Humidifier Help Please!

[katie_fleming]

I'm going insane. Hoping someone can help lol.

I've bought a total of 3 different humidifiers for my apartment and countless filters...we're talking over $300 total in the last year. My apartment is SUPER dry in the winter and obviously not safe for Jasper.

The issue is that the water in this city is awful, full of minerals. So I had white dust EVERYWHERE in my apartment which I don't *think* is good for Jasper (or myself) to be breathing in.

So I tried a different type of humidifier with a filter but it didn't output enough (humidity ~20-30%). Then I bought a 3rd one that outputs a decent amount (~40-50% humidity depending on how cold it is outside) but the filters have to be changed every 2 weeks and cannot be cleaned. At $34/month for filters that's just not feasible for 7+ months of use.

Does anyone know of any ultrasonic humidifiers that has a filter that you can clean??

Is white dust in fact dangerous for Jasper to be breathing in?

Thanks!

 

[Kiwibird]

Use distilled or reverse osmosis water. A lot of fish/aquarium stores have R/O machines you can bring in your own container to refill, as do some grocery stores (be sure it is distilled/R/O and not just purified, which will still have minerals). I use it for my steam cleaner and vivarium, so I go in and fill a 5 gallon jug at a time. It's like 30 cents a gallon.

 

[katie_fleming]

I go through 2 gallons a day for my humidifier (day/night) and I don't have a car...going to a store all the time is impossible, and would cost me $30-$40 rountrip just to get there with a Car2Go! Thanks for the idea though

I had thought about buying a system but then the white dust still has to be expelled somewhere...

Maybe I should look at normal humidifiers again with cleanable filters and try to find one with a better output than the last one I had. What a nuisance!

 

[Kentuckienne]

I had a regular cheap-o humidifier and I used our mineral-rich well water in it. I had to clean it every few days, because the minerals formed black deposits on the electrodes/anodes/whatever they are, but it worked great. You probably don't need distilled water - most big box stores have a water dispenser thing where you put your own bottle in and get filtered tap water for cheap. A five gallon bottle should last a while, and doesn't generate the waste of purchasing individual bottles. You also might look into a water line filter. It's a one-time purchase. Our water is just too hard, so we put it through a softener, and then through a reverse-osmosis filter to get drinking water. Don't be tricked by the "magnetic" etc. devices that claim you just clamp them on the outside of the pipe to soften water - they don't work.

Many big hardware stores have free kits to test the water hardness. If you post the result, I could tell you what I have from my research. If you have a Costco membership (or maybe also Sam's, not sure about them, but either one you can find Groupon/Entertainment discount coupons) they have a bottled water delivery service that is a good value if the bottles are too heavy for you to lug.

 

[Flboy]

That is an idea! Go with the old steam type, not ultrasonic, unit. It will have to be cleaned every few days, but the minerals will be left behind!

 

[EllenD]

You've got really hard water, and the white dust is calcium. I own my home and have city water, and therefore have a huge water softener in my basement that all my water is run through, and I have to add salt pellets to it once a month. Honestly though, even with the huge water softener machine I still have white calcium deposits all over my faucets, dishes, everything. So you need to do what I did, as I too have to use a humidifier, and if I just put tap water through my humidifier, even after using the water softener, I'd have white calcium deposits everywhere. So I decided to take another approach: STOP TRYING TO GET RID OF THE CALCIUM DEPOSITS AT THE HUMIDIFIER, IT WON'T HAPPEN AND YOU'LL SPEND A FORTUNE TRYING! YOU NEED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM WITH THE WATER YOU'RE PUTTING INTO THE HUMIDIFIER, THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO STOP IT!

I'm kind of a professional on this topic because I had to be out of force... I've had chronic kidney stones since I was 18 years old, I've had surgeries to remove them, and I've probably passed around 75-100 stones that caused enough problems and horrible pain that I was aware of them. Many a night in the ER hooked up to pain meds, fluids, and antibiotics...uhg. So when I look at the water coming out of my humidifier and I see it dry, this is how I gauge what not only I'm drinking but what my birds and dogs are drinking. So far, after installing a water filter that is specifically made to filter out hard water on every faucet in my house, I've had no more white dust in my house, or any visible in my dog's or my bird's bowls.

I have vehicles and I drive, so I actually go to Walmart once a month and buy 15 gallon-sized jugs of purified drinking water for my birds and dogs. If you go to the soda aisle in any Walmart they have one side of the aisle that is nothing but gallons of their brand (Great Value) of spring water, purified water (what I buy), and distilled water (just as good). They cost $0.88 a gallon, so for $13.20 a month I don't have to worry about my pets. Now 15 gallons covers all the drinking water as well as any water I might use to mix or make food for the birds, for an Australian Cattle Dog, a Shar Pei, a green cheek conure, a Quaker parrot, a cockatiel, a Senegal parrot, 7 pet budgies, and 8 breeder budgies. So obviously if you only have one bird then you could probably get away with 5 gallons a month easily, and they actually sell a 5-gallon container of purified water for $4.00 I believe. So whenever you go for groceries every month you could just buy 5 gallons of purified water for Jasper's drinking water for the month, plus another 5 gallons to run in the humidifier, all for under $10 a month. That's a hell of a lot cheaper than changing filters in a humidifier every month, and it's likely changing that filter does little if anything for hard water. So this is option #1, and it's actually a cheap, safe solution for Jasper's drinking water and for completely keeping the white calcium deposits out of your house. Option #2 is buying water faucet filter specifically made to eliminate hard water. This is much more expensive than just buying purified water for your humidifier every month, but it will make your drinking water safe for you, Jasper, and everyone else, as well as totally eliminating any calcium deposits coming out of your humidifier and then into your house.

