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Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

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Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#21

Post by butvacuum »

dangus wrote: post #15
piskov wrote: post #2

On a tangent note: don’t use ultrasonic humidifiers. Unless distilled water is used, they create a shit-ton of pm2.5 particles. Use evaporative humidifiers (just disks with myriads of small notches for water to cling on and a fan): https://us.smartmiglobal.com/pages/smartmi-evaporative-humid...

This is pretty crappy one-size-fits-all advice in itself. If you’re willing to use distilled water, ultrasonic humidifiers have their own advantages over evaporative. I’m personally willing to buy distilled water. It’s a dollar per gallon, and we only need the humidifier during a short few months. You can even buy a small countertop water distiller for under $60.

I'm thoroughly unconvinced.

Doing some basic research... hard water is overwhelmingly various carbonate and bicarbonates of magnesium, calcium, sulfur, iron, maganese, and aluminum. All of which are essential nutrients and readily soluable in water.

The other proposed problem was pathogen aerosols- however I was unable to access anything but an abstract. So, I don't know if they survived being aerosolized, produced more and/or worse pathogen count than evaporative humidifiers, Nor the size of the pathogens.

It seems to me the known risk is mostly mechanical (Asthma, exacerbated COPD, etc) and nonpersistent (particles dissolve and are used or excreted via the same pathways as when consumed). With an unknown risk on the pathogen side.

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#22

Post by alephnerd »

N_Lens wrote: post #20

A humidifier needs network capability incase someone discovers a new version of water, or for the manufacturer to be able to patch remote exploits. https://xkcd.com/3109/

It's becuase Xiaomi integrated it just like all of it's other smart home products with Mijia - Xiaomi's smart home mesh [0].

In Asia (but arguably the same in the West given the proliferation of Ring and smart home hubs), consumers have less of an aversion to smart home and connected products in general.

Keeping IoT devices on a separate segmented network with strict DMZing, turning off unused features, and not sharing passwords would provide enough security for most home users. I recommend reading James Micken's essay "The World is Ours" [1] on the diminishing returns of certain security features at the expense of user experience. I also agree with it as someone who used to do edgy stuff with SHODAN as a teenager.

HNers tend to be the minority amongst consumers, which is assuming the opposite of the HN herd mentality tends to be a fairly successful strategy.

[0] - https://www.mi.com/global/smart-home/

[1] - https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#23

Post by bsder »

dangus wrote: post #15
piskov wrote: post #2

On a tangent note: don’t use ultrasonic humidifiers. Unless distilled water is used, they create a shit-ton of pm2.5 particles. Use evaporative humidifiers (just disks with myriads of small notches for water to cling on and a fan): https://us.smartmiglobal.com/pages/smartmi-evaporative-humid...

This is pretty crappy one-size-fits-all advice in itself. If you’re willing to use distilled water, ultrasonic humidifiers have their own advantages over evaporative. I’m personally willing to buy distilled water. It’s a dollar per gallon, and we only need the humidifier during a short few months. You can even buy a small countertop water distiller for under $60.

> If you’re willing to use distilled water, ultrasonic humidifiers have their own advantages over evaporative.

Unless you are anally retentive about cleaning it, ultrasonic humidifiers vaporize microbes into the air. There have been loads of studies about this.

The only real way to avoid this is to use the humidifiers that are boiling the water.

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#24

Post by dependency_2x »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #9
esaym wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Use evaporative humidifiers You don't have to buy one either. A suspended wet towel with a fan blowing on it will work very well. If you want to get fancy, have the last inch or two of the towel sitting in a tray of water.

But then I have to buy the towel and the fan, the tray, something to suspend the towel at the right height …

This is cheaper, and the towel and fan can be repurposed. Just buy a 3D printer for making the the suspension part (/jest)

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#25

Post by SauntSolaire »

mercnet wrote: post #17
noitpmeder wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which venta are you referencing here?

They are referencing https://www.venta-air.com/en_us/product/lw45-original-humidi... I also have one and love how easy it is to clean.

For $500 it better clean itself

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#29

Post by dheera »

piskov wrote: post #2

On a tangent note: don’t use ultrasonic humidifiers. Unless distilled water is used, they create a shit-ton of pm2.5 particles. Use evaporative humidifiers (just disks with myriads of small notches for water to cling on and a fan): https://us.smartmiglobal.com/pages/smartmi-evaporative-humid...

I found this too. I wonder why they don't just accept a PUR water filter on the input side.

I also wonder why mini-split heating systems drip and pool water outdoors instead of pumping that distilled water back indoors for humidification.

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#30

Post by wnevets »

piskov wrote: post #2

On a tangent note: don’t use ultrasonic humidifiers. Unless distilled water is used, they create a shit-ton of pm2.5 particles. Use evaporative humidifiers (just disks with myriads of small notches for water to cling on and a fan): https://us.smartmiglobal.com/pages/smartmi-evaporative-humid...

> On a tangent note: don’t use ultrasonic humidifiers. Unless distilled water is used, they create a shit-ton of pm2.5 particles.

Not according to my uHoo air quality monitor. I have had one running a few feet from the monitor for over a week and there hasn't been any notable increase in PM2.5 particles.

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