WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.099 --> 00:00:03.439 This video certainly won’t be very… dry. 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:03.952 [ oof ] 00:00:03.952 --> 00:00:06.641 I’ve had a bit of an epiphany in recent days. 00:00:06.641 --> 00:00:10.834 See, over the summer I made a video about this stupid thing. 00:00:10.834 --> 00:00:13.505 You can check it out if you like (links are in all the places) 00:00:13.505 --> 00:00:19.143 but as a quick recap, this is what purports to be a "personal air conditioner" 00:00:19.143 --> 00:00:24.540 but in fact it's a teeny tiny evaporative cooler, also known as a swamp cooler. 00:00:24.540 --> 00:00:27.099 And that’s why they’re, well, 00:00:27.099 --> 00:00:27.599 silly! 00:00:27.599 --> 00:00:29.805 Unless you live in a really arid place, 00:00:29.805 --> 00:00:34.558 adding moisture to the air is exactly the wrong way to achieve cooling. 00:00:34.558 --> 00:00:39.813 These things are by and large a waste of headspace, desk pace, and plastic. 00:00:39.813 --> 00:00:42.209 Just… don’t. 00:00:42.209 --> 00:00:44.082 Fast forward to a few weeks ago. 00:00:44.082 --> 00:00:46.457 Winter’s rearing its ugly head here in the midwest 00:00:46.457 --> 00:00:49.510 which means the air’s getting uncomfortably dry. 00:00:49.510 --> 00:00:52.396 I ventured out to the exotic lands of Walmart 00:00:52.396 --> 00:00:55.002 to buy a cheap humidifier for my bedroom. 00:00:55.002 --> 00:00:56.878 In fact, 00:00:56.878 --> 00:00:58.301 this one! 00:00:58.301 --> 00:01:01.477 Now, it claims to emit “invisible cool mist” 00:01:01.477 --> 00:01:03.438 which, ok. 00:01:04.313 --> 00:01:05.205 Sure. 00:01:05.939 --> 00:01:07.773 I went to set it up and, lo and behold, 00:01:07.773 --> 00:01:09.764 the thing’s just a swamp cooler. 00:01:09.764 --> 00:01:14.545 This is, almost uncannily, the exact same device as the personal cooler, 00:01:14.545 --> 00:01:18.542 save for a much larger water tank and fan. 00:01:18.542 --> 00:01:19.424 Huh. 00:01:19.791 --> 00:01:23.092 Yep, this thing is almost stupidly simple and I love it. 00:01:23.092 --> 00:01:24.291 There are three basic parts: 00:01:24.291 --> 00:01:25.642 the water tank, 00:01:25.642 --> 00:01:27.753 the body which contains the fan, 00:01:27.753 --> 00:01:30.037 and the water absorbing matrix. 00:01:30.263 --> 00:01:33.768 A plastic base provides support for the three parts to come together. 00:01:33.909 --> 00:01:36.907 The matrix, which Equate calls a filter but that’s... 00:01:37.867 --> 00:01:38.955 a silly name, 00:01:38.955 --> 00:01:41.150 sits in a shallow pool of water 00:01:41.150 --> 00:01:44.553 and capillary action causes that water to travel up the material 00:01:44.553 --> 00:01:46.550 and soak the entire thing. 00:01:46.550 --> 00:01:51.152 This wicking action is why more sensible humidifier manufacturers call this… 00:01:51.152 --> 00:01:51.652 John. 00:01:51.652 --> 00:01:53.350 Sorry, the wick. 00:01:53.350 --> 00:01:57.390 In operation, the fan pulls air through the damp wick. 00:01:57.390 --> 00:02:00.051 The large surface area of the wick helps the water it holds 00:02:00.051 --> 00:02:02.029 evaporate into the air more quickly, 00:02:02.029 --> 00:02:06.024 and the fan makes this go even quicklier by constantly moving air through it. 00:02:06.024 --> 00:02:09.959 As the water evaporates, the wick continues to absorb more water. 00:02:09.959 --> 00:02:14.734 The water tank allows for continuous operation by constantly replenishing the pool of water 00:02:14.734 --> 00:02:18.774 and keeping it at a consistent height, at least until it runs out. 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. 00:02:24.770 --> 00:02:25.986 Quite clever! 00:02:26.522 --> 00:02:29.912 That said, this isn’t a very good humidifier. 00:02:30.110 --> 00:02:32.215 It just isn’t capable of much output: 00:02:32.215 --> 00:02:36.446 it takes about two days running at its high setting to go through the entire tank 00:02:36.446 --> 00:02:39.409 contrary to its “up to 24 hour” runtime. 00:02:39.409 --> 00:02:41.341 That makes it appropriate for small rooms, 00:02:41.341 --> 00:02:42.414 but not much else. 00:02:42.414 --> 00:02:45.405 In fairness, they did say that on the box. 00:02:45.405 --> 00:02:50.576 Now, I wanted to get something larger - something capable of humidifying my entire home. 00:02:50.576 --> 00:02:55.518 And it turns out that most whole-house humidifiers use the same concept as this one, 00:02:55.518 --> 00:02:56.870 but scaled up. 00:02:56.870 --> 00:02:59.909 Through them, I’ve apparently discovered one of those cases 00:02:59.909 --> 00:03:03.796 where the simplest idea is the most effective. 00:03:03.796 --> 00:03:05.286 Let’s back up a minute. 00:03:05.286 --> 00:03:08.233 Why do I want a humidifier in the first place? 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. 00:03:13.377 --> 00:03:15.961 You probably live some place where it’s hot and humid. 