9mo ago

Are there any humidifiers that can handle strait, unfiltered tap water without leaking everywhere?

Please redirect if there is a more appropriate community for this question.

I'm dealing with dry air, and the humidifiers I had bought before got the tiniest grits of dust or something in them and leaked their whole tank of water. Turns out they needed purified water or distilled water to function long term.

I just want to put tap water into a thing and get humidity into the air. Any suggestions?

Edit, they were indeed ultrasonic humidifiers.

36 comments

Are you talking about an ultrasonic humidifier? AFAIK, those shoot out tiny water particles along with any bacteria that might be present, creating a health risk. You're meant to only use distilled water with those.
- I'm confused. How is putting bacteria from water in the air worse than drinking the bacteria in the water directly?
  
  Your stomach kills bacteria etc., while your lung doesn't have a comparable mechanism
- ^ This. It's not worth the risk, OP.
- That's why you change the water daily. If your tap water is chlorinated it can be assumed to be safe enough for atomizing.
In case you want some more info about humidifier, I recommend Technology Connections on Youtube.
Tap water is filled with minerals that get left behind when the water evaporates into the air. So your choice is purified water or you're going to have to manually clean out all those minerals that accumulate inside the device.
Maybe get yourself a nice reverse osmosis filter. Run that water in your humidifier, coffee maker, ice maker and anything else mechanical that requires water. It'll make all your devices last much longer. I used to have to add a little tap water to a keurig the first few times I used it because the water was so clear the sensor thought the reservoir was empty.
That purifier isn't cheap but you probably only need a small one that produces a few gallons a day. Barring that, someone's suggestion about boiling water in a pan is probably your best bet. The stuff in your water will eventually gum up any device you put it in.
- I have a humidifier that uses electricity to vaporize water. I never remove the particles except at the end of winter when I put it away for the season. It doesn't seem to affect the operation.
Maybe filter it first through a Brita or similar water purifier? I'm lazy and just been buying distilled water off the shelf because my well water isn't so hot and I don't feel like replacing four humidifiers every year. The buildup is gross.
- We did think of this, apparently too late. I'm gathering from other comments that I am dealing with hard water, and the seals on my humidifiers had already crusted over when we got the Brita filter, so it did not fix the issue
Do you have a fireplace or a stove for heating anywhere? My family always used a pan of water on top of those in the winter
- That’s incredibly expensive at todays energy prices.
  
  Oh, I think that largely depends where you live. Some places it's much cheaper than gas or electric to heat your home. If that's how you were already heating your home some water on top is easy
- I wish I had a heating stove or fireplace for this purpose, but alas, it's a gas furnace connected to a central air system
Never had one leak, usually it's the wick or heating elements that get crusty. Or if you have the cool mist type, everything in the room gets a dusting.
A lot of it usually comes from things like Calcium or Limestone and can be pretty readily cleaned off with some vinegar.
- It was a cool mist type, so no wick or heating element. It was dirt getting into the valve that allows water to flow down from the main reservoir to the tray where the ultrasonic magic happens. Kept propping that valve open to let a constant drip of water through
  edit, seems like hard water ruined the seal rather than grit messing things up
I use a humidifier by AIRCARE. A bit more doing than a simple tabletop, but nothing too complex. It's a base unit that sits on the floor. Has a removable tank that I fill directly from the tap. I do add a bacteria/algae treatment to about every other fill. Need to replace a filter about once a month (I try to extend it a little longer). And then after the season (about 3-4 months over the winter) I clean the unit. They make different ones, and they're generally much more powerful than a tabletop unit, albeit with a larger footprint.
- Adding to this, some of the AIRCARE humidifiers are just a plastic tub, a wick that sits in it, and a lid with a fan. You'd have to break the tub to leak water.
- Looking at the prices on those filters, wow! That's like an extra subscription each winter to fix dry air. Getting one big enough to get the whole house at once seems good, but 55 to 80 dollars a month is a lot!
  
  That's the rub. There are generics. And they do work. Still, an ongoing cost, to the tune of 2 or 3 filters in a season. You're right.
I honestly have not had this problem with ultrasonic humidifiers. They just need to be cleaned every couple of weeks.
This really depends on your tap water; in some places tap water is clean enough to work, but it seems yours is not. If you want something to just set and forget, you'll probably need to do more localised research. E.g Hardness, turbidity, etc.
Ours came with this little brick thing that I think is supposed to keep mineral buildup from accumulating, but the company stopped making that humidifier and we can't buy any more of the bricks. We'll probably be shopping for another one next season. :(
- The brick was probably just citric acid. Buy a bag from your local supermarket, you'll find it in the kitchen section probably as a crystalline powder, and dump some of that in the humidifier water to also prevent buildup.
  Fun fact, you can also run a larger amount of it through your empty dishwasher instead of those dishwasher cleaner packs; those are mostly citric acid too. Cheaper, and no horrible fake lavender scent or whatever it is they like to put in the packs.
  Edit: the bricks could also have been hypochlorous acid which is available from various vendors:
  https//berkshireezbleach.com/
  https//efchlor.com/water-purification/
  https//effersan.com
  
  Tyvm I'll look into it
!homeimprovement@lemmy.world
I'm looking at the Honeywell HEV320BC Moisture humidifier. Seems straight, simple, and without ultrasonic vaporizer.
You can go full passive humidification with terracotta, if that’s something you’re interested in. You just need a bowl, pan, dish, or other item that can hold water, and then place the terracotta on top of it. Cheapo terracotta pots work fine, they just have to be in contact with water but not fully submersed. The more surface area exposed to air, the more it will evaporate water into the air. You can put tap water in that all day long and while it might get mineral build up, it’s not going into the air.
You can achieve the same thing with a very wet towel hung up to dry if you really need it; that’s what we’re doing right now, and it’s amazing how quickly it brings it the humidity back up.
I have Vornado's evaporative one: https://a.co/d/3cZbfx9
Little pricy but worth it. You'll also want to get a bottle of the antifungal additive, you only need a few drops per gal
- I have a similar Vornado evaporative one. The filters get crusty faster with straight tap water. I usually use filtered water from the fridge.
  
  The thing goes through 4gal of water every 2 or so days, how do you get so much filtered water?
Why would someone need a humidifier? Though I live in a pretty humid place so I might be missing something.
- Cold air can’t hold a lot of moisture. People who heat their homes heat cold air, which lowers the relative humidity of air that was already dry to begin with. So you end up with dry air if you heat your home.
- I live in Canada. We get very humid summers but the winters are way below freezing. Below freezing temperatures make the air extremely dry, with outdoors plunging to 0% humidity.
  Humidifiers are needed to maintain indoor humidity though you can’t raise it too much or you’ll get condensation inside the walls and on the windows, leading to mold issues.

36 comments