I bought the first one at Lowes I believe, and if I remember I paid a fortune for it, but it was immediately noticeable that I had no white junk coming out of or collecting in/on the humidifier after I added tap water that went through the filter to it. So I then got online and bought the same filter for both my bathroom sink faucets (I put the first one on my kitchen sink faucet). I believe I bought them on EBay, same filter I got at Lowes, and I got them for half the price. Where they get you is you then have to change the filter elements every month in these as well, and they aren't cheap, though they don't cost as much as humidifier filters, I believe I pay around $10 a filter. Do a Google search for "hard water faucet filter" and you'll get multiple to choose from.

Honestly, if I was in your situation (renting and mostly concerned about what's coming out of the humidifier into your apartment), I would stop buying humidifiers and filters for them, because you're never going to find one that will eliminate the calcium deposits that result from you putting hard water into the humidifier. It's virtually impossible to eliminate hard water without chemically treating it with sodium and changing it at a molecular level. If I were you I would just buy gallon jugs of purified water every month and only run this purified water through whichever humidifier you like the best. At $0.88 a gallon for purified water at Walmart you can't beat it. I know you said you don't have a car but you must go and get groceries monthly somehow, so I would just add the purified water to your monthly shopping list and be done with it. I don't know how often you run your humidifier, but even if you had to buy 10 gallons of purified water it would only cost you $8.88 at Walmart, and you would probably have enough to also give this to Jasper as his drinking water too.

"Dance Like Nobody's Watching"

 

[katie_fleming]

Thank you for the detailed reply! Greatly appreciated. This has been such an annoying problem.

So a few issues, #1 like I mentioned I don't have a car, but I don't actually have to go far to get my groceries, my building is connected to a mall with a grocery store They do not sell any water there though to refill jugs. I can buy distilled water in jugs at about $0.90/gallon but this leads to...

#2 I go through 2-3 gallons over a 24 hour period. Yes, it takes that much water to get the humidity to stay in the 40's in here

I've never heard of the faucet filters, I will do some googling and see what I can find.

Alternatively I got talking with my Dad about this, and like flboy mentioned one of the humidifiers where it collects inside and you have to clean it might also be a great option. I'm going to check what options there are for hot mist ones.

I'm kind of curious what everyone else in my building does, because I've certainly seen lots of people carrying in humidifiers every winter but they must be going through filters like crazy as well.

Damn water!!

Thank you for your help! And I'm really sorry to hear about all the kidney stones, that's awful

 

[EllenD]

Yeah, kidney stones are one thing you never get used to, and the hard water makes it so much worse. It's like I have changed my diet drastically and take special vitamins, supplements, and medications to just have it undone by the hard water...have you ever spoken to your landlord? I hate to say it, but it's possible that half or some of the building runs on a water softener and you don't. Usually people complain about hard water because you can't lather up soap or shampoo very well and you end up with flat hair or hair with that residue all through it, and a slimy coating all over your body. It's nasty. I went from growing up with awesome water in a little rural town, to this horrible, white, hard city water. And the bummer about the water softener is that I can taste the salt in the water...yuck.

Yeah, check out the faucet filters, like I said, they make ones that specialize in removing the calcium deposits, and overall they're a lot cheaper than the humidifier filters. They install right on the end of your kitchen faucet, and there is a little switch on the side of the filter that essentially "turns the filter on", meaning if it's flipped the water that comes out of the faucet is diverted through the filter. You can run it normally too by flipping it off, and I turn it off to water plants, for bathing the dogs, anything I can do to save on filters. But it really does seem to eliminate the white junk. The best test is that I have colored drinking glasses, like clear dark blue, red, green, purple, etc., and my wine glasses are the same, so I'll fill them with water run through the filter, then pour it out and let the glass air dry. No white residue at all, unlike when I just do the same with water straight from the faucet, which will result in a totally white inside of the glass.

No matter what you do, I hope you figure it out because I know how awful and frustrating this issue is. The worst is when I have people over and I pull dishes out of the dish washer, and their glasses, plates, and silverware have that white junk all over them! Embarrassing!

I didn't realize you used that much water in your humidifier, wow, you have dry air!!!

"Dance Like Nobody's Watching"

 

[katie_fleming]

So I've decided to give this humidifier a try...it's pretty expensive but since it boils the water first the minerals will collect in the tray and I can clean it out. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00HGDRUZ2/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Apparently others with hard water highly recommended it as well so I'll give it a go, and at least if it's not working I can return it within 30 days LOL.

I'll also look into getting the faucet filter for his drinking water. I use Brita always but I know it doesn't remove the minerals.

It's funny, I didn't know I had hard water until I started using a desktop fountain and then the first humidifier, because it's not noticeable to me otherwise. I didn't even KNOW what hard water was before LOL

 

[Flboy]

Costco sells a RO system that mounts under the sink.
Premier 5-stage Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration System

Big discounts every couple months.

 

[katie_fleming]

Thank you!

 

[EllenD]

Costco sells a RO system that mounts under the sink.
Premier 5-stage Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration System

Big discounts every couple months.

This is a very good system, my mom has it!

"Dance Like Nobody's Watching"