00:03:15.961 --> 00:03:16.461 Fun fact! 00:03:16.461 --> 00:03:18.990 It’s hot and humid here, too! 00:03:18.990 --> 00:03:20.707 In the summer… 00:03:20.707 --> 00:03:23.276 yeah we get the worst of both worlds. It’s great! 00:03:23.276 --> 00:03:25.653 In the winter, though, nature conspires against us 00:03:25.653 --> 00:03:28.712 and makes the air often unbearably dry. 00:03:28.712 --> 00:03:34.314 See, when we talk about humidity we almost always talk in terms of relative humidity. 00:03:34.314 --> 00:03:38.393 It’s expressed as a percentage, indicating how much moisture is in the air 00:03:38.393 --> 00:03:41.327 compared to air’s ability to hold moisture. 00:03:41.327 --> 00:03:43.596 When relative humidity is 50%, 00:03:43.596 --> 00:03:46.777 the air is therefore holding half of the water that it can. 00:03:46.777 --> 00:03:49.104 It’s 50% moist. 00:03:49.104 --> 00:03:52.292 When it’s 100%, the air is fully saturated 00:03:52.292 --> 00:03:54.809 and can no longer take on any moisture. 00:03:54.809 --> 00:03:58.214 We use relative humidity because it correlates with how our bodies 00:03:58.214 --> 00:04:02.223 and in fact pretty much everything “feels” humidity. 00:04:02.223 --> 00:04:04.412 But, and here’s where nature sneaks up on ya, 00:04:04.412 --> 00:04:08.627 the ability for air to hold moisture varies with its temperature. 00:04:08.627 --> 00:04:11.546 Warm air can hold more moisture than cold air: 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. 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. 00:04:25.612 --> 00:04:29.355 That means that at the same relative humidity, say 50%, 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. 00:04:34.430 --> 00:04:38.650 Now, because the air in your home is ultimately the same air as outside, 00:04:38.650 --> 00:04:42.116 you’re at the mercy of how humid the outdoor air is. 00:04:42.116 --> 00:04:45.671 And when you heat that air up to make a living space more comfortable, 00:04:45.671 --> 00:04:47.696 you increase its ability to hold moisture, 00:04:47.696 --> 00:04:50.875 but not the actual amount of moisture it contains. 00:04:50.875 --> 00:04:53.747 This makes relative humidity plummet. 00:04:53.747 --> 00:04:57.932 At freezing point, even if the air outside is at 100% humidity, 00:04:57.932 --> 00:05:00.949 when you warm it to a comfortable indoor air temperature 00:05:00.949 --> 00:05:04.137 now the relative humidity is just 33%. 00:05:04.137 --> 00:05:07.930 It didn’t lose any moisture, it’s just able to hold more 00:05:07.930 --> 00:05:10.606 and that makes it feel dryer. 00:05:10.606 --> 00:05:12.942 This gets worse the colder it becomes outside. 00:05:12.942 --> 00:05:16.892 Since where I live it’s not uncommon for the outdoor temperature to be between 00:05:16.892 --> 00:05:22.115 zero and 10 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s about -18 to -12 Celsius) 00:05:22.115 --> 00:05:25.771 indoor air can sometimes be desert-levels of dry. 00:05:25.771 --> 00:05:30.281 This is obviously uncomfortable, leads to things like peeling skin and chapped lips, 00:05:30.281 --> 00:05:31.923 often makes your throat scratchy, 00:05:31.923 --> 00:05:34.564 it makes static shocks happen all the dang time, 00:05:34.564 --> 00:05:37.858 and seems to be a contributing factor to viral spread, 00:05:37.858 --> 00:05:40.242 although we don’t quite understand why yet. 00:05:40.242 --> 00:05:44.882 One hypothesis is that dryer air allows airborne droplets containing virus particles 00:05:44.882 --> 00:05:48.606 to remain suspended for longer since those droplets dry out quickly 00:05:48.606 --> 00:05:51.321 and remain afloat more easily with less mass, 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. 00:05:55.901 --> 00:05:58.550 It’s just another way dry air sucks! 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 00:06:04.363 --> 00:06:07.522 is to add moisture into the air ourselves. 00:06:07.522 --> 00:06:09.584 And that’s what humidifiers are for. 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. 00:06:14.072 --> 00:06:17.259 And of course, there are multiple types of humidifiers. 00:06:17.259 --> 00:06:18.699 Shall we talk about them? 00:06:18.699 --> 00:06:20.074 Let’s talk about them! 00:06:20.074 --> 00:06:22.836 Including one you can make yourself. 00:06:22.836 --> 00:06:27.055 This is the ol’ standby Vicks warm-mist style thingamabob. 00:06:27.055 --> 00:06:30.242 It’s in two parts - a weirdly shaped plastic jug 00:06:30.242 --> 00:06:34.524 which contains the water and is nearly impossible to effectively clean, 00:06:34.524 --> 00:06:36.188 and, uh... 00:06:36.188 --> 00:06:39.046 this doohickey which sits in the water. 00:06:40.430 --> 00:06:43.320 All this does is slowly boil water. 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:44.360 Seriously. 