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What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

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Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#131

Post by amluto »

dragontamer wrote: post #76
xyzzyz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The slag issue can be solved by using demineralized water, and reverse osmosis water filter, which remove almost all minerals, can be had for pretty cheap these days.

People say "pretty cheap", but a lot of reverse-osmosis filters I've seen are ~$150 to $450. Also consider: it takes ~4 gallons of water to make 1-gallon of reverse-osmosis water. All water-purification methods have their own issues. ------- If you plan to make distilled water (aka: boil water to remove impurities)... that's basically what a warm-mist boiling-type humidifier does _anyway_. All good water-purification…

RO doesn’t fundamentally need much energy or all that much waste. This system claims to be much less wasteful by recovering pressure using a “permeate pump”:

https://www.theperfectwater.com/home-master-hydroperfection-...

I personally think an evaporative humidifier is the way to go, as long as you are okay with the evaporator getting gross over time.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#132

Post by Danieru »

superseeplus wrote: post #32

As someone living on the east coast and having a very sensitive nose, I have tried different humidifiers and sadly no humidifiers have been perfect. There are three main types of humidifiers: 1. Warm mist humidifiers boil water and generate steam which humidifies the air. But, they are a burn hazard and consume a lot of energy. 2. Cool mist (non ultrasonic) work like miniature swamp coolers. They are essentially fans…

> Any company making incremental improvements to existing cool mist humidifiers will probably get a lot of eager buyers.

I don't buy that. Japan has a ton of high quality air cleaner combo cool mist humidifiers. We don't see these units sold in the US because Americans are cheap. The idea of paying 200$ for an air cleaner feels like a scam to American ears.

And thus the American market continues to race to the bottom.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#133

Post by throwaway09223 »

dragontamer wrote: post #76
xyzzyz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The slag issue can be solved by using demineralized water, and reverse osmosis water filter, which remove almost all minerals, can be had for pretty cheap these days.

People say "pretty cheap", but a lot of reverse-osmosis filters I've seen are ~$150 to $450. Also consider: it takes ~4 gallons of water to make 1-gallon of reverse-osmosis water. All water-purification methods have their own issues. ------- If you plan to make distilled water (aka: boil water to remove impurities)... that's basically what a warm-mist boiling-type humidifier does _anyway_. All good water-purification…

I have an under-sink RO/DI system, the whole system was about $200. It's a great investment for a place with hard water. I use it to get demineralized water for my house plants, fish tank, and drinking.

I use the RODI for expensive steam appliances like my Wagner, but I don't use RODI for regular old vegetable steamers or humidifiers. It's just not worth it. The scale buildup isn't a big deal and it's very easy to dissolve with an acid or just brush off.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#134

Post by TylerE »

etrautmann wrote: post #51

I purchased this exact model a few months ago, and agree with all of the criticisms. One curious point, however, is that while I don't see any difference in the hygrometer readings even when I put the hygrometer right above the device, the water tank does empty quickly. It's not clear to me how much water the air in my apartment can hold, such that a few gallons doesn't change the humidity even by more than 1-2%.

Well, a 500sqft aparement with 8ft ceilings is ~30,000 gallons of air.

I suspect what really kills you is the ventilation. If ventilations,air leaks, etc, turn over the air in a room once an hour, any humidty you dump in gets sucked right out in no time flat.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#135

Post by dragonsky67 »

pushrax wrote: post #43
dragonsky67 wrote: post #37

I'm in Australia, and I've lived in a lot of areas both inland (hot dry) and coastal and humidifiers are that common here. What is it in the US that creates the need/demand for Humidifiers?

Cold outdoor temperatures cause indoor humidity to get extremely low, because cold air can't hold humidity well. Today where I live, the relative humidity outside is around 50%, and temperature -5c. That puts the absolute humidity around 1.7 grams per cubic metre. At 20c indoor temperature, that equates to around 10% relative humidity. Far too low.

Thanks for the info... It's rare to see regular temperatures here much below 10 deg C and even then, most people live on the coastal plain so humidity rarely gets very low. Good to learn the conditions others have to deal with.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#136

Post by amluto »

shadytrees wrote: post #72

> For me, today at least, it was a pot of boiling water on the stove. If you elect to do this (I also did this, at one point in my life), think twice if your stove is gas. There's increasing evidence that gas stoves lower the air quality in your home, especially in apartments with poor ventilation: https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/nitrogen-dioxides... https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/indoor-air-po…

I would never use an ultrasonic humidifier. Everything in the water becomes aerosolized: dissolved solids turn into particulate pollution, bacteria and fungus become aerosolized [0], etc.

[0] I wouldn’t worry so much about viruses — viruses that infect humans probably don’t reproduce in water.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#137

Post by mtalantikite »

T-R wrote: post #36

I have one of these; the complaint about the fan being inaccessible is legitimate, but it's otherwise clean, and easy to clean - the tank and the base can be scrubbed by hand or just thrown in the dishwasher, unlike any vaporizing humidifier I've used. I think the other complaints may be regional - and the fact that the proposed solutions all seem to be vaporizing humidifiers (or boiling water) seems telling. I got o…

I have one too and cleaning the tank was never an issue. Instead, my problem was the wick always got moldy on me within a couple weeks. I went through a couple cycles of buying new wicks from them, but it kept happening and I gave up on it. Went back to my old ultrasonic one, which isn’t great, but it doesn’t get black mold and is better than nothing.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#138

Post by jonnycomputer »

throwawayboise wrote: post #33

FWIW I have an AirCare humidifier and no complaints. It has a fan and a big cellulose filter/wick of some sort for the water to evaporate from. Works fine.

I like my AirCare fine. Have had it for about month and a half. Maybe I won't like it so much later.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#139

Post by kumarsw »

ajford wrote: post #64
cl0ckt0wer wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the TC video's conclusion is that the evaporative humidifiers are best, but TFA's main complaints would not be solved by that. It sounds like the TFA needs an air filter combined with an evaporative cooler. And maybe some expectation management concerning what happens to standing water at room temperature under a fan.

It's probably more likely that the humidifier in TFA is just a poorly designed POS and should be replaced with a better version of the same evap type. If you notice, the evap ones TC covers in his video all have easily accessible fans with no grill blocking access to the blades, and in general are fairly cleanable, while the one in TFA sounds like a nightmare.

I bought an old Vornado Evap40 wicking unit from an estate sale some time back after concerns about using an ultrasonic unit with tap water that is high in silicates. The whole unit breaks down so it's pretty easy to clean if it gets slimy inside.
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