1 00:00:00,099 --> 00:00:03,439 This video certainly won’t be very… dry. 2 00:00:03,439 --> 00:00:03,952 [ oof ] 3 00:00:03,952 --> 00:00:06,641 I’ve had a bit of an epiphany in recent days. 4 00:00:06,641 --> 00:00:10,834 See, over the summer I made a video about this stupid thing. 5 00:00:10,834 --> 00:00:13,505 You can check it out if you like (links are in all the places) 6 00:00:13,505 --> 00:00:19,143 but as a quick recap, this is what purports to be a "personal air conditioner" 7 00:00:19,143 --> 00:00:24,540 but in fact it's a teeny tiny evaporative cooler, also known as a swamp cooler. 8 00:00:24,540 --> 00:00:27,099 And that’s why they’re, well, 9 00:00:27,099 --> 00:00:27,599 silly! 10 00:00:27,599 --> 00:00:29,805 Unless you live in a really arid place, 11 00:00:29,805 --> 00:00:34,558 adding moisture to the air is exactly the wrong way to achieve cooling. 12 00:00:34,558 --> 00:00:39,813 These things are by and large a waste of headspace, desk pace, and plastic. 13 00:00:39,813 --> 00:00:42,209 Just… don’t. 14 00:00:42,209 --> 00:00:44,082 Fast forward to a few weeks ago. 15 00:00:44,082 --> 00:00:46,457 Winter’s rearing its ugly head here in the midwest 16 00:00:46,457 --> 00:00:49,510 which means the air’s getting uncomfortably dry. 17 00:00:49,510 --> 00:00:52,396 I ventured out to the exotic lands of Walmart 18 00:00:52,396 --> 00:00:55,002 to buy a cheap humidifier for my bedroom. 19 00:00:55,002 --> 00:00:56,878 In fact, 20 00:00:56,878 --> 00:00:58,301 this one! 21 00:00:58,301 --> 00:01:01,477 Now, it claims to emit “invisible cool mist” 22 00:01:01,477 --> 00:01:03,438 which, ok. 23 00:01:04,313 --> 00:01:05,205 Sure. 24 00:01:05,939 --> 00:01:07,773 I went to set it up and, lo and behold, 25 00:01:07,773 --> 00:01:09,764 the thing’s just a swamp cooler. 26 00:01:09,764 --> 00:01:14,545 This is, almost uncannily, the exact same device as the personal cooler, 27 00:01:14,545 --> 00:01:18,542 save for a much larger water tank and fan. 28 00:01:18,542 --> 00:01:19,424 Huh. 29 00:01:19,791 --> 00:01:23,092 Yep, this thing is almost stupidly simple and I love it. 30 00:01:23,092 --> 00:01:24,291 There are three basic parts: 31 00:01:24,291 --> 00:01:25,642 the water tank, 32 00:01:25,642 --> 00:01:27,753 the body which contains the fan, 33 00:01:27,753 --> 00:01:30,037 and the water absorbing matrix. 34 00:01:30,263 --> 00:01:33,768 A plastic base provides support for the three parts to come together. 35 00:01:33,909 --> 00:01:36,907 The matrix, which Equate calls a filter but that’s... 36 00:01:37,867 --> 00:01:38,955 a silly name, 37 00:01:38,955 --> 00:01:41,150 sits in a shallow pool of water 38 00:01:41,150 --> 00:01:44,553 and capillary action causes that water to travel up the material 39 00:01:44,553 --> 00:01:46,550 and soak the entire thing. 40 00:01:46,550 --> 00:01:51,152 This wicking action is why more sensible humidifier manufacturers call this… 41 00:01:51,152 --> 00:01:51,652 John. 42 00:01:51,652 --> 00:01:53,350 Sorry, the wick. 43 00:01:53,350 --> 00:01:57,390 In operation, the fan pulls air through the damp wick. 44 00:01:57,390 --> 00:02:00,051 The large surface area of the wick helps the water it holds 45 00:02:00,051 --> 00:02:02,029 evaporate into the air more quickly, 46 00:02:02,029 --> 00:02:06,024 and the fan makes this go even quicklier by constantly moving air through it. 47 00:02:06,024 --> 00:02:09,959 As the water evaporates, the wick continues to absorb more water. 48 00:02:09,959 --> 00:02:14,734 The water tank allows for continuous operation by constantly replenishing the pool of water 49 00:02:14,734 --> 00:02:18,774 and keeping it at a consistent height, at least until it runs out. 50 00:02:18,774 --> 00:02:24,770 Its shape contains a void for the wick, and the tank’s carrying handle then becomes the air intake. 51 00:02:24,770 --> 00:02:25,986 Quite clever! 52 00:02:26,522 --> 00:02:29,912 That said, this isn’t a very good humidifier. 53 00:02:30,110 --> 00:02:32,215 It just isn’t capable of much output: 54 00:02:32,215 --> 00:02:36,446 it takes about two days running at its high setting to go through the entire tank 55 00:02:36,446 --> 00:02:39,409 contrary to its “up to 24 hour” runtime. 56 00:02:39,409 --> 00:02:41,341 That makes it appropriate for small rooms, 57 00:02:41,341 --> 00:02:42,414 but not much else. 58 00:02:42,414 --> 00:02:45,405 In fairness, they did say that on the box. 59 00:02:45,405 --> 00:02:50,576 Now, I wanted to get something larger - something capable of humidifying my entire home. 60 00:02:50,576 --> 00:02:55,518 And it turns out that most whole-house humidifiers use the same concept as this one, 61 00:02:55,518 --> 00:02:56,870 but scaled up. 62 00:02:56,870 --> 00:02:59,909 Through them, I’ve apparently discovered one of those cases 63 00:02:59,909 --> 00:03:03,796 where the simplest idea is the most effective. 64 00:03:03,796 --> 00:03:05,286 Let’s back up a minute. 65 00:03:05,286 --> 00:03:08,233 Why do I want a humidifier in the first place? 66 00:03:08,233 --> 00:03:13,377 Many of you across the world probably think that wanting to add moisture to the air is insane. 67 00:03:13,377 --> 00:03:15,961 You probably live some place where it’s hot and humid. 68 00:03:15,961 --> 00:03:16,461 Fun fact! 69 00:03:16,461 --> 00:03:18,990 It’s hot and humid here, too! 70 00:03:18,990 --> 00:03:20,707 In the summer… 71 00:03:20,707 --> 00:03:23,276 yeah we get the worst of both worlds. It’s great! 72 00:03:23,276 --> 00:03:25,653 In the winter, though, nature conspires against us 73 00:03:25,653 --> 00:03:28,712 and makes the air often unbearably dry. 74 00:03:28,712 --> 00:03:34,314 See, when we talk about humidity we almost always talk in terms of relative humidity. 