TOP 7 steam humidifiers 2021: the best devices for creating an ideal home climate

Surely many are familiar with the problem of dry skin and mucous membranes with the onset of the heating season. And it’s not just the discomfort that we experience due to too dry air in the apartment, but also the fact that constantly staying in a room with low humidity can lead to health problems.

Photo: 101bt.ru

Poorly moisturized mucous membranes cease to protect us from harmful bacteria and dust, and the body begins to intensively spend energy on delivering moisture to cells at the expense of internal resources. You can correct the situation naturally - by ventilating the room, which is not always convenient at low temperatures outside, or artificially - using air humidifiers.

And here you may encounter the problem of choosing the right device, because... It is quite difficult to immediately understand how different models differ from each other. First of all, humidifiers are divided into categories based on the type of water conversion:

• Traditional.
  They operate using cold evaporation technology.
• Ultrasonic.
  As the name suggests, they work using ultrasound, which vibrates the liquid into water dust. The output is “cold fog”.
• Steam.
  Here, too, the principle of operation is very simple: water is boiled and warm steam is released.

Each category has its pros and cons. It is not recommended to use tap water in traditional and ultrasonic ones, because... Filters clog quickly. Steam is unpretentious to water, but, in turn, consumes a lot of energy. Ultrasonic devices, despite the huge number of advantages, have one significant disadvantage - they leave a white coating on furniture. The price range of all three categories is approximately the same, so the choice will depend only on your preferences.

What you should pay attention to when purchasing:

• Room area.
  Each humidifier can effectively cope with its purpose in rooms of a certain area. This figure can vary from 20 to 60 m².
• Water tank volume.
  Usually these are parameters related to the previous paragraph, because The larger the tank, the larger the area this volume should be enough.
• The presence of a hygrostat.
  The built-in hygrostat helps you monitor the humidity level in the room.
• Noise level.
  Modern devices are designed in such a way as to reproduce a minimum of sounds during operation. But it's worth remembering that, in general, steam humidifiers are louder than ultrasonic or traditional ones.
• Compartment for aromatic oils.
  This addition will help fill the room with a pleasant aroma, and in the case of steam humidifiers it acts as an inhaler.
• Additional functions.
  Availability of a built-in thermometer, on/off timer, sound signal about low water level, etc.

We present the rating of steam humidifiers 2021. The best 7 models that were selected by our experts based on user reviews and ratings.

Which steam humidifier is best to choose?

Let's give some more tips on choosing a device:

• First of all, you need to pay attention to the area of ​​the room in which the humidifier will be installed. The capacity of the water tank will depend on this. For small rooms, you should choose models designed for approximately 20 square meters. For more spacious apartments, you can buy more powerful devices with a maximum area of ​​50-60 square meters.
• Because Since the technology involves humidifying the air through the release of hot steam, you should pay attention to its maximum temperature. Especially if there are small children or curious pets in the house who could accidentally get burned.
• If it is important for you to monitor the air humidity in the room, then you need to purchase devices with a built-in hygrostat. It will not only show the humidity level, but will also be able to maintain it at an optimal value.
• Steam humidifiers operate on the same principle as a kettle or a boiling pan. Accordingly, the noise level emitted by them is approximately the same. Therefore, if you do not tolerate the presence of extraneous sounds in the apartment, especially during sleep, then you need to choose among devices with a minimum noise level (up to 35 dB).
• Do not forget that humidifiers in this category consume a lot of energy compared to ultrasonic or traditional ones. Therefore, if you are not ready for increased utility bills, then you should avoid purchasing a steam humidifier in favor of less energy-intensive devices.

