For some people, allergies flare up in the fall or spring. For others, like our product tester at HouseholdMe, every season is allergy season with the dry air of winter being particularly rough. When Levoit sent us the Dual 100 Humidifier and Diffuser to review, she was both excited and grateful to try it out.
This ultrasonic humidifier/diffuser is incredibly quiet, and you don’t have to flip it over to fill the rather large reservoir. Plus, three mist levels and a sensor-driven automatic mode let you tailor the moisture output. Here’s what our tester had to say about the Dual 100.
Setting Up the Dual 100
As someone whose immune system overreacts to every nearby dust particle and uses space heaters to warm her home, winter is rough. My allergies combined with a nasty cold that came on a few days prior to receiving the Dual 100 made my bedside the perfect place to test this humidifier/diffuser.
In the owner’s manual, Levoit warns that nearby surfaces may get wet, so I draped a towel over my nightstand. The 7-inch-wide cylindrical base left plenty of room for my drink, tissues and other cold-and-flu recovery essentials.
Even though the nearest electrical outlet is underneath my nightstand, the power cord stretches over 5 feet, allowing for placement flexibility. On the bottom of the base, there are four round grip pads. Therefore, if I had chosen to forgo the use of a towel, the 3-pound Dual 100 wouldn’t have slid when I pushed a button.
Adding Water and Essential Oil
Compared to humidifiers that you have to flip over to fill, the Dual 100 is much more convenient. This humidifier/diffuser opens from the top, so all you need to do is lift up the gray lid and pour in the water. The same process applies to the essential oil, which means no dedicated tray and filter to deal with.
The reservoir holds more water than the Dual 100’s overall size leads you to believe – 0.48 gallons to be exact. Levoit chose BPA-free plastic to make the reservoir, which means there won’t be any toxins leaching into the water.
Although the humidifier/diffuser doesn’t come with a fill cup, that’s to be expected due to its large capacity. I grabbed a drinking cup to fill the Dual 100 and made three trips from the sink, adding water until it reached the reservoir’s max-fill line. In retrospect, a half-gallon pitcher would’ve reduced the number of trips to one.
Setting the Controls
The unobtrusive control panel setup is user-friendly, consisting of two push buttons and three indicator lights. The power button lets you cycle between all three mist-output speeds, each of which corresponds with graduated blue indicator lights.
My bedroom measures about 12 by 14 feet, and the Dual 100 is made for spaces 107 to 260 square feet. Therefore, I felt confident that any mist speed would sufficiently cover my room. However, I was more interested in the humidifier/diffuser’s sleep mode.
After you press the sleep-mode button, all the indicator lights turn off, and an integrated humidistat adjusts the mist output to maintain a healthy relative humidity of around 60 percent. It took less than a minute for the Dual 100 to run on high speed, which proved to me how much my space heater dries the air.
Watching It Work
Performance was smooth, and I attribute that to two technologies. Although the outlet is stationary, the mist is released in a strong spiral pattern. While one fill-up lasts 8 to 20 hours, mine ran for 12 hours during testing because the air was so dry that the humidistat kept the mist level on high most of the time.
Besides the mist pattern, ultrasonic technology also lends to the Dual 100’s performance. Out of all the various humidifying methods, ultrasonic is the quietest. This humidifier/diffuser is barely audible. At high speed, the maximum sound level is 28 decibels, and all I could hear was a faint trickle of water, which was pleasant and soothing.
Levoit recommends adding 10 to 15 drops of essential oil to the reservoir – I put in 15 drops of peppermint oil. Although peppermint is a strong fragrance, I found myself needing to add more about 4 hours into running the Dual 100.
During testing, I made sure to stay awake until the reservoir was empty to see if it would shut off or run while dry. When the reservoir ran out of water, the humidifier quietly turned off. Therefore, if you fall asleep, there is no risk of the Dual 100’s motor locking up. For me, the auto-shutoff mechanism makes up for the lack of a timer.
Elevate Your Atmosphere
Although it’s a little tedious to make sure the tank and the base’s notches line up, I appreciate the reservoir’s large capacity, auto shut-off feature and especially the humidistat, which kept the relative humidity comfortable and healthy. I also like the quiet operating sound and the convenience of the top-fill reservoir.
I gotta tell you that this humidifier/diffuser made me breathe so much better. While it’s not a miracle cure for allergies or a cold, it took about an hour for my congestion to loosen, and that nagging cough I did have improved after a full-tank run of the Dual 100.
Since the Levoit Dual 100 helped clear my sinuses, I let my teen use it the next day because she too suffers from allergies. Usually, I know she’s awake for school when I hear her morning cough, but not after using the humidifier/diffuser (with eucalyptus essential oil) all night. That alone sells me on the Dual 100. Thanks, Levoit!
Best for: Allergy Sufferers, Bedrooms, and Congestion Relief
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