Warm humidifiers that work pretty well?

[mtmartin71]

Mostly I have electrics. Just a few acoustic instruments and neither is expensive. The electrics are expensive though. The space I'm trying to address is a basement area that's 800 sq feet in total. The only thing I've found to get the proper volume to address that has been an AirCare evaporative style humidifier. Problem is, it cools the room to 64 degrees! Normally I should be around 66-67 in the basement. I don't have a vent directly in this room though. That's part of it. However, the evaporative humidifier by it's nature is cooling things too. Not great in the winter. Are there any warm mist style humidifiers that can humidify larger spaces that you folks like? I'm in CO so if I don't address it then the basement can do to below 30% humidity. I keep my instruments on hangers in my man cave.

 

[Dr. Tinnitus]

Mostly I have electrics. Just a few acoustic instruments and neither is expensive. The electrics are expensive though. The space I'm trying to address is a basement area that's 800 sq feet in total. The only thing I've found to get the proper volume to address that has been an AirCare evaporative style humidifier. Problem is, it cools the room to 64 degrees! Normally I should be around 66-67 in the basement. I don't have a vent directly in this room though. That's part of it. However, the evaporative humidifier by it's nature is cooling things too. Not great in the winter. Are there any warm mist style humidifiers that can humidify larger spaces that you folks like? I'm in CO so if I don't address it then the basement can do to below 30% humidity. I keep my instruments on hangers in my man cave.

Any room humidifier should cover you. 30% isn't that bad; I usually keep mine a 40% to save on constantly refilling the thing. All my electrics and acoustics don't seem to have any affect due to humidity changes over the past 5 years or so.

 

[mtmartin71]

Any room humidifier should cover you. 30% isn't that bad; I usually keep mine a 40% to save on constantly refilling the thing. All my electrics and acoustics don't seem to have any affect due to humidity changes over the past 5 years or so.

I've found the smaller mist/ionization models I've bought don't get that warm of air nor do they humidify this space that well. I've tried putting a space heater in this room to combat the cool air the evaporative humidifier is pushing, but that spiked my energy bill last time. 64 degrees can get pretty cold. At least it's consistent humidity and temp so my guitars stay in tune.

 

[gkoelling]

I have a Honeywell HCM350 and it does a decent job. I have to keep the heat vent closed in the basement room where I keep the guitars and it does get down to 64 degrees at night but it doesn't have a negative effect on the guitars.

Right now the humidity is 47% and the temp is 68. My guitars play better when kept in higher humidity. In summer the humidity can get up around 70% and they all play beautifully.

Oh, the Honeywell blows cool.

EDIT: The Honeywell uses filters that need changing monthly and cost $20 each at Home Depot. I buy them from https://www.airfilterllc.com/contact-us/ for roughly $30 per 4-pack delivered.

 

[rawkguitarist]

Someone with more thermodynamic understanding than me should chime in. But I don't believe there's any humidifier that could be warm. The very nature of the mist is that it would be cool because the water droplets are too small to retain any heat in the air.

And no matter how expensive the guitar is. Acoustic or electric. A dry environment will affect them negatively. Electrics it seems that the fret ends are where you really see the dry symptoms.

In the winter, I keep my office closed off and close the heating vent. I then aim for about 47 - 50% relative humidity. If it gets too cold in my office I turn on a little space heater I paid $20 for on Amazon.

 

[mtmartin71]

Someone with more thermodynamic understanding than me should chime in. But I don't believe there's any humidifier that could be warm. The very nature of the mist is that it would be cool because the water droplets are too small to retain any heat in the air.

And no matter how expensive the guitar is. Acoustic or electric. A dry environment will affect them negatively. Electrics it seems that the fret ends are where you really see the dry symptoms.

In the winter, I keep my office closed off and close the heating vent. I then aim for about 47 - 50% relative humidity. If it gets too cold in my office I turn on a little space heater I paid $20 for on Amazon.

Thanks...I think this confirms I need some other way to heat the room with a space heater or something. I'm guessing though that vacillating between 64 to 68 if I only turn it on when I'm in there will not be great either. So, I need a space heater that is on the safer side and can come on and off to regulate temps. The Current ones that I have don't really do that as well.

 

[Johnny_guitar]

I don't know what your budget is, but I've been using this one for years. It's pricey, but reliable, well made and easy to clean:

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/st...eg-steam-humidifier/1041469804?skuId=41469804

What's great about a a steam humidifier is that there are no filters to get nasty and moldy, and it's naturally antibacterial because of the steam.

 

[rawkguitarist]

Thanks...I think this confirms I need some other way to heat the room with a space heater or something. I'm guessing though that vacillating between 64 to 68 if I only turn it on when I'm in there will not be great either. So, I need a space heater that is on the safer side and can come on and off to regulate temps. The Current ones that I have don't really do that as well.

As far as I know temperature is much less of an issue than humidity changes. I practice every morning and its usually about 66 - 68 in my office. I turn my heater on with my cup of coffee and it warms up to about 70-72 in not a lot of time. I usually shut it off at that point too.

 

[mtmartin71]

I don't know what your budget is, but I've been using this one for years. It's pricey, but reliable, well made and easy to clean:

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/st...eg-steam-humidifier/1041469804?skuId=41469804

What's great about a a steam humidifier is that there are no filters to get nasty and moldy, and it's naturally antibacterial because of the steam.

That's funny you posted this one @Johnny_guitar . That's exactly the one I was looking at and wondering if it actually worked better than the under $100 ionizer types that said they had a warm mist option. How much space are you covering with that one? How much humidity level can you get to with it?

 

[KGWagner]

That's bad. I couldn't handle temps that low. Problem is, electric heat costs a mint, especially in a heatsink like a basement. But, if you can tolerate that and just want to raise the humidity, the one that's been working passably for me (after two other less effective units) is this Elechomes unit.

It tends to keep itself fairly clean and it will heat the vapor if you want it to (although it costs about 250W/hr to do so). The heated vapor really does nothing to warm things up, so I rarely use that feature. But, it raises the humidity from around 5%-10% to around 25%-30% in the second floor master bedroom which is about 500sq'. Holds 6 litres of water, which I have to fill about 2-3 times/day. Not sure where it's all going. I covered the cold air returns so as to keep the furnace from sucking in the atmosphere up here. But, it's the most effective unit so far. Evaporative was useless, a smaller ultrasonic was better, but didn't have as much effect as I wanted, and both those units grew mold/mildew internally like it was getting paid for it. Constant cleaning requirement. This one is as far as I'm going.

 

[Johnny_guitar]

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That's funny you posted this one @Johnny_guitar . That's exactly the one I was looking at and wondering if it actually worked better than the under $100 ionizer types that said they had a warm mist option. How much space are you covering with that one? How much humidity level can you get to with it?

I have a studio apartment, and I can get the humidity up to 50%.
It’s been trouble free for years.