Author: Dennis Reed

Do I Need a Humidifier?

The most sure way to know whether or not you need a humidifier is to measure the humidity in your room. The hygrometer is a gauge that will measure your humidity and tell you what the relative percentage of moisture you have in your air.

What should the humidity be in your home?

The ideal relative humidity range is between 40 and 60% according to the National Library of Medicine.

Most publications including Martha Stewart.com say that the ideal humidity is between 30 and 50%.

So going off on average, you should be sitting good at 45% relative humidity.

Don’t Have a Hygrometer Handy?

Don’t worry there are plenty of telltale signs that indicate your humidity is too low and that you need a humidifier without having to have an actual humidity meter.

Symptoms of Low Humidity in the House

1. Chapped lips

If you have noticed that your lips are extra dry and you are pulling out the Chapstick more often than usual, that’s a pretty good indication that the air is dry.

Dry air is like a sponge that draws moisture out of every possible thing it can.

When your lips get irritated and dry, they will eventually start cracking. And most of us just put more and more Chapstick on.

But the underlying condition is a lack of moisture in the air.

2. The Bloody Nose

Bloody noses are one of the more popular indications that air is too dry.

Whether you blow your nose and there’s blood on the tissue or your nasal passages have gotten so dry that they crack and bleed, there is one culprit that may be going unnoticed.

And that is the low relative humidity in your space. Increasing the moisture in the air will moisturize the inside of your nose and give you some much-needed relief.

3. Dry, Itchy, and Cracking Skin

Dry skin is one of the main telltale signs that dryness has taken over the ambient air.

And it is also one of the biggest reasons people seek out a humidifier to give them some relief with dry skin.

Dry skin is not only annoying, it can also cause your skin to break and allow airborne bacteria to burrow down into your skin and cause outbreaks of rashes and acne.

Replenishing the moisture in your air for the humidifier is one of the best skin moisturizers you can buy.

4. Dustiness

Dust is a problem when there’s not enough moisture droplets in the air to weigh down dust particles so that they fall to the surface.

Dust is also very greedy for any available moisture in the surroundings. That’s why dust dries your face and skin out so bad.

The humidifier will add the necessary humidity droplets to attach to wayward dust particles and keep them from floating.

5. Viruses

Along the same lines of using a humidifier to alleviate dustiness, is the need for moisture in the air to keep viruses from being able to spread as far.

When there is a lack of moisture, allergens, viruses, and airborne bacteria are free to float and travel further throughout a room or house.

When the proper moisture is added back into the air, humidity droplets attach themselves to the viral particles and cause them to be too heavy to float or travel.

Which reduces the chance of exposure to the viruses.

6. Asthma

Asthma is another problem that can be triggered by airborne particles.

Particles that are allowed to flow freely throughout the air because of a lack of moisture droplets to weigh them down.

Many asthmatic episodes can be avoided by keeping the moisture level in the home in the 40 to 60% range.

7. Acne

Acne is not a condition that you normally consider being an issue with humidity. But acne can actually be a dry skin problem.

Dry skin can break open and allow the bacteria that is causing the acne to get a deeper root inside of your skin.

Moisturization in the form of humidity can keep your skin from drying out and being a richer plantation for acne to grow.

8. Static Electricity

Static electricity is one of the first indicators that the moisture in the air has dipped.

Walking around, shocking each other, discharging on every metal object you touch is a huge neon sign blinking “your humidity is too low!”

And just like every other humidity problem, it seems to go on weeks before you ever make the connection between the static electricity and the humidity level.

9. Dry Throat.

Just like the nasal passages, the throat needs proper moisture to function.

When the humidity is dropped, you will often start to get a sore, itchy, and dry throat.

And often just turning on a cool mist humidifier for a few hours will magically relieve the soreness.

10. Wood Cracking.

When the air is too dry it causes wood to shrink. The shrinking can eventually cause the wood to crack. And if it’s your furniture, not so good.

The lack of humidity also causes stress on an acoustic guitar which can make it buzz. And warp the neck to the point that the strings are hard to press down. And it will eventually crack.

Too much humidity can eventually saturate the wood causing expansion and adhesives to give loose.