75 00:03:34,314 --> 00:03:38,393 It’s expressed as a percentage, indicating how much moisture is in the air 76 00:03:38,393 --> 00:03:41,327 compared to air’s ability to hold moisture. 77 00:03:41,327 --> 00:03:43,596 When relative humidity is 50%, 78 00:03:43,596 --> 00:03:46,777 the air is therefore holding half of the water that it can. 79 00:03:46,777 --> 00:03:49,104 It’s 50% moist. 80 00:03:49,104 --> 00:03:52,292 When it’s 100%, the air is fully saturated 81 00:03:52,292 --> 00:03:54,809 and can no longer take on any moisture. 82 00:03:54,809 --> 00:03:58,214 We use relative humidity because it correlates with how our bodies 83 00:03:58,214 --> 00:04:02,223 and in fact pretty much everything “feels” humidity. 84 00:04:02,223 --> 00:04:04,412 But, and here’s where nature sneaks up on ya, 85 00:04:04,412 --> 00:04:08,627 the ability for air to hold moisture varies with its temperature. 86 00:04:08,627 --> 00:04:11,546 Warm air can hold more moisture than cold air: 87 00:04:11,546 --> 00:04:19,197 at 20 degrees Celsius, or 68 Fahrenheit 1 kilogram of air can hold approximately 15 grams of water vapor. 88 00:04:19,197 --> 00:04:25,612 At zero degrees Celsius, or 32 Fahrenheit, it can only hold about 5 grams - roughly a third. 89 00:04:25,612 --> 00:04:29,355 That means that at the same relative humidity, say 50%, 90 00:04:29,355 --> 00:04:34,430 the air outside can only hold a third of the moisture that the air in your home can. 91 00:04:34,430 --> 00:04:38,650 Now, because the air in your home is ultimately the same air as outside, 92 00:04:38,650 --> 00:04:42,116 you’re at the mercy of how humid the outdoor air is. 93 00:04:42,116 --> 00:04:45,671 And when you heat that air up to make a living space more comfortable, 94 00:04:45,671 --> 00:04:47,696 you increase its ability to hold moisture, 95 00:04:47,696 --> 00:04:50,875 but not the actual amount of moisture it contains. 96 00:04:50,875 --> 00:04:53,747 This makes relative humidity plummet. 97 00:04:53,747 --> 00:04:57,932 At freezing point, even if the air outside is at 100% humidity, 98 00:04:57,932 --> 00:05:00,949 when you warm it to a comfortable indoor air temperature 99 00:05:00,949 --> 00:05:04,137 now the relative humidity is just 33%. 100 00:05:04,137 --> 00:05:07,930 It didn’t lose any moisture, it’s just able to hold more 101 00:05:07,930 --> 00:05:10,606 and that makes it feel dryer. 102 00:05:10,606 --> 00:05:12,942 This gets worse the colder it becomes outside. 103 00:05:12,942 --> 00:05:16,892 Since where I live it’s not uncommon for the outdoor temperature to be between 104 00:05:16,892 --> 00:05:22,115 zero and 10 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s about -18 to -12 Celsius) 105 00:05:22,115 --> 00:05:25,771 indoor air can sometimes be desert-levels of dry. 106 00:05:25,771 --> 00:05:30,281 This is obviously uncomfortable, leads to things like peeling skin and chapped lips, 107 00:05:30,281 --> 00:05:31,923 often makes your throat scratchy, 108 00:05:31,923 --> 00:05:34,564 it makes static shocks happen all the dang time, 109 00:05:34,564 --> 00:05:37,858 and seems to be a contributing factor to viral spread, 110 00:05:37,858 --> 00:05:40,242 although we don’t quite understand why yet. 111 00:05:40,242 --> 00:05:44,882 One hypothesis is that dryer air allows airborne droplets containing virus particles 112 00:05:44,882 --> 00:05:48,606 to remain suspended for longer since those droplets dry out quickly 113 00:05:48,606 --> 00:05:51,321 and remain afloat more easily with less mass, 114 00:05:51,321 --> 00:05:55,901 but that’s just one explanation and in any case it's not important to this video. 115 00:05:55,901 --> 00:05:58,550 It’s just another way dry air sucks! 116 00:05:58,550 --> 00:06:04,363 Anyway, the only way we can get relative humidity to go back up after heating the outside air 117 00:06:04,363 --> 00:06:07,522 is to add moisture into the air ourselves. 118 00:06:07,522 --> 00:06:09,584 And that’s what humidifiers are for. 119 00:06:09,584 --> 00:06:14,072 You add water to them, and they make it evaporate into the air to increase relative humidity. 120 00:06:14,072 --> 00:06:17,259 And of course, there are multiple types of humidifiers. 121 00:06:17,259 --> 00:06:18,699 Shall we talk about them? 122 00:06:18,699 --> 00:06:20,074 Let’s talk about them! 123 00:06:20,074 --> 00:06:22,836 Including one you can make yourself. 124 00:06:22,836 --> 00:06:27,055 This is the ol’ standby Vicks warm-mist style thingamabob. 125 00:06:27,055 --> 00:06:30,242 It’s in two parts - a weirdly shaped plastic jug 126 00:06:30,242 --> 00:06:34,524 which contains the water and is nearly impossible to effectively clean, 127 00:06:34,524 --> 00:06:36,188 and, uh... 128 00:06:36,188 --> 00:06:39,046 this doohickey which sits in the water. 129 00:06:40,430 --> 00:06:43,320 All this does is slowly boil water. 130 00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:44,360 Seriously. 131 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:46,389 That’s- that's all it does. 132 00:06:46,389 --> 00:06:48,385 And they’re really finicky, too - 133 00:06:48,385 --> 00:06:51,845 if your water doesn’t have enough minerals in it, it won’t work 134 00:06:51,845 --> 00:06:53,659 and they have to put a label on here saying, 135 00:06:53,659 --> 00:06:58,956 "hey if this doesn’t start working in 10 minutes, try adding some salt. See if that helps." 136 00:06:58,956 --> 00:07:00,877 If it’s not clear I don’t really care for these, 137 00:07:00,877 --> 00:07:04,619 but after all they’re not marketed as humidifiers exactly. 138 00:07:04,619 --> 00:07:08,296 They’re more of a personal care product meant to be used in conjunction with 139 00:07:08,296 --> 00:07:11,440 Vicks' latest cold-fighting rubs or whatever. 