I have used this for the last 3 years with no issue in the winter. Easily getting the upstairs to around 50% humidity.
Essick Air MA0800 Digital Whole-House Console-Style Evaporative Humidifier, White https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002...9S?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

This year can't get past 37% run it on high all day every day.

Need to get rid of these morning bloody noses.

Coconut oil in the nostrils on a q-tip works for me.

Or petroleum jelly

You put a new wick in every Year? We use one like that. When outside temps approach 0 it won't go over 40 percent.

I now nothing about stand alone humidifiers, but I have an Aprilaire humidifier on my forced air furnace. According to my Nest Tstat it is currently maintaining 35% humidity, no bloody noses, no static shocks.

Despite having a "whole house" humidifier in my living room, I keep a small cheapie going in my bedroom at night. Makes a huge difference and costs very little.

Have you replaced the wick/filter? If not, you should. I do this every year now on similar styled humidifier I run with much better results. I throw it out at season end and make sure I either have a new one on hand or order one to store with the humidifier so I'm not wandering around the next fall looking for it.

Since, I'm assuming, it got to 50% in the past and now it's not, the humidifier should be capable, but just in case there's a new variable...

(Warning: Long-ish story...)

For years I worked to keep our inside humidity at 50%. Then, one winter, one particularly cold winter, I noticed water dripping from the ceiling on the north and west edges of the northwest room in the house. Assumed ice dams. Doubled-down on snow raking. Happened again two seasons later. "What?" I said. "There can't be any ice dams up there. We've barely had any snow." Put a ladder up and looked. Not much up there. As I was up there my wife yelled up "It's also happening in the guest bedroom!" Poked my head over the hip of the roof and there was no snow, much less ice, there at all.

Then it hit me. What was happening was condensation.

Replaced the humidistat with a Honeywell HumidiPRO, that automatically adjusts the inside humidity to safe/sane/reasonable levels based on outside temperature, and the problem went away.

Here's Honeywell's recommendations for indoor relative humidity vs. outdoor temperature.



Right now the outside temperature is about 20°F and the indoor RH is about 36%.

Depending upon what your construction can handle you may be able to tweak that up, at bit, or may have to tweak it down. Condensation along the bottoms of windows is kind of a canary in the coal mine sign that it might be too high.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ensigmatic,

Also, do you follow the cleaning instructions for it? It might just be clogged up with all kinds of water scale. They can get pretty nasty pretty quickly depending on the water you're putting in there.

Dumb question, is it a new filter/wick thingy? The get less effective as the build gunk on them.

Timely question -- my home humidity is currently 30% and I think it's affecting me. I feel all dried up and feel generally off my game and low-energy.

Is 30% low enough to cause physical symptoms? Outside temps have been in the 40s.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Dumb question, is it a new filter/wick thingy? The get less effective as the build gunk on them.

Yup brand new.
The humidifier is fresh out of storage too. It was properly cleaned and descaled prior to being put away. Freshly wiped down before use and the proper water treatment is done.

quote:

Originally posted by Copefree:
Timely question -- my home humidity is currently 30% and I think it's affecting me. I feel all dried up and feel generally off my game and low-energy.

Is 30% low enough to cause physical symptoms? Outside temps have been in the 40s.

Yup. Add morning bloody noses to that and you and I are rowing the same boat.

Get a 150 gallon fish tank, with a fish tank heater. You'll have a constant source of humidity and something interesting to look at. LOL

evaporative humidifiers never did much for me. These ultrasonic ones are great though.


The "hot" humidifiers always make you feel like you're in a sauna. These ultrasonic ones just send off the little steamy-looking stream of water. We keep ours on a shelf in our room, fill it up each night, and keep it running on medium/low-ish.

I bought mine from CVS. the ones at walmart seem to fuck up pretty fast, or are just small.

They're like this one, but not Vick's branded. usually they're around $50

Oh, it probably wouldn't be whole-house though. We have one in the baby's room and one in the kids' room, with one in our room, too.

A word of warning on the ultrasonics - they work by vaporizing the water, not by evaporating it. Unlike evaporation, with vaporizing, the water and anything in it is vaporized. So if you have hard, scaly water, the hard scaly stuff gets vaporized too, and it has to go somewhere. You'll notice it settling out on your furniture, electronics, etc., and everywhere else.

quote:

Originally posted by IntrepidTraveler:
A word of warning on the ultrasonics - they work by vaporizing the water, not by evaporating it. Unlike evaporation, with vaporizing, the water and anything in it is vaporized. So if you have hard, scaly water, the hard scaly stuff gets vaporized too, and it has to go somewhere. You'll notice it settling out on your furniture, electronics, etc., and everywhere else.

Exactly why we quit using them. Fine white dust covered everything.