How To Clean: A Humifidier

Even though I live on the east coast where, during the summer months at least, the humidity is enough to curl your hair - I still use my humidifier nearly all year round. In the winter months it provides a welcome reprieve from the dry frosty air outside and the even drier heat coming through our air ducts inside. In the summer months, our A/C is both a blessing and a curse, wringing every last drop of moisture out of the air while making our home frigid as an igloo. As such I have taken the habit of sleeping with a humidifier on nearly every night of the year. It does wonders for my health and skin, plus the wonderful white noise it produces helps me sleep. That is until it starts wheezing like an old man going uphill - at which point I know it's time to give it a bath.

Unless you are an heir to the Vanderbilt fortune, and can afford to have your butler Rutherford keep gallons of distilled water on hand for the sole purpose of filling up your humidifier - you will likely be refilling your humidifier from the kitchen sink. No matter how purified your tap water is there are still bound to be trace minerals in it, which over time will coalesce onto every surface of the inner working of your device. When this happens, the heating element that causes the water to evaporate will not work as well, and the chamber that passes water around the heating element will become clogged which means less humidity. Plus, your humidifier will begin to sound like a pensioner chasing after the jell-o cart in their nursing home.

The simple solution to dissolve and break apart all of this mineral buildup is to disassemble the unit, and soak all the parts that are scaled with mineral deposits in a mixture of 1 part warm water, to 2 parts vinegar.If you have it on hand, you can also add 2 tablespoons of oxy cleaner or borax to this solution (it will cause the solution to effervesce and loosen up the mineral deposits more quickly.) Let it soak for 1 to 2 hours, then clean away as much of the deposits as you can by hand (it should flake off easily at this point). For the rest, you can use a scouring sponge, but should be careful not to use anything more abrasive like steel wool or you may scratch or damage the heating element. Don't fret if you cannot loosen every last bit, just get off as much as you can and your machine will be good as new!

Just a note: Never use harsh chemicals when cleaning your humidifier, don't forget the principle of a humidifier is that it vaporizes whatever comes into contact with the heating element! Always consult your users manual to determine the correct way to disassemble and clean the unit.