140 00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:14,546 But the main reason I don’t like them is simply that boiling water 141 00:07:14,546 --> 00:07:17,815 is a rather energy-intensive method of vaporizing it. 142 00:07:17,815 --> 00:07:22,927 This uses about 50 watts continuously which, yeah, that’s not a whole lot- 143 00:07:22,927 --> 00:07:26,364 [voiceover] Turns out it’s much worse than this! 144 00:07:26,364 --> 00:07:29,012 I was somewhat suspicious that it was only drawing 50 watts, 145 00:07:29,012 --> 00:07:34,010 so when shooting the B-roll for this video I decided to descale the thing with vinegar. 146 00:07:34,010 --> 00:07:37,342 This is all the lovely crud that came out of it. 147 00:07:37,342 --> 00:07:38,503 Yummy! 148 00:07:38,503 --> 00:07:44,360 After this descaling, it’s now producing more steam and pulling 200 watts! 149 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:46,464 That’s… a lot. 150 00:07:46,464 --> 00:07:49,244 And I’ve apparently uncovered something of a mystery. 151 00:07:49,244 --> 00:07:52,480 Its power consumption is just… weird. 152 00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:56,949 It seems to slowly rise when you plug it in, and if you remove it from the water it instantly 153 00:07:56,949 --> 00:07:58,860 falls to practically zero. 154 00:07:58,860 --> 00:08:02,600 I’m starting to wonder if this thing is actually an electrode boiler. 155 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:06,288 That would help explain the need for salt in some circumstances. 156 00:08:06,288 --> 00:08:10,360 I’ve been trying to find a concrete answer online but without much success. 157 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:14,729 So, I’ll be taking this thing apart in a quick and dirty video on my second channel. 158 00:08:14,729 --> 00:08:16,100 A link will be below. 159 00:08:16,100 --> 00:08:21,035 I do just want to say, though, that I’ve sold its ability to humidify a little short. 160 00:08:21,035 --> 00:08:25,234 It will, assuming it’s operating correctly, go through a gallon in 12 hours 161 00:08:25,234 --> 00:08:27,690 which is fairly substantial output. 162 00:08:27,690 --> 00:08:30,285 It will just use a lot of energy in the process, 163 00:08:30,285 --> 00:08:34,110 and I stand by my statement that these are finicky and annoying. 164 00:08:34,110 --> 00:08:37,300 Another common humidifier style is this one! 165 00:08:37,300 --> 00:08:39,940 The ultrasonic cool mist variety. 166 00:08:39,940 --> 00:08:43,509 This is, in my opinion, certainly the most interesting style of humidifier. 167 00:08:43,509 --> 00:08:47,339 A piezoelectric disc sits at the bottom of a pool of water. 168 00:08:47,339 --> 00:08:51,887 A very high frequency signal, in the megahertz range, is fed to this disc 169 00:08:51,887 --> 00:08:54,730 which causes it to vibrate at that frequency. 170 00:08:54,730 --> 00:08:59,074 This causes micron-sized water droplets to form on the surface of the water, 171 00:08:59,074 --> 00:09:04,160 and a small fan draws in air from below the device and pushes it out through this tube. 172 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:08,342 When the tank sits on the base, the airflow carries these tiny water droplets up 173 00:09:08,342 --> 00:09:09,804 through this hole in the tank, 174 00:09:09,804 --> 00:09:15,720 and a little hat with a nozzle helps direct that water and air mixture upward and outward. 175 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:19,992 What comes out of here are microscopic droplets of water suspended in the air - 176 00:09:19,992 --> 00:09:21,248 that’s why they’re visible. 177 00:09:21,248 --> 00:09:24,012 In a sense, this thing generates clouds! 178 00:09:24,012 --> 00:09:25,819 But they quickly disappear. 179 00:09:25,819 --> 00:09:30,076 The miniscule size of the droplets means that they’ll evaporate nearly instantly, 180 00:09:30,076 --> 00:09:33,809 and thus the relative humidity of the air in the room will go up. 181 00:09:33,809 --> 00:09:40,089 These humidifiers are fairly effective - this particular unit will go through its tank of water in about 24 hours. 182 00:09:40,089 --> 00:09:42,290 They also don’t require all that much energy. 183 00:09:42,290 --> 00:09:47,050 At its maximum output, this unit consumes about 32 watts, though it is adjustable. 184 00:09:47,812 --> 00:09:50,769 But, these aren't perfect. There’s always a catch. 185 00:09:50,769 --> 00:09:55,658 If you have hard water, the mineral content of your water ends up in the air. 186 00:09:55,658 --> 00:09:58,538 Because the water is thrown into the air as liquid water 187 00:09:58,538 --> 00:10:01,371 and evaporates after it exits the device, 188 00:10:01,371 --> 00:10:04,056 you can experience a white dust forming on objects, 189 00:10:04,056 --> 00:10:06,560 particularly near the humidifier itself. 190 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:10,090 This is the same limescale that you deal with in your sinks and shower, 191 00:10:10,090 --> 00:10:11,674 but now it’s all over the place. 192 00:10:11,674 --> 00:10:13,256 That’s neat. 193 00:10:13,256 --> 00:10:18,406 Now, that particular problem can be solved by filling the tank with distilled water purchased at a store, 194 00:10:18,406 --> 00:10:22,868 but that’s annoying and also becomes a significant expense if you need to fill it daily, 195 00:10:22,868 --> 00:10:25,331 and/or have multiple units. 196 00:10:25,331 --> 00:10:27,391 There is also the fun fact that whatever mold, 197 00:10:27,391 --> 00:10:31,520 bacteria, chemical impurities, or other goodness might be in the water tank… 198 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:33,345 will end up in the air, too. 199 00:10:33,345 --> 00:10:35,755 I'm... I'm pointing right at it. 200 00:10:35,755 --> 00:10:37,913 Now to be clear, this isn’t a gigantic concern, 201 00:10:37,913 --> 00:10:41,389 and it's certainly not unique to ultrasonic humidifiers. 