Ever buy a warm-mist humidifier or vaporizer, only to find it stops working after a few days? I encountered the same problem and figured out a way to not only fix it, but to keep it working properly for years (with periodic cleaning). Here’s how:
Use Only Filtered Water
Warm-mist humidifiers and vaporizers work by boiling water and expelling steam. The reason they sometimes stop working is that users fill the holding tank with regular tap water. Tap water comes with all sorts of minerals and sediments that cling to the heating element, clog it up and prevent it from working properly. (This is especially true of hard water.) Most store-bought water filters, however, strain out these minerals and sediments and keep your heating element working longer.
If you’re living on a budget, I assume you don’t buy bottled water but filter your water at home (as I do), which is much cheaper. I’ve used both Brita and Pur filters (which you can buy almost anywhere) to filter water for the vaporizer. In my experience, they both work fine.
The good news about such filters is that you can use them to filter your vaporizer water long after you’ve stopped using them to filter your drinking water. I have two Brita pitchers at home. One is for drinking water, the other to refill our warm-mist humidifier. Every time I replace the filter for drinking water (about every two months), I simply move it to the pitcher used to refill the humidifier. But there’s no need to do it this way (we happened to have a extra pitcher). You can simply use one pitcher for both purposes.
Clean Heating Element with Vinegar
So you have this humidifier stored away that stopped working after two days. What do you do with it? Clean the heating element. The easiest way to do this is to soak it overnight in vinegar (with the unit unplugged). The next morning you should be able to scrape off the black gunk with ease and get your humidifier running again. You may have to do this periodically even when you use filtered water, but much, much less often than if you use tap water.
Important: Unplug Before Removing Humidifier Top
In most warm-mist humidifiers, the heating element is in the top or cover, where the steam pumps out. It is very important that you unplug the unit before removing the top, otherwise the heating element may stop working. Why this happens, I’m not sure. But soaking the heating element in vinegar (unplugged) and scraping the gunk off should get it working again.
Discard Tank Water Periodically
You may notice that, after a while, your warm-mist humidifier/vaporizer starts sputtering and even splattering. If you look in the tank, the water has probably turned dark in color. My guess as to why this happens is that bits of carbon drop off the heating element. Whatever the cause may be, in my experience, dumping all the water out and refilling it (with filtered water) will return it to proper working order.
