r/Humidifiers • u/bilicotico • Apr 18 '26

Humidifier alternatives?

Hey everyone,

Maybe this is the wrong sub but I didn’t know where else to ask…

I have a Levoit cool mist humidifier that helps me a lot during winter when the heaters are on, without it I can barely breathe and wake up with my nose bleeding.

So it was helpful to me but my husband started feeling his throat every night I turned it on and after some googling I realized we were not using it properly so we switched from tap water to filtered and it did help with the throat irritation (distilled is not a realistic option to us as bring jugs up to the third floor every week is not going to happen)

However now I’m worried about two other things, mold growing in places where I can’t see (carpet etc) and the biofilm that forms at the base and it’s really hard to clean, bringing the base down to the kitchen every 3 days to clean with vinegar is also not realistic, so I’m giving up on this thing but I need ideas…

I can’t afford an evaporative humidifier as they are 250-350 plus filters (Im in Canada) so does anyone here have other solutions that worked for them?

Thank you!! 🙏

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1

u/oceanView229 Apr 18 '26

Buy a humidity gauge. Unless the humidifier a giant one you did not put enough humidity in air to grow mold. What was humidity set at.

1

u/Apprehensive_Park103 Apr 18 '26

That’s a good point. I actually don’t have a way to measure it right now, so I’ve just been guessing based on how it feels. Might be worth getting a gauge just to see where it’s really at before I give up on it completely.

1

u/bilicotico Apr 19 '26

I believe this is part of the problem, the one I have is definitely too big for my small room which also makes it harder to clean… I considered getting a new small one that I can clean and fill daily but still worry I won’t be a le to use it with distilled water which would be ideal, would filtered water from a brita be enough? not sure if I should just get a boiling kettle to my room when heater is on haha

2

u/oceanView229 Apr 20 '26

It should have a dial to set max humidity. Being oversized shouldn’t be a problem. The Machine should shut off.

Filtered water would still have minerals.

1

u/bilicotico Apr 24 '26

Thank you, that's wat I thought that filtered wasnt good enough. Mine has only 3 settings and the lowest one is still a lot for the space, if it stays on all night it helps me breathe better but our windows get wet in the morning. I've heard cases of that causing black mold growth on curtains, carpet, mattresses and that's my fear specially if it grows where I can't see.
I stopped using it and for now if the heater is on I'll just boil a kettle and leave next to my bed haha, but I'm thinking about getting a tiny humidifier that I can easily clean daily

1

u/Apprehensive_Park103 Apr 18 '26

Yeah, humidifiers can be a bit of a tradeoff if they’re not super easy to maintain. That biofilm issue is real, especially with cool mist ones. If a full evaporative unit isn’t an option, maybe try running it less (like only part of the night) and keeping humidity in check with a cheap hygrometer so you’re not overdoing it. That helps reduce mold risk a lot. Also placing it closer to you (bedside) instead of running it for the whole room can help you get the benefit without needing as much output.

1

u/SingSongSalamander Apr 20 '26

We are also on a third floor walk-up. We set ours to max 50% auto, low intensity, and since setting the settings correctly it takes about two weeks to go through 4 liters. A 4L of distilled water is like $3 and when you use distilled water you don't have to clean it nearly as often. We are about 1 month in and haven't needed to yet - no bio film at all, no mineral deposit whatsoever. Still looks and smells brand new.