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What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

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Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#161

Post by falcolas »

csours wrote: post #56
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…

We used Ultrasonic humidifiers in a server room (to cut down on static risk) and I can confirm they get covered in minerals

Turn them down (ideally to the point where you can barely see the mist). They don't have to run at full blast to be effective.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#162

Post by dragontamer »

falcolas wrote: post #153
dragontamer wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ultrasonic just sprays all the disolved minerals across your room. You won't notice it at first, but about 2 or 3 weeks into using the device, you'll find plenty of "white dust" all over your room. In my experience, you get a smelly bacteria-infested humidifier if you keep using it for a few days. You need to regularly rinse ultrasonic humidifiers... or really any humidifier at all.

So, I have one of these running in my room right now (and have for the whole winter thus far). No white dust. That said, I don't run it at full power, I keep it where I can barely see any mist coming out. It humidifies the room quite nicely, keeping it at about 40% humidity (our house averages 25% without humidifiers running, which is hell on skin and noses).

Maybe my tap water has more minerals than your tap water. A good bit of slag builds up in my warm-air humidifier, and the white-dust was noticeable after a few weeks of ultrasonic.

Warm-air humidifiers are less efficient: My room is ~25% without any devices running. An ultrasonic would bring it up to 35%+, but Warm-air humidifier only brings it up to 32% or so.

Another efficiency test: both units were 1-quart (EDIT: Not a gallon) units. The warm-air humidifier probably goes through the tank in ~12 hours, while the ultrasonic would go through in ~8.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#164

Post by falcolas »

contravariant wrote: post #19
dragontamer wrote: post #9

Cool Mist humidifiers are just hard IMO. 1. Warm Mist humidifiers work by boiling water. This has the downside of... well... boiling hot water hanging around the area. But otherwise, these are the simplest and are only ~$20 or $30. 2. Cool Mist humidifiers try to get around the boiling water issue. Since they humidify at room-temperatures, they're a lot more efficient... but now bacteria / mold is growing constantly.…

Convincing water to just evaporate on its own was always going to be a bit tricky. The energy needs to come from somewhere so your best bet is to just get it into contact with enough dry air and hope for the best. Besides if you're trying to restore humidity lost by heating your room then pure energy wise there's not that much difference in evaporating the required amount of water using ambient heat or evaporating th…

So, there are some unpowered options, none of which are as efficient individually as a powered humidifier, but may work in tandom:

1) Plants - they release the water you put into them into the air, as part of how they pull water up from the ground to the leaves.

2) Open Water - Aquariums, fountains, etc.

3) Humidifying balls - basically rough ceramic balls which sucks water up into them, and the water naturally evaporates. Slow, though, and if your water has any impurities they will accumulate on the surface.

4) Humans - we breathe out a lot of water, and if your house is well enough sealed, you'll actually have to de-humidify, even if the air outside is dry. Costly, though.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#165

Post by aidenn0 »

dragontamer wrote: post #89
thebean11 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are ultrasonic humidifiers, at the same price point, that have humidity meters built in so they don't over humidify. It's completely dishonest for wirecutter to claim that the entire category over-humidifies. It's just not true.

Ultrasonic just sprays all the disolved minerals across your room. You won't notice it at first, but about 2 or 3 weeks into using the device, you'll find plenty of "white dust" all over your room. In my experience, you get a smelly bacteria-infested humidifier if you keep using it for a few days. You need to regularly rinse ultrasonic humidifiers... or really any humidifier at all.

It's expensive, but distilled water will fix that. Cheaper is filling it up from an RO filter (not as low in minerals as distilled, but probably "good enough")

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#166

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

dragontamer wrote: post #9

Cool Mist humidifiers are just hard IMO. 1. Warm Mist humidifiers work by boiling water. This has the downside of... well... boiling hot water hanging around the area. But otherwise, these are the simplest and are only ~$20 or $30. 2. Cool Mist humidifiers try to get around the boiling water issue. Since they humidify at room-temperatures, they're a lot more efficient... but now bacteria / mold is growing constantly.…

> 1. Warm Mist humidifiers work by boiling water. This has the downside of... well... boiling hot water hanging around the area. But otherwise, these are the simplest and are only ~$20 or $30.

