Humidifiers: How to Use and Maintain Them - WebMD

What Is a Humidifier?

Dry air may seem like a minor inconvenience, but it can significantly impact your daily comfort and health. Low humidity in your home affects moisture in your mucous membranes and skin. This dryness can cause you to experience bloody noses, dry eyes, itchy skin, and other unpleasant symptoms.

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If you’re sick, you’ll feel the harmful effects of dry air even more. For example, harsh winter air can turn a mild cold or flu into a miserable ordeal as your cough worsens, your lips dry up, and your throat constantly feels scratchy. Dry air can also worsen allergies, asthma, and skin conditions.

A humidifier can help reduce these symptoms by putting moisture into the air.

Humidifier vs. vaporizer

A humidifier creates mist from cool water to spray into the air. A vaporizer heats the water until it's boiling and then releases that steam into the room.

Humidifier vs. air purifier

An air purifier helps improve indoor air quality. Many air purifiers draw air into the machine, where it passes through a filter where contaminants such as dust, pollen, and mold are removed. The air is then circulated back into the room. Some combination products have both an air purifier and a humidifier in one.

Humidifier vs. dehumidifier

The purpose of a dehumidifier is to remove moisture from the air. You may use one in your house if you live in a very humid area or have a damp basement. Dehumidifiers work by pulling air in and moving that air across a material or coil that dries it. As it dries, moisture is removed, and the air is returned back into the home. The processed air is about 50% less humid than when it went into the machine.

Humidifier Types

There are three different types of cool-mist humidifiers: ultrasonic, evaporative, and impeller. All of these use different mechanisms to release cool, humidified air into a room. These are safer for children's rooms because they don't have to be hot enough to boil water (like a vaporizer).

Ultrasonic

These humidifiers have an internal element that vibrates at a sound frequency that's outside the range of what people can hear (so they are named ultrasonic). This element moves so quickly that it creates water drops, which are then pushed into the air to increase the air's moisture level. One product that uses this technology is the rain cloud humidifier. Ultrasonic humidifiers are effective, quiet, and don't use a lot of energy.

One thing to consider if you are thinking about an ultrasonic humidifier(fr,ko,th) is your pets. Sometimes, the sound can make dogs uncomfortable (even though humans can't hear it).

Impeller

Impeller humidifiers have a disk made of small blades. The disk spins at high speed, making water droplets. The blades move the water through a mesh screen where the water is broken up and then pushed out through a nozzle, into the air.

Evaporative

Evaporative humidifiers use a fan to blow air over a wet, absorbent material such as a wick that sends moisture into the air. Not only is it simple and relatively safe, but it’s also less likely than other types of humidifiers to release bacteria and minerals into the air. But that’s only if you regularly clean it, dry it, and change the filters.

Central

Central humidifiers are connected to your house’s plumbing as well as heating and air conditioning, and they cover the entire house. It’s convenient because you don’t have to refill the water supply, but you do need to maintain the system well to keep certain allergens from getting into the air.

Humidifier Benefits

Dry, cold air can cause all kinds of problems with your sinuses and throat. Parched air draws fluid from your sinuses, which can make you more likely to have nosebleeds or sinus infections. Besides helping prevent those things, a humidifier also may make it easier to breathe if you have a cold or another condition that affects your lungs.

Humidifiers may also help with the following:

• Calm and reduce a cough
• Loosen mucus in your chest so you can expel it more easily
• Maintain pets’ body temperature during general anesthesia in veterinary settings
• Reduce stuffiness caused by the common cold and other respiratory conditions
• Soothe a sore throat

Humidifier for babies

Putting a humidifier in your baby's room could help your little one's dry sinuses and skin. The soft humming can also help your baby sleep better. But talk with your doctor before putting a humidifier in an infant's room. They get moldy easily if not cleaned well, and they can circulate that mold and bacteria back into the room, potentially causing harm to your baby's lungs. If your doctor recommends a humidifier for your baby's room, be sure to:

• Keep it on a high shelf away from where your baby sleeps.
• Check it regularly for mold or white dust.
• Clean it at least every few days.
• Fill it with distilled water.
• Use a cool-mist humidifier.
• Measure the room's humidity to make sure it doesn't get too damp and grow mold on the walls or ceilings.
• Avoid scented oils or other additives.

