Please redirect if there is a more appropriate community for this question.
I’m dealing with dry air, and the humidifiers I had bought before got the tiniest grits of dust or something in them and leaked their whole tank of water. Turns out they needed purified water or distilled water to function long term.
I just want to put tap water into a thing and get humidity into the air. Any suggestions?
Tap water is filled with minerals that get left behind when the water evaporates into the air. So your choice is purified water or you’re going to have to manually clean out all those minerals that accumulate inside the device.
Maybe get yourself a nice reverse osmosis filter. Run that water in your humidifier, coffee maker, ice maker and anything else mechanical that requires water. It’ll make all your devices last much longer. I used to have to add a little tap water to a keurig the first few times I used it because the water was so clear the sensor thought the reservoir was empty.
That purifier isn’t cheap but you probably only need a small one that produces a few gallons a day. Barring that, someone’s suggestion about boiling water in a pan is probably your best bet. The stuff in your water will eventually gum up any device you put it in.