Humidifiers vs Vaporizers
It's winter now. For cold climate households humidifiers come in handy in keeping humidity in check. I'll share some of my experience.
Types of humidifiers (and vaporizers)
There are 3 major types of humidifiers I am familiar with:
- Vaporizers - or warm steam humidifiers, such as Vicks Vaporizer. They work by boiling the water to create steam. Some are marketed for cold relief, but they are quite effective in adding humidity to the rooms as well.
- Ultrasonic humidifiers - these generate ultrasonic vibrations to expel moisture into the air.
- Evaporative humidifiers - these use mesh filters to soak up water, then use airflow to evaporate moisture into the air.
I have used all three types of humidifiers.
Pros and cons of types of humidifiers
Vaporizers boil water to humidify the room, so they are quite energy inefficient. Other types of humidifiers add cold moisture to the air, while vaporizers add warm moisture, so it's a minor plus. But practically speaking I don't find it make much difference. Steaming water also distills it, so it can be more hygienic, but hot steam can also be a safety hazard.
The rudimentary vaporizers tend to leave black flake residue in the water, these are harmless and I find the vaporizers easy to clean overall. Most of them don't have humidistat, and it's difficult to control the amount of steam produced. The more advanced models do offer humidistat controls.
- Produces black flakes in water
- Easy to rinse and clean
- Does not produce mineral dust in the air
- No filters required
- Energy hog
- Produces warm moisture instead of cold moisture
- Hot steam can be a hazard
- Difficult to control humidity with cheap models
Ultrasonic humidifiers generate vibrations to expel water particles into the air. They tend to be very efficient and quiet. This process produces a pleasant looking white cool mist. It also expels the dissolved solids along with the water, resulting in white dust coatings on the furniture.
Manufacturers typically recommend using distilled water to avoid generating white dust, which can add to the running cost. You can also buy demineralization cartridges, but they don't work as well.
- Quiet and efficient
- Easy to clean
- No filters needed
- Produce white dust
- Distilled water or demineralization cartridges recommended
Evaporative humidifiers use filters to soak up water, then circulate air through the filters to add humidity. The circulating fans may or may not be noisy. I run them at low speed at night and they are decently quiet for me. Because they use evaporation to introduce humidity, they do not leave white dust on furniture like ultrasonic humidifiers do.
They use filters. Replacing these filters periodically can be expensive. The filters can get dirty quickly, resulting in more frequent maintenance. Silver anti-bacterial cartridges can be used to keep filters clean longer.
Maintaining filters may involve soaking them in vinegar, making the process more involved.
- Quite efficient as well
- Some fan noise depending on the models and speed
- Filters required, which can get expensive to replace
- Filters get slimy, requiring frequent cleaning and maintenance
- Each maintenance can also be more involved than the other types of humidifiers
- Does not produce white dust
Some Features to Evaluate
- Does it allow speed control
- Does it have a humidistat (turns off when desired humidity is reached)
- Is it reliable
- Does it leak water
- Is it easy to fill (top fill might be desirable)
- Does it take up too much space
My Own Setup
We currently run a Honeywell Tower Humidifier for the whole house, and supplement it with a LEVOIT Dual200S for the baby's room.
For the whole house
We use Honeywell Tower (evaporative) Humidifier to humidify the whole house. Ultrasonic humidifiers would have been the most convenient and efficient to humidify a large space, but we didn't want to deal with the white dust issue. Vaporizers would be too expensive to run. We opted for the evaporative model even though it requires more maintenance. On the plus side, it has a humidistat, and is powerful enough for the whole house. We like this humidifier because:
- It has a humidistat, and stops when the desired humidity is reached
- It can humidify the whole house effectively
- It holds 1.5 gallons of water
- The vertical design saves space
For the baby's room
We use LEVOIT Dual200S ultrasonic humidifier to humidify the baby's room. We didn't want to use a vaporizer because the steam can be a safety hazard. We also didn't go with an evaporative model because we didn't want to deal with the maintenance for yet another evaporative humidifier. To minimize white dust, we only run it sparingly to make up for any humidity shortfall from the main unit. We like this humidifier because:
- It has a humidistat, avoiding over-humidifying the baby's room
- It is small and quiet
- It is easy to maintain
Where to Buy
- Honeywell Top Fill Tower Humidifier on Amazon $90
- LEVOIT Dual200S on Amazon $52