How to Choose a Good Humidifier for Your Needs - A Comprehensive Guide

A humidifier is a machine that adds moisture to the air, turning a drier room atmosphere into a more humid one. Drier atmospheres can cause people to have dry skin and eyes, sore throats, and sinus congestion. Humidifiers add the necessary moisture to the atmosphere that helps diminish these symptoms.

Humidifiers come in a variety of types, sizes, styles, and price points. Not all humidifiers are created equal – and price is not always a deciding factor. This buying guide will cover the basics you need to know in order for you to make your next humidifier purchase with confidence.

What Benefits Do Humidifiers Provide?

There are certain benefits associated with humidifiers that are fairly easy to identify, but others might not be immediately identifiable. To ensure you’re well informed in regards to humidifier benefits, here is a list:

Dry winter skin. Winter is notorious for bringing lower humidity levels. Low humidity levels equate to dry skin. Humidifiers inside of homes help negate the low humidity’s effect on skin during winter. You can read this article for humidifier recommendations for dry skin.

Treat cold, flu, and sinus symptoms. Natural symptoms of cold, flu, and sinus conditions include a sore and itchy mouth and throat, dry eyes, and irritated nose and sinuses. Humidifiers help soothe the dryness and irritability caused by these conditions.

Relieve dry skin conditions. Dry skin doesn’t occur only in winter. It’s present all year long, often in the form of symptoms from certain skin conditions. Eczema and psoriasis are common skin conditions that can cause extremely dry skin. Humidifiers help relieve the irritation caused by these specific skin conditions.

What Types of Humidifiers Are Available?

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of options that are currently available in the humidifier market. Some are fairly straightforward and simple in both concept and design, while others may be a tad more eccentric and complex. Below, you’ll find a brief overview of each of the major types of humidifiers and how they moisturize the air.

Cool Mist Evaporative Humidifiers

Cool mist evaporative humidifiers (CME) are the most popular type of humidifier currently available. They add moisture to the air via natural evaporation. CME humidifiers use a wick filter that is placed in the base of the humidifier. This filter absorbs water that is poured into the humidifier. A fan built into the humidifier blows room temperature air onto the wick filter. As this occurs, the water naturally evaporates into the atmosphere, thus adding moisture to the room.

Natural evaporation is one of the cleanest methods of humidification, and the wick filter further cleans the moisture sent into the air by trapping any minerals, or other impurities, that may be present in the water.

Warm Mist Humidifiers

Warm mist humidifiers do not use air for evaporation. Instead, they use the process of boiling water to generate moisture and increase humidity. With warm mist humidifiers you pour the water into the humidifier, turn the humidifier on, and wait for the water to start boiling.

Any minerals or impurities that were present in the water will stay behind in the humidifier. Maintenance of these machines involves occasionally cleaning the mineral deposits left behind in the unit by the process of the water evaporating.

Ultrasonic Humidifiers

Ultrasonic humidifiers produce high frequency sound waves that vibrate a thin metal diaphragm inside of the humidifier. This vibrating of the metal diaphragm breaks down the water into a very fine mist. From there, a very small (and quiet) fan blows the mist into the atmosphere.

The biggest downside to ultrasonic humidifiers is their tendency to send small amounts of impurities from the water into the air. It’s recommended that these units be cleaned regularly. Using distilled water in these systems can prevent the spread of impurities.

What Size Humidifiers Are Available?

Humidifiers come in three major sizes – tabletop, console, and in-duct. The size of each unit will dictate the amount of coverage it will achieve.

Tabletop Humidifiers. Tabletop units are typically used for humidifying single rooms. They are very portable and easy to maneuver from location to location. However, due to their small size, they need refilling more frequently than larger units.

Console Humidifiers. Console humidifiers are generally a good bit larger than tabletop humidifiers, and can humidify multiple rooms from one central location. These units do not need to be refilled as often, but their size can sometimes make them difficult to maneuver and transport. Thankfully, many console humidifiers have wheels installed on their base to make moving the unit much easier.

In-duct Humidifiers. In-duct humidifiers are ideal for humidifying an entire house. They are installed directly into the home’s air ducts, and are connected to the home’s plumbing system. This means that refilling is never an issue. The biggest downside to in-duct humidifiers is that they need to be professionally installed, which can get expensive, especially if installing into an existing home.

What Should You Look For In a Humidifier?

There are certain features of humidifiers that have proven to be more important than others. Here are the three feature categories you should pay attention to when shopping for your next humidifier:

Ease of use. How easy is it to use the humidifier? How easy is it to maintain? How easy is it to transport? If you have a humidifier that is difficult to operate, it will inevitably prove to be more of a hindrance. The best way to get an idea of the ease of use of a particular humidifier is to either inspect the model in a store (i.e. Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc.), or find a review (preferably video) on the internet.

Noise level. Some humidifiers produce more noise than others. For some consumers, this isn’t an issue. For others, it can be a deal breaker. Know your comfort level in terms of noise before you buy. CME humidifiers are the noisiest, warm mist humidifiers are less noisy, and ultrasonic humidifiers are the quietest.

Humidistat. A humidistat shuts off the humidifier when it reaches a certain humidity level (set by you). However, not all models come with humidistats, which means the units have to be monitored diligently to ensure the room is not too humid. For most consumers humidistats are mandatory, and I tend to agree.

In closing, I’d like to share this bit of wisdom with you in regards to choosing your next humidifier. I have yet to come across a humidifier that is 100% flawless. Most will have their own unique set of pros and cons.

My advice is this: Go into the process with an open mind and be willing to sacrifice a specific, less important feature if your most important features are present. I wish you luck on your next purchase, and I hope it proves to be a beneficial and enjoyable experience.

This post is authored by Thomas Samuel, a freelance blogger.