Reviewing George the air washer

His name is George and he keeps me healthy

Today, I am happy to share a new review with you, since I had the chance to test the “European Product Design Award Winner 2019”: The air washer George by Stadler Form (a Swiss company founded in Zug, in 1998), helping the air in our home to be balanced, clean, humid and fresh.

George, my new flatmate

Say hello to George, my air washer by Stadler Form flatmate, which happily moved in my flat, back in February 2020, with the purpose to help me breathing better and avoiding having my annoying and painful yearly spring allergies.

With all the things going on lately in our world, we all understand the importance to take good care of ourselves at home, thus I could not get luckier than to have the chance to welcome George, the air washer by Stadler Form and testing it, in order to breathe more easily and stay safe at home.

In this review, I will be sharing with you my personal experience as well as giving you information on how things were BEFORE and AFTER I got George joining me in my bedroom!

Jokes apart, here is everything you should know as well as how George air washer by Stadler Form could benefit you and your family at home, to keep the air healthy, humid and safe, helping you to avoid falling sick, waking up with a dry throat and/or having major spring allergies this year.

My life at home before George

The first time I ever heard of “air washers”, I was a little kid, watching an episode of one of my favorite TV Shows: F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Then, I eventually started to hear more and more about my friends and my parents buying air washers, to humidify and purify the air at night, while they were sleeping. Winter and spring nights can get pretty dry in Switzerland and I often got my throat and nose really dry in the morning, clearly not feeling good, yet, I was too stubborn to follow my relatives’ advice.

So, despite hearing my family telling me how happy they were with their air humidifiers, I somehow still did not see it as a priority to buy an air washer, to improve my health and life quality at home.

How wrong was I? I definitely did not have a good sense of priorities, but luckily this was about to change.

What was the air humidity % at the beginning of my test?

After George air washer by Stadler Form made a sweet appearance in my life, I was highly curious to see if it really could make a difference in my life, making me feel and breathe better, while hopefully helping me with my strong spring pollen allergies too. Before starting my test, the relative air humidity was between 35% to 39%.

How to set up George?

The first step was to get George out of his box and to put him together. I am really not a technical person at all, I admit, so when I tell you setting this air washer by Stadler Form up is easy, you can trust me, even an 8-year-old kid can set George up in less than 2 minutes. 

Before I put water in the tank and started to test George, I decided to measure the air in my 12sqm bedroom (where I decided to test George), by using the hygrometer Selina little, which I also received for this test.

It was important to measure the air in the same room I was going to use George, in order to get a clear idea on how this air washer by Stadler Form really was going to have positive effects (if any) and improve the air quality in my bedroom, which also happens to be my home office.

Important tips from my testing experience

1. When you test the air humidity in a room, make sure to close both the door(s) and the window(s) in the room you set George ON.
2. Once you put the water in the tank, and connected your air washer to electricity, make sure not to shake George too much, otherwise some water may leak. I am telling you this, since I am not very delicate sometimes and I did shake my dear air washer a bit too much, making it a little mess, so make sure to be gentle with George and he will thank you for it!
3. I would recommend you to place George on the floor, somewhere in your room, where he has a little space surrounding him.
4. Personally, I live in a passive house (Minergie) with controlled living space ventilation, and George is happy here! But it shall also be happy if you live in an older building.

My life at home since George, my air washer, arrived in my bedroom

I am going to be very honest with you (as always, for those of you who know me well), I am feeling stupid for not having invested in an air washer earlier in my life.

I just turned 30 years old, and I never realized how important pure and clean air was, until I traveled to India, last December 2019, having strong difficulties to breathe with all the air pollution, literally burning my throat and lungs, making me sick and stay in bed for an entire day. My eyes were burning and I was dreaming to be back in Switzerland, somewhere lost in the mountains, with fresh air and a clean sky.

Now, of course, I am back in my chocolate country, but the air during spring is very challenging for many of us to breathe without sneezing 30 times a day, due to our tough spring allergies and the dry and cold air most of us breathe at our respective home.

So, let me tell you this straight, I am truly grateful to have had the chance to test George air washer by Stadler Form, right on time, and to be able to share this review with you, hoping this will help you prioritize better as well.

We are going through a difficult time at the moment, and breathing clearly and staying healthy, is now more important than ever, thus, I am grateful to have this air washer, helping me stay healthy and struggling less with my spring allergies, than before I had George as an awesome quiet flatmate.

How did the air humidity change during my test?

Before I started using George, the air humidity in my bedroom was around 35% to 39%, now it is around 43% to 50%, when George is ON, with both my window and door closed.

It is important to mention that an air humidity percentage lower than 40%, is considered “poor” or of “bad air quality”. You can easily see this by checking if your hygrometer “Selina little” is making a smiley or unhappy face!