00:06:44.360 --> 00:06:46.389 That’s- that's all it does. 00:06:46.389 --> 00:06:48.385 And they’re really finicky, too - 00:06:48.385 --> 00:06:51.845 if your water doesn’t have enough minerals in it, it won’t work 00:06:51.845 --> 00:06:53.659 and they have to put a label on here saying, 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." 00:06:58.956 --> 00:07:00.877 If it’s not clear I don’t really care for these, 00:07:00.877 --> 00:07:04.619 but after all they’re not marketed as humidifiers exactly. 00:07:04.619 --> 00:07:08.296 They’re more of a personal care product meant to be used in conjunction with 00:07:08.296 --> 00:07:11.440 Vicks' latest cold-fighting rubs or whatever. 00:07:11.440 --> 00:07:14.546 But the main reason I don’t like them is simply that boiling water 00:07:14.546 --> 00:07:17.815 is a rather energy-intensive method of vaporizing it. 00:07:17.815 --> 00:07:22.927 This uses about 50 watts continuously which, yeah, that’s not a whole lot- 00:07:22.927 --> 00:07:26.364 [voiceover] Turns out it’s much worse than this! 00:07:26.364 --> 00:07:29.012 I was somewhat suspicious that it was only drawing 50 watts, 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. 00:07:34.010 --> 00:07:37.342 This is all the lovely crud that came out of it. 00:07:37.342 --> 00:07:38.503 Yummy! 00:07:38.503 --> 00:07:44.360 After this descaling, it’s now producing more steam and pulling 200 watts! 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:46.464 That’s… a lot. 00:07:46.464 --> 00:07:49.244 And I’ve apparently uncovered something of a mystery. 00:07:49.244 --> 00:07:52.480 Its power consumption is just… weird. 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 00:07:56.949 --> 00:07:58.860 falls to practically zero. 00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:02.600 I’m starting to wonder if this thing is actually an electrode boiler. 00:08:02.600 --> 00:08:06.288 That would help explain the need for salt in some circumstances. 00:08:06.288 --> 00:08:10.360 I’ve been trying to find a concrete answer online but without much success. 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. 00:08:14.729 --> 00:08:16.100 A link will be below. 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. 00:08:21.035 --> 00:08:25.234 It will, assuming it’s operating correctly, go through a gallon in 12 hours 00:08:25.234 --> 00:08:27.690 which is fairly substantial output. 00:08:27.690 --> 00:08:30.285 It will just use a lot of energy in the process, 00:08:30.285 --> 00:08:34.110 and I stand by my statement that these are finicky and annoying. 00:08:34.110 --> 00:08:37.300 Another common humidifier style is this one! 00:08:37.300 --> 00:08:39.940 The ultrasonic cool mist variety. 00:08:39.940 --> 00:08:43.509 This is, in my opinion, certainly the most interesting style of humidifier. 00:08:43.509 --> 00:08:47.339 A piezoelectric disc sits at the bottom of a pool of water. 00:08:47.339 --> 00:08:51.887 A very high frequency signal, in the megahertz range, is fed to this disc 00:08:51.887 --> 00:08:54.730 which causes it to vibrate at that frequency. 00:08:54.730 --> 00:08:59.074 This causes micron-sized water droplets to form on the surface of the water, 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. 00:09:04.160 --> 00:09:08.342 When the tank sits on the base, the airflow carries these tiny water droplets up 00:09:08.342 --> 00:09:09.804 through this hole in the tank, 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. 00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:19.992 What comes out of here are microscopic droplets of water suspended in the air - 00:09:19.992 --> 00:09:21.248 that’s why they’re visible. 00:09:21.248 --> 00:09:24.012 In a sense, this thing generates clouds! 00:09:24.012 --> 00:09:25.819 But they quickly disappear. 00:09:25.819 --> 00:09:30.076 The miniscule size of the droplets means that they’ll evaporate nearly instantly, 00:09:30.076 --> 00:09:33.809 and thus the relative humidity of the air in the room will go up. 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. 00:09:40.089 --> 00:09:42.290 They also don’t require all that much energy. 00:09:42.290 --> 00:09:47.050 At its maximum output, this unit consumes about 32 watts, though it is adjustable. 00:09:47.812 --> 00:09:50.769 But, these aren't perfect. There’s always a catch. 00:09:50.769 --> 00:09:55.658 If you have hard water, the mineral content of your water ends up in the air. 00:09:55.658 --> 00:09:58.538 Because the water is thrown into the air as liquid water 00:09:58.538 --> 00:10:01.371 and evaporates after it exits the device, 00:10:01.371 --> 00:10:04.056 you can experience a white dust forming on objects, 00:10:04.056 --> 00:10:06.560 particularly near the humidifier itself. 00:10:06.560 --> 00:10:10.090 This is the same limescale that you deal with in your sinks and shower, 00:10:10.090 --> 00:10:11.674 but now it’s all over the place. 00:10:11.674 --> 00:10:13.256 That’s neat. 