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?

  • @[email protected]
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    287 hours ago

    I’ve never heard of a humidifier leaking because of not using purified water.

    Humidifiers that use ultrasonic elements to vaporize water can, as I understand it, get buildup from residue. You can get a white dust from them. But I wouldn’t expect them to leak.

    I’ve never had any issue with use of tap water in humidifiers. I’ve used the variety that just wicks water up into a material and has a fan blow through it. Those shouldn’t even have the dust potential.

    • Tar_Alcaran
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      74 hours ago

      It depends on how hard your water is. The calcium can cause any seal to not be a seal for long

      • snooggums
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        53 hours ago

        I can’t think of a humidifier I’ve owned that had seals for the water, just a bucket/bowel to hold the water and a thing on top that blew air out.

        • Tar_Alcaran
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          43 hours ago

          I’ve had one that had a big bucket that had a valve at the bottom. If that doesn’t sit flush, I can picture it leaking pretty easily.

      • @[email protected]
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        33 hours ago

        Why would calcium cause a seal to leak? I just searched for “calcium seal leak water” and nothing comes up.

  • @[email protected]
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    156 hours ago

    Are you talking about an ultrasonic humidifier? AFAIK, those shoot out tiny water particles along with any bacteria that might be present, creating a health risk. You’re meant to only use distilled water with those.

    • @[email protected]
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      13 hours ago

      That’s why you change the water daily. If your tap water is chlorinated it can be assumed to be safe enough for atomizing.

    • Rhynoplaz
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      46 hours ago

      I’m confused. How is putting bacteria from water in the air worse than drinking the bacteria in the water directly?

      • @FooBarrington
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        176 hours ago

        Your stomach kills bacteria etc., while your lung doesn’t have a comparable mechanism

        • @voracitude
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          23 hours ago

          That is simply not correct in any way, shape, or form.

          https://www.nature.com/articles/ni.3069

          In addition to housing an extensive retinue of cells of the adaptive immune system, the lungs have other critical defensive abilities provided by the respiratory epithelial cells. Whitsett and Alenghat describe how the respiratory epithelium juggles its role as the surface of gaseous exchange with its ability to actively combat infectious agents and harmful particulate matter. On its most basic level, the epithelium represents a physical barrier that produces mucus, which entangles and sweeps away damaging agents via the action of the mucus ‘escalator’. However, even surfactant proteins, which are involved mainly in diminishing surface tension, ‘moonlight’ as antimicrobial molecules and are able to opsonise bacteria. The respiratory epithelium is also able to directly sense pathogens and respond via the release of antimicrobial peptides or signal escalation of the immune response through their production of the cytokines TSLP, IL-25 and IL-33. Collectively, these innate processes are usually able to maintain near-sterility of the lungs without the intervention of ‘conventional’ cells of the immune system.

          It’s not necessarily “more dangerous” to breathe pathogens than consume them, the issue with evaporative humidifiers is that they don’t get cleaned as much as they should so the bacteria keep growing and growing and spraying more and more into the air until they overwhelm your immune system and make you sick. By contrast, you eat something bad and it’s one and done and out of your system (usually, assuming it’s not really nasty).

  • @Bonesince1997
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    45 hours ago

    I use a humidifier by AIRCARE. A bit more doing than a simple tabletop, but nothing too complex. It’s a base unit that sits on the floor. Has a removable tank that I fill directly from the tap. I do add a bacteria/algae treatment to about every other fill. Need to replace a filter about once a month (I try to extend it a little longer). And then after the season (about 3-4 months over the winter) I clean the unit. They make different ones, and they’re generally much more powerful than a tabletop unit, albeit with a larger footprint.

  • @[email protected]
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    137 hours ago

    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.

  • Monkey With A Shell
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    56 hours ago

    Never had one leak, usually it’s the wick or heating elements that get crusty. Or if you have the cool mist type, everything in the room gets a dusting.

    A lot of it usually comes from things like Calcium or Limestone and can be pretty readily cleaned off with some vinegar.

  • @gnomesaiyan
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    7 hours ago

    Maybe filter it first through a Brita or similar water purifier? I’m lazy and just been buying distilled water off the shelf because my well water isn’t so hot and I don’t feel like replacing four humidifiers every year. The buildup is gross.

  • @[email protected]
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    25 hours ago

    Ours came with this little brick thing that I think is supposed to keep mineral buildup from accumulating, but the company stopped making that humidifier and we can’t buy any more of the bricks. We’ll probably be shopping for another one next season. :(

    • @voracitude
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      2 hours ago

      The brick was probably just citric acid. Buy a bag from your local supermarket, you’ll find it in the kitchen section probably as a crystalline powder, and dump some of that in the humidifier water to also prevent buildup.

      Fun fact, you can also run a larger amount of it through your empty dishwasher instead of those dishwasher cleaner packs; those are mostly citric acid too. Cheaper, and no horrible fake lavender scent or whatever it is they like to put in the packs.

      Edit: the bricks could also have been hypochlorous acid which is available from various vendors:

      • https://berkshireezbleach.com/
      • https://efchlor.com/water-purification/
      • https://effersan.com
  • @[email protected]
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    57 hours ago

    Do you have a fireplace or a stove for heating anywhere? My family always used a pan of water on top of those in the winter

    • @DavidGA
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      27 hours ago

      That’s incredibly expensive at todays energy prices.

      • @[email protected]
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        46 hours ago

        Oh, I think that largely depends where you live. Some places it’s much cheaper than gas or electric to heat your home. If that’s how you were already heating your home some water on top is easy

  • @NeoNachtwaechter
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    37 hours ago

    VENTA’s take normal water plus their own special additive. They are pretty good if you accept to buy this extra fluid regularly.

    • @voracitude
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      3 hours ago

      Read the ingredients of this liquid. It’s probably just a bacteriostatic, meaning it’s simple chemicals designed to keep bacterial populations low between scheduled cleanings.

      You can probably make your own by buying the ingredients and mixing them yourself. One of the most important is citric acid which you can get in the kitchen section of any supermarket; dump some in water and it makes a really good cleaning solution, and a few grains goes nice in a drink of water too (just a few grains though, it’s pretty strong stuff).

      • @NeoNachtwaechter
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        23 hours ago

        Read the ingredients of this liquid

        Sure. If you tell me, I’m going to read… (no, they don’t tell)

        • @voracitude
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          22 hours ago

          It’s a little hard to read but I think it says:

          There seem to be health concerns about quaternary ammonium compounds, so in looking at alternatives I found reference to hypochlorous acid which is available in product form:

          Seems safe and effective: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypochlorous_acid

          There doesn’t appear to be a reason not to mix hypochlorous and citric acids - it’s not like mixing ammonia and chlorine which makes deadly chlorine gas - but I’m not sure if mixing them would improve efficacy.

          Just don’t use hypochlorous acid in your dishwasher, it starts to decompose into chlorine gas (and water, but the chlorine gas is the worry) above approximately 100°F.

  • @Impronoucabl
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    37 hours ago

    This really depends on your tap water; in some places tap water is clean enough to work, but it seems yours is not. If you want something to just set and forget, you’ll probably need to do more localised research. E.g Hardness, turbidity, etc.