Warning:

You may need a humidifier if you have any of these symptoms.

But for all the benefits that keeping the proper humidity level in your house can offer you,

It’s important to remember that humidifiers are maintenance heavy by nature.

They require thorough cleanings often.

Most of the symptoms above would be negated if you were to use the humidifier wrongly.

And by wrongly, I mean if you were to operate the humidifier after it has had stagnant water sitting in it with bacteria growing.

The bacteria that grows on water can be very dangerous. That is why it is very important to understand that humidifiers must be kept clean.

So how much of our lives do we spend sleeping, do they say? Like 26 years or something, and another 7 years just trying to get to sleep. That’s insane.

We all know the feeling I’m not getting a good night sleep and trying to be at our best the next day or sometimes days.

Not getting the adequate amount of sleep presents a whole host of problems.

Some very severe like memory loss, heart disease, and low sex drive.

There is no doubt that sleep is a very important part of everyone’s lives.

But Did You Know That Humidity Can Have an Effect on How Well You Sleep?

It’s a fact.

Air that is too dry can cause your breathing to be impaired because of dust and germs that easily float when there’s not enough moisture in the air to weigh them down.

When you’re trying to sleep, breathing in these impurities can cause snoring, coughing, and exasperated sleep apnea.

Dry air also can cause your skin to become dehydrated leading to flaky itchy skin, and acne.

As well as cause your nasal passages along with your throat, to become raw leading to nosebleeds and a dry sore throat.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, air that is too humid can be filled with mold spores and dust mites, also making it hard to breathe deep while you are trying to get a good night’s rest.

Excessive humidity can also be harder to breathe which can impair your slumber, and be a nightmare for people with asthma and sleep apnea.

But fortunately, there is a device that can help you remedy any problems you are having sleeping because of poor low humidity.

The device?

The humidifier.

Yep. The Humidifier.

The Benefits of Sleeping With a Humidifier Nearby Are Many

Restful sleep when you’re congested and your nasal passages are swollen and brittle, hydrated skin when you’re dried out,

and air that is cleaner to breathe because of the capacity of moisture in the air to “weigh down” dust and particulates inhibiting their ability to float.

Sounds wonderful and it is. Humidity is much more a part of being healthy and getting proper sleep than most people including myself ever thought of or gave it credit for.

How Do You Know if You Need a Humidifier?

How do you know when you need to use a humidifier?

There are certain times of the year, namely the cold winter months when the air becomes naturally too dry.

Then to combat the cold, we turn on the heater, which dries the air out further.

During this time of year, it’s a no-brainer. You need a humidifier.

But even with that information, knowing when to use a humidifier is still guesswork unless you have a way of measuring the humidity.

Aha… The point!

Measuring the humidity level of the air in your home is the only way you can be sure you need to fire up the humidifier.

How do you do that?

A hygrometer. A hygrometer is to humidity what a thermometer is to temperature.

A simple device that measures the relative humidity.

You can buy them fairly cheap and monitor the humidity at your leisure.

But, humidifiers these days come with everything you need to measure your humidity, dial in the humidity level you want, and let the machine do the work.

You can buy a humidifier with a built-in hygrometer and a humidistat to set the humidifier at whatever humidity you want.

You can purchase humidifiers that have all the smart capabilities that allow you to control your humidifier via your phone, or check the relative humidity in your home, or schedule the humidifier to come on at a certain time.

All at your fingertips and all easily programmed to take commands by voice.

With what is known about humidity these days and it’s capacity to hinder viruses, hydrate skin and help keep acne under control, as well as act as a natural air purifier,

Combined with the amazing selection of humidifiers available that can do it all,

I think its time we took humidifiers more seriously and looked at them as an investment other than a cheap plastic drugstore item.

Humidifiers are also starting to make big jumps in the way they are cleaned.

You can now purchase humidifiers that have ultraviolet lights to target and kill bacteria inside of the water before it becomes part of the air,

There are also humidifiers that are made out of antimicrobial plastic that keeps bacteria and fungus from being able to grow on the actual materials that the humidifier is made out of,

And there are also additives you can buy to put in the humidifier to keep mold and bacteria from becoming an issue.