202 00:10:41,389 --> 00:10:46,682 And then, of course, the last common style you can buy in stores is this kind. 203 00:10:46,682 --> 00:10:50,768 "Invisible cool mist" is marketing speak for evaporative. 204 00:10:50,768 --> 00:10:53,804 Evaporative humidifiers simply help water evaporate 205 00:10:53,804 --> 00:10:56,809 by providing a large surface area for it to cling to 206 00:10:56,809 --> 00:10:59,981 and a flow of air for it to hitchhike upon. 207 00:10:59,981 --> 00:11:03,739 They are extremely simple, yet also extremely effective. 208 00:11:03,739 --> 00:11:08,526 You’re right - I said this one wasn’t very effective, but here’s why: 209 00:11:08,526 --> 00:11:11,470 this is its wick, right? 210 00:11:11,470 --> 00:11:12,690 And... 211 00:11:12,690 --> 00:11:16,002 This is the wick of a whole-house humidifier. 212 00:11:16,002 --> 00:11:17,622 See the difference? 213 00:11:17,622 --> 00:11:20,720 Here’s the humidifier this giant wick belongs to. 214 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:23,177 It’s brown and therefore excellent. 215 00:11:23,177 --> 00:11:27,056 This style of humidifier is sometimes referred to as a console humidifier, 216 00:11:27,056 --> 00:11:30,298 and it is conceptually identical to the little Walmart one, 217 00:11:30,298 --> 00:11:33,234 but scaled up and improved in a number of ways. 218 00:11:33,234 --> 00:11:35,633 That said I’m not entirely thrilled with it, 219 00:11:35,633 --> 00:11:38,356 and I’ll discuss my many quibbles as we go along. 220 00:11:38,356 --> 00:11:42,308 It is, however, undeniably excellent at its job. 221 00:11:42,308 --> 00:11:45,874 The device itself is little more than a large plastic box on wheels 222 00:11:45,874 --> 00:11:48,086 (with simulated woodgrain excellence) 223 00:11:48,086 --> 00:11:49,284 and a fan. 224 00:11:49,284 --> 00:11:52,224 The fan sits on top of the box and when running 225 00:11:52,224 --> 00:11:55,956 pulls air through this vent in the rear and blows it out the top. 226 00:11:55,956 --> 00:11:58,436 The wick sits directly in front of that vent, 227 00:11:58,436 --> 00:12:01,267 and you’ll notice that the vent doesn’t go all the way to the bottom. 228 00:12:01,267 --> 00:12:04,328 That’s because, of course, the wick needs to sit in a pool of water, 229 00:12:04,328 --> 00:12:08,147 and a vent going to the very bottom would kinda ruin that prospect. 230 00:12:08,147 --> 00:12:11,849 You can see that the water level isn’t much lower than the bottom of the vent, 231 00:12:11,849 --> 00:12:15,541 which makes moving this thing wonderfully stressful! 232 00:12:15,541 --> 00:12:18,160 And with that, here comes my first quibble: 233 00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:21,888 The box claims this has a 5.4 gallon capacity 234 00:12:21,949 --> 00:12:24,149 which is ridiculously misleading. 235 00:12:24,149 --> 00:12:27,269 See, this is its water tank. 236 00:12:27,269 --> 00:12:29,209 This is 2.5 gallons. 237 00:12:29,209 --> 00:12:31,953 Roughly three gallons sits in the bottom of the humidifier, 238 00:12:31,953 --> 00:12:35,739 but that level is kept constant by this bottle feeding it. 239 00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:38,786 When the bottle runs out, it will continue to run for a little while 240 00:12:38,786 --> 00:12:40,822 and use up some of the water in the bottom, 241 00:12:40,822 --> 00:12:43,518 but that makes filling it a two-step process - 242 00:12:43,518 --> 00:12:46,175 filling the bottom of the humidifier itself, 243 00:12:46,175 --> 00:12:47,655 and then the bottle. 244 00:12:47,655 --> 00:12:51,640 You could just fill the bottle, but then you’d need to immediately do it again 245 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:57,178 after it emptied at least some of its contents to fill the bottom back up to the correct level. 246 00:12:57,178 --> 00:13:00,215 Even worse is that a float switch prevents it from running 247 00:13:00,215 --> 00:13:03,572 when the water gets just an inch or so below the full level 248 00:13:03,572 --> 00:13:09,022 meaning you could never get it to actually output 5.4 gallons of water in one go. 249 00:13:09,220 --> 00:13:12,071 Therefore, in my opinion, for all intents and purposes 250 00:13:12,071 --> 00:13:15,346 this has a 2.5 gallon capacity. 251 00:13:15,346 --> 00:13:17,899 And, aside from this particular numbers nonsense, 252 00:13:17,899 --> 00:13:19,408 the bottle itself isn’t the best. 253 00:13:19,408 --> 00:13:23,193 I routinely have to re-seat this cap or else it will leak, 254 00:13:23,193 --> 00:13:25,968 a mishap that would result in the bottom being overfilled 255 00:13:25,968 --> 00:13:28,342 and water spilling out the back! 256 00:13:29,161 --> 00:13:31,278 This thing certainly ain’t without its problems. 257 00:13:31,278 --> 00:13:33,190 How's that for a product endorsement? 258 00:13:33,190 --> 00:13:36,269 Anyway, here’s where things get slightly interesting. 259 00:13:36,269 --> 00:13:38,644 The fan isn’t just an ordinary fan. 260 00:13:38,644 --> 00:13:41,527 It is a fan controlled by a humidistat. 261 00:13:41,527 --> 00:13:44,616 A pair of dials, one of them also being pressable as a button, 262 00:13:44,616 --> 00:13:47,164 serve as a basic user interfffff 263 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:49,802 [with immense disappointment] it’s blue. 264 00:13:50,197 --> 00:13:51,019 Blue! 265 00:13:51,019 --> 00:13:52,679 Wha, wha, why does it have to be blue? 266 00:13:52,820 --> 00:13:54,333 And so bright? 