A humidifier is not just helpful if you live in a hot climate but even in a cold one. Along with its benefits in keeping the moisture level of the air high, its health advantages also connote hydrating the skin and hair, as well as helping to cure allergies and dry coughs. Additionally, humidifiers maintain our wooden furniture and wallpaper decorations as they were initially found.
Different humidifiers have different types and they might feel confusing. In this article, I mainly discuss how humidifiers work in general, but I then go to break down each of these humidifiers and how they work. However, is a humidifier necessary to begin with?
Why Do I Need a Humidifier?
You may feel torn about whether a humidifier is essential in your home. If you have this, here are 4 reasons why you absolutely need one.
The recommended humidity levels are 30-50%. To determine whether the air in your room is moist enough, you can use a hygrometer to measure the amount of moisture in your air. If the air is dry, you need a humidifier to raise the moisture levels.
There are several disadvantages of dry air. Too much static electricity is a result of dry air. Static electricity can damage your electronics, crack your furniture, peel the paint and wallpapers off, and ruin wooden floors.
Plus, dry air chaps your lips and dries your nose, throat and skin. Cracked lips can be painful as they may bleed sometimes and a dry throat can be annoying. For this, a humidifier is a very useful tool.
Humidifier, apart from playing its role in having dry air in your home also helps to relieve cold symptoms you might be experiencing. That may sound insane, especially as far as we go when humidity levels are quite high, but your sinuses are made to function at peak capacity for mucus to flow freely when you don’t have to force it out.
And now, here are the types of humidifiers.
What are the Types of Humidifiers?
There are two categories for humidifiers; size and performance. You can read about 6 types of humidifiers here.
Cool mist humidifiers
Warm climates are more suitable for cool mist humidifier. This is because; they are obligated to release cold moisture into the warm atmosphere. It also has an in built evaporative system using wicks. Cool mist humidifiers are not only safe but also effective when in use.
However, the noise generated by these humidifiers is relatively higher than other humidifiers. Additionally, make sure to clean the humidifier regularly and change the wicks regularly to ensure proper functioning.
Warm mist humidifiers
Just like the name suggests, warm mist humidifiers emit warm moisture to the air which you can feel and see. The water in the humidifier gets heated to steam and released as moisture in the reservoir. This was an inexpensive humidifier, and it's great for treating colds or flu. It is quiet and cheap to buy in comparison to other humidifiers.
However, warm mist humidifiers are only convenient for small areas. Also, they are hard to clean and need to be cleaned frequently. In addition, they can cause burns and it is a good idea to keep them out of reach from children.
Ultrasonic humidifiers
Ultrasonic humidifiers have a metal diaphragm in them which makes use of high frequency ultrasonic vibrations to make water droplets. These humidifiers make minimum noise while sending vibrations, thus these humidifiers are best suited for kids. In addition, they are also fairly cheap and do not need to be changed very often.
However, it is important that you read the buyer’s manual that usually accompanies the ultrasonic humidifiers because they run best on distilled water and bottled rather than tap water. If the mineral water is used in the humidifier it may emit white puffs which may be harmful to your health.
Evaporative humidifiers
Evaporative humidifiers are also known as Wick humidifiers. To draw water from the tank, they use cloth, paper, or a wick. A rotating fan, meanwhile, blows this wick to release moisture into the air through a saturated pad. They come with minimal energy consumption and work quietly. Moreover, the wick filters can last up to 3-4 months without changing.
Impeller humidifiers
Rotating discs in impeller humidifiers throw water at a diffuser that resembles a comb. This diffuser breaks down the water molecules into droplets which seem like mist. This impeller humidifier is functional for large areas and also cheap.
The only downside is that you have to clean it after each usage.
Whole-house humidifiers
Unlike most portable humidifiers, whole house humidifiers cover a large area and don’t need to be moved throughout the home. It doesn’t require constant cleaning and can go a few days without filling the tank. It is only recommended to clean up once a week.
What is the Recommended Humidity Level?
You might like to keep warm and only believe that your humidifier is working if you can steam blowing out of it. It is not very healthy at all. To avoid it, you have to turn it down and keep the humidity in your house below 50%.
The EPA recommends keeping humidity in your home between 30% and 50% for best results and reduced health risks. The in-built humidity measure in your humidifier allows you to measure the humidity levels.
If you have an older humidifier one without an in-built measuring feature, you can purchase a hygrometer at a drugstore or Indoor Humidity Monitor for only a few dollars. Keeping it at the recommended levels is especially important if you have kids in the house or if you use a humidifier in your baby’s room.
How to measure humidity level?
There are three easy ways you can determine the level of humidity.
Hygrometer
The best way you can do this is by using a hygrometer. Thermometers are cheap and easy to get just like thermometers. But if you do not own one, then you can master these tricks to ascertaining if your home has fairly low or high humid conditions.
Use ice cubes
Put four ice cubes in a glass of water, and put the glass in the space you want to measure its humidity. Do not go in and out of the room and leave the glass for five minutes. The room has excessive moisture if there are water droplets on the outer side of the glass. But if the glass remains unchanged, the air of the room is dry and a humidifier is required.