And don’t forget, smart humidifiers will also alert you when it’s time to clean your humidifying device.

Recap

Sleeping With the Humidifier When the Air Is Dry Has Many Benefits

1. Keeping your skin hydrated.
2. Weighing down and keeping dust and particulates out of the air so that they are not breathed in.
3. Easing the pain of swollen and dried nasal passages are all benefits to sleeping with a humidifier on.

But as wonderful is all that is, humidifiers are not needed all year long.

In order to get the best result out of a humidifier, you need to know exactly when to run it.

And in order to do that, you first need to measure the humidity before you get started.

A hygrometer is a simple tool to measure the relative humidity.

Fairly inexpensive, the hygrometer will let you know whether you even need to turn the humidifier on or not.

Fortunately these days, it’s not hard to find a humidifier that has a hygrometer built in as well as a humidistat to dial in the humidity level that you desire.

Like everything else in the modern world, humidifiers can be purchased to work with your Wi-Fi and be controlled using an app to schedule and monitor your relative humidity level.

If you’re living on the opposite side of the spectrum and you’re average humidity is too high, a dehumidifier may be the ticket.

Humidifier vs. Air Purifier

What’s the difference between a humidifier and an air purifier?

The answer should be pretty obvious you would think.
And on the surface it is.

An air purifier purifies the air and an air humidifier adds humidity to the air.

And when you’re trying to decide whether you need to run an air purifier or to run a humidifier,

The answer to that should seem pretty obvious too.

Do you want to filter the air or do you want to add moisture to the air?

But here is where it gets a little more interesting.

Dry air and humidity have a direct link to the transmission of viruses and allergies in the air.

Two things that you would normally consider to fall in the air purifier category.

Check out the Air Innovations MH 505A on Amazon Here

According to an article in Science Daily, professor Michael Ward states “when the humidity is lower, the air is dryer and it makes the aerosol smaller”

He also added, “the aerosols are smaller than droplets. When you sneeze and cough those smaller infectious aerosols can stay suspended in the air for longer.

That increases the exposure for other people. When the air is humid and the aerosols are larger and heavier they fall and hit surfaces quicker.”

Cooler air can cause the humidity to drop as much as 20%. Which makes it much easier for airborne particles to travel.

Secondly, the extra dry air can cause the body’s own natural humidifying and air purification functions, called Cilia, not to function optimally and have a harder time expelling viral particulates as well as it would in normal humidity.

An experiment cited by Medical News Today shows that rodents placed in an environment with 10% relative humidity “succumbed to influenza virus infection more rapidly than those housed in 50% relative humidity.”

The study also showed that dry air caused the immune response in the mice to be less efficient.

So what does it mean?

The capacity of a humidifier to be able to reduce the spread of viral particles seems to have an edge in the cold dry months compared to an air purifier.

But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

A good air purifier, especially one that uses an h13 HEPA filter, can reduce the number of allergens and viruses in the air significantly. Regardless of the relative humidity.

Other types of air purifiers that use plasma wave or bipolar technologies can also significantly lower the amount of virus particulates in the air.

Furthermore, air purifiers are useful everyday of the year whereas humidifiers are only useful when the relative humidity drops.

But when the temperature is cooler and dry air becomes an issue, an air purifier will do zero to add any humidity back to the air.

See the Levoit Hybrid Ultrasonic Humidifier Here

So is one better than the other?

Should you purchase a humidifier and not bother with the air purifier?

This is a situation where there is no either or.

Humidifiers clearly have an edge when it comes to restoring the relative humidity back to 40 to 60% in the cold months when the air is extra dry.

And viruses need dry air to transport easily.

But extra humidity is definitely not welcomed all year long where there’s not a time of the year when you don’t need clean air to breathe.

And that’s where an air purifier comes in.

So the only good answer is to own both a humidifier and an air purifier.

Am I saying you should purchase a combination air purifier and humidifier?

That’s not what I’m saying at all.

There are a lot of combination appliances that make a lot of sense.

But combining an air purifier and a humidifier is not exactly the best ideal.

Let me explain why I think this.

Humidifier air purifier combos use water to clean the air. These types of units are called air washers and revitalizers.