267 00:13:54,926 --> 00:13:58,006 Manufacturers of apparently literally everything now 268 00:13:58,006 --> 00:13:59,595 cut. it. out. 269 00:13:59,595 --> 00:14:01,529 Nobody needs this. 270 00:14:01,529 --> 00:14:03,736 It needs to be readable, not eye-piercing. 271 00:14:03,736 --> 00:14:04,369 Geez. 272 00:14:04,369 --> 00:14:05,499 What if this were in my bedroom? 273 00:14:05,499 --> 00:14:08,208 Don’t you think I oughta be able to, like, sleep? 274 00:14:08,208 --> 00:14:10,130 You didn’t even put it on the box, 275 00:14:10,130 --> 00:14:13,363 it’s not like you thought you’d make another sale by being hip and with it 276 00:14:13,363 --> 00:14:15,481 with the blue ell eee deez. 277 00:14:15,481 --> 00:14:19,772 Bring back dull, boring red, amber, maybe green displays, please. 278 00:14:19,772 --> 00:14:22,116 I am so over this. 279 00:14:22,878 --> 00:14:24,000 Where was I? 280 00:14:24,254 --> 00:14:26,119 Right, so, atrocious display aside, 281 00:14:26,119 --> 00:14:30,240 which I will just go ahead and fix right now by applying a LightDim decal up top - 282 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:34,594 I truly cannot believe this product needs to exist yes I will get beyond this tangent... 283 00:14:34,594 --> 00:14:38,469 you can select between four fan speeds and set the desired relative humidity 284 00:14:38,469 --> 00:14:40,603 in increments of five percent. 285 00:14:40,603 --> 00:14:44,788 Built into the power cord is a hygrometer which it will use to measure the relative humidity, 286 00:14:44,788 --> 00:14:48,890 and the onboard microcontroller will cycle the fan on and off accordingly. 287 00:14:48,890 --> 00:14:52,499 The fan will turn on when humidity is three percent below the setpoint, 288 00:14:52,499 --> 00:14:56,186 and it will turn back off when it’s achieved one percent above. 289 00:14:56,186 --> 00:15:01,831 One thing I’ve been genuinely surprised by is how accurate basic hygrometers apparently are these days. 290 00:15:01,831 --> 00:15:07,145 The humidifier’s display reads within just a couple of percentage points of both this analog dial 291 00:15:07,145 --> 00:15:09,959 and what my smart thermostat reports to me. 292 00:15:09,959 --> 00:15:15,249 Honestly a little surprising, but anyway the benefit of having a humidistat is tremendous. 293 00:15:15,249 --> 00:15:19,471 Being able to self-regulate means it can respond to different conditions appropriately 294 00:15:19,471 --> 00:15:21,761 and keep humidity levels consistent. 295 00:15:21,761 --> 00:15:23,889 And it’s been very interesting to observe. 296 00:15:23,889 --> 00:15:26,938 I have it placed in a central location near my thermostat, 297 00:15:26,938 --> 00:15:30,914 and when the heat isn't running neither is the humidifier. 298 00:15:30,914 --> 00:15:33,439 But, within just a few minutes of the heat kicking on, 299 00:15:33,439 --> 00:15:37,335 the relative humidity falls to the point that it needs to run. 300 00:15:37,335 --> 00:15:41,783 This makes perfect sense because the now warmer air can absorb more moisture, 301 00:15:41,783 --> 00:15:44,749 therefore its relative humidity has fallen slightly. 302 00:15:44,749 --> 00:15:49,367 The humidifier will continue to run for about five minutes after the heat has shut off. 303 00:15:49,367 --> 00:15:53,300 And then it will have satisfied the humidity set point and go idle. 304 00:15:53,300 --> 00:15:59,389 What’s really fascinating is that it has a remarkably consistent reading as the temperature gradually falls. 305 00:15:59,389 --> 00:16:04,304 I have it set to 50 percent, and after stopping at 51, it may fall back to 50 306 00:16:04,304 --> 00:16:08,040 or perhaps even 49 percent… but no more. 307 00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:12,252 It takes until the heat comes back on for humidity to fall beyond that point - 308 00:16:12,252 --> 00:16:16,639 and this appears to be the case throughout the house, according to my little hygrometer friend. 309 00:16:16,639 --> 00:16:21,209 I’m actually genuinely curious about this because it seems moisture leaves the air at 310 00:16:21,209 --> 00:16:23,749 a rate correlated to its temperature drop. 311 00:16:23,749 --> 00:16:28,939 I run my thermostat on a program so that the temperature cools down by 4 degrees at night 312 00:16:28,939 --> 00:16:32,842 and even then - the humidifier won’t run until the heat comes on again, 313 00:16:32,842 --> 00:16:35,319 and that can be hours later. 314 00:16:35,319 --> 00:16:39,929 Humidity stays right near 50% the entire time the temperature is falling. 315 00:16:39,929 --> 00:16:46,009 It’s fascinating, though at the moment it’s not terribly cold yet so perhaps this behavior won’t last. 316 00:16:46,009 --> 00:16:49,684 Anyway, though this thing is ugly and annoys me in several ways, 317 00:16:49,684 --> 00:16:54,819 it is undeniably great at humidifying, especially from an energy standpoint. 318 00:16:54,819 --> 00:16:59,540 Its fan is quite large so it uses the most energy of any humidifier we’ve seen so far 319 00:16:59,540 --> 00:17:03,487 while it’s running (about 65 watts at its low fan speed) 320 00:17:03,487 --> 00:17:06,894 but it only needs to run for about 6 hours on a typical day - 321 00:17:06,894 --> 00:17:09,222 and that’s on its lowest fan speed. 322 00:17:09,222 --> 00:17:14,111 With my current usage, it goes through the entire 2.5 gallon bottle daily. 323 00:17:14,111 --> 00:17:19,506 Do the math there and we find it uses 144 [but it's actually 156] watt-hours per gallon. 324 00:17:19,506 --> 00:17:22,487 Certainly a weird metric, but hey! It works. 325 00:17:22,487 --> 00:17:28,713 The ultrasonic mister takes the same amount of time to go through 1 gallon at 32 watts continuously 326 00:17:28,713 --> 00:17:32,390 which means it uses 768 watt-hours per gallon. 