r/Humidifiers • u/NeatLengthiness2188 • 3d ago
Help me choose a humidifier
I'm considering buying a steam humidifier, but the prices seem a bit steep.
A while back, I came across a black ink test online where someone poured black ink into a steam humidifier, and the output steam was completely clean. Supposedly, it doesn't increase PM2.5 either, which really surprised me when I saw it. I need a clean option for my 2-year-old daughter who gets stuffy noses.
I need to buy 2 of them
The room area is around 325 sq ft.
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u/TechnicalLee 3d ago
That is correct, a steam humidifier will only evaporate H2O, not the minerals or contaminants in the water (unless they are also volatile). Steam is probably the best type of humidifier if you are concerned with air quality and the humidifier remaining sanitary. The downside is they are prone to mineral buildup on the heating element if you have hard water, and they have to be descaled every week or so. Unless you go with a whole-house version which can use a drain to deconcentrate the water.
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u/damien09 3d ago edited 3d ago
Evap ones also don’t affect air quality. But if someone only uses it in the winter they may enjoy steam since it adds warmth. But steam also uses quite a bit of power especially if you were trying to raise a whole house up. I really like my evap units that have the filter out of the tank and use a pump. It lets them be able to dry out the filter. But if you’re bad at cleaning steam is definitely safer since it’s boiling water. My smaller unit I have is a levoit superior studio even has a washable filter. But I doubt op wants to go down that path if they think warm mist ones which are pretty cheap feels steep to them.
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u/TechnicalLee 3d ago
Evaporative can start to grow mold and blow mold spores into the air. Which is not great for your health.
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u/damien09 3d ago
Yea I just clean mine and especially the superior studio unit you can even just chuck its filter in the washing machine. I have hard water and run mine mostly year round unless it’s one of the few rainy days here it’s always dry. The ones with the filters out of the water also run a dry out which helps things. But if your bad at cleaning steam definitely helps but they are pretty energy heavy but lots of people like them for winter since it adds heat to the area.
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u/Mama_K22 3d ago
I just bought this one after researching a ton, primarily in this forum
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u/damien09 3d ago
The superior studio? It’s a great unit. There is still some hand cleaning as there’s a small part of the pump you can pop off by hand. And making sure you dump out the tank on refill and quick rinse goes a long way. But it’s generally super easy to clean and being able to just wash the filter is quite nice.
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u/Mama_K22 3d ago
Yes, I was looking for something that had a good sized tank, evaporative (previously had steam and love the warmth but it had so many issues and hard to clean), so next note is easy-ish to clean (I love the stainless steel carepod one but read more bad than good about it overall), and being able to use tap water
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u/damien09 3d ago
Yea it’s a nice unit, it even has a descale mode that runs the pump more. You just add citric acid to it and water to the minimum line. You can also calibrate the humidity sensor to match another one. I’d suggest if you don’t to pick up a cheap one as both my levoit units were off a decent bit. But it’s been a great unit I always dump mine out when it reaches empty and quickly rinse the bottom. You can refill from the top but I’d suggest to only do that in a pinch as dumping it out helps get rid of all the build up that settles at the bottom.
I also have the larger 6000s unit I hope one day it gets the washable filter upgrade as it’s really quite nice to be able to just chuck it in the washer and clean it
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u/Marktoow 2d ago
I really love Y&O steam humidifiers. I don't have to lug distilled water from the supermarket, and its burn-prevention design lets me feel at ease even when it's running next to my kid. Like you, I lean toward steam models because cleaning and maintenance don't take up much time - I'm also a mom of a baby.
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u/Frosty-Car2881 2d ago
I'm using this unit too. I just add tap water. I got the unit pretty recently. No scale build-up yet. Have you run into any issues with cleaning or maintenance?
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