Placing your humidifier in the right place will make all the difference in making your home environment comfortable. Put your humidifier in the center of your room on an elevated surface, away from electronic gadgets and direct sunlight. Use a warm mist system with caution and avoid using it near kids and pets.
Specifically, we recommend that you keep your humidifier at a distance of around 3 feet from your bed – although there's no inherent harm in placing it closer, if you're restricted on room.
Humidifiers are prone to spilling water and leaking. To prevent damaging your floor, you should keep a humidifier elevated off the floor. Pets or kids can easily knock the humidifier over if it's placed on the floor. Of course, cats are known to knock down stuff from tables as well; that's just their nature.
Never use in an enclosed space — leave bedroom doors open.
Outdoor Humidity
It depends. If the outdoor air is already humid, then opening the windows will almost certainly increase the moisture levels indoors. In that case, you may not need to run a humidifier when the windows are open.
Run the Humidifier Day and Night
During the season when air humidity levels are low, it's usually best to run the humidifier constantly, provided it has a built-in humidistat that senses air humidity levels and controls the output of the appliance.
The duration to run a humidifier varies, but typically, it's beneficial to run it for about 12 hours daily, usually overnight. Factors such as room size, current humidity levels, and personal health needs can influence the duration. Ensure the room's humidity stays between 30% and 50% to maintain a healthy environment.
Although running your humidifier all night is perfectly safe, there are humidifier safety tips to bear in mind: Monitor your home humidity levels: The optimal home humidity levels range from 40% to 60%. Humidity levels exceeding 60% create a breeding ground for mold and bacteria, which can infiltrate your home.
Many people automatically use tap water in a humidifier as it is easy and accessible but this does not come recommended by manufacturers. This is because tap water contains many invisible minerals, including magnesium, which can create buildup in your humidifier, resulting in limescale and mould.
Using a humidifier in the home can help relieve a stuffy nose and can help break up mucus so you can cough it up. Humidified air can relieve the discomfort of colds and the flu.
Since a humidifier increases moisture in the dry air around you, its use improves sleep and reduces the symptoms associated with dryness in the sinuses, nasal passages, and throat, which results in inflammation and swelling of the tissues.
Only water should be put in the tank of the humidifier. With most humidifiers, adding essential oils to the tank can breakdown the tank plastic and ruin the internal parts of the humidifiers. As an alternative, use Vicks VapoPads and Vicks VapoSteam with select humidifiers to get soothing Vicks vapors.
Also, don't hold your face directly above the appliance. Dr. Hartman suggests placing a humidifier at least 3 feet away. "The humidifier should be aimed to release moisture into the air so that the benefit is felt by the skin all over the body," he says.
Static in your hair or the sparks that fly when you touch someone or something in winter are sure signs the air in your house is too dry. Setting up a humidifier is your best bet for improving indoor air quality and your breathing, says pulmonologist Kathrin Nicolacakis, MD.
Yes, a humidifier will make your home too damp
Instead of balancing humidity around the 50–60% level, the system will push the humidity level higher, leading to the problems associated with muggy, moist air: water damage, mold and mildew growth, and warm temperatures feeling even warmer.
Leaving your humidifier running at night time has numerous benefits for your overall health and well-being. You'll have much better sleep, less infection risk, and moisturized skin. A better sleep experience: When your humidifier is switched on while you sleep at night, it maintains the room humidity.
Apart from the health benefits in the summer and winter, some people find that they simply sleep better with a humidifier running at night. Why is this? First, because maintaining the optimal humidity level increases your overall comfort when trying to fall asleep. It can help ease an itchy, irritated throat.
The higher up off the floor the humidifier is placed the better. It produces a mist that has to get mixed with the air. When the humidifier is placed on the floor, the mist has no chance to get mixed with the air and it causes wet floors. Try to put it on a nightstand or a table.
Using a humidifier for sleep helps reduce dryness and inflammation in the throat and nasal passage and soothes irritated airways, which can help lessen snoring. Adding moisture to the air may not eliminate snoring, but it can significantly reduce the noise and associated discomforts.
A humidifier is a necessity during the winter because the heated air from a furnace is dry. That dry air has a low humidity level that will absorb moisture from you and everything inside your home.
Water Deposits
If you live in an area with hard water, the minerals in the water can build up in your humidifier. Over time, these deposits can cause a musty smell. To remove these deposits, you'll need to descale your humidifier. This involves soaking the parts in a vinegar solution and then rinsing them thoroughly.
Using a hygrometer is the easiest way to measure the humidity in your home. The device measures humidity and temperature and is easy to use as a simple thermometer.
Ideally, your humidifier's water supply should be changed daily. If you don't use your humidifier every day, don't leave water in it. Just add water when you're preparing to use the unit. Generally speaking, however, cleaning is recommended every one to two weeks.