327 00:17:32,390 --> 00:17:35,815 That’s more than 5 times the energy per unit of humidification! 328 00:17:35,815 --> 00:17:42,000 Oh, and the standby power consumption of this large unit is excellent - only about a third of a watt. 329 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:44,680 Despite that garish display. 330 00:17:44,680 --> 00:17:47,258 My old dishwasher used triple that! 331 00:17:47,258 --> 00:17:51,551 Honestly, it’s amazing how much water this thing adds to the air when it runs. 332 00:17:51,551 --> 00:17:56,389 Just feeling the air coming out of it is impressive, it’s downright swampy. 333 00:17:56,389 --> 00:18:01,929 Leaving the hygrometer on the top reveals that the air it supplies is at least 70% humidity. 334 00:18:01,929 --> 00:18:04,351 To give you a sense of how fast it goes through water, 335 00:18:04,351 --> 00:18:09,453 well you can hear the bottle go “glug glug glug” as it replenishes the water level 336 00:18:09,453 --> 00:18:13,392 [fan noise, with a faint "glug glug glug"] 337 00:18:13,392 --> 00:18:17,260 and this happens more frequently than every five minutes when it’s running! 338 00:18:17,260 --> 00:18:24,000 It’s amazing, this thing is just excellent at getting liquid water to evaporate with nothing but airflow. 339 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,700 Setting this thing up has frankly been a little astonishing to me. 340 00:18:27,700 --> 00:18:31,507 It’s so simple, yet extaordinarily effective. 341 00:18:31,507 --> 00:18:35,223 Using less energy over a day than this little ultrasonic humidifier 342 00:18:35,223 --> 00:18:39,450 it's able to take care of my entire home and not just a single room. 343 00:18:39,450 --> 00:18:43,938 I’ve been checking with my hygrometer and, indeed, humidity is pretty consistent 344 00:18:43,938 --> 00:18:47,690 from room to room, varying only by about five percent. 345 00:18:47,690 --> 00:18:50,891 Granted, this is ridiculous overkill for the size of my home 346 00:18:50,891 --> 00:18:54,809 and I do have the benefit of a forced-air furnace to help move air around. 347 00:18:54,809 --> 00:19:01,490 But, it really seems that evaporative humidifiers are, at least in many respects, the best. 348 00:19:01,490 --> 00:19:03,730 Of course, there’s a catch. 349 00:19:03,730 --> 00:19:06,199 And it’s, uh… kinda big. 350 00:19:06,199 --> 00:19:10,050 Evaporative humidifiers can get… gross. 351 00:19:10,050 --> 00:19:14,521 To be clear, all humidifiers get gross over time but the evaporative style 352 00:19:14,521 --> 00:19:17,131 tends to present the most opportunities for grossness 353 00:19:17,131 --> 00:19:20,793 because there’s a giant damp sponge sitting in a pool of water 354 00:19:20,793 --> 00:19:23,447 that has air forced through it by a fan, 355 00:19:23,447 --> 00:19:30,034 and thus everyone’s favorite mold spores and bacteria are brought right to a lovely place to live. 356 00:19:30,034 --> 00:19:31,928 It’s great. 357 00:19:31,928 --> 00:19:34,341 Now, there are ways to combat this problem. 358 00:19:34,341 --> 00:19:38,081 First, the wicks are almost always meant to be replaced seasonally, 359 00:19:38,081 --> 00:19:42,153 and there are water treatment products available to inhibit bacterial growth. 360 00:19:42,153 --> 00:19:47,705 I’ve been using this for a while with regular water treatments and so far no musty odor has developed, 361 00:19:47,705 --> 00:19:51,349 which is the most common complaint of this style of humidifier. 362 00:19:51,349 --> 00:19:57,370 The particular treatment I’m using is supposed to help with mineral buildup, too, but we’ll see. 363 00:19:57,370 --> 00:19:59,289 But, here’s where I have good news. 364 00:19:59,289 --> 00:20:01,910 This is conceptually a very simple device. 365 00:20:01,910 --> 00:20:04,700 And that means, you can make one yourself! 366 00:20:04,700 --> 00:20:08,960 All you need is something to absorb water and provide it with a large surface area. 367 00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:11,880 And you have plenty of those - towels! 368 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:15,809 Take a large bowl, fill it maybe a third the way up with water, and submerge the center 369 00:20:15,809 --> 00:20:17,360 of a small towel. 370 00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:19,360 You may need to weigh it down with something. 371 00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:23,160 Terry cloth is great for this - that’s why towels help you dry things, after all: 372 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:26,700 they have lots of little fibers for water to cling to. 373 00:20:26,700 --> 00:20:30,799 Those same fibers provide places for water to evaporate from. 374 00:20:30,799 --> 00:20:35,360 Try experimenting with different bowls, towels, quantities of water, etc. 375 00:20:35,360 --> 00:20:39,840 To gauge the effectiveness of your invention, go ahead grab one of these little hygrometers. 376 00:20:40,518 --> 00:20:44,429 They’re not the most accurate things out there, but plenty good for giving you guidance 377 00:20:44,429 --> 00:20:46,250 and they only cost around $5. 378 00:20:46,250 --> 00:20:50,520 You can speed up evaporation with a desk fan pointed at the towels. 379 00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:54,759 And, best of all, you can simply run this improvised wick material through the laundry 380 00:20:54,759 --> 00:20:57,529 and change it however frequently you’d like. 381 00:20:57,529 --> 00:21:01,774 Now, this isn’t that effective, I won’t lie, but a quick test in my roughly 382 00:21:01,774 --> 00:21:07,269 100 square foot office showed it could maintain 50% humidity with the aid of a fan. 383 00:21:07,269 --> 00:21:11,110 And that was with a, frankly, awful towel placement. 