For two seasons I was in charge of deciding which humidifiers to buy residents at McMurdo station in Antarctica. So I've researched A LOT and I've had a lot of experiences with humidifiers. I worked in the housing office and it was my job to give these out to residents and collect them and clean them and make them ready for new residents (people live in dorms for approx. 3-13 months so there's constant turn over). There had been previous brands used before so we had a wide variety of humidifiers floating around the station. So I've handled a lot of humidifiers and seen all sorts of ways people have managed to eff them up. For the price these were the best. Are there nicer humidifiers? Definitely. Are they really expensive? Heck yes. Were they worth the extra cost? I'm not sure. Residents would probably have said yes. I personally would have said no since cleaning them ended up falling on me and these were always the easiest to clean and salvage.
When I stopped deploying I started researching which humidifier I wanted to buy for myself and I kept coming back to this one. I live in CO so it gets pretty dry. I figured at that point in time they had to have come up with some upgrades. But... it didn't seem that way. I found some that were better, but they were also well above my budget. So this is also my own personal humidifier.
If you're having trouble with your humidifier it could very well be a "PEBCAK" of sorts (but not on a computer obvs). Seriously, the problem is most likely you. I had residents return this machine to me completely coated in mineral deposits and gummed up with essential oils and run around the clock until it stopped working. After some cleaning (and some cursing) I was able to get most of the humidifiers returned to me in this state working again. I wasn't able to save all and had some casualties, but it was the least with these machines compared to the other types we had on station.
You really do need to clean it. You need to clean any humidifier you get. Sorry. That's just the nature of it. Want to decrease the cleaning? Only use distilled water in it. Are you going to do that? Probably not. I most certainly wouldn't. But, even if you do put in that extra effort, you're still going to have to clean it occasionally. For reals people, just follow the instructions and soak the heating element in distilled white vinegar. Be an adult. And if you aren't going to do that then stop whining that it breaks. You're car won't run without occasional maintenance, you can't keep going without some basic health and hygiene, your home doesn't stay clean without you actually cleaning it, a humidifier isn't any different.
Now, after ranting a bit, I have noticed a few things about this humidifier. First, if you don't turn it off before removing the tank to refill it it will stop working and you'll have to deep clean it after each use. In other words, when the tank gets empty make sure you flip the switch to off then remove the tank and refill. If you leave it on something seems to happen and when you put the refilled tank back on it will still register as out of water and won't turn back on until you deep clean it. No clue why. I'm not an engineer. So that's pretty simple to keep in mind, remember to turn off before removing tank.
Also, if you follow some cleaning guides online you might end up with melted plastic in the tank like I did. Some recommend putting tea tree oil inside to disinfect (or other essential oils). While that might work for some people it melted the plastic on the inside of my tank. Is this the humidifiers fault? Absolutely not. I included a pic of what it did (that's not hard mineral deposits, it's the actual plastic that's been warped). I knew some essential oils could ruin plastic (citrus oils especially) but I trusted whatever blog I had stumbled across and did it anyway. So learn from my stupidity and just stick to distilled white vinegar to remove hard mineral deposits.
If you really truly feel it needs to be disinfected more use a small amount of bleach diluted in cool water. Hot water decreases the efficiency of bleach. And never mix anything in with it (especially vinegar, so rinse super duper well if you've just used vinegar in it). Bleach and water only and always! Otherwise you subjecting yourself to some pretty nasty gases. Also, use less bleach than you think. The recommended about is 2 tsp per 1 gallon. That's very little bleach. Most people will dump in a cup or more. You're just wasting bleach though if you do that.
So, the basics of cleaning any humidifier crazy well is to soak it with distilled white vinegar overnight to remove hard mineral deposits (following the manual for where to apply vinegar). Scrub off deposits with a soft sponge, brush, toothbrush, and/or qtips. Rinse until you're positive the vinegar is gone. This is where I usually stop, but if you want it to be extra sterile make a bleach solution and soak it in that for a short time (again only put the liquid where the manual directs). Rinse really super well once again until you're positive the bleach is gone. Let it air dry completely. Then you're ready to store it until next season or run it!
Next I want to talk about the medicine cup. That's one of my favorite parts of this machine! Most humidifiers in this price range don't come with that. This one is intended for medicine though (Vicks humidifier additive for example), not essential oils. However, that being said, many residents who used our humidifiers were determined to use essential oils at any cost and if there wasn't a place to put oils they'd put them in the humidifier tank itself. Don't do that! Ever! First, like I said earlier, you run the risk of damaging the plastic inside the tank. Second, it's going to ruin and break your machine. Humidifiers are designed to evaporate water and nothing else. So if you're determined to use your humidifier as a diffuser then please buy a humidifier like this one that has a medicine cup and just put the oils in the medicine cup. It'll get gunky, but that's loads better than ruining the machine itself. Plus it's possible to still clean the cup, even if used incorrectly.
You can soak the plastic piece with the cup in vinegar and that'll help a wee bit but you'll most likely need something that can really cut through the oil residue. Dish soap (that's intended to cut grease) will work very well if you make sure to clean the cup out regularly. However if you leave oil in it and/or use it for long periods without cleaning and it gets really bad you'll probably want to spring for an actual degreasing agent (G510 was what we used on station, but it's only available commercially). I'd recommend buying an oven cleaner (they also de-scum bathtubs really well!). Just make sure whichever one you pick is safe to use on plastics. Spray a little in the cup and the greasy oily residue should dissolve almost magically. Rinse really well, continue with your vinegar soak for the heating element and tank (and bleach if you want) and then call it good!
All in all, this is a great and cheap machine. It has a lot of features that many equally priced humidifiers don't. If you love it it will love you back. And I know this because I've seen how many unloving people have treated many kinds of humidifiers. The golden rule applies to your belongings just as well as it does to people.

