Hot or Cold?


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Old 02-17-04, 04:56 AM
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Hot or Cold?

For room humidifiers which is best the ones that put out warm steam or cold steam?

I have asked so many people this question including several of the companies that make them and can't seem to get a straight answer. Some of the companies did not even reply.

Why is the difference? Why would I want a cold steam version over a hot or visa versa?

Thanks
 
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Old 02-17-04, 07:47 AM
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Out of the box here but what I have ran into with humidifiers. that we have put in.
The steam type will keep most all the yuck lime and calcium in the pan there. The cold one will put this same stuff most of it in the air and you can get like a white dust in the home??

My .02cents ED
 
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Old 02-17-04, 02:42 PM
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seems to me that hot steam would be better, more prone to being absorbed by the air in the space

my 3 cents!
 
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Old 03-27-04, 06:35 PM
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Hot or cold humidifier

Hot water increases the evaporative capacity of your humidifier, provides more humidity to the air, according to manufacturers of hot water humidifiers.
 
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Old 03-31-04, 11:18 AM
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Many variables exist that make the answer different:

Steam is generally more sanitary - most of the bacteria is killed by the heat, but it is more costly to run, especially if it's needed in the summer (person with breathing difficulty needs added humidity...). Steam humidifiers also usually don't use a fan to move the humidity and are generally smaller so the coverage area may not be as large. Cool mist humidifiers come in several different flavors - wick/pad, microchip and atomization to name the most common. Microchip humidifiers tend to kill most bacteria, unlike other cool mist humidifiers, but they also break up and broadcast all the minerals that are in the water and produce a great amount of white dust. For a table top humidifier that's not heavily used, a microchip humidifier using distilled water can be a good choice, but probably more expensive and harder to find than an equally good steam humidifier (vaporizer). Most wick/pad humidifiers tend to breed germs and need an antibacterial solution put in the water as well as diligent routine cleaning.

For a furnace installed whole house unit, there are a few steam types but I don't believe they are commonly installed, probably because of their high electrical consumption. More common are cool mist pad humidifiers that either run an absorbent pad through a water reservoir or run water across an absorbent pad. That might not seem like a significant difference, but the ones that run water across the pad (Aprilair...) often don't have a reservoir where bacteria can breed and where minerals can build up. The minerals do build up on the pad and bacteria can bread there as well, but not at significant levels. The pad is usually replaced about once a year with little other maintenance needed.

The category I haven't mentioned is atomization which use some type of nozzle or device to create a fine mist. They are sanitary, but prone to problems with clogging and can produce some dust. IMHO - they are the worst choice because of their unreliability.

Hope this helps

Doug M.
 
 

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