These machines are not able to clean the air without adding humidity.

And though they may be a great idea in the winter, the dry season only lasts so long.

You have to remember that the humid season is coming, and adding more humidity to the already excessive humid condition is not going to be the best ideal.

You’re going to want a device like a dehumidifier to reduce the humidity at that point.

Combining an air purifier and a humidifier may seem like a great idea on the surface, but the truth is it’s really only useful for about the same amount of time as you will use a humidifier.

You should think about purchasing an air purifier as a standalone appliance that doesn’t try to combine any other function other than to clean the air.

It’s the only scenario that really works.

Air purifier vs humidifier

Air purifiers and humidifiers seem like two totally different machines on the surface.

One cleans the air and one adds moisture to the air. Case closed right?

But there are studies that prove that viruses and allergies transfer much easier and faster in dry air.

Studies also show that cold and flu symptoms can be reduced as much as 50% by simply adding humidity back into the air through the use of a humidifier.

It’s during these cold dry times that humidifiers actually become a better air purifier than an air purifier itself.

And as “case closed” is that might sound, even though humidifiers may have an edge during that small part of the year, they are not very useful in other seasons.

Air purifiers are useful all year long and don’t depend on the relative humidity being one way or the other.

What’s the conclusion?

Households should employ both air purifiers and humidifiers.

Both work to make your home a much healthier breathing space and are not exclusive of one another.

Finally, even though it may sound like I’m suggesting a air purifier and humidifier combo, those machines are more humidifier than air purifier and you can only get about the same amount of use from them as you do a humidifier.

The best solution is to own a good humidifier and own a separate air purifier.

Low Humidity Symptoms

The effects of humidity and the lack thereof can have a lot of symptoms on your body that you may have not considered before.

Some of them are very logical and make complete sense straight away, while other symptoms may not be as obvious.

Low relative humidity is at the heart of many issues that you face every day.

But it is one of the last places most people look when they are looking for solutions for a variety of different problems.

Here’s a small list of low humidity symptoms:

1. Static electricity

You reach out for your wife’s hand or to give your daughter a hug and suddenly you get zapped. Static shock! And it seems like everything you touch is a live wire for the next few weeks.

Static electricity is an indication that the humidity is low.

Static electricity is essentially an imbalance of negative and positive ions in the air.

The shock you feel is the balancing of the ions jumping from one object to another.

But when the air is keeping a relative humidity of 40% or more, the moisture in the air absorbs the shock instead of you and your next victim.

If you notice you’re getting zapped with static electricity around the house more than usual, you can be certain that your humidity is low.

A humidifier is a device that adds moisture back to the air which is beneficial for reducing the amount of static electrical shock around the house.

Check out the Levoit Warm and Cool Mist Humidifier Here.

Humidifier Benefit #1

Reduce Static Electricity

2. Dry Nose / Bloody Nose

Another symptom of low humidity that is easier to identify than some others is having a dry nose.

When you blow your nose and it feels brittle and painful to do so, or worse, you have a baby that has a sore brittle nose, the relative humidity in your house has more than certainly dropped.

Nosebleeds go hand in hand with dried nasal passages. If you notice blood on the tissue that you have used to clear your nose or worse, you flat out have a crack on the inner walls of your nose and blood is beginning to drip,

You will more than likely find that the relative humidity in your home has dropped below the 40% mark.

A cool mist humidifier can add the depleted humidity back into your air and give you some cool relief inside of your nasal passages.

Humidifier Benefit #2

Soothe and Hydrate the linings in your nose

3. Dry skin

Following the same logic as having a dry nose is the low humidity symptom of dried and cracking skin.

The moisture in a person’s skin is absorbed primarily through the humidity in the air.

There is a saying that “dry skin equals dehydrated skin”.

Winter is the time of year that is known for having drier air consistently.

It is also the time of the year when the air is continually dried out further but running the heater continually.

So it is not a coincidence that people experience drier than usual skin during this time of year.

But dry skin is not exclusive to colder seasons,

The climate indoors can suffer from low humidity in the summer as well.

Tightly sealed rooms running air conditioners that are dehumidifying as they cool and having fans blowing can also have an effect on the relative humidity inside.

