The other day we found out that our youngest had the croup. Pretty nasty sounding cough accompanies the croup, but luckily, it didn’t seem that there was much damage. Mostly just dried out from the lack of humidity in the winter air. Our heat pump is badly in need of repair or else it might provide the needed humidity, but that’s another story for another time.
So we’re supposed to get a “humidifier”. Hmm. Seems to be lots of choices. Warm mist, cool mist, humidifier, vaporizer. How to choose? How indeed. According to the helpful lady at Wal-Mart, we should get cool mist (ie, a humidifier). From what I can tell, in the beginning there were only vaporizers. But as time wore on, dainty little hands were burnt from the warm mist produced. You and I both know that warm things don’t burn. That mist is downright hot. But I digress.
And so, with the advent of new technology, cool mist products were born. Now there are all sorts of selections and capacities. Auto-shut off, timed humidifying, you can probably even find a model that will brew coffee with that warm mist, too.
So after two nights of use, the cool mist clearance model we found at Target started smelling funny. Not bad funny, and not quite burning funny. It was more of that smoldering smell that electronics sometimes get funny. Which is to say that even if it doesn’t cause a fire, it’s likely to break soon. So back to Target I went.
But before buying another model, I pulled Google into the mix. Please be aware that if you should search on humidifiers vs. vaporizers, you’ll get a lot of hits on products for keeping your contraband moist. If you make it past those, you’ll find that generally speaking, there is little to no difference between the two products – except for that burning issue.
While I don’t want to seem callous, it occurs to me that a child who happens to learn this lesson the hard way will not be likely to have to learn it again. And our children are generally intelligent enough to at least not burn themselves severely even when they do test our advice. If you have very small children, however, you may want to keep this in mind. Close to the unit, the mist is hot. Try it yourself if you need convincing.
So with all that in mind, here’s my own opinion on the matter: Vaporizers are cheap. Ten bucks at Wal-Mart. Humidifiers aren’t. Water that is boiled is unlikely to harbor any bacteria of any sort. Warm air to me seems to hold water better than cold air. Normally I find warmer air to be more soothing than cold air. There are no moving parts on most vaporizers, as they just have a little heating element to do the boiling.
You’ll also not find a filter on the ten dollar model from Wal-Mart, for the aforementioned reason of not having any bacteria in the mist. And finally, because of the vaporizing action, you can add menthol or a similar additive to the warm mist to help even further. Guess which product we use now? And hey – someone else even agrees!
Comments
109 responses to “Humidifier or Vaporizer?”
We too have a humidifier. We bought the kind that came with both hot and cool mist, you just need to switch the top part that plugs in. We’ve only ever used the cool mist once because it’s so LOUD! It keeps us up! Now we were given a vaporizer and can’t wait to use it. Not only does it go for 24 hours with one fill but also doesn’t cause the mold and bacteria like hot air humidifiers.
My 11 year old daughter has chronic year round allergies and I was told I should be a humidifier to put moisture back in the air. Her nose is always stuffy and she also suffers from asthma. I am having a difficult time deciding whether a warm humidifer or cold mist humidifer is best. I went to Wal-mart and confused by the help, I purchased a warm humidifier. I am having second thoughts if this was the right one. She does feel the rooms smells cleaner but I don’t want it to increase her allergies or asthma.
I’d been suffering from what I called the Tree syndrome for years ever since I’ve moved up north from Florida. Every year begining in the fall season throughout winter my hair would start to shed ridiculously even though I moisturized daily. This was devastating to me because it takes forever for my hair to grow. I got the vaporizer because I was waking up with dry mouth and unknowingly saved hundreds of (annual) dollars from unnecessary trips to the hair salon for protein treatments since it was actually the dry cold air outside and the dry hot air inside. My vaporizer is worth it’s weight in gold!
I recently moved to Charlotte from South Florida and as soon as I got here, my face and hands became extremely dry. On top it, my alergies flared up and it felt as though I was walking around in a fog. I was about to make an appointment at the doctor when I stumbled onto something about humidifiers and how they help for dry skin.
