HoMedics Brethe Air Revitalizer Review

The Verdict:  Blah.  I sent it back to QVC.

Just the Facts:  The Homedics brethe is a small machine that consists of a clear plastic bowl on a wide pedestal with a motorized lid that causes the water and scent in the bowl to swirl around and cleanse and scent household air. 

I suffer from allergies and asthma and our two cats, fireplace, and gas forced heat dry me out and irritate my lungs.  I bought the brethe machine hoping that it would help to cleanse and freshen the air in my home and add some much needed humidity to the air as well. 

After just a few uses I decided to send the brethe back to QVC as the only thing it did was fill my house with the unpleasant scent of the botanical liquids it came with.  My unit came with botanical scents in lavender, lime, vanilla, and citrus.  All of them smelled pretty bad in the bottle but lime and lavender smelled better than the others so I tried those first.

The first night I placed the unit in my bedroom, filled it with water, added lavender, and turned it on.  The water swirled around like a little toilet which was interesting and entertaining to watch.  Unfortunately the motor on the unit was so loud that I got distracted while trying to read quietly and sleep was out of the question. 

My husband who had fallen asleep on the couch came upstairs about a half hour later was awakened by the strong scent of the botanicals which has filled the entire house during that time. He thought I was cleaning the bathroom and using harsh cleansers.  The scent smelled nothing like lavender but rather like bathroom cleanser.

I tried other botanicals a few more times but could not stand the scent and even after running the unit for many hours and enduring the loud sound the water did not appear to have captured any of the crud floating around in the air.  I even tried running it with no botanicals at all but it still did not appear to clean the air at all as the water remained perfectly clear. 

Closing Argument:  The brethe unit was a huge waste of money, effort, and water.  Watching the water swirl was fun and the blue nightlight was kind of nice, but that's about all. I can watch my own toilet swirl around several times a day for free and a new high quality furnace filter helped with the air quality in my home.  Not recommended.