Review by B. Humphrey:

I did a ton of research and bought a few heaters before this one but I’m most happy with the Vornado. The first two I bought were digital ceramic heaters. I have to recommend against getting a digital heater. Each time you turn it on, you have to push several controls to get back to where you like it, with this heater, you just turn it on. The only thing that kept me from buying it first was cost and the fact that it had no ceramic element which theoretically was a safer element than an electric coil. We use it in a few bedrooms that are not freezing cold but uncomfortably cold. The other great feature is it’ll run on lower power and only use as much wattage as is needed to heat the room. My other heaters would run full blast till it hit the desired temperature, then turn off, repeat over and over. The trouble is, heaters will use about as much power as must rooms have available so if you have anything else plugged in, you’ll throw the circuit breaker, which happened over and over for me. A 1200w heater (which is common) will use over 10Amps. That’s a TON of power. The Vornado will run and heat just fine on a low power setting using about 5A max and less if less is needed.

Here’s a summary of what I like:

Pros:

Plastic grill never gets hot to the touch – why do others use metal ?

Only uses the power it needs to – gives your electric panel a rest

Much easier to use than digital heaters – don’t buy digital !

Compact and stable on the floor

Well built – many heaters are absolute junk

Cons:

Expensive for a space heater

No ceramic element which MAY mean it could spark easier

When running on high, I noticed a buzzing noise in the fan but not during normal use

Review by Amos D. Meyers:

This heater is exactly what I needed. I’ve had it for a few days now, and it works perfectly.

I primarily wanted a heater that would work with an external / plug-in / wall timer. You know, the thing with the dial. So many heaters have a “timer” which is actually just one-time automatic shut-off, so you still need to turn it on, and set the timer, each night. I wanted something that would turn on and off at specific times of day, and there aren’t many if any.

This heater has three rocker switches for power, heat level, and fan speed; it has a dial for temperature. There are no toggles or digital settings or anything. That means you can cut power to it, then restore power, and it’s right back to where you left it — same temp setting, everything. I have it plugged into a heavy duty timer rated for 1875 watts.

Beyond meeting that specific requirement of mine, this is a great heater. It delivers on its promise of even heating. It circulates the air very well, and automatically adjusts both fan speed and heat output. Much better than heaters that simply cycle. It’s also very quiet — I didn’t believe its “whisper-quiet” claims, but it’s true.

One step down (VH2) and you lose the automatic fan and heat level (“A” is for automatic). One step up (DVH) and you get digital, which probably won’t work on a timer.

Review by Michael E. Main:

Save your money. This book offers minimal information. B&W photos are dark and almost uninterpretable. There are no real drawings or prints to quantify the design. The professional reviews were most surely the most gratuitous verbage I’ve ever been so sorry to read. Again, save your money. Go to the library if they were unfortunate enough to purchase it. Then if you like it, you can have mine for the shipping.

Review by Thomas H. Hinke:

I enjoyed reading the book — I even enjoyed the footnotes. I thought that the author had a nice writing style and was easy to read. I found the content interesting since it provided information on how to build a simple cabin from what one could harvest off the land. From this standpoint, this looks like a unique book, since it does not assume that you have lots of money to purchase everything from your local lumberyard. As someone who has some familiarity with tools, but not a lot, I also learned much from the description of the tools and products that went into the cabin. For example, I had not heard about paper and glue snake traps before nor did I know that you could shoot snakes with 22-shot shells. This is the type of practical and useful information that a city person like me would not know about, but would be extremely valuable in actually living off the land. I found the cabin to be an impressive accomplishment for a single person, but I also felt that I could actually build such a cabin using the descriptions in the book and the tools and products described.

Review by M. Graviett:

We’re in the market for a water softening system and the nuvoH2O sounds great from some of the reviews here. The problem I’m having is that most of the very positive reviews were written with a few days of each other and mostly come from people in Utah who have just this one product review on Amazon. It gives me pause to wonder if the ‘reviews’ are really being written by people who would profit from the sale of the nuvoH20.

I’d like to see some reviews from across the country from Amazon buyers with many product reviews listed.

I’ll wait until I know more ‘real’ info about the product before I buy.

Review by Gary D. Howell:

One of Amazon’s review guidelines is to “write about anything that the prospective buyer would like to know before making their buying decision.” I’m writing this review to share the results of my extensive investigation regarding salt-free water softeners, how I ended up looking at the NuvoH2O WH2100, and why I decided not to buy it.

I was looking for a non-salt means to eliminate water spotting on dishes, shower doors, my car, etc. I decided to apply a good deal of buyer beware diligence in selecting a product, because my on-line research revealed that:

1. There are substantiated reports that favorable product reviews on the Internet are being submitted by friends, family members and employees of the company selling the product.

2. Some money back warranties (company lingo: “wait until your old pipes clear, to see if the system is working for you”) don’t kick in until after the drop dead date when your credit card company will tell you “you’re out of luck at ever seeing your money again.”

3. You can never initially trust who is at the other end of the Internet wire, and if something does go awry – you don’t have much recourse. Example: there are many blogs with no-salt water conditioning complaints by purchasers that were given canned excuses of why the company’s money back warranty didn’t apply to them.

I first looked at and ruled out those electron/magnetron water zapping devices that clamp or wrap around your water pipe. Every manufacturer I looked at appeared to have a gaping hole in their theory of operation, installation requirements, or money back warranty.

I then looked at several of those large tank “media” systems and noted that a growing number of those manufacturers have stopped calling their systems salt-free water softeners and are now calling them water conditioners; presumably because of threat of litigation. As rationalized by water treatment experts, the media technology appears to be nothing more than an overly large and expensive water filter (a bigger version of the Brita that attaches to the end of your faucet). The water supply throughout your house has the potential for “tastes great”, but hard water deposits and spotting are still a concern.