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, 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, 00:10:22.868 --> 00:10:25.331 and/or have multiple units. 00:10:25.331 --> 00:10:27.391 There is also the fun fact that whatever mold, 00:10:27.391 --> 00:10:31.520 bacteria, chemical impurities, or other goodness might be in the water tank… 00:10:31.520 --> 00:10:33.345 will end up in the air, too. 00:10:33.345 --> 00:10:35.755 I'm... I'm pointing right at it. 00:10:35.755 --> 00:10:37.913 Now to be clear, this isn’t a gigantic concern, 00:10:37.913 --> 00:10:41.389 and it's certainly not unique to ultrasonic humidifiers. 00:10:41.389 --> 00:10:46.682 And then, of course, the last common style you can buy in stores is this kind. 00:10:46.682 --> 00:10:50.768 "Invisible cool mist" is marketing speak for evaporative. 00:10:50.768 --> 00:10:53.804 Evaporative humidifiers simply help water evaporate 00:10:53.804 --> 00:10:56.809 by providing a large surface area for it to cling to 00:10:56.809 --> 00:10:59.981 and a flow of air for it to hitchhike upon. 00:10:59.981 --> 00:11:03.739 They are extremely simple, yet also extremely effective. 00:11:03.739 --> 00:11:08.526 You’re right - I said this one wasn’t very effective, but here’s why: 00:11:08.526 --> 00:11:11.470 this is its wick, right? 00:11:11.470 --> 00:11:12.690 And... 00:11:12.690 --> 00:11:16.002 This is the wick of a whole-house humidifier. 00:11:16.002 --> 00:11:17.622 See the difference? 00:11:17.622 --> 00:11:20.720 Here’s the humidifier this giant wick belongs to. 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:23.177 It’s brown and therefore excellent. 00:11:23.177 --> 00:11:27.056 This style of humidifier is sometimes referred to as a console humidifier, 00:11:27.056 --> 00:11:30.298 and it is conceptually identical to the little Walmart one, 00:11:30.298 --> 00:11:33.234 but scaled up and improved in a number of ways. 00:11:33.234 --> 00:11:35.633 That said I’m not entirely thrilled with it, 00:11:35.633 --> 00:11:38.356 and I’ll discuss my many quibbles as we go along. 00:11:38.356 --> 00:11:42.308 It is, however, undeniably excellent at its job. 00:11:42.308 --> 00:11:45.874 The device itself is little more than a large plastic box on wheels 00:11:45.874 --> 00:11:48.086 (with simulated woodgrain excellence) 00:11:48.086 --> 00:11:49.284 and a fan. 00:11:49.284 --> 00:11:52.224 The fan sits on top of the box and when running 00:11:52.224 --> 00:11:55.956 pulls air through this vent in the rear and blows it out the top. 00:11:55.956 --> 00:11:58.436 The wick sits directly in front of that vent, 00:11:58.436 --> 00:12:01.267 and you’ll notice that the vent doesn’t go all the way to the bottom. 00:12:01.267 --> 00:12:04.328 That’s because, of course, the wick needs to sit in a pool of water, 00:12:04.328 --> 00:12:08.147 and a vent going to the very bottom would kinda ruin that prospect. 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, 00:12:11.849 --> 00:12:15.541 which makes moving this thing wonderfully stressful! 00:12:15.541 --> 00:12:18.160 And with that, here comes my first quibble: 00:12:18.160 --> 00:12:21.888 The box claims this has a 5.4 gallon capacity 00:12:21.949 --> 00:12:24.149 which is ridiculously misleading. 00:12:24.149 --> 00:12:27.269 See, this is its water tank. 00:12:27.269 --> 00:12:29.209 This is 2.5 gallons. 00:12:29.209 --> 00:12:31.953 Roughly three gallons sits in the bottom of the humidifier, 00:12:31.953 --> 00:12:35.739 but that level is kept constant by this bottle feeding it. 00:12:35.880 --> 00:12:38.786 When the bottle runs out, it will continue to run for a little while 00:12:38.786 --> 00:12:40.822 and use up some of the water in the bottom, 00:12:40.822 --> 00:12:43.518 but that makes filling it a two-step process - 00:12:43.518 --> 00:12:46.175 filling the bottom of the humidifier itself, 00:12:46.175 --> 00:12:47.655 and then the bottle. 00:12:47.655 --> 00:12:51.640 You could just fill the bottle, but then you’d need to immediately do it again 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. 00:12:57.178 --> 00:13:00.215 Even worse is that a float switch prevents it from running 00:13:00.215 --> 00:13:03.572 when the water gets just an inch or so below the full level 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. 00:13:09.220 --> 00:13:12.071 Therefore, in my opinion, for all intents and purposes 00:13:12.071 --> 00:13:15.346 this has a 2.5 gallon capacity. 00:13:15.346 --> 00:13:17.899 And, aside from this particular numbers nonsense, 00:13:17.899 --> 00:13:19.408 the bottle itself isn’t the best. 00:13:19.408 --> 00:13:23.193 I routinely have to re-seat this cap or else it will leak, 00:13:23.193 --> 00:13:25.968 a mishap that would result in the bottom being overfilled 00:13:25.968 --> 00:13:28.342 and water spilling out the back! 00:13:29.161 --> 00:13:31.278 This thing certainly ain’t without its problems. 