[superseeplus]

As someone living on the east coast and having a very sensitive nose, I have tried different humidifiers and sadly no humidifiers have been perfect. There are three main types of humidifiers:

1. Warm mist humidifiers boil water and generate steam which humidifies the air. But, they are a burn hazard and consume a lot of energy.

2. Cool mist (non ultrasonic) work like miniature swamp coolers. They are essentially fans which draw air through a wet paper wick. The Honeywell mentioned in the article is of this type. The fan is however very underpowered and it doesn’t work well in anything bigger than a small bedroom. Vornado makes a version with a much more powerful fan which works very well in large rooms, but their tanks are finicky and prone to breaking and leaking. The wick absorbs minerals in the water and will eventually have to be replaced.

3. Ultrasonic humidifiers: A vibrating diaphragm will aerosolize water. Unless you use distilled water, minerals in the water will turn into dust and reduce air quality.

I happen to like the non ultrasonic cool mist ones because they use less energy than the warm mist ones and replacing crusty wicks is cheaper than using distilled water in ultrasonic ones. The problem is everything currently on the market has issues. Any company making incremental improvements to existing cool mist humidifiers will probably get a lot of eager buyers.

[pmoriarty]

I have a very sensitive nose as well, and have stopped using humidifiers completely since one caused mold issues in my home.

What I do instead is use a nose clip (the kind swimmers wear).[1]

It doesn't look great, but when I'm alone I don't care. The price is right (only $6), there's no maintenance, no noise, no energy costs, no risk of developing mold in you home from too high a humidity.

It works great. Whenever my nose gets too dry I put it on and in maybe an hour or even less it's fine again. I also sometimes sleep with it on, when the air is dry enough to cause my nose pain.

[1] - https://www.amazon.com/Speedo-Competition-Nose-Clip-Charcoal...

[onnnon]

Breathing through your mouth is a terrible thing to do for your health. The nose does much, much more than just bringing oxygen into the lungs. Look it up.

[Danieru]

> Any company making incremental improvements to existing cool mist humidifiers will probably get a lot of eager buyers.

I don't buy that. Japan has a ton of high quality air cleaner combo cool mist humidifiers. We don't see these units sold in the US because Americans are cheap. The idea of paying 200$ for an air cleaner feels like a scam to American ears.

And thus the American market continues to race to the bottom.

[luisfmh]

Are there any of those Japanese ones you can buy in North America? Any brands you're aware of?

[zkms]

> Are there any of those Japanese ones you can buy in North America? Any brands you're aware of?

yeah, i'm curious as well.

[Danieru]

Alright since you guys asked I found the closest in spec Sharp model to my favorite domestic Sharp.

In America KC-850U: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003BF665Y/ref=emc_b_5_t

In Japan KC-H50-W: https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B077TC5PM8/ref=ppx_yo_dt...

The American offering is an extra 150$, but that buys you marketing videos with a fake scientist pouring baby powder through a filter onto a hepa filter. Japan gets no video at all. Otherwise the Ozone generator, carbon + hepa filters, wheel driven wick humidifier, and canister water tanks are all the same.

The Japanese model also includes modes to disable all lighting, switches between displaying humidity or energy consumption in either KWh or yen per day.

[freetime2]

Yup I have several of these sharp air filter/humidifiers and I find that they really improve the indoor air quality. It's very subtle, and for the most part you don't even notice a difference when they are running. But when I have accidentally left one turned off for a while I have definitely noticed when I woke up with a horrifically dry throat and nose, or come home to a very stale smelling house.

[JCharante]

In case anybody is wondering, it looks like the KC-H50-W can be shipped to the US straight from Amazon, but with the 11.4k yen shipping fee the total comes to ~$317.15. About $30 less than the American model.

[ajnin]

I wouldn't use an ultrasonic humidifier with non-distilled water in a living area. Those minerals will end up in your lungs and I'm not confident it won't accumulate and cause long term problems. The body can't eliminate at least some of them like silica. I don't know if you can actually end up with silicosis from that but that does not seem worth the risk.

[csours]

We used Ultrasonic humidifiers in a server room (to cut down on static risk) and I can confirm they get covered in minerals

[superseeplus]

Amazon reviews on ultrasonic humidifiers complained that their expensive home electronics died because of the dust.

[csours]

Hah, well I don't work there anymore. They did have reverse osmosis water filters on them, but no air filters.

[falcolas]

Turn them down (ideally to the point where you can barely see the mist). They don't have to run at full blast to be effective.

[specialist]

Whelp.

I just learned more about humidifiers from your comment than from reading zillions of reviews.

I seem to recall my brother's fish tank increased the humidity. Could a bucket with an aquarium style aerator also work?

--

Adding my thoughts here ("Yes, and...") because your input was most constructive.

Review sites could go even further. Start with the most basic DIY home build solutions possible. Just to show how things work. Like a reverse teardown. Even include some basic metrics and science. Like watts consumed, evaporative rates, etc.

Per the AQI problems, in China and Western USA (forest fires), there was a semi-viral video for a DIY air filter using just a box fan and bog standard air filter.

So many other products, appliances could receive similar treatment.

It'd be nothing to use a stove top to mock up at a warm mister. Ditto cool mister (bucket, old t-shirt, fan). And maybe repurpose a sonic tooth brush for an ultrasonic mister.

[fomine3]

Warm mist humidifiers consumers higher power but other humidifiers make air cooler by evaporation so anyway more heating is needed. So it's not too bad as you saw in specsheet.

To be fair, HVAC is very efficient (about x5) to heat compared to just a heater(Warm mist humidifier) so it's not efficient but acceptable for me.

[analog31]

About the energy, maybe you can throttle it with a timer and still get enough steam.

[gh02t]

They basically do that internally already, there's not much point.

The power usage is offset if you're primarily using them during the winter in that the energy used is all converted to heat. It's not gonna be as efficient as a heat pump so there is some loss, but the heat added is heat your HVAC doesn't have to provide so it's not exactly wasted. I haven't actually run the numbers to calculate the effective power used (how much energy it uses to generate the same amount of heat versus if a more efficient heat pump did it), but my hunch is that it ends up being quite a bit more competitive than it might first appear.

[analog31]

Ah, good point. The real cost difference is the difference between heating your house with electricity or gas (or your landlord's gas). I think of that when I run my oven in the winter too.