Noise level I give that a four out of five is what Sambor I give that a four out of five easy to use I give that a five out of five, but here's the catch they put a handle on the bottom of the Reservoir a few inches away from the whole area where you unscrew the lid and fill it up Some people can put it on some people it takes about 1020 minutes to do that I'm just confused on why you would need the handle at the bottom of the unit would it make more sense to have it on the top of the unit?

Living in very dry area, this unit met my needs and expectations for keeping moisture in room air. Best part is auto-shutoff for when I am delayed at work...

I was constantly waking up with a sore throat and dry mouth until I purchased this machine and a hygrometer (a fancy word for humidity meter) to go along with it. My bedroom has been dropping to 20% humidity each night before this humidifier. Realizing that my room was so dry, I started running the humidifier anytime that I'm in my bedroom. Within an hour, of cranking the humidifier on the highest setting, the room reaches a very comfortable 40% humidity. Anywhere between 30-50% humidity is a comfortable range so I try and keep the humidity right in the middle. I am no longer waking up to a sore throat or dry mouth after using this humidifier.

-- Water Quality --
I've heard many different issues with humidifiers depending on the quality of water used to fill it. Over time, the minerals and other particles in the water will deposit in the humidifier itself. This isn't going to be a fun time. Buying distilled water will solve this problem. However, that's expensive. Personally, I filter my water with a simple Brita filter before putting it in the tank. Filtering the water will prolong the life of this device substantially because the water will have less unwanted minerals and particles.

-- Energy Bill --
I decided to test this device with a wattmeter and figure out how much this machine costs me to run each day. The below results are based on a KWh costing $0.12.

Off: 0 Watts
Low: 130 Watts
High: 260 Watts

Cost of Low for 8 hours for one day: $0.12
Cost of High for 8 hours for one day: $0.25

Cost of Low for 8 hours everyday for a month: $3.74
Cost of High for 8 hours everyday for a month: $7.49

-- Sources --
I am very close to graduating with my bachelor's degree in Computer Science & Computer Engineering. I am obviously avoiding homework by creating this review. :)

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Sept 5th, 2015 Update

I've noticed that my unit had a large amount of scale buildup in the heating element after using this over the winter months. Here's what I did to solve this:
- Soak a paper towel in white vinegar
- Place the soaked paper towel over the heating element and let it sit overnight
- Use an old toothbrush, or a toothbrush found at your nearest cheap store to clean the scaling off. **DO NOT USE ANYTHING SHARP**
- Repeat the soaking and scrubbing technique until clear. For me, it took 3 days.
- It's highly important that the heating element doesn't get scratched so please only use a soft toothbrush.

On High the unit tends pumps out humidity at a rate of 3 times the rate of low for only double the power. After I discovered this, I never ran this unit on low ever again as it is a pure waste of dollars spend on electricity.

Edit Nov 14 2020
In working with this unit again, I realized I had not taken it completely apart. To get to the heating element, you first need to remove the "tower" from which the steam comes out, by releasing the lock at the base. Under that, there is another second piece with another grid, that pulls out, again releasing the lock. I needed pliers to carefully pull up it, while holding the release to the right side. I soaked everything in vinegar overnight. But underneath the second piece, there is a third piece, a smaller round tube that I didn't know came off just by pulling straight up. Once it was off, the scale around the heating element was easy to remove, and the humidifier is working fine now. The problem was, that the scale around the element made it think it had gone dry of water, and activated the auto shut off. I will try to be more diligent in cleaning the unit with vinegar every few weeks as well.
Thanks to the Seller/Manufacturer for your Reply, but I think it will be fine now. I increased the review from 2 to 4 stars. It would have 5 if the design was a bit easier to take apart and clean compared to others I have owned.
I think I've had at least 5, maybe 6 or 7, of these warm mist humidifiers. Some were Honeywell, and some were Sunbeam. They've all worked fine for several years, until the heating element finally burnt out, possibly due to the years of getting scale deposits and soaking in vinegar every month or so. I realize had this been weekly, I might have gotten more use, this is my fault.
I think my luck has finally run out, tho, with this one. It has a different design than the others, which were more round. A few weeks after I got it, from time to time it started shutting off anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours of being turned on, all with plenty of water still in the tank. The orange light comes on as if it thinks it has run out of water. You can turn it off, then on again, it will run for a random time, and then it often reoccurs. I think I've only been able to use up a full tank half the time without this happening. I have been struggling with it ever since I got it almost a year ago, going through periods of not using it, monkeying around with it, and trying it again. Still no dice. It also sometimes whistles quite annoyingly. Never had that happen before.
In the meantime, I got the same type one made by Vicks, which runs fine, and holds a bit more water without seeming bigger. It's the one with the blue tank. I also got a cool mist ultrasonic one, by Homasy, and it's fine as well. It was nicer in summer, and doesn't seem to make a white film on surfaces as I had feared it might.