall plug.There is a singular button for power and pulse settings. Personally, I would have preferred two buttons as it’s a bit annoying to cycle through, but it’s such a small device that I don’t mindSpeaking of size, this thing is adorable. Not as tall as a Stanley Cup, but larger than handheld size. It’s surprisingly sturdy for a small item! I expected a cheaper and thinner plastic but I’m comfortable throwing this in my bag with no worriesIt’s also pretty quiet- surprisingly quiet! Granted, it doesn’t give the most intense output so your whole room won’t be super humid. But man, it made it easier to breathe at work!

(Summary: use regular water most of the time, use distilled water occasionally to clean out the system. Barely lasted a year.)UPDATE:After about 2 months of daily use the mist stream weakened, it was less visible and the water reservoir lasted much longer than it did at the beginning. I checked the device out and noticed hard water buildup on the top. I tried to clean it off and I changed the filter with no change in performance. With my old humidifier by the same brand I would occasionally fill it with distilled water just to "clean it out" and I never saw the same problem. Today I filled this one with distilled water and it took a few hours of running the humidifier but the stream is back to normal now. I will probably keep running it with distilled water until it gets sputtery and noisy.So I suggest occasionally running the machine with distilled water to prevent buildup or using distilled water to fix it when buildup weakens performance. It seems there is a balance to find with the water.____________________________This is a great product but using distilled water will make it perform very poorly. Use tap or regular bottled water. The type of water you use will make or break your experience.I bought a different humidifier from this brand in 2022 and the instruction manual for that one explicitly stated not to use distilled water. I tried it both ways and I found that using distilled water made it drippy, noisy and spurt big water drops all over the place, soaking everything. I tried tap water and it ran perfectly.Fast forward to 2024 and I need another humidifier (the old one didn't break, i just threw it out). I saw this one and read all of the reviews and took the chance because it met my needs. I read the instruction manual and since it didn't say anything about distilled water I used it because in my experience with humidifiers, distilled water keeps them cleaner. I tried it for a few days and it was a noisy, sputtering mess that wasn't operating evenly. I remembered my old one and tried normal water and it works like a dream again. Super quiet, smooth operation and no water drops all over the place. Perfect perfect perfect. The humidifier had most of the problems I read about in the reviews until I stopped using distilled water.Other notes:-I like a pitch black room at night and this one has a pin sized red light that's barely noticeable compared to the huge green lights on some machines.-Putting the lid back on can be annoying but you just have to really look at what you're doing. I would still recommend this humidifier if it fits your needs in every other way.-I ended up having to clean candle soot off of the entire body of the product (mine is white) and that meant scrubbing and rinsing the whole thing, even the USB port and button. I knew it was a risk but I let it fully dry USB side down for about three days and it still works perfectly. So if you accidentally get it really wet or need to clean it, there is still hope.