Best Humidifier?

Lamb · Mar 5, 2025

It seems that no matter which humidifier I choose, they tend to get that pinkish stuff inside, even though I try to clean it thoroughly. If you use a cool mist humidifier, which brand do you use and how do you keep the pink stuff from happening?

Frankj · Mar 5, 2025

Unless you have hard water deposits that have that color in your area I imaging it would be a bacterial growth.

Try adding some hydrogen peroxide to the water you use and see if that prevents it, if it does it was bacterial.

I would stay away from any other type of disinfectant since it will areosolize and you will breath it into your lungs.

Just my suggestion.

tango · Mar 6, 2025

Many years ago I had an air washer that worked very well. It was essentially a big stack of plastic circles with fins on them that rotated through a bath of water, and had a fan blowing air down over the whole mechanism. The idea was that it washed dust, pollen etc out of the air and naturally humidified the air to a normal level, where some humidifiers just keep pumping out moisture even if the air can't take any more.

It had what it called an Ionic Silver Stick in one corner, which was supposed to prevent the buildup of the undesirable stuff in the water. It needed to be rinsed periodically to wash all the dust out but that was easy enough. I've also seen athletic wear that claims to use silver to reduce smells, so maybe there's something in it.

I've used a few humidifiers over the years and never seen a buildup of anything pink. I'd have to go with Frankj and wonder if it's something in the water.

Lamb · Mar 6, 2025

It could be the calcium levels in our well water are high? I didn't know I could add anything to the water to help clean the machine. There are parts I couldn't reach and am glad for when we get a new one that I can add something to prevent it from happening again. Thanks!

Frankj · Mar 7, 2025

Lamb said:
It could be the calcium levels in our well water are high? I didn't know I could add anything to the water to help clean the machine. There are parts I couldn't reach and am glad for when we get a new one that I can add something to prevent it from happening again. Thanks!

Something to think about:

If you are using well water or any other hard water in an ultrasonic type cleaner then you are aerosolizing the mineral content into the air where it deposits itself on everything where the humidified air is present (including things like lungs, furniture, objects in the room and the room itself) This would contraindicate using anything other than distilled or RO water in them IMO (simple filtered water will still contain the mineral content). Evaporative type humidifiers avoid this situation.

As an interesting and simple scientific experiment to demonstrate the extent of this in your personal situation, take a gallon of your well water and put it into a large transparent container (jar) and let it evaporate.

Since evaporation leaves the mineral content behind, what is left over is what is being added to the air in your home, the air you breath, for every gallon you use after it evaporates into the air when using an ultrasonic humidifier and is what is kept out of the air when using an evaporative type one.

tango · Mar 7, 2025

Frankj said:
Something to think about:

If you are using well water or any other hard water in an ultrasonic type cleaner then you are aerosolizing the mineral content into the air where it deposits itself on everything where the humidified air is present (including things like lungs, furniture, objects in the room and the room itself) This would contraindicate using anything other than distilled or RO water in them IMO (simple filtered water will still contain the mineral content). Evaporative type humidifiers avoid this situation.

As an interesting and simple scientific experiment to demonstrate the extent of this in your personal situation, take a gallon of your well water and put it into a large transparent container (jar) and let it evaporate.

Since evaporation leaves the mineral content behind, what is left over is what is being added to the air in your home, the air you breath, for every gallon you use after it evaporates into the air when using an ultrasonic humidifier and is what is kept out of the air when using an evaporative type one.

These are good points. You could look to get a water softener to remove the hardness, or use bottled water so you don't get all the gunk.

For what it's worth the air washer I described earlier is an evaporative device. It blows air over water in the fins which naturally washes dust out of the air and encourages evaporation when the air is dry.

ETA: This isn't the product I had but looks like it works along the same principles. I can't say whether this particular one is any good.

All Products in Airwashers - Venta North America

www.venta-air.com

Frankj · Mar 7, 2025

tango said:
These are good points. You could look to get a water softener to remove the hardness, or use bottled water so you don't get all the gunk.

For what it's worth the air washer I described earlier is an evaporative device. It blows air over water in the fins which naturally washes dust out of the air and encourages evaporation when the air is dry.

ETA: This isn't the product I had but looks like it works along the same principles. I can't say whether this particular one is any good.

All Products in Airwashers - Venta North America

www.venta-air.com

FWIW, and most people don't think about this, a normal water softener doesn't remove the chemical content of the water, it just changes it from calcium and magnesium compounds to sodium compounds that don't cause the buildup and crusting problems associated with hard water. There are always other dissolved organic and inorganic solids in the water in addition to the hard water minerals.

An RO system will remove the mineral content and the organic dissolved solids entirely or greatly reduce it to a much lower level according to how efficiently it is intended to function.

It's a sort of fascinating subject to discuss, the water we are drinking, and how safe it is for any given use.

tango · Mar 7, 2025

Frankj said:
FWIW, and most people don't think about this, a normal water softener doesn't remove the chemical content of the water, it just changes it from calcium and magnesium compounds to sodium compounds that don't cause the buildup and crusting problems associated with hard water. There are always other dissolved organic and inorganic solids in the water in addition to the hard water minerals.

An RO system will remove the mineral content and the organic dissolved solids entirely or greatly reduce it to a much lower level according to how efficiently it is intended to function.

It's a sort of fascinating subject to discuss, the water we are drinking, and how safe it is for any given use.

Technically I suppose it's just adding sodium to the mixture. If you have calcium carbonate in your water and treat it with sodium chloride you'd end up with sodium carbonate and calcium chloride, which are both soluble in water.

When a softener cycles it dumps a load of stuff out of its drain - I'd always assumed it was dumping out at least some of the stuff it was pulling out of the water. It's been a while since I had a softener.

Best Humidifier?

Lamb

God's Lil Lamb

Frankj

Well-known member

tango

... and you shall live ...

Lamb

God's Lil Lamb

Frankj

Well-known member

tango

... and you shall live ...

All Products in Airwashers - Venta North America

Frankj

Well-known member

All Products in Airwashers - Venta North America

tango

... and you shall live ...