Humidifier Benefit #3

Return Moisture to your skin

4. Extra Dusty house

Have you noticed the surfaces in your home or office seem particularly dusty?

A dusty room is a symptom of low humidity.

When the airborne particles in a room don’t have enough moisture to weigh them down or give them that “mud” like texture,

they are free to float further and longer and essentially make the room extra Dusty.

Dustiness is also a major issue when dealing with dry skin.

Your skin is not the only thing absorbing the moisture from the air.

Dust and dry skin

Dust is also absorbing the moisture, not only out of the air, but out of your skin as well.

You have probably been in a old room where dust has settled for years,

Or maybe you have been around a wood shop where there are mountains of dust everywhere and in the air.

If you have then you probably noticed how dried out your skin felt afterwards.

It’s the same concept, being in a dusty room with low humidity.

The combination of dust and dry air will suck the moisture right out of your skin.

Humidifier Benefit #4

Reduce dust and dry skin caused by dust

5. Acne

Acne can be a symptom of low humidity. As surprising as that may sound, the effect that dry air has on your skin can facilitate the spread of acne.

Dried cracked skin can allow the bacteria it causes acne to burrow down deeper into the epidermis.

Dry skin can also flake and clog your pores even more.

And finally the imbalance of humidity can cause your skin overcompensate in the creation of oils.

If you are struggling with acne, dry air may be one of your issues. A humidifier can restore the balance of relative moisture back into your air and produce a positive result in your fight against acne.

Humidifier Benefit #5

Help inhibit the spread of Acne

6. Allergies / Asthma triggers

When the air is dry and there is little moisture to cling to the dust particles in the air.

The particulates such as pollen, insect remains, feces, and the other 1000 particles that make up dust, are free to float further through your home than if there was adequate moisture to weigh them down.

Allergies and asthma attacks can result from the lack of moisture that is responsible for reducing household allergens and triggers.

Elechomes SH8820 is a humidifier that does everything you need and more. It also has a carrying handle that puts it above the fray. Pretty sweet.

Humidifier Benefit #6

Reduce the travel of allergens in the air

7. Dry eyes

Dry eyes can be described as eyes that have dried out tears.

Hello there are many causes that can cause the tear ducts to produce less tears than they should,

The dry air caused by a lack of humidity can also cause the tears in your eyes to evaporate quickly and leave you with dry burning eyes.

Running a cool mist humidifier will add moisture back into the air and help create an environment where your eyes don’t dry out nearly as bad.

Humidifier Benefit #7

Sooth Dry Eyes

8. Cold and flu viruses

One of the most fascinating symptoms of low humidity is the easy spread of colds, flus and viruses.

Not only does the lack of moisture in the air create conditions that are conducive to viruses and bacteria traveling further and staying airborne longer,

Low relative humidity has a drying effect on the linings of your airways.
The result of dry mucus linings is they are not able to ward off foreign substances as easily. source

And creates a type of docking effect where viruses and germs can remain longer causing an increased risk of infection.

The National Library of Medicine has stated that the majority of adverse health effects caused by relative humidity would be minimized by maintaining indoor levels between 40 and 60%.

If the flu and cold bug is going through your house, the chances are that your relative humidity is lower than the 40 to 60% optimal range.

The humidifier may help reduce the spread of cold and flu germs, and it can also have a cooling effect on your sinuses when you are struggling with congestion and a raw nose and throat brought on by being sick.

Humidifier Benefit #8

Help Prevent the Spread of Colds and Viruses

Allergies are a topic most of us can identify with.

Allergy symptoms like Itchy burning eyes, sneezing, headaches are all annoyances that we can relate to.

And we can tell you when pollen season has arrived by the way we’re feeling.

But allergies and humidity are not something that we automatically make the connection between.

In fact, you may be surprised to find that the relative humidity, whether high or low, impacts whether or not you may be having allergy and respiratory symptoms.

Low humidity, which would be characterized by a percentage level of 40% and below, is the condition known as dry air.

Itchy flaking skin, static electricity, and raw bloody noses, are a regular result of dry air.

High humidity, which would be characterized as humidity 60% or more, generally results in frizzy hair and a swampy feeling.