I didn’t know what to get so I bought a warm mist and a cool mist. I used the warm mist for a day and for some reason I thought I’d feel better with the cool mist so I switched to that. What a mistake that was because it made my condition even worse and my whole body felt terrible. On top of it, my face and hands were so dry no amount of moisturizer was getting rid of the flaky skin. I was at a loss and didn’t know what to do. I thought it was stress. Then lo and behold I stumbled onto this site and read a post from Chad Everett who also lives in Charlotte. He said to put salt in the water so I immediately did that.
Unbelievable, it’s been about a week and my face has never looked better, my sinuses are all clear, alergies much better and my energy level is VERY high. I am in complete shock that all I needed was a little bit of salt. I guess my body was used to living near the ocean which I had all my life until now and completely flipped out when it wasn’t getting enough salt. Anyway, I just came here to share my story (hopefully it helps someone else) and also say thanks to Chad Everett.
Vicks now makes a waterless vaporizer. It is a bit more expensive at $20 but you seem to avoid all the water issues. It comes with it’s own night light, Vicks vapor pads and is SILENT! I am trying it out for the first time today so I will let you know how it works.
Can you tell me why I can’t even find a warm mist vaporizer when I pull up the Wal-mart web site?
I have tried the cool-mist humidifier and I don’t like it. I fould this web site very interesting and glad to see that others have come to the same conclusion as I have on the warm air vaporizer.
I have a 6 month old infant and I just put him in his own room in his crib about two weeks ago. His room is the hottest room in the house so I used the cool mist humidifier. He started to get more and more congested and I was using a gallon of purified water every night. This morning I pulled out my Vick’s Vaporizer and added a capful of Tea Tree Oil and he is napping soundly. He sweats alot so I am going to dress him at night in just his onesie and open his bedroom door a little more so he won’t get too hot because the vaporizer can really heat up a room.
I am so glad I found this article. Just like Albert I too was about to trade my vaporizer in for the humidifier. Glad I didn’t. And some of the other parents are right. Once our little ones touch it, they won’t again. My daughter had her first bout of curiousity with our vaporizer lastnight. Her fingers weren’t badly burned but it was hot enough for her to know never to touch again. I also agree with Vickie. My daughter tends to be a hot child too and when the vaporizer is running her room tends to get hot and stuffy; a slight down side. However, the results from using the vaporizer when she is congested are well worth the warm room.
As I write this, my husband is on his way home from Giant at 12:45 am with a Vicks Vaporizer. My 7-year-old was just diagnosed with either walking pneumonia or first signs of asthma, the doc’s not sure which it is yet, so she was put on albuterol spray and an antibiotic to cover all bases, I guess. She got her first dose of both before 9:00 pm tonight, and was coughing up a storm by 11:30 pm. I was told not to give her any cough medicine, only the albuterol, so I was kicking myself for not picking up the vaporizer the CVS pharmacist suggested when I was filling her prescriptions.
So while my husband is driving to our 24-hour Giant, I am furiously searching the web for opinions on vaporizers vs. cool mist humidifiers vs. warm mist humidifiers. We always had cool mist humidifiers in our daughters’ rooms when they were babies/toddlers (the pediatrician warned against warm mist due to bacteria forming in the air – ?) and they did seem to help, but I thought they made the air cold, they were noisy (not necessarily a bad thing with babies) and I despised cleaning them, so much so that when we moved out of our old house almost 5 years ago we ended up throwing BOTH humidifiers out because they were grungy and slimy and orange inside from lack of pristine and frequent cleanings – yuck!
So here I am racing against my husband’s route to Giant to figure out in 10 minutes which way to go. Then, with hubby standing, cell phone in ear, in front of the vaporizers/humidifiers, I am still compulsively searching the net for the RIGHT answer to the all important question, reading him excerpts from various websites . . . wracked with indecision, hubby anxious to get home so he can still get 5 hours of sleep before getting up for work in the AM, I blurt out, “get the vaporizer! It’s the cheapest one, we’ll try it tonight, and if I hate it we’ll return it tomorrow and try something else!” He rapidly hung up the phone before I could change my mind again, and only then did I stumble on this perfectly appropriate message board.
This was exactly the website I needed to find, to assuage my vaporizer/humidifier anxieties. Thank you all for your very helpful comments and personal experiences. I will now get this bad boy up and running, and hopefully be as satisfied as the majority here. Happy breathing!
How do you clean these?