00:13:31.278 --> 00:13:33.190 How's that for a product endorsement? 00:13:33.190 --> 00:13:36.269 Anyway, here’s where things get slightly interesting. 00:13:36.269 --> 00:13:38.644 The fan isn’t just an ordinary fan. 00:13:38.644 --> 00:13:41.527 It is a fan controlled by a humidistat. 00:13:41.527 --> 00:13:44.616 A pair of dials, one of them also being pressable as a button, 00:13:44.616 --> 00:13:47.164 serve as a basic user interfffff 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:49.802 [with immense disappointment] it’s blue. 00:13:50.197 --> 00:13:51.019 Blue! 00:13:51.019 --> 00:13:52.679 Wha, wha, why does it have to be blue? 00:13:52.820 --> 00:13:54.333 And so bright? 00:13:54.926 --> 00:13:58.006 Manufacturers of apparently literally everything now 00:13:58.006 --> 00:13:59.595 cut. it. out. 00:13:59.595 --> 00:14:01.529 Nobody needs this. 00:14:01.529 --> 00:14:03.736 It needs to be readable, not eye-piercing. 00:14:03.736 --> 00:14:04.369 Geez. 00:14:04.369 --> 00:14:05.499 What if this were in my bedroom? 00:14:05.499 --> 00:14:08.208 Don’t you think I oughta be able to, like, sleep? 00:14:08.208 --> 00:14:10.130 You didn’t even put it on the box, 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 00:14:13.363 --> 00:14:15.481 with the blue ell eee deez. 00:14:15.481 --> 00:14:19.772 Bring back dull, boring red, amber, maybe green displays, please. 00:14:19.772 --> 00:14:22.116 I am so over this. 00:14:22.878 --> 00:14:24.000 Where was I? 00:14:24.254 --> 00:14:26.119 Right, so, atrocious display aside, 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 - 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:34.594 I truly cannot believe this product needs to exist yes I will get beyond this tangent... 00:14:34.594 --> 00:14:38.469 you can select between four fan speeds and set the desired relative humidity 00:14:38.469 --> 00:14:40.603 in increments of five percent. 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, 00:14:44.788 --> 00:14:48.890 and the onboard microcontroller will cycle the fan on and off accordingly. 00:14:48.890 --> 00:14:52.499 The fan will turn on when humidity is three percent below the setpoint, 00:14:52.499 --> 00:14:56.186 and it will turn back off when it’s achieved one percent above. 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. 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 00:15:07.145 --> 00:15:09.959 and what my smart thermostat reports to me. 00:15:09.959 --> 00:15:15.249 Honestly a little surprising, but anyway the benefit of having a humidistat is tremendous. 00:15:15.249 --> 00:15:19.471 Being able to self-regulate means it can respond to different conditions appropriately 00:15:19.471 --> 00:15:21.761 and keep humidity levels consistent. 00:15:21.761 --> 00:15:23.889 And it’s been very interesting to observe. 00:15:23.889 --> 00:15:26.938 I have it placed in a central location near my thermostat, 00:15:26.938 --> 00:15:30.914 and when the heat isn't running neither is the humidifier. 00:15:30.914 --> 00:15:33.439 But, within just a few minutes of the heat kicking on, 00:15:33.439 --> 00:15:37.335 the relative humidity falls to the point that it needs to run. 00:15:37.335 --> 00:15:41.783 This makes perfect sense because the now warmer air can absorb more moisture, 00:15:41.783 --> 00:15:44.749 therefore its relative humidity has fallen slightly. 00:15:44.749 --> 00:15:49.367 The humidifier will continue to run for about five minutes after the heat has shut off. 00:15:49.367 --> 00:15:53.300 And then it will have satisfied the humidity set point and go idle. 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. 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 00:16:04.304 --> 00:16:08.040 or perhaps even 49 percent… but no more. 00:16:08.040 --> 00:16:12.252 It takes until the heat comes back on for humidity to fall beyond that point - 00:16:12.252 --> 00:16:16.639 and this appears to be the case throughout the house, according to my little hygrometer friend. 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:21.209 I’m actually genuinely curious about this because it seems moisture leaves the air at 00:16:21.209 --> 00:16:23.749 a rate correlated to its temperature drop. 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 00:16:28.939 --> 00:16:32.842 and even then - the humidifier won’t run until the heat comes on again, 00:16:32.842 --> 00:16:35.319 and that can be hours later. 00:16:35.319 --> 00:16:39.929 Humidity stays right near 50% the entire time the temperature is falling. 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. 00:16:46.009 --> 00:16:49.684 Anyway, though this thing is ugly and annoys me in several ways, 00:16:49.684 --> 00:16:54.819 it is undeniably great at humidifying, especially from an energy standpoint. 