We wish you good health, clean air and successful shopping!
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Humidifiers - customer reviews

Advantages:

I have been using a Panasonic air purifier-humidifier for 7 years, which has been working around the clock all these years, so I have something to compare with. When I bought this humidifier, I knew what I wanted from it and understood what it could provide. I got everything I wanted: - the air in a heated living room in winter really moisturizes. With 5-7% humidity in an apartment of 50 sq. m., during the day it raises the humidity to 25-30% and keeps it at this quite comfortable level. Water consumption at maximum power is 6-7 liters per day, i.e. I add 3 liters every evening and every morning; — works at maximum speed noisily, but not so much that it interferes with my sleep; - adding water is done perfectly - you pour water into a three-liter jar and pour it into the device through the grate on top, without removing anything. Simple and brilliant; The main thing is that when, as water is poured into the humidifier, the lines indicating the water level light up, after the 4th light comes on, you need to pour slowly until the 5th light comes on and then immediately stop, because once you overdid it, overfilled it and the water went on the floor; — the controls are convenient and clear, only two touch buttons; - what is very important is that it is very simple to wash and care for the device, unlike the same Panasonic, where the moisturizing element is made of fabric and it is a whole epic to wash it off limescale. Here I poured warm water, added citric acid, let it sit, rinsed with clean water, wiped it off and that’s it! You can also put and wash them in the dishwasher without disassembling the discs; - after the water runs out, it turns off automatically. In general, everything is convenient and aesthetically beautiful and at an adequate price (I bought it on Ali for 7.5 thousand rubles). It is even possible to control the device via an application on a smartphone via Wi-Fi and even, if I understood everything correctly, to use the humidifier as an access point...

Flaws:

— the water tank with such a capacity (4.5 liters) is too small, if you don’t top it up after the night, the device will turn off at lunchtime; — at some point after adding water it creaked. I took off the top part and put everything back together - the creaking stopped, apparently it was a little warped on the axle; - there is noise, of course, at maximum power, but it’s not critical - this is “maximum” and the exhaust air should be noisy, the fans are noisy and my Panasonic is no less noisy at maximum.

I’ll tell you right away, when salespeople in a store tell you that this is an air WASH - send them to hell! This is just a moisturizer and nothing more! It has no filters, none, and it does not collect any dust or dirt. All that remains at the bottom of the container after, for example, a month of continuous operation is just a white limescale deposit, like at the bottom of a kettle... A humidifier in winter in a room where convectors or central heating radiators operate is a must! If you have children, even more so. Dry air is harmful to both skin and breathing. Even better - a good purifier-humidifier or a combination of them with a humidifier, because on the Hepa filter of my Panasonic I have been collecting a layer of dusty felt once a week for 7 years and, it is clear that this dust, otherwise, would be in our lungs . Children - they are lower than us and inhale dust in the ground layer of air, where it concentrates... Take care of yourself and your loved ones - health to everyone!

Ultrasonic humidifier repair

I will not hide the fact that for me it is much more pleasant not to buy a new thing in a store, but to take such a faulty one and fix it with my own hands. After this, the thing acquires a completely different value than when we simply buy it in a store and use it. That’s why I initially decided to make a homemade air washer-type humidifier, but after thoroughly studying all the intricacies of the issue, I decided that the game was not worth the candle.

And then I decided to make a humidifier from a fog generator that had been lying around for a long time, but even then the question arose of how to make a water level regulator valve and where to get a suitable nice case for this whole structure. And then I decided to look into the newspaper for free advertisements and, lo and behold, they were selling a faulty Novex NHO-122 ultrasonic humidifier for 100 rubles. Without thinking for a long time, I went and picked up the humidifier, glad that now I have something to dig into for the evening

The owner of the humidifier said that the performance regulator was faulty, I naively believed and was sure that the humidifier would work like new in the evening. But it turned out to be not so simple, or rather like in the movie Brother-2, when Bodrov bought a car to drive to Chicago and the salesman on Brighton Beach told him “we Russians don’t deceive each other”...

As an opening and measurements with a multimeter showed, the switching power supply was faulty and did not start at all. Hopes that a fuse had blown or a diode had broken were not justified; it turned out that the power field-effect transistor STP4NK60ZFP had completely failed. All the power diodes were in good order, the resistors were intact, but the polevik had a break in the internal diode - with these symptoms, I hastily decided to run to look for the polevik in the stores, taking a list of its analogues. But I was able to buy it only the next day because... it was already night outside

Having bought an analogue of 6N60C on a metal backing, I ran home and was already 100% sure that today the humidifier would perform its function in my room, but that was not the case. After lubricating the field-effect transistor with thermal paste and soldering it into place, I turned on the device to the network - nothing happened, complete silence, no signs of the transformer starting up.

