Winter is the perfect season to get chapped lips, dry and cracked skins, fungal infections, and so on as the humidity gets too low.
Research published on Environmental Health Perspectives showed that people living in standard levels of humidity get less affected by respiratory infections than those living in extremely low or high humidity environments.
Humidifiers come in handy to keep the humidity of your home at an optimum level. But if you don’t use distilled water for your humidifier, mineral residues can build up and clog the machine.
Let’s learn how to make distilled water for humidifier with minimum or no cost.
What is Distilled Water?
Distilled water is the purest form of water you can get. When regular water is purified to remove all contaminants, chemicals, or minerals, it is called distilled water.
Many people confuse it with purified water. But purified water contains minerals that aren’t present in distilled water. So, distilled water is very suitable to use in different appliances like humidifiers and many more!
Using distilled water for the humidifier helps keep the device clean for longer. As a result, you need to spend less on maintenance or replacing the existing humidifier with a new one.
What is a Humidifier?
A humidifier is a small appliance that makes and spray water steam into the air to keep the relative humidity of the room at an optimum level. When we run an air conditioner, it keeps the temperature at a comfortable level but dries out the air.
This can cause itchy skin, respiratory or other issues that decrease our comfort level. A humidifier gets the humidity level back to the standard by spraying water steam to keep us comfortable.
Here is a very efficient humidifier you can use for your home.
How Does a Humidifier Work?
Let’s first know what relative humidity is. The relative humidity is the ratio of the amount of moisture present in the air to the maximum amount of moisture the same volume of air can hold.
Say, the air inside your bedroom can hold 100 grams of moisture at a certain temperature. If there is 50 gm of moisture in the air at the same temperature, the air is said to have 50% relative humidity.
As the moisture holding capacity of air varies depending on the temperature, the same air can have different relative humidity at different temperatures. Humidifiers add moisture to the air to increase the relative humidity and give you a comfortable environment.
The optimal humidity range is 60-75% in summer and 55-70% in winter. You can check the relative humidity of your home with a small device called a hygrometer. Here’s a hygrometer under $10 to monitor both the temperature and relative humidity of your room.
Types of Humidifiers
Though every humidifier is designed to increase the moisture level of the air, not each one works in the same principle. Here are five types of humidifiers commonly used in households. Let’s take a closer look.
- Central Humidifiers: These humidifiers have greater capacity than other types and are usually connected to the central air conditioning system of your house.
- Ultrasonic Humidifiers: Ultrasonic humidifiers are costlier and they work in a complicated process. They convert electromagnetic frequencies into mechanical vibrations and produce a cool mist. You must use distilled water for ultrasonic humidifiers otherwise cartridges can get blocked faster.
- Impeller Humidifiers: They turn water into micro droplets by rotating a disk at a high speed and then spray those droplets into the air to maintain the right moisture level. You need to use distilled water for this type too.
- Evaporators: In this case, a sheet or wick soaks water and the wet wick is blown by hot air to evaporate the water and spray the droplets into the air.
- Steam Vaporizers: This type probably works in the easiest principle. Water is heated using electricity and the steam is cooled before being sprayed into the air. Using distilled water isn’t mandatory in steam vaporizers. But tap water steam can leave mineral residue on your belonging where the steam drops.
Can You Use Tap Water for Humidifier?
There’s no clear indication that using tap water for humidifiers will impose any serious risk to your health. But if you use tap water for a humidifier at home, you might notice dispersed materials in the form of white dust which contains microorganisms and minerals.
According to recent studies by the Environmental Protection Agency, these materials can be dispersed into the air from water tanks. As tap water contains minerals, crusty deposits or scale can develop inside the tank which becomes a suitable environment for growing microorganisms.
So, it is better to use water with low or no mineral content to reduce the amount of dispersed material in the air. Distilled water will be the most effective choice for any type of humidifier you use.
How to Make Distilled Water for Humidifier?
Making distilled water at home isn’t a big deal if you have some basic knowledge of science. Even if you don’t have one, we are here to show you several easy and effective methods to make distilled water at home.