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 00:16:59.540 --> 00:17:03.487 while it’s running (about 65 watts at its low fan speed) 00:17:03.487 --> 00:17:06.894 but it only needs to run for about 6 hours on a typical day - 00:17:06.894 --> 00:17:09.222 and that’s on its lowest fan speed. 00:17:09.222 --> 00:17:14.111 With my current usage, it goes through the entire 2.5 gallon bottle daily. 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. 00:17:19.506 --> 00:17:22.487 Certainly a weird metric, but hey! It works. 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 00:17:28.713 --> 00:17:32.390 which means it uses 768 watt-hours per gallon. 00:17:32.390 --> 00:17:35.815 That’s more than 5 times the energy per unit of humidification! 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. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:44.680 Despite that garish display. 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:47.258 My old dishwasher used triple that! 00:17:47.258 --> 00:17:51.551 Honestly, it’s amazing how much water this thing adds to the air when it runs. 00:17:51.551 --> 00:17:56.389 Just feeling the air coming out of it is impressive, it’s downright swampy. 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. 00:18:01.929 --> 00:18:04.351 To give you a sense of how fast it goes through water, 00:18:04.351 --> 00:18:09.453 well you can hear the bottle go “glug glug glug” as it replenishes the water level 00:18:09.453 --> 00:18:13.392 [fan noise, with a faint "glug glug glug"] 00:18:13.392 --> 00:18:17.260 and this happens more frequently than every five minutes when it’s running! 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. 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:27.700 Setting this thing up has frankly been a little astonishing to me. 00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:31.507 It’s so simple, yet extaordinarily effective. 00:18:31.507 --> 00:18:35.223 Using less energy over a day than this little ultrasonic humidifier 00:18:35.223 --> 00:18:39.450 it's able to take care of my entire home and not just a single room. 00:18:39.450 --> 00:18:43.938 I’ve been checking with my hygrometer and, indeed, humidity is pretty consistent 00:18:43.938 --> 00:18:47.690 from room to room, varying only by about five percent. 00:18:47.690 --> 00:18:50.891 Granted, this is ridiculous overkill for the size of my home 00:18:50.891 --> 00:18:54.809 and I do have the benefit of a forced-air furnace to help move air around. 00:18:54.809 --> 00:19:01.490 But, it really seems that evaporative humidifiers are, at least in many respects, the best. 00:19:01.490 --> 00:19:03.730 Of course, there’s a catch. 00:19:03.730 --> 00:19:06.199 And it’s, uh… kinda big. 00:19:06.199 --> 00:19:10.050 Evaporative humidifiers can get… gross. 00:19:10.050 --> 00:19:14.521 To be clear, all humidifiers get gross over time but the evaporative style 00:19:14.521 --> 00:19:17.131 tends to present the most opportunities for grossness 00:19:17.131 --> 00:19:20.793 because there’s a giant damp sponge sitting in a pool of water 00:19:20.793 --> 00:19:23.447 that has air forced through it by a fan, 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. 00:19:30.034 --> 00:19:31.928 It’s great. 00:19:31.928 --> 00:19:34.341 Now, there are ways to combat this problem. 00:19:34.341 --> 00:19:38.081 First, the wicks are almost always meant to be replaced seasonally, 00:19:38.081 --> 00:19:42.153 and there are water treatment products available to inhibit bacterial growth. 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, 00:19:47.705 --> 00:19:51.349 which is the most common complaint of this style of humidifier. 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. 00:19:57.370 --> 00:19:59.289 But, here’s where I have good news. 00:19:59.289 --> 00:20:01.910 This is conceptually a very simple device. 00:20:01.910 --> 00:20:04.700 And that means, you can make one yourself! 00:20:04.700 --> 00:20:08.960 All you need is something to absorb water and provide it with a large surface area. 00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:11.880 And you have plenty of those - towels! 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 00:20:15.809 --> 00:20:17.360 of a small towel. 00:20:17.360 --> 00:20:19.360 You may need to weigh it down with something. 00:20:19.360 --> 00:20:23.160 Terry cloth is great for this - that’s why towels help you dry things, after all: 00:20:23.160 --> 00:20:26.700 they have lots of little fibers for water to cling to. 00:20:26.700 --> 00:20:30.799 Those same fibers provide places for water to evaporate from. 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:35.360 Try experimenting with different bowls, towels, quantities of water, etc. 00:20:35.360 --> 00:20:39.840 To gauge the effectiveness of your invention, go ahead grab one of these little hygrometers. 00:20:40.518 --> 00:20:44.429 They’re not the most accurate things out there, but plenty good for giving you guidance 00:20:44.429 --> 00:20:46.250 and they only cost around $5. 