Humidifier for asthma

Humidifiers haven't been proven to be an effective treatment for asthma. In fact, if humid air triggers your symptoms, you want to avoid humidifiers. If your symptoms worsen in cold, dry air, which is common for some people with asthma, a humidifier may reduce the number of asthma attacks you have. If you do want to use a humidifier, be sure to maintain and clean it regularly, so you don't inhale mold and bacteria trapped in the machine. This can worsen your symptoms. Clean it frequently, use distilled water to reduce mineral buildup, and make sure to replace filters or other components according to the manufacturer's instructions.

You should put your humidifier about 6 feet away from your bed in a place where air circulates well.

Humidifier for cough 

Increasing the amount of humidity in the air can help soothe a sore throat and relieve your cough. Moisture in the air may also help break up chest congestion, making it easier to cough up and get rid of mucus.

Humidifier for allergies

Talk to your doctor before using a humidifier to relieve your allergy symptoms. A cool-mist humidifier may improve some of your symptoms, but if you don't clean the machine regularly, mold can grow in it and get carried into the air, which could make your allergies worse. Too much humidity in a room can also cause mold growth, which can worsen your symptoms.

What are other common humidifier uses?

• Helping humidity-loving houseplants thrive
• Preventing your floorboards, furniture joints, and other wood from drying out
• Reducing irritation in your eyes, lungs, throat, and mucus membranes

Best Water for Humidifiers

Tap water has different amounts of minerals, depending on where you live. These can gum up your humidifier and breed bacteria that get spewed into the air along with water vapor. The minerals also can form a fine white powder that can lead to crusty deposits in the machine, which is another breeding ground for bacteria. These issues are more common with ultrasonic and impeller humidifiers.

Distilled water, available in grocery stores, has fewer minerals, but it’s not clear that it’s any better than tap water as long as you clean your humidifier regularly.

Controlling Humidity Levels

The humidity level in your home needs to be 30%-50%. Humidity that is too low can cause dry skin and eyes, static electricity, and cold-like symptoms such as sore throat and cough. If humidity is too high, the vapor in the air becomes water droplets, settling onto walls, floors, and furniture. These wet conditions can cause the growth of mold and bacteria in your house.

You can measure the moisture in your home's air with a tool called a hygrometer, which you can find at most hardware stores. Some humidifiers, called humidistats, have built-in hygrometers. A humidistat will track the moisture level in your room and make sure it stays in the 30%-50% range.

Humidifier Risks

Humidifiers can be hard to set up and use. Because they retain water to add moisture to the air, you'll need to clean the machine regularly to prevent mold growth. If you get respiratory symptoms, including a flu-like feeling, fever, cough, or difficulty breathing, after starting the use of a humidifier, turn it off and call your doctor.

 If you use a humidifier improperly, this machine can have several negative effects:

• Excess humidity can make allergies and asthma worse.
• Humidifiers kept in a small space can cause excess condensation, leading to the growth of bacteria and mold. 
• If you don’t clean your humidifier frequently, mold can also grow inside the machine before being blown around the house.

Humidifiers that use ultrasound technology leave a fine white dust, which can build up in your house over time. This is due to the minerals in tap water that are filtered and released back into the air. This is more likely to happen if you live in an area that has very hard water. Using distilled water in your unit reduces the amount of dust that collects as a result of humidifying.

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While humidifiers can be helpful in lots of ways, it’s important to keep them clean and well-maintained. A dirty humidifier can be a breeding ground for bacteria and mold, which can get sent out into the air where you can breathe them in. The same goes for the tiny minerals in bottled or tap water.

And don’t let the air get too humid as it can lead to condensation on walls and floors, providing a home for bacteria, mold, and dust mites. These can trigger allergies and be especially harmful if you have problems with your breathing, such as asthma. An air conditioner or dehumidifier can help even humidity out.

Humidifiers add moisture to the air. They can help people with dry skin, allergies, and respiratory problems. They may also help prevent influenza and reduce snoring, among other benefits.

Dry air can cause moisture to evaporate from the skin, worsening respiratory symptoms over time. A humidifier can counteract these problems by adding moisture to the air.

Humidifiers can help people who experience:

• dry skin
• irritated eyes
• dryness in the throat or airways
• allergies
• frequent coughs
• sinus headaches
• cracked lips

There are several ways to use humidifiers in the home or office, but there are also some risks.

In this article, learn about the benefits of humidifiers, how to use them correctly, and precautions to take.

Some people experience respiratory symptoms in the summer months, when the weather is hot, and the air contains more allergens. Air conditioners and fans can circulate dry air through the room, and air conditioners remove any moisture from the air, so a humidifier may be beneficial.