384 00:21:11,110 --> 00:21:15,314 What I’d love to see come to market is a sort of rack meant to hold towels 385 00:21:15,314 --> 00:21:19,564 maybe a kitchen towel or shreds of towels in a zig-zag, vertical arrangement 386 00:21:19,564 --> 00:21:26,799 sort of replicating this wick cartridge but with a washable towel rather than this paper honeycomb stuff. 387 00:21:26,799 --> 00:21:31,199 It probably wouldn’t work as well as these paper wicks, but it would be a fun thing to try. 388 00:21:31,199 --> 00:21:35,179 Just put it in a shallow pan and sit it in front of a fan. 389 00:21:35,179 --> 00:21:38,100 This might even push me to buy a decent 3D printer… 390 00:21:38,100 --> 00:21:42,789 But, good news for those of us who just can't be bothered, the same manufacturer of this 391 00:21:42,789 --> 00:21:48,909 large console makes what they call a “mini” console and it is delightfully simple. 392 00:21:48,909 --> 00:21:52,919 It is little more than a bucket, a fan, and two wicks. 393 00:21:52,919 --> 00:21:57,600 The wicks are placed in these slots, a cowl sits between them, and a fan controlled by 394 00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:04,080 the exact same humidistat (and with unfortunately the same blue LEDs…) forces air through 395 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:05,799 the wicks when necessary. 396 00:22:05,799 --> 00:22:10,309 It takes in air through the sides and blows it out the top, nicely moistened. 397 00:22:10,309 --> 00:22:14,919 This isn’t as effective as the big brown beast over here simply because it’s smaller, 398 00:22:14,919 --> 00:22:17,710 but it’s much, much more user-friendly. 399 00:22:17,710 --> 00:22:20,950 And also quieter, at least on its low fan speeds. 400 00:22:20,950 --> 00:22:24,000 Filling it is as easy as filling a bucket because... 401 00:22:25,037 --> 00:22:29,441 that’s what it is. Just take the fan off and carry this to a sink. 402 00:22:29,441 --> 00:22:35,059 Much less finicky than dealing with a tank or jug, and a lot easier to clean. 403 00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:40,679 Though in this case there’s a weird quirk in that, the more you fill it, the less effective 404 00:22:40,679 --> 00:22:44,230 it will be because less of the wick is exposed to air. 405 00:22:44,230 --> 00:22:49,375 It’s probably best to keep the water level at about half the wick’s height or less. 406 00:22:49,375 --> 00:22:53,720 Here’s a pro-tip for you, should you decide to purchase a humidifier like these. 407 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:57,330 If you use a water treatment product, which I highly recommend you do, 408 00:22:57,330 --> 00:22:59,460 put it in a soap pump! 409 00:22:59,460 --> 00:23:02,711 Figure out how many pumps it takes to fill, say, a tablespoon 410 00:23:02,711 --> 00:23:07,269 and use that to determine how many pumps you’ll need every time you fill your humidifier. 411 00:23:07,269 --> 00:23:10,360 It’s much less messy and more consistent, too. 412 00:23:10,360 --> 00:23:15,699 I decided to purchase this amber-glass pump just in case the chemicals in the solution are sensitive to light 413 00:23:15,699 --> 00:23:18,800 (which, uh, they probably aren’t given the jug it comes in) 414 00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:22,631 but you can absolutely just use a well cleaned-out old soap pump. 415 00:23:22,631 --> 00:23:27,197 In this case I know I need to add 15 squirts every time I fill this bottle. 416 00:23:27,197 --> 00:23:30,695 Also, for whatever reason, large humidifiers like these 417 00:23:30,695 --> 00:23:35,648 seem to only be available in hardware stores, at least in my neck of the US. 418 00:23:35,648 --> 00:23:41,066 Your general big-box store like Walmart seems only to carry small, single-room units, 419 00:23:41,066 --> 00:23:46,628 though weirdly enough when I was last at Walmart they sold not only these exact hygrometers 420 00:23:46,628 --> 00:23:50,187 but the same water treatment chemical I'm using in these, too. 421 00:23:50,187 --> 00:23:52,918 So, yeah. Don’t know why that is exactly, 422 00:23:52,918 --> 00:23:57,361 but I’d also recommend that you buy a few spare wicks for the years ahead. 423 00:23:57,361 --> 00:23:59,314 Any large hardware store should carry them, 424 00:23:59,314 --> 00:24:03,846 and to my fellow midwesterners, Menards has plenty. 425 00:24:03,846 --> 00:24:06,312 So, that’s about all I have to say here. 426 00:24:06,312 --> 00:24:11,591 Even though these evaporative humidifiers aren’t the flashiest or most technically intriguing, 427 00:24:11,591 --> 00:24:16,257 they seem to do their job extremely effectively and efficiently. 428 00:24:16,257 --> 00:24:20,514 I would like to suggest a few revisions to this particular design, though. 429 00:24:20,514 --> 00:24:24,257 What I’d love to see is a wick that is held much higher up, 430 00:24:24,257 --> 00:24:28,507 allowing the tank to hold much more water, perhaps 10 or more gallons. 431 00:24:28,507 --> 00:24:31,468 Rather than requiring it to sit in a pool of water, 432 00:24:31,468 --> 00:24:35,999 I think it would be neat if a pump were used to bring water up to the wick. 433 00:24:35,999 --> 00:24:39,882 This is actually a fairly common design of large swamp coolers. 434 00:24:39,882 --> 00:24:43,541 This design would allow it to run for days without stopping. 435 00:24:43,541 --> 00:24:49,059 I imagine one difficulty with this, aside from the simple fact that the pump then becomes a thing that can fail, 436 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:51,246 is that this would make it a lot louder. 