And then I had to pick up the multimeter again and this time call everything that I didn’t check last time. First of all, I took up checking low-power glass diodes and when it came to the zener diodes DW1 and DW2, I discovered that they were short-circuited. In addition, I noticed that they are connected in series towards each other and go to the field-effect transistor. Having soldered the zener diodes, I took one with me and went to the store, where the seller, looking at the C185T marking, said that he could not determine the voltage of the zener diode from such markings. And then we began to logically search for a possible value, when I said that two zener diodes are connected back-to-back in a series circuit, the fun began.

The seller first began to argue with me that zener diodes could not stand like that, then he called three professionals, they also said that they had never seen anything like this, in the end I took two 100V zener diodes and went home. I soldered it in and the power supply started up, and with it the entire humidifier started working. Out of curiosity, I started looking for information on the markings of the zener diode and on connecting zener diodes back to back. It turned out that the zener diodes DW1 and DW2 C185T are 18 volts and they act as a damper for alternating voltage.

Novex is a Russian company, but as you can see, the assembly is made in China from Chinese components. But I want to note the high quality with which the printed circuit boards are made, it is impossible not to notice. Those. Novex has chosen a very good reseller to assemble their humidifiers under the Novex brand.

Before purchasing this faulty humidifier, I read user reviews on the Yandex market and was pleasantly surprised that everyone was happy with this model. The main advantages are a very low price - some bought it at a discount for 700 rubles, also for sufficient performance, an ionizer and a large tank volume. If you look closely at the photo above, you can see that the air flow from the fan meets a small glass flask on its way - this is an ionizer, or rather an ozonizer. In my specimen, the ozonation is so weak that apart from the blue glow of the flask, I do not observe anything. This is most likely due to the fact that one electrode is covered with a completely glass flask, and the second acts as a mesh placed on top of the flask, while the path to the emitted ozone is blocked by glass

Rating of the best inexpensive traditional air humidifiers for apartments in 2021

If you are going to use a humidifier in a small room, then it is better to give preference to one of the budget models. Such traditional devices are not very powerful, but they are affordable for most buyers and cope well with basic tasks in an area of ​​up to 30 m2.

Xiaomi CJXJSQ04ZM

A compact, medium-power humidifier designed to treat rooms up to 8 m2. Suitable for installation on the floor or on a table, equipped with a display that displays information about microclimate indicators and current settings. The tank volume is 4 liters; a special indicator helps to monitor the water level in the tank.

Attention! The disadvantage of the traditional Xiaomi humidifier is its noise level - it is equal to 50 dB.

You can buy a Xiaomi humidifier from 8800 rubles
Pros

• compact;
• quickly equalizes microclimate parameters;
• there is a tank full indicator;
• convenient control.

Minuses

• makes a lot of noise when working;
• weight above 4 kg.

Xiaomi CJXJSQ02ZM

An inexpensive traditional device is designed for 4 liters of water and copes with air humidification over an area of ​​15 m2. Evaporates up to 240 ml of liquid within an hour, has high-quality assembly and a pleasant design. The noise level of the device is 35 dB - you can use the device both during the day and at night.

The humidifier is easy to fill with water through the top grill of the container. To control the device, synchronization with a special application on a smartphone via Wi-Fi is provided.

The price of a low-power Xiaomi humidifier starts at 5,900 rubles

pros

• high-quality execution;
• there is a built-in hygrostat;
• you can control the device via a smartphone;
• The device is easy to care for.

Minuses

• at night the noise may seem loud;
• not suitable for large rooms.

Philips HU4706/HU4707

This compact humidifier from the traditional category is equipped with a 1.3 liter water tank. Despite the small volume of the tank, it is capable of working for eight hours without refueling, although it will not be able to cope with large rooms. The unit is quite lightweight and suitable for installation anywhere, and consumes little electricity. The noise level of 40 dB does not allow using the device at night, but during the day the hum of the device remains almost unnoticeable.

You can buy a Philips humidifier from 6,600 rubles

pros

• low noise level;
• compactness and lightness;
• no need to constantly add water;
• There is a display showing settings.

Minuses

• no ionization and aromatization;
• Not suitable for night use;
• There is no antibacterial filter included.