People can also benefit from a humidifier in the colder months, when cold, indoor air dries out the lungs, nose, and lips. Some types of central heating can also dry out the air.

Benefits of a humidifier may include:

Preventing influenza

Humidifiers may help to prevent virus outbreaks, such as influenza, or flu.

In a study, researchers collected air samples and frequently handled items, such as blocks and markers, from preschool classrooms, and tested them in a lab to see if they carried the flu virus. They humidified some classrooms, but not others, and called these the control rooms.

Air and objects collected from humidified classrooms contained far fewer influenza-positive samples than those from the control rooms. There were also fewer flu-like cases of illness in humidified rooms. This suggests that humidification may help control flu outbreaks, but more research is necessary to confirm a direct link.

Making a cough more productive

Dry air can cause a person to have a dry, unproductive cough. Adding humidity to the air can help moisten the airways, which can make a cough more productive. A productive cough releases trapped or sticky phlegm.

Reducing snoring

Increasing the amount of moisture in the air can also reduce snoring. If the air is dry, a person’s airways are less likely to be sufficiently lubricated, which can make snoring worse.

Adding humidity to the air by running a humidifier at night may help to relieve some symptoms.

Keeping the skin and hair moist

Some people notice that their skin, lips, and hair become dry and fragile in the winter.

Many types of heating units pump hot, dry air through the house or office, which can dry out the skin, making it itchy or flaky. Cold air outside can also dry out the skin.

Using a humidifier to add moisture to the indoor air may help reduce the occurrence of dry, cracked skin.

Benefits for the home

Moisture from a humidifier can be helpful around the home. Any moisture-loving houseplants may become more vibrant, and wood floors or furniture may last longer. Humidity can also help prevent wallpaper from cracking and static electricity from building up.

Humid air can also feel warmer than dry air, which could help save money on utility bills in the winter months.

All humidifiers add moisture to the air, but there are many types available, including:

• Steam vaporizers: These use electricity to turn water into steam, which they release as a mist. However, there is a risk of burning the skin, and people should avoid using steam vaporizers around children.
• Ultrasonic humidifiers: Instead of electricity, these units use vibrations to vaporize water.
• Evaporators: These produce humidity by blowing air past evaporating water.
• Impeller humidifiers: These are generally child-friendly and use rotating disks, rather than heat, to vaporize water.
• Central humidifiers: A person connects one of these units to the central air conditioning in the home or office to add moisture to the entire space.

Sizes can vary. Console humidifiers are large enough to add moisture to an entire house or office, while personal humidifiers are portable and easy to carry.

A humidifier can be a great way to add moisture to the air, but there are risks to consider.

Dirty humidifiers

Humidifiers turn water into breathable vapor in the air. If the unit’s water tank is dirty, the vapor a person breathes will also be dirty.

A dark, humid tank fosters germs, but regular cleaning can help prevent issues.

Always clean a humidifier thoroughly as directed by the manufacturer. Water should not sit in the humidifier for too long. If the humidifier has a filter, be sure to replace it often.

Too much humidity

Some humidity in the air can be a good thing, but excessive levels can make breathing difficult and worsen allergy symptoms. For example, common allergens, including dust mites, mold, and mildew, thrive in damp environments.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor humidity levels should be between 30 and 50 percent. Humidity levels above 60% are too high.

Anyone using a humidifier should also have a humidity meter, or hygrometer, in the room. Some humidifiers have built-in ways to measure humidity, while others require a stand-alone meter.

Using hard water or tap water

Many manufacturers recommend using only pure, clean water in their humidifiers. There are a few reasons for this.

Unfiltered tap water can contain higher levels of minerals and other particles than purified or distilled water.

Minerals from hard tap water can build up in the machine, causing it to wear down faster than expected.

The humidifier can also push these minerals into the air, and a person may inhale them. The particles may also settle around the room as dust.

Other risks

While using a humidifier can help with dry sinuses, it can also harm. Humid environments promote dust mites and mold growth, so if people are allergic to dust and mold or have asthma, using a humidifier could aggravate these conditions.

Some other risks associated with using a humidifier include steam burns from units that use heat and the growth of mold where moisture has accumulated on walls and ceilings.

It is essential to remember that humidifiers cannot treat underlying conditions, such as asthma. Although they may be beneficial, they should not replace medical treatment.

Anyone experiencing new or worsened symptoms when using a humidifier should discontinue using it and, if symptoms persist, contact a doctor.