Have you ever experienced low humidity in your home? It can definitely be a pain and make you feel awful. Some common symptoms of low humidity include dry eyes, throat, or nose, difficulty breathing, headaches, and more. To maintain human comfort, humidity is a must– but often ignored.
Portable Humidifiers: Just A Quick Fix?
Most retailers and drug stores carry small room or portable humidifiers. Many people turn to these as an affordable way to help with their humidity problems, but do they really help?
Smaller humidifiers are a great way to increase humidity in a small room or office. It’s common to use portable humidifiers in these types of spaces, like an office, since you most likely can’t make indoor air quality upgrades yourself.
Downsides Of Portable Humidifiers For Your House
A portable humidifier may not provide the humidity you need for comfort. Depending on the lifespan of a portable humidifier, the humidity it adds to your home, and your comfort level, you may want to consider a whole-home humidifier.
- Portable humidifiers are made for small spaces. If you have ever bought or shopped for a portable humidifier, you may have seen labels on small devices claiming they can fill a large room with the humidity it needs. However, the results may be different.
- Short lifespan: In our experience, higher-quality portable humidifier brands don’t last as long and are more prone to breakdowns than whole-home humidifiers. You may see portable humidifier breakdowns on shelves, but that’s due to their low cost and the ease of buying another cheap one when one breaks down. Unfortunately, the costs of buying new portable humidifiers and their breakdowns do so, too, as does the amount of waste that we are adding to our planet.
- Daily use requirements: Another inconvenience of portable humidifiers is that they need to be refilled with water daily —sometimes even more often. If it’s another thing you have to worry about in your busy lifestyle, it may be easier to have a whole-home humidifier installed.
- Cleaning and maintenance: The water entering your home may affect how long your portable humidifier stays clean. The water from most home faucets contains minerals that will build up over time in a portable humidifier. If neglected, you will start to see a buildup of minerals on the device. Not only does this buildup affect the air coming from the humidifier, but it can also shorten the device’s lifespan. Also, most of these smaller units take in air and have a small fan attached to them, which can suck in dust and other particulate matter, which can also affect the air quality coming from the unit.
- Annoying Noises and Lights: Unfortunately, some of these small, cheaper units make quite a bit of noise. Sometimes you can hear the fan buzzing as it moves air, and it can’t be disabled unless the unit is off. Some even have lights that turn off only when the unit is unplugged. This can be quite an annoyance if it’s in a room where you are trying to watch a movie or sleep.
Why A Whole-Home Humidifier Can Be A Better Solution to Humidity Issues
Although some smaller portable humidifiers can be a quick and easy fix for humidity issues in a small space, they may not give you the same results in your home. If you have experienced any of the issues above with portable humidifiers, a whole-home humidifier system can be a good solution for you.
A whole-home humidifier can be attached to your furnace, and it requires less maintenance. No more cleaning and no more buildup! All you have to do is set the humidity percentage on your humidistat, which helps determine the humidity level.
Worried about the cost of a whole-home humidifier?
We all love saving money. That’s why there is such a draw to buy low-cost portable humidifiers. Unfortunately, these smaller devices cannot provide the humidity needed to keep your home at a comfortable level. If the portable units could provide whole-home humidity control, they would be much bigger and cost a lot more.
Instead of relying on a small, portable device, a whole-home humidifier may help save you and your family down the road and maintain your family’s comfort for years, not just temporarily. There is little maintenance needed, no need to keep refilling with water, and it will last longer than a portable unit. Also, it will help save on energy bills. Instead of multiple smaller humidifiers plugged in, you can rely on a single whole-home system.
Are you looking to get a new whole-home humidifier? We can help you! We offer financing on all of our HVAC services. Ask us about our different options!
We look forward to helping you with your new whole-home purification system. For any questions or to set up an appointment, you can call us at (480) 485-5630 anytime.