But both have elements that cause allergies to flare.

Is a Humidifier Good for Allergies?

A humidifier is a device that adds moisture to the air. It’s that simple.

A humidifier is good for dry air allergies because when there’s a lack of moisture in the air, airborne particles like pollen and mold spores, have nothing to weigh them down and are able to travel further.

On the other hand, when a room has the ideal relative humidity of between 40 and 60 percent, dust particles are not able to float as readily, which makes them not inhaled as easily.

A humidifier also helps moisturize the breathing airways and nasal passages,

bringing a great deal of relief when you are suffering from symptoms like congestion and dry nose, common to colds and allergies.

Humidifier for Allergies

Our top 2 choices for humidifiers are Levoit and Pure Guardian.

Levoit is the mother of all humidifiers.

It has all the features you could ask for in a humidifier and it can be used as either a cool mist or warm mist.

Pure Guardian has just about all the same features as the Levoit but it has something Levoit doesn’t.

Self cleaning UV and mold resistant plastic.

The newer generation of humidifiers goes the next step in providing remedies for keeping the humidifier from becoming contaminated with bacteria and mold.

This feature alone may very well outweigh the rest.

When is a humidifier not good for allergies?

A humidifier has a built-in disadvantage in that it has to be cleaned often in order for it not to become a source of airborne allergens itself.

Let me explain a little further,

Because of the nature of the humidifier and the way it works, it requires filling and refilling with water.

Standing water can become contaminated with bacteria in as little as 48 to 72 hours.

Not only the water inside of the basin, but the mouth, the cap, and the filter all have water moving through them and have the capacity to get moldy and covered in bacteria very quickly.

Running a dirty humidifier will take all the germs in the humidifier water and spit them into the air.

Another time when a humidifier is not good for allergies is when the humidity is already high.

A high relative humidity can cause allergies to flare as well as low humidity.

High humidity causes dust mites populations to explode. The humidity in the air is actually what dust mites feed on. Which creates an ideal environment for them to flourish.

Also extra moisture in the air gives mold one of its main components to take root.

And where you have mold you have mold spores traveling through the air, ready to be inhaled.

So when the humidity is high, the last thing you want to do is add more moisture to the air with a humidifier.

A dehumidifier is a device that reduces the moisture in the air.

Dehumidifier for Allergies

If you have high humidity but your temperatures are not too high, then a dehumidifier may be the ideal machine you need to bring down the overall relative humidity in your home.

If you’re having high humidity combined with high temperatures then you probably already have a window air conditioner for a central heat and air unit that’s running.

Both of these types of air conditioners dehumidify as they cool. Many units allow for the dehumidifier function to run independently. It’s called dry mode on your settings.

Most allergies in relation to humidity can be avoided by keeping your relative humidity between 40 and 60%.

Hygrometer

But to know what your relative humidity is, you have to have a way to measure it.

A hygrometer is a gauge that does just that. You can buy one pretty cheaply.

But they also come standard on a lot of humidifiers and dehumidifiers.

In fact if you are shopping for either a humidifier or dehumidifier, finding one that has a hygrometer / humidistat will help you keep up with your humidity level and help your appliance keep it at an optimal point.

Levoit comes with a hygrometer/ humidistat as a common feature.

Recap

Allergies and allergic symptoms have more to do with the humidity then you may have ever given it credit for.

Most people can tell you when pollen season has arrived because of how it makes them feel,

But most people do not make the connection between humidity and allergies.

Low humidity, known as dry air, allows allergens as well as germs and viruses to float and travel much further.

Adding moisture to the air with a humidifier weighs down airborne particles so that they settle to the surface faster and stay out of the ambient air that you breathe.

Cool mist from a humidifier also hydrates and gives dry and swollen nasal passages some much needed relief.

High humidity is also a problem for allergy sufferers because excessive moisture in the air breeds higher levels of dust mites. It also facilitates the growth of mold.

A dehumidifier is a better option for reducing moisture when temperatures are mild.

If the weather is hot and humid, refrigerated air conditioners also perform as dehumidifiers. Most even have a dry mode setting that allows you to run your AC as a dehumidifier.