My Selina little now almost always looks “happy” with her smiling face, so the air humidity clearly improved thanks to George.

Between us, I just find it SO cool and cute that Stadler Form gives names to its products! Makes me feel less lonely at home! Hihi

Did I experience any change in my allergy symptoms?

Yes, having this air washer working its magic every night when I sleep and every day when I work from my home office (situated in my bedroom), seems to be efficient towards my allergy symptoms so far.

The previous springs, when I did not have any air washer at home, I would sneeze approximately 30 times a day, NO JOKE. Now, I realize that whenever I have George ON during the night and when I am working during the day, I sneeze between ZERO to twice big maximum in a day, more often ZERO to be honest.

I avoid going outside too much obviously, as I respect the “Stay at home” current rules, but whenever I take a walk alone to get some fresh air outside, I walk in the fields, avoiding cities and people.

This year, despite the pollen is quite high due to the whether this spring, I am able to walk outside, in the middle of the nature, without sneezing many consecutive times. Since I decided not to take any medicine against my allergies so far, I am convinced that my George air washer by Stadler Form is one of the reasons I am able to go out without “dying” from my usually strong spring allergies.

How did my sleep improve during the test?

Before George, each morning I woke up with my throat, mouth and eyes super dry and I felt uncomfortable. After 2–3 days with my air washer ON, I thought it was great but that I would maybe only have George ON a couple of nights, but not necessarily every single night, because it took me a little while to open my eyes on the efficiency of my air washer by Stadler Form.

I most likely felt that way, because I never had any air washer before in my life. But now, switching George ON and leaving it doing it’s magic non-stop, 24/7, the air improves even more, because he humidifies and purifies the air. The best is to keep George run continuously in auto mode, since he is very energy-efficient.

I cannot go to bed anymore without having my air washer ON, now, and one of the main reasons for that is because since George is ON, my sleep quality improved in a great way, as I no longer wake up with a dry throat and a dry or running nose. I am simply feeling good in the morning, and if I wake up at night, I feel great as well, no dryness in the room, yet not too much humidity either. The air shows and feels to be perfectly balanced.

Do I recommend George to those of you also suffering from allergy?

I think you know this answer already. YES, I do. And I not only recommend it now during spring but during the whole year, to ensure you feel good/better each coming days.

What would I change about George?

In terms of efficiency and design, I am convinced. The air improved drastically and the black and white design of George easily fits in any apartment style. The size is fine, it does not take up too much space, even in my 12sqm bedroom.

In terms of noise, it either makes NO noise at all, that is actually the case when the air is considered “healthy” in the room, or it makes quite a bit of noise when it has to purify and humidify the room. Which makes sense.

Thus, it is recommended to let George run 24/7 in order to ensure a long-term improvement of the air. The reason is that when George is switched on after some time being switched off, he needs to start cleaning and humidifying the air from scratch.

By letting George run 24/7 you will see that George will run in a much lower power level because he only needs to keep the optimum level and not start to create this optimum level from scratch. If you are worried about too much humidity – don’t be!

First of all, George is an evaporator which means he uses the natural process of evaporation, over-humidification is not possible. Secondly, you can set the hygrostat to 50 or 55%. If he reaches this level, he will automatically switch off.

The only thing I thought could be better is the fact that, when you are sleeping, sometimes, the lights on George flash a bit too much, which may be annoying if you are sensitive with having a bit of “light” when sleeping in a dark room. However, after a while, I realized that there is a LED dimmer function which switches off all LEDs, so this “issue” got solved very quickly.

It is definitely better to let George work the whole day. So, you get better air quality AND not a noisy start into the night. Otherwise, if you only switch ON George, just before you switch off the lights to sleep, the air in the room, most likely is not considered as “good” yet, hence humidity is less than 40%, thus, George will be “working hard” in a noisy way, purifying and humidifying the air in the room, by making some noise transforming the air into clean and humidified air.

General Feedback

If you do not have an air washer at home yet, consider getting one and you will thank me later!

Stadler Form is a Swiss company and I encourage you to have a look at their various home products, available online on their website.

In terms of price range, George air washer by Stadler Form costs CHF 298.00.

The high quality of Stadler Form home products is very good for the price you pay. Some similar brands tend to sell their home products much higher than Stadler Form, yet, the final outcome is the same.

So, now more than ever, let’s support Swiss businesses and ensure our money is well spent.

For further information, you can visit Stadler Form website as well as have a look at their social media channels, including their helpful YouTube videos on how to use and set up their home products.

Thank you for reading this new review!

Take good care of yourself and #stayathome

Muaks,

Cindy

We warmly want to thank Coco Rebelista for this honest and very personal report of her experience with air washer George! If you are as excited as we are, let us know in the comments below.

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