00:20:46.250 --> 00:20:50.520 You can speed up evaporation with a desk fan pointed at the towels. 00:20:50.520 --> 00:20:54.759 And, best of all, you can simply run this improvised wick material through the laundry 00:20:54.759 --> 00:20:57.529 and change it however frequently you’d like. 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 00:21:01.774 --> 00:21:07.269 100 square foot office showed it could maintain 50% humidity with the aid of a fan. 00:21:07.269 --> 00:21:11.110 And that was with a, frankly, awful towel placement. 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 00:21:15.314 --> 00:21:19.564 maybe a kitchen towel or shreds of towels in a zig-zag, vertical arrangement 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. 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. 00:21:31.199 --> 00:21:35.179 Just put it in a shallow pan and sit it in front of a fan. 00:21:35.179 --> 00:21:38.100 This might even push me to buy a decent 3D printer… 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 00:21:42.789 --> 00:21:48.909 large console makes what they call a “mini” console and it is delightfully simple. 00:21:48.909 --> 00:21:52.919 It is little more than a bucket, a fan, and two wicks. 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 00:21:57.600 --> 00:22:04.080 the exact same humidistat (and with unfortunately the same blue LEDs…) forces air through 00:22:04.080 --> 00:22:05.799 the wicks when necessary. 00:22:05.799 --> 00:22:10.309 It takes in air through the sides and blows it out the top, nicely moistened. 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, 00:22:14.919 --> 00:22:17.710 but it’s much, much more user-friendly. 00:22:17.710 --> 00:22:20.950 And also quieter, at least on its low fan speeds. 00:22:20.950 --> 00:22:24.000 Filling it is as easy as filling a bucket because... 00:22:25.037 --> 00:22:29.441 that’s what it is. Just take the fan off and carry this to a sink. 00:22:29.441 --> 00:22:35.059 Much less finicky than dealing with a tank or jug, and a lot easier to clean. 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 00:22:40.679 --> 00:22:44.230 it will be because less of the wick is exposed to air. 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. 00:22:49.375 --> 00:22:53.720 Here’s a pro-tip for you, should you decide to purchase a humidifier like these. 00:22:53.720 --> 00:22:57.330 If you use a water treatment product, which I highly recommend you do, 00:22:57.330 --> 00:22:59.460 put it in a soap pump! 00:22:59.460 --> 00:23:02.711 Figure out how many pumps it takes to fill, say, a tablespoon 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. 00:23:07.269 --> 00:23:10.360 It’s much less messy and more consistent, too. 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 00:23:15.699 --> 00:23:18.800 (which, uh, they probably aren’t given the jug it comes in) 00:23:18.800 --> 00:23:22.631 but you can absolutely just use a well cleaned-out old soap pump. 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. 00:23:27.197 --> 00:23:30.695 Also, for whatever reason, large humidifiers like these 00:23:30.695 --> 00:23:35.648 seem to only be available in hardware stores, at least in my neck of the US. 00:23:35.648 --> 00:23:41.066 Your general big-box store like Walmart seems only to carry small, single-room units, 00:23:41.066 --> 00:23:46.628 though weirdly enough when I was last at Walmart they sold not only these exact hygrometers 00:23:46.628 --> 00:23:50.187 but the same water treatment chemical I'm using in these, too. 00:23:50.187 --> 00:23:52.918 So, yeah. Don’t know why that is exactly, 00:23:52.918 --> 00:23:57.361 but I’d also recommend that you buy a few spare wicks for the years ahead. 00:23:57.361 --> 00:23:59.314 Any large hardware store should carry them, 00:23:59.314 --> 00:24:03.846 and to my fellow midwesterners, Menards has plenty. 00:24:03.846 --> 00:24:06.312 So, that’s about all I have to say here. 00:24:06.312 --> 00:24:11.591 Even though these evaporative humidifiers aren’t the flashiest or most technically intriguing, 00:24:11.591 --> 00:24:16.257 they seem to do their job extremely effectively and efficiently. 00:24:16.257 --> 00:24:20.514 I would like to suggest a few revisions to this particular design, though. 00:24:20.514 --> 00:24:24.257 What I’d love to see is a wick that is held much higher up, 00:24:24.257 --> 00:24:28.507 allowing the tank to hold much more water, perhaps 10 or more gallons. 00:24:28.507 --> 00:24:31.468 Rather than requiring it to sit in a pool of water, 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. 00:24:35.999 --> 00:24:39.882 This is actually a fairly common design of large swamp coolers. 00:24:39.882 --> 00:24:43.541 This design would allow it to run for days without stopping. 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, 00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:51.246 is that this would make it a lot louder. 