So, this had me believe that my best choice was the “chelation” process of the NuvoH2O WH2100.

I found several Internet references that the chelation process touted by Nuvo may be the addition of citric acid to the water supply. Some detergents are chelated with citric acid to make them work better in the presence of calcium. So, this may be why Nuvo claims “you’ll use less soap” and why the non-filtering cartridge needs to be replaced every 6 months – it’s being flushed clean of the acid. However, my quest was mitigating water spots – not less soap usage.

I called Nuvo and cross-questioned them about water spots. Their response: “Well no; our device won’t eliminate water spots, but it will make it easier to wipe them off.” While I do applaud them for being candid, here’s how I think they were expecting this claim to be tested. Allow a drinking glass to air dry for an hour. Wipe off the spots. Easy, right?! Well yes, but this would also be easy prior to installing the so-called Water Softener System. The problem with water spots is when they’re allowed to dry and accumulate over days and weeks.

Because of all of my findings above and my decision to apply purchasing diligence, I proposed the following scenario to NuvoH2O:

1. Sell me the WH2100 at their cost (thus no financial investment on their part).

2. Allow me to test if the WH2100 Salt-Free Water Softener System met my minimal expectations (which was to perform something akin to a traditional water softener system).

3. If it did, I’d then send them the full retail funds for the WH2100 (the investigative seed money from #1 above would be extra profit for them). I included rationale as to why they could trust me.

4. I’d also give them a very cogent and credible review on Amazon (without mentioning my unique purchasing exception). I have a long trail of “real life experience” reviews on Amazon which would strongly suggest that my review wasn’t a fake (note: except for a guy that also reviewed a book, all the other reviewers for NuvoH2O are one-time reviewers, as of 12/20/09).

5. But if the WH2100 didn’t meet my minimal expectations, then I’d return the device to them and pay the shipping. They could keep the “seed” money that I had already paid.

Because of the “creativeness” of my proposal, I was ready to accept responses such as “sorry, but our accounting system won’t allow us to do that” or “thanks, but we think our reviews on Amazon are already convincing enough.” However, the response I got surprised me!

Nuvo’s company owner rejected my proposal on the grounds that “he needed to make a profit.” This particular response left me questioning the WH2100’s place as a true water softener, as the only scenario path where he wouldn’t be making a handsome profit was if my issue with hard, accumulated water spots wasn’t addressed. I would return the product, but unlike all their other customers, Nuvo wouldn’t be in control of my 0.

Conclusions:

1. All my research indicates that if you’re looking for the “less soap” aspects of a traditional water softener, then the NuvoH2O products are a good choice.

2. If your primary desire is to have a solution for hard water deposits and/or spotting, devise and conduct a “meets my expectations” test soon after you receive the unit, and take all steps necessary to ensure that you can collect on the money back warranty.

Note: This review has been based on verifiable facts, except where I’ve used equivocal terms such as “may”; which are speculations on my part. If proven wrong, I’ll update this review.

Review by R. Kyle:

Sitting on my cold feet was doing nothing for my circulation or my posture. My husband gave me this heated footrest for a birthday present and it’s one of the best gifts I’ve gotten (well, except for the kitten that one year) to keep my feet warm.

The angled footrest insures good posture at your desk, which also helps with back and body fatigue. The nubby, bumpy surface helps with a passive massage and I think may even help with circulation.

The heater doesn’t get precisely hot even on the warmest temps, but used while wearing socks, it does keep my feet warm and comfortable even on the coldest days.

One feature I really like is the 4 hour safety shut-off. No worries about whether I turned the heater off or not and that makes me feel better about using it.

One thing about Vornado products overall is that they last. We have fans still in use that we purchased 10 years ago. A space heater from last year is still giving good service when another more powerful model from another manufacturer has not held up. Vornado does not make throw-away products. Bless them for that in this economy!

Rebecca Kyle, January 2009

Review by Brian J. Buehler:

If I had rated this when it first arrived, it would have been a three star item. After having warm feet for a while, four stars seems reasonable as there really is only one negative to the Vornado SoleAire. That negative – the fan in the heater is much louder than it needs to be. My computer sits on top of the desk (away from dust bunnies) and is MUCH quieter than the SoleAire sitting under the desk despite the computer having 6 fans and multiple hard drives running all the time. If Vornado had chosen a slightly larger, slower running blower fan, the SoleAire could have been very nearly silent. At least the noise from their smaller, faster fan is white noise instead of mechanical racket.

I’ve not used the SoleAire on the fan only mode since it’s still chilly but if you are not warm enough sitting at your desk, you should give this product a try (especially if you can get it for half price – that’s where it really shines).

Review by L. M. Cunningham:

If you are planning to purchase a Seisco Tankless Water Heater, you might just prefer just to flush your cash down the toilet. We have had one for just over a year and have had trouble 3 times. When you need parts, plan on paying for them and paying for shipping. There is not much of a warranty and customer service is very kind but ineffective. We love the idea of tankless but made a very poor decision going with this company. Please do not make the mistake we did unless you like a cold shower.

Review by D. Owens:

I purchased the heater for our bathroom. I have been through quite a few bathroom heaters. It’s the only room that I want a little toasty. This so far is the best, it’s quiet, so quiet I didn’t think it would work, but quickly effective.

Review by Bryan:

…from heaven. This is possibly the nicest heater I have ever owned/seen. Quiet, safe, cool to the touch, 2 heat modes, and a fairly accurate temperature sensor. The controls on the heater are kind of a hassle and I much prefer to use the remote. Besides that I LOVE this heater. Well worth the 0 IMO.