You can make distilled water in two easy steps.
- Heat water to produce steam.
- Trap the steam and condensate it.
That’s it! But you need some apparatus to complete the process. Let’s take a detailed look at a few methods so that you can make distilled water without any technical knowledge.
Using a Water Distiller
This is probably the most effective method. You can buy a water distiller online. Once you have the distiller, follow these steps.
- Place the distiller on the counter and pour drinking water into it.
- As soon as you turn the distiller, it produces water steam.
- The steam is then passed through a stainless-steel coil to condensate the steam. As a result, the steam gets converted into its liquid state.
- The liquified steam or distilled water is then collected into the collecting jar and ready to use for your humidifier.
Using a Glass Bowl
If you don’t have a water distiller at home, this is one of the easiest and most cost-effective alternatives for making distilled water. You just need a large pot, a glass bowl, and some chunks of ice for the process. Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can do that.
- Fill the pot halfway with drinking water and place it on the heat source.
- Place the glass bowl on the water and make sure it doesn’t sink.
- Take the lid of the large pot and place it on the pot invertedly.
- Put ice chunks onto the lid and turn the heat on.
- Once the water starts boiling, steam will go up and get condensed when it touched the cold lid.
- Condensed steam will then be collected into the glass bowl.
- Once all the water is steamed, turn the heat off and let the pot cool.
- Remove the glass bowl from the pot and you have distilled water ready to use.
Using Kettle, Copper Tube, and Glass Jar
This is another easy and cost-effective method for turning tap water into distilled water. It is also more efficient than other methods as you can distill a large amount of water in less time compared to other methods. Let’s get into the details.
Before you start, you will need a large kettle, some copper tubing, and a glass jar. Make sure the copper tube fits the extended nozzle of the kettle. Follow these steps to complete the process.
- Connect one end of the copper tube to the nozzle of the kettle. If the connection isn’t airtight, steam can escape through. You can use rubber bindings to make an airtight connection.
- Put the other end of the tube into the collecting jar.
- Fill the kettle with tap water. Place it on the stove and turn the heat on.
- You can place the copper tube under running water to increase the rate of condensation. Another easy way is to wrap the copper tube with ice packs.
- Once the water starts boiling, steam will pass through the copper tube and get condensed to revert into its liquid form.
- The distilled water will be collected in the glass jar. You can then use the distilled water in your humidifier.
Using Solar Water Distiller
You might not need any money at all to make distilled water in this method. No technical knowledge is required either. Let’s see how you can do that.
- Build a water reservoir in a place where sunlight is available most of the time. If it seems costly, you can simply put a large metal or plastic container after removing the top part.
- Cover the container with slanted glass. Also, cover the sides with glass so that no steam can escape. Connect a tube to the bottom of the glass.
- Make sure there is enough water inside the container. Sunlight will heat and evaporate the water.
- As soon as the evaporated water touches the glass cover, it will get condensed and form water droplets on the glass cover. These droplets will then roll down to the bottom area where the collecting tube is connected.
- You can place the other end of the tube into a collecting jar to collect distilled water.
Using Rainwater
- As water is evaporated and condensed before it comes down in the form of rain, you can use rainwater for humidifier. Here are a few things to keep in mind.
- Don’t start collecting rainwater as soon as the rain starts. As the first few drops contain pollutants, wait for some time to get the water clean.
- Place a large jar or bowl outside to collect rainwater. You can also make a channel on your roof to collect water more efficiently.
- Leave the jar for a few hours so that the sediments settle at the bottom of the container.
- Collect the water from the top and you can use this naturally distilled water for all appliances including humidifiers.
Conclusion
People often ignore the advantages of using distilled water for humidifier to avoid the hassle and cost of a water distiller. Now that you know how to make distilled water for humidifier, you can easily do this at home and ensure your humidifier doesn’t disperse any unwanted material into the air.
With the minimum effort and cost, you can make distilled water to keep your humidifier running for longer without any issues. In consequences, you will live comfortably without skin, nose, or lungs problems throughout the arid months of the year. Take steps today and make your home better.
