Homedics BRT-150 Brethe Air Revitalizer
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Customer Reviews of Homedics BRT-150 Brethe Air Revitalizer
Customer Review: Effective air freshener. Good Essential Oil diffuser.
Summary: 4 Stars
If the price of the unit and scent accessories was lower I would have given five stars.
The supplied scents do a good job of 'freshening' (actually scenting) the air throughout most of my 1500 square foot house.
The fan noise is noticeable, I usually run it five or ten minutes at a time to achieve the same effect as spraying an aerosol air freshener. The blue lights in the tank are good for a 'mood' effect and can be switched off if desired. If you just want to 'tune out' for a few, this thing is excellent. My spouse smokes cigarettes several times a day and the BRT-150 does a good job of covering up the odor from a cigarette.
I would not say that this unit is a humidifier. It will run for three or four hours continuously and maybe only use a cup of water. I would also not call this unit an air cleaner as such. It is an effective air freshener. The air coming out just smells and feels good.
I, honestly, purchased the BRT-150 so that I could disburse essential oils without having to use heat, nebulizers just seem way too strange and complicated to me.
My wife thought the citrus scent was a little overpowering so I experimented a little and came up with a fairly good recipe for using essential (fragrance) oils. My recipe will only freshen up the air in the room it is in, not the whole house (I don't know how they get that strong of a scent from the supplied material).
I borrowed/modified this from a perfumers recipe for making a spray-able air freshener with essential oils.
1/4 teaspoon Polysorbate 80 (an emulsifier derived from natural oils). You can get this from a soap maker's supply store.
30-60 drops essential oils, some oils are stronger, experiment for the best amount for your choice. I used 30 drops of pine needle oil and that worked fine for me.
1 tablespoon of cheap vodka (for low smell alcohol). This is optional but I found the oil's scent was more intense with it.
Mix the ingredients with a few ounces of water and add to the water to the freshener's filled tank. You will see the familiar white bloom in the water as you add this mixture.
Have fun!
Ken
Customer Review: Great product!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had this for a day...I bought two in fact, one for downstairs, and another for the main bedroom. First, the scents. I LOVE IT!! Not a big fan of vanilla (guess it would be good for a party or something), but the citrus and lime are excellent. Hopefully they will come out with more choices in the future, although for now, these will suffice. As for the Lavender scent, I read somewhere that someone thought it smelled like "Pine-Sol" when they got home after the unit being on for a day...I think this is the lavender. I used that in the bedroom and the first thing I thought after thinking it didn't smell like a bedroom (you know what I'm talking about...that musty tell-tale smell of warm evenings, sweat, and closed windows), was that it smelled like, well, Pine-Sol. But, that smell is better than musty bedroom smell!!!
As far as the effects on the air quality, I have already seen and felt a marked improvement in the level of particulates and visible dust in the air; I assume this is a result of the humidifying effect. The air "feels" better, again, possibly the humidifier effect, and just gives off that "this house is ultra clean!" vibe. Now, I have read that commercial home scent products are somewhat toxic, or at least not good for you, so I'm taking a leap of faith and believing what they say about the scents, in that they're all natural. The label says "100% botanical", but these days, that can mean just about anything. Just look up the FDA definition of "organic" products meant for human consumption.
If you're on the fence about getting this, I would say jump, grab it, and use it for a day or two, and the effects will be quite noticeable. The only negative, or, reason for a four star rating would be the lack of an array of scents, but I assume that with time, they'll come up with more exotic scents to titillate the senses. But for now this means that if you don't like citrus, lavender, or vanilla, your SOL.
Customer Review: Pretty good at deodorizing, and a little too good at odorizing
Summary: 4 Stars
The task the Brethe device does best is spread scent. If you want your house to reek of lemon/lime, vanilla or fresh orange cleaning products for a 6 to 12 hour period....this is grand slam home run, all the way. The default dosage of formula will make a good portion of even the larger houses smell like the janitor's closet blew up. It must be like chemical warfare in a small apartment.
We prefer to use just a small cup of a commercial deodorizing product, with just a few drops of the Homedics brand solutions. That's cheaper and doesn't leave the house smelling like chemicals.
We keep the unit around the cat's litter box / dogs bed, and it really makes a difference, when running. It fairs significantly better than any other product we've used at the task....electronic or chemical based. For this purpose, the device comes highly recommended.
A decent amount of noise is produced. It's white noise, and fairly pleasant (water swirling). I see this as a positive, but others might disagree.
Looking for air filtration? Look somewhere else. The Brethe device functions by swirling water around. Do you think swirling a bowl of water is going to filter the air? It won't, and this doesn't. It picks up more dust than any other surface, and nothing more.
You push a button to turn it on, and it has this blue light effect that I like. My wife doesn't, she she pushes the button a second time and it just spins (no blue light). Either way, it's a pretty innocuous device sitting on a shelf or whatever.
Overall, it's worth a buy if you have some stink to hide. I think the unit and the replacement solution are a bit overpriced, but it's the only product of its kind, as far as I know. Use a concentrate solution, like we do, and it's probably cheaper than any other deodorizing solution, in the long run.
Customer Review: LOVE THIS PRODUCT!
Summary: 4 Stars
I tried this humidifier/air purifier after realizing that our family of four was suffering from severe allergies. I ran this in the kitchen for 3 days and could feel a noticeable difference in the air quality and the "feel" of the air. The first unit we purchased developed some hairline cracks around the rim of the product within the warranty date, so Amazon replaced it for free (you are AWESOME, Amazon!) and in the 2 days that we didn't have it running we started sniffling and sneezing again! If I could afford it, I would get one of these for EVERY room in my house (we have a 1300 sq foot house, and it does just fine, but my room smelled so nice when I had it in there)!
I LOVE it in the kitchen because it helps get rid of those kitchen smells sooo quickly! Even after cooking onions.
The vanilla does NOT smell like vanilla, but both the lemon and lime are fine. The scent fades rather quickly and need to be replaced often, which is why I gave it only four stars (they are expensive!).
I only gave it four stars because of the price of the unit and the price of the scents that come with it originally.
The sound is a great white noise and worked VERY well for that purpose in my 11-month-old's room when we used it in there. It was also nice to have the soft blue light to guide me when I went into his room at night. I like the option of turning off the glowing light when I want, leaving only the glowing ring around the power button.
This is a wonderful product and it does what it says it does - I give it FIVE STARS for how it performs!
Customer Review: does what it says!
Summary: 4 Stars
I received this as a gift.. not something I'd buy for myself, but I really do love it! My house gets pretty stinky sometimes, which I guess is why someone got this for me, but the other day someone commented how my house has that "new house smell." I almost fell over dead.
The noise to me is comparable to the sound that comes from having the heating or a/c running, and if the heat or a/c IS running, it's not noticeable at all. I really like the scents, however, only use a couple drops a day and that still permeates through my whole house, though it is strongest in the room it's used in. I'm particularly sensitive to the smell of cigarette smoke as a former smoker, and the other day a friend smoked in the room with the brethe and 10min after he was done, the smell was gone. I actually have been using the same water for almost a week now because I'm lazy, and it's still smelling fresh, but I'll try to clean it out tonite.
The only drawback I had was the price and variety of replacement scents, although from reviews I guess we can use essential oils as well.. Also, it's sorta.. awkward, and I have a small house, so finding a space for it was difficult. I had it on the floor but it didn't seem to be effective, it seems like it has to be ON something in the open to really work, so right now it temporarily resides on my kitchen counter until I can find a better home for it.