Korean Humidifiers Christmas Winter 2009 2010

in a land where households are heated from bottom up from the whole of the floor via OnDol, your room is apt to go dry within the hour . Koreans have always had some kind of evapourating waters in the room and for Winter of 2009 / 2010 more choices especially in color 😉

– um my own version of Dummy’s Guide to the Evolution of Humidifiers in Modern South Korea –
aside from simply putting a pot of water on the stove during the harsh post-war days, people used no B.S. simple but reliable humidifiers from the States AND Europe as the nation developed in par with the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games . and as South Korea developed technologically onto the end of the decade, its citizens began to enjoy warm comfort in endless rows of apartment buildings viewing AND surrounded by entertainment systems : twinkling Japanese electronic models were popular . but here where water AND machine mix, needing constant product support AND designs better adapted for its own people BUT not so much for the price, Korean models began to dominate in the course of the Millennium .

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first off : if you don’t like glitzy automated machinery and prefer the /simple/ type of the old school, best hover over to the handful of CostCo outlets located in THE most populated areas of the Penninsula where you can buy American or European models for around W200,000 . just put in water, switch on AND clean regularly without no knobs to turn NOR lit numbers shown, what-ever they mean -_- duh

yes on cosmopolitan Earth there are several ways to induce mist such as cool, ultrasonic and steam .. but the most popular ones in South Korea combines both for all occasion and body types . and as you should know from the recent K-Pop AND HanRyu idol phenomenom this country runs on star-power AND ad marketing so what does sell well don’t necessarily mean there are of superior quality AND trustful product support . a notable addition to change last year would be the tanks on a few models can be opened atop to pour-in water, as oposed to carrying the tank to the bathroom for re-fill . hello ? but you still gotta fill a bucket AND bring it into the room to fill, so .. price-wise the basic models with knob dials are well below W100,000 and goes over as you turn electronic WITH an LCD control panel, then more WITH sound alerts . still as homely technology roughly common among makers, perhaps it is the /design/ that appeals to you most on personal taste that should stand ahold on top of your living room ?

as long as you stick to the four manufacturers I am about to mention, you can’t go wrong much unless you are of the most allergic, sensitive type . I will introduce a bit about these companies for you probably won’t have heard about them before landing on Korean shores and some may have been the Korean version of Philips OR Tepal had it NOT been for the conglomerates stomping on every ground . many of these Korean companies started out exporting order-made products to Japan and turn their sales domestic as the ‘Miracle of the Han (River)’ was realized amounting to the end of the decade . most are smaller companies so usually introduce a different exterior color anew the next year BUT with better parts learnt from product support records . with the latest recommendable model from each company in the order of manufacturer popularity Fall 2009, prices are discounts at larger on-line stores :

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Novita NHU-5590s out September 2009 W125,000 available in Beige or Purple

[ Novita ] a company that originally started making marginal electric rice cookers in mid-1980’s has sprung up making a wide range of toilet bidets and with its enormous success branched out to other home electronics in the Millennium .

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SamSung SHU-5599SPi out October 2009 W220,000 expensive BUT taunts ability to get rid of airborne Swine Flu particles !?

[ SamSung ] yes they’re on to bigger things such as cars and large-screen TV’s but just sliding in here for NOT to be passed out on ANY category `_0 hello ~ ? one BIG difference you will encounter with ALL the other companies listed here is that their multi-support center is huge, clean AND staffed with receptionists AND technicians “V” (for Victory)

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Hanil HSV-320 introduced October 2009 W35,000 simple knob model available in yellow and Pink

[ Hanil ] probably the oldest home electric company still surviving today in sufficient popularity mostly from the price factor, from 1964 when the whole of the Korean Penninsula was dependent on the U.S. Military for tangible “goodies”. their expertize have always centered around fans, may it be for cooling (and now in the Millennium for heating also) AND ventilation, especially in your kitchen .

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OhSung H-C381 W80,000 out November 2009 available in white or black

[ OhSung ] one truly talented company that has been making humidifiers for even Japanese brands, now set behind all the glitzy ad-power of the newer above companies . but again, the company which sells more in the end has more money to research AND upgrade to newer products, where-as the older ones has mostly started-up by copying even earlier brands of far-away lands . as the ‘old’ name implies OhSungSa has humble beginnings mid-1960’s (God ! ) making small industrial motors in the port city of Pusan which later spelled Busan more akin to pronounciation . they have been actively producing home electronics including fans, toasters and stoves among which humidifiers became their strong-point in 1990’s . their newest enterprise include mixers and baking products .

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lastly remember too much humidity will precipitate fungus growth
so DON’T put it on automatic instead selective timing at the lowest output .

and come next spring perhaps I’ll do one on air purifiers 😉

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– Korea Tech BLog, December 2009 –