Humidifier is a household device providing a wide range of benefits for your health, beauty and furniture maintenance. It disperses an appropriate amount of moisture to balance the humidity in your room. It is especially effective in cold and dry days of winter. Humidifiers are divided into different types, depending on the technology used to make them and the functions of them.
There are four main types of top rated humidifiers, including warm-mist, cool-mist, ultrasonic and evaporative humidifiers.
1. Warm-mist humidifier
This type of humidifier use an inside heating system to boil the water before releasing steam into the air. The humidity is dispersed under warm fine mist. It is ideal humidifier in cold winter when you need some to heat up your room. It can be used to replace your heater. Besides, it is designed with ultraviolet antimicrobial features which can kill germs and dust and bacteria in water before evaporating into the air.
Pros: the warm mist from humidifier is able to increase the temperature in the room; it is helpful for people having cold and flu. Also, it provides great soothing effect for people suffering physical pains or some sore on the body. Moreover, the risks of bacteria and mould can be removed as the boiling process kills waterborne bacteria and mould before it vapors to the air you breathe.
Cons: because it filters the water to eliminate the germs and bacteria, some minerals can also be left behind before releasing to the air. Besides, this humidifier is limited in uses in summer, when the weather is hot. Also, the noise made by the boiling water can be slightly disturbing, especially if used in a bedroom. Moreover, the hot boiled water can cause some risk of burns, especially for children.
2. Cool-mist humidifier
This type applies the principles of natural evaporation. It is designed with a wicking filter that sits in its base to absorb water. It provides moisture into the room by dispersing clean water in the filter. The filter traps any type of impurities in the water to make sure that you’ll have cleaner air that’s free of minerals and impurities.
Cons: it is the most ideal type in cleaning effect. It works the best in purifying the air and killing the harmful factors such as bacteria and pathogens but still remaining some good minerals of water. Also, it can cool down the heat slightly in summer days. And also, its price is less expensive than warm-mist humidifiers.
Pros: Water must be changed every day to keep the humidifier free of harmful mould and bacteria.
3. Ultrasonic humidifier
It is considered as the most energy-efficient type. It is featured with a water-storage and a oscillating plates. It uses sound vibration to vibrate the plate and transform water into super fine mist. Then the mist will be blown into the air by a fan. Especially, this type can produce both cool-mist and warm-mist, depending on your choice.
Pros: provide moisture under the shape of extreme fine mist for your room; you can comfortably choose warm-mist or cool-mist functions; it doesn’t make noise when operating and works very silently; it can be used as an essential oil diffuser.
Cons: the only problem of this type is it produces white dust as a by-product which can cause a serious danger for people with breathing problems, and this white-dust can also be fallen on floors and furniture. However, the latest andadvanced-technological ultrasonic diffusers have been improved this problem.
4. Evaporative humidifier
This type operates by using a fan to evaporate water into the air. And before that, water is absorbed and changed into fine mist by a filter wick. There are two sub-types of evaporative: one with porous filter and the other with rotating disc. The rotating disc one is normally called air-washer humidifier. They are both great in providing humidity, but in maintenance aspects, rotating disc seems to be more preferable because the porous filter is easy to get polluted by dust, loss hair, dead skin, etc., while rotating disc is made of hard plastic, which makes them easy to clean.
Pros: its advantages are as the same as ultrasonic humidifier. However, the evaporative humidifier only produces cool-mist.
Cons: it creates noise of the fan running which can disturb some people, especially when sleeping.
Conclusion
Each type of humidifier has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, according to a lot of reviews, ultrasonic humidifier is the only one close to perfect level. It can produce not only cool-mist but also warm-mist. This type is manufactured with innovative and energy-efficient technologies, featured by multi-functional program, giving you the most convenient use. However, its price is higher than the three others, which is also an issue for you to consider. Thẻ three remainders are also greats one, and worth for you to think about before purchasing one.