Or $0 if you have a pot, a stove, and a tap.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#167

Post by falcolas »

dragontamer wrote: post #162
falcolas wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, I have one of these running in my room right now (and have for the whole winter thus far). No white dust. That said, I don't run it at full power, I keep it where I can barely see any mist coming out. It humidifies the room quite nicely, keeping it at about 40% humidity (our house averages 25% without humidifiers running, which is hell on skin and noses).

Maybe my tap water has more minerals than your tap water. A good bit of slag builds up in my warm-air humidifier, and the white-dust was noticeable after a few weeks of ultrasonic. Warm-air humidifiers are less efficient: My room is ~25% without any devices running. An ultrasonic would bring it up to 35%+, but Warm-air humidifier only brings it up to 32% or so. Another efficiency test: both units were 1-quart (EDIT:…

> Maybe my tap water has more minerals than your tap water

Unlikely; my tap water is well water. I do clean the humidifier with vinegar every week to keep the mineral buildup down. Then again, I do that with the shower head and tea kettle too (though a bit less frequently).

The big thing, as I've found it, is keeping the output down to a visible minimum. A big plume of mist that visibly lands anywhere isn't adding more water to the air - it's putting water droplets on the surface much like a spray bottle. It looks good, but isn't doing the job you're asking it to.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#168

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

falcolas wrote: post #157
superbatfish wrote: post #152

I own this model, and use it to humidify a small room. I sympathize with the author's complaints with respect to the difficulty of cleaning it, though mine just doesn't need cleaning very often. And the wick DOES get moldy if you let it sit in wet water for weeks on end. But her other complaints puzzle me: I don't find it to be messy to refill. What is she doing wrong? It's even more baffling that she thinks it "does…

A teaspoon- of bleach or so for 3 gallons of water will solve your mold issue quite handily, even while sitting. It's not enough to smell even when the humidifier is running at full blast. Just enough to kill bacteria and mold. I'm repeating this advice a lot in this thread, it surprises me it's not better known.

Is that too much bleach though? I do just a few drops in my ~1 gallon humidifier that works continuously in my clone room and it stays clean and even keeps the Serratia bacteria that make the pink stuff in the reservoir at bay. I do use reverse osmosis water to fill it though. Is breathing that much aerosolized chlorine a concern?

A calculator I use is here. Tap water is about 2 ppm.

https://www.publichealthontario.ca/en/health-topics/environm...

Looks like you are doing about 30 ppm so maybe that isn't that much really.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#169

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

leetcrew wrote: post #159
superbatfish wrote: post #152

I own this model, and use it to humidify a small room. I sympathize with the author's complaints with respect to the difficulty of cleaning it, though mine just doesn't need cleaning very often. And the wick DOES get moldy if you let it sit in wet water for weeks on end. But her other complaints puzzle me: I don't find it to be messy to refill. What is she doing wrong? It's even more baffling that she thinks it "does…

I just bought a (different) honeywell humidifier. so far it works, but not as well as I expected. I hoped it would be able to maintain a somewhat stable humidity for the sake of my guitars, but it can't really keep up with the desiccating power of my central heat. I wonder if part of the issue here is mismatched expectations with evaporative humidifiers?

I went through early parts of my life thinking little humidifiers were doing something and not until I got a relative humidity meter did I see how little they do unless you either a.) have a very big humidifier or b.) a very small sealed room. One of those "I'm sick" humidifiers can be going full blast and not budge the RH right nearby.

Re: What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier

#170

Post by pishpash »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #168
falcolas wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A teaspoon- of bleach or so for 3 gallons of water will solve your mold issue quite handily, even while sitting. It's not enough to smell even when the humidifier is running at full blast. Just enough to kill bacteria and mold. I'm repeating this advice a lot in this thread, it surprises me it's not better known.

Is that too much bleach though? I do just a few drops in my ~1 gallon humidifier that works continuously in my clone room and it stays clean and even keeps the Serratia bacteria that make the pink stuff in the reservoir at bay. I do use reverse osmosis water to fill it though. Is breathing that much aerosolized chlorine a concern? A calculator I use is here. Tap water is about 2 ppm. https://www.publichealthontario.c…

So when the water evaporates you get salt precipitates all over the wick, and more and more over time?
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