Use of hair
Hair grows longer when exposed to moisture, but shrinks when exposed to dry air. You can use hair as a hygrometer to see if your home is humid or not. Here is how to do it:
Draw an arrow on a piece of paper, then cut it out. Cut a hole at the end of the arrow, slightly larger than a pin, to act as a pivot, allowing the arrow to move freely. Place the arrow on some cardboard and make sure it can move freely. Wrap one end of hair to the pin then the other to the arrow.
Blow the string for a 0% reading, then spray on moisturizer to get a 100% reading. Now, when you have this observation, you know comfortably whether you are in a humid or dry setting.
These measurements may lead you to learn a reading that will make you wonder if you really need a cool or warm mist humidifier. We'll also guide you on that.
Should I choose a warm or cool mist humidifier?
The humidity levels would tell you which humidifier to use. Besides, the climate also decides if the cold or warm option is the best. It's important that your preference be taken into account, too.
Warm mist humidifiers emit warm moisture into the air and have been found to help with congestion and coughing. They also have a chamber where you can dispense the medication into the air. However, cool mist humidifiers are ideal for kids as warm mist humidifiers are a great danger to them. As they try to fulfill their curiosity, the steam can burn them.
Second, since cool mist humidifiers release this steam into the air, it consequently thaws the room temperature, which is not the case of warm mist humidifiers. Cool humidifiers do not raise the temperature, but have a cooling effect.
Cool mist humidifiers work best during spring and summer while, warm humidifiers are suitable when the temperatures are going low down in winter. In any case, the two humidifiers will serve you a soothing time in the midst of such embrutamiente climates.
How does an ultrasonic humidifier work?
There are both warm mist and cool mist ultrasonic humidifiers. But, to get that result, let’s examine what happens.
- When an electronic signal is sent, a regulator valve allows water to flow from the reservoir to the transducer.
- The water is vibrated and it tries to maintain the rhythm. This, however, is not possible due to its weight and mass.
- This forces the water to explode into droplets due to the high ultrasonic frequency.
- The water particles are further broken down to vapor which is released by the available fans.
Some of the ultrasonic humidifiers have another metal plate as well that is equally designed to generate ultrasonic vibrations by vibrating metal. Then they release the air bubbles through wick filters.
Despite their powerful nature, all this activity is done in a quiet setting. Ultrasonic machines are also environmentally friendly and can be used with kids.
How does a cool-mist humidifier work?
Cool mist humidifiers can be categorized into two: cool mist evaporative humidifiers and cool mist impeller humidifiers.
The evaporative humidifier has openings on the back or sides to allow dry air to pass through. Then the air goes to the saturated filter where moisture is added. An electric fan releases clean, pure air while filtering out the impurities from the air.
The cool mist impeller humidifier, on the other hand, also has a small, electric motor, but with a rapidly spinning disc. The spinning disc ‘sprays’ water that breaks down into microscopic droplets at high speeds into the diffuser. During operation, the machine is very quiet. In addition, they don’t require filters and work best with distilled water.
Which size humidifier humidifiers should I choose?
When picking a humidifier, consider square feet, the type of insulation on the room, volume of the room, humification load, and how much moisture output is per day.
An alternative is small rooms measuring 400sq feet needing humidifiers that have the capacity to dump 1.5-4 gallons of vapor each day. This medium sized room measures 400–1000sq feet and will need 2–4 gallons of moisture, the large rooms were more than 1000sq feet and would need the same amount of gallons as the medium sized rooms. When we talk about the whole house, we can have it measure up to 2500-4000sq feet and need 9 gallons of moisture.
Also, you may shift to portable humidifiers that are likely to be small in size compared to whole room humidifiers. Tabletop humidifiers are ideal to take with you, as they are lightweight and portable.
We will finally end it by figuring out how much power a humidifier requires to operate.
How much energy a humidifier uses?
For a humidifier to work, it does not need a lot of power. According to EPA, humidifiers consume electricity on a low basis.
Now while this is important to remember, for a humidifier to be efficient it has to be releasing that particular amount of moisture into the air and therefore its performance. Also, if it is filling a large room, it has more time to run before it fills the room.
In addition, ensure that the humidifier has an automatic cut off capability that once the water levels run down, the humidifier would switch off automatically. This will save you power.
How often should you clean your humidifier?
Before working out the frequency you need to clean your humidifier, it is important we understand why we need to clean it in the first place. Humidifiers need cleaning since they are directly involved with the air you are inhaling.
Dirty humidifiers can contaminate the air by spreading harmful molds and bacteria. This can lead to severe asthma attacks, terrible coughs and flu as well as lung inflammation. This is why you need to know the intervals needed to clean your humidifier.
Rinse the humidifier every day and change the water before any use. This helps stop any bacteria from growing. Apart from the daily rinsing, thoroughly clean the machine once every week. You can use vinegar for spot cleaning.
Final Words
Whether you opt to get an ultrasonic humidifier or a warm mist humidifier, rest assured that they work to help increase moisture levels in your home. Choose one that perfectly fits your home and is compatible with your needs.