437 00:24:51,246 --> 00:24:55,770 A method of catching the water so it didn’t fall from a great height would need to be devised, 438 00:24:55,770 --> 00:24:59,070 otherwise you’d hear a constant trickling from the thing when it runs. 439 00:24:59,070 --> 00:25:05,299 Plus, of course, this would add tubing and thus more places for mold and bacterial to find refuge. 440 00:25:05,299 --> 00:25:10,074 So maybe it’s not the best idea, but I will say to the folks at AirCare 441 00:25:10,074 --> 00:25:13,669 that I really don’t like the float switch on this unit. 442 00:25:13,669 --> 00:25:19,250 See, instead of using it to simply alert you that it’s empty, it shuts the unit off. 443 00:25:19,250 --> 00:25:23,154 I would much rather it continue running the fan when it runs out of water 444 00:25:23,154 --> 00:25:26,130 so that the wick can actually dry out. 445 00:25:26,130 --> 00:25:30,590 Turning the unit off means that stagnant water will stick behind both in the wick and in 446 00:25:30,590 --> 00:25:33,649 the bottom, which is a little unsettling to me. 447 00:25:33,649 --> 00:25:36,730 Also, the implementation of it is just super janky. 448 00:25:36,730 --> 00:25:42,720 It’s a stick with a styrofoam float that a ring on the wick cartridge keeps steady, 449 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:44,929 and then it pokes the underside of the fan. 450 00:25:44,929 --> 00:25:49,032 I’ll probably just disable that switch, maybe force the stick thing up all the time 451 00:25:49,032 --> 00:25:51,529 by putting a rock under it or something. 452 00:25:51,529 --> 00:25:54,985 The simple bucket one, for what it’s worth, has no float switch 453 00:25:54,985 --> 00:25:58,990 so it’ll just run to its heart’s content no matter what the water level is. 454 00:25:58,990 --> 00:26:00,840 I much prefer that. 455 00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:04,630 Now before I go, I do want to address that these sorts of portable units are by no means 456 00:26:04,630 --> 00:26:06,188 your only option. 457 00:26:06,188 --> 00:26:10,086 Whole-home humidifiers that get installed into your home’s HVAC system 458 00:26:10,086 --> 00:26:15,370 are also fairly common, and wouldn’t ya know it - those are evaporative, too! 459 00:26:15,370 --> 00:26:18,984 These units will divert some of the air flowing through your ductwork through themselves 460 00:26:18,984 --> 00:26:21,220 and are plumbed into a water supply. 461 00:26:21,220 --> 00:26:25,759 There’s often an absorbent pad or wheel which also requires periodic replacement, 462 00:26:25,759 --> 00:26:30,810 though sometimes non-porous materials are used which only require cleaning. 463 00:26:30,810 --> 00:26:34,960 Still though, if you’ve been using one of these and haven’t ever opened it up... 464 00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,039 you might want to look into that. 465 00:26:37,039 --> 00:26:40,361 Since I didn’t already have one of these in my HVAC system, 466 00:26:40,361 --> 00:26:42,680 I just went for a standalone unit. 467 00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:47,524 And, despite its many little annoyances, I’m overall very happy with it. 468 00:26:47,524 --> 00:26:50,340 Certainly it’s made the winter much more bearable. 469 00:26:50,340 --> 00:26:53,097 My lips were starting to get badly chapped around Christmastime, 470 00:26:53,097 --> 00:26:56,312 but now that I have this running that’s gone away. 471 00:26:56,312 --> 00:26:58,511 Usually it’d be chapstick time. 472 00:26:58,511 --> 00:27:03,539 And genuinely, I feel warmer now with the thermostat set to the same temperature. 473 00:27:03,539 --> 00:27:08,620 I don’t know why this surprises me, as after all humid air always feels more oppressive 474 00:27:08,620 --> 00:27:14,009 in the summer, and drier air feels cooler, but it did surprise me. 475 00:27:14,009 --> 00:27:17,559 The air is just much more comfortable in so many ways. 476 00:27:17,559 --> 00:27:22,610 If you want to see how a humidifier might help you, why not try and make your own, first? 477 00:27:22,610 --> 00:27:25,104 It at least will give you something fun to do. 478 00:27:25,438 --> 00:27:26,873 Anyway, toodles! 479 00:27:27,997 --> 00:27:30,452 ♫ moistly smooth jazz ♫ 480 00:27:31,349 --> 00:27:33,780 This is what purports to be... 481 00:27:33,780 --> 00:27:35,272 yeah, no it's facing the right way. 482 00:27:35,272 --> 00:27:37,060 Shouldn't have second guessed myself. 483 00:27:37,060 --> 00:27:40,281 ...plastic base supports... shoot. 484 00:27:41,128 --> 00:27:42,131 That was going great! 485 00:27:42,131 --> 00:27:45,459 ...sits in a shallow pool of water and capillary act... 486 00:27:45,459 --> 00:27:47,767 dew do be fluef ah heuhhh 487 00:27:47,767 --> 00:27:51,253 that makes it appropriate for small rooms, but not a lot much else. 488 00:27:51,253 --> 00:27:52,213 Not much else. 489 00:27:52,213 --> 00:27:54,465 Why did I say a lot much? That's dumb. 490 00:27:54,465 --> 00:27:57,328 Yeah, that's not a whole lot but it's also not 491 00:27:57,328 --> 00:27:59,321 [stops abruptly] 492 00:27:59,321 --> 00:28:01,980 That cat is having fun upstairs. 493 00:28:03,364 --> 00:28:06,369 [rumbling as the cat runs around] 494 00:28:06,369 --> 00:28:10,241 But it's also not gonna be ... it's not gonna be do much! 495 00:28:10,241 --> 00:28:11,599 Why does it have to be blue? 496 00:28:11,599 --> 00:28:13,380 And so bright? 497 00:28:14,538 --> 00:28:16,282 Heh, no that's way over-the-top. 498 00:28:18,174 --> 00:28:22,867 Secret messages at the end of the videos in the captions? 499 00:28:22,867 --> 00:28:26,931 I have no idea what you're talking about. 500 00:28:26,931 --> 00:28:33,252 You must be thinking of some other channel that does that regularly.