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, 00:24:55.770 --> 00:24:59.070 otherwise you’d hear a constant trickling from the thing when it runs. 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. 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 00:25:10.074 --> 00:25:13.669 that I really don’t like the float switch on this unit. 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. 00:25:19.250 --> 00:25:23.154 I would much rather it continue running the fan when it runs out of water 00:25:23.154 --> 00:25:26.130 so that the wick can actually dry out. 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 00:25:30.590 --> 00:25:33.649 the bottom, which is a little unsettling to me. 00:25:33.649 --> 00:25:36.730 Also, the implementation of it is just super janky. 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, 00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:44.929 and then it pokes the underside of the fan. 00:25:44.929 --> 00:25:49.032 I’ll probably just disable that switch, maybe force the stick thing up all the time 00:25:49.032 --> 00:25:51.529 by putting a rock under it or something. 00:25:51.529 --> 00:25:54.985 The simple bucket one, for what it’s worth, has no float switch 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. 00:25:58.990 --> 00:26:00.840 I much prefer that. 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 00:26:04.630 --> 00:26:06.188 your only option. 00:26:06.188 --> 00:26:10.086 Whole-home humidifiers that get installed into your home’s HVAC system 00:26:10.086 --> 00:26:15.370 are also fairly common, and wouldn’t ya know it - those are evaporative, too! 00:26:15.370 --> 00:26:18.984 These units will divert some of the air flowing through your ductwork through themselves 00:26:18.984 --> 00:26:21.220 and are plumbed into a water supply. 00:26:21.220 --> 00:26:25.759 There’s often an absorbent pad or wheel which also requires periodic replacement, 00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:30.810 though sometimes non-porous materials are used which only require cleaning. 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... 00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:37.039 you might want to look into that. 00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:40.361 Since I didn’t already have one of these in my HVAC system, 00:26:40.361 --> 00:26:42.680 I just went for a standalone unit. 00:26:42.680 --> 00:26:47.524 And, despite its many little annoyances, I’m overall very happy with it. 00:26:47.524 --> 00:26:50.340 Certainly it’s made the winter much more bearable. 00:26:50.340 --> 00:26:53.097 My lips were starting to get badly chapped around Christmastime, 00:26:53.097 --> 00:26:56.312 but now that I have this running that’s gone away. 00:26:56.312 --> 00:26:58.511 Usually it’d be chapstick time. 00:26:58.511 --> 00:27:03.539 And genuinely, I feel warmer now with the thermostat set to the same temperature. 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 00:27:08.620 --> 00:27:14.009 in the summer, and drier air feels cooler, but it did surprise me. 00:27:14.009 --> 00:27:17.559 The air is just much more comfortable in so many ways. 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? 00:27:22.610 --> 00:27:25.104 It at least will give you something fun to do. 00:27:25.438 --> 00:27:26.873 Anyway, toodles! 00:27:27.997 --> 00:27:30.452 ♫ moistly smooth jazz ♫ 00:27:31.349 --> 00:27:33.780 This is what purports to be... 00:27:33.780 --> 00:27:35.272 yeah, no it's facing the right way. 00:27:35.272 --> 00:27:37.060 Shouldn't have second guessed myself. 00:27:37.060 --> 00:27:40.281 ...plastic base supports... shoot. 00:27:41.128 --> 00:27:42.131 That was going great! 00:27:42.131 --> 00:27:45.459 ...sits in a shallow pool of water and capillary act... 00:27:45.459 --> 00:27:47.767 dew do be fluef ah heuhhh 00:27:47.767 --> 00:27:51.253 that makes it appropriate for small rooms, but not a lot much else. 00:27:51.253 --> 00:27:52.213 Not much else. 00:27:52.213 --> 00:27:54.465 Why did I say a lot much? That's dumb. 00:27:54.465 --> 00:27:57.328 Yeah, that's not a whole lot but it's also not 00:27:57.328 --> 00:27:59.321 [stops abruptly] 00:27:59.321 --> 00:28:01.980 That cat is having fun upstairs. 00:28:03.364 --> 00:28:06.369 [rumbling as the cat runs around] 00:28:06.369 --> 00:28:10.241 But it's also not gonna be ... it's not gonna be do much! 00:28:10.241 --> 00:28:11.599 Why does it have to be blue? 00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:13.380 And so bright? 00:28:14.538 --> 00:28:16.282 Heh, no that's way over-the-top. 00:28:18.174 --> 00:28:22.867 Secret messages at the end of the videos in the captions? 00:28:22.867 --> 00:28:26.931 I have no idea what you're talking about. 00:28:26.931 --> 00:28:33.252 You must be thinking of some other channel that does that regularly.