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Good but Cheap Humidifier?

Swagalotus

Swagalotus

Hey all. Recently my repti fogger humidifer broke down. Many times I had left it on on the low setting and it turned itself off when the water ran out. I left it on on the high setting, the water ran out, and the humidifier stayed on. When I came back some of the water from the reservoir had managed to leak down to where all the electric parts, and it was reeeeaaally hot. I turned it off, let it cool, tried it again and it didn't work. I tried it again a week later just to make sure, and it's still broken. I'm guessing the transducer plate got fried, and although I could replace it I don't want to risk setting my house on fire. The hose on the reptifogger is great, the bottle is great, but as with many zoo med products it leaked and broke.

I am looking for a good but cheap ultrasonic humidifier to replace my repti fogger. I am currently thinking of buying this one:
Ultrasonic Humidifier Cool Mist Filter Free Portable w 1 2 Gallon Daily Output | eBay

Any advice or recommendations?
 
Just so you know, humidifiers won't create dense clouds of fog like a repti-fogger. They'll raise the humidity levels, for sure, but won't create a low hanging cloud.

*Edit*
I actually spent some time looking around, and there are a lot more ultrasonic humidifiers now than I remember. They used to be almost all heat based, and I've gone through a few for my bedroom and never got clouds. I have no experience with some of the newer ultrasonic ones, but I'm still not sure it would make sense for them to create the same low hanging dense clouds, because that would primarily raise the humidity of a rooms floor, way before the upper parts of the room.
 
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[MENTION=7782]Doomsday[/MENTION] I thought they were the same thing. I guess you learn something new every day.
 
Swagalotus said:
[MENTION=7782]Doomsday[/MENTION] I thought they were the same thing. I guess you learn something new every day.
Click to expand...
Humidifiers are the things people put in their rooms to raise the room humidity levels, and while they do produce little visible puffs of humidity, they don't hang around like clouds. Humidifiers also usually use heat to make water vapor, whereas a fogger usually uses ultrasonic waves to create a cool, dense fog that hugs the ground. Foggers generally don't work as well for entire rooms unless you run enough to create a cloudy room, but work extremely well for terrariums and such, where a low hanging cloud is ideal. The clouds they make are also aesthetically amazing. Not much looks cooler than a nice mossy terrarium with dense fog slowly creeping around some carnivorous plants.
 
To up the humidity in my enclosure I usually go to walmart and buy something there. Vicks usually has some with 1.2 gallon containers that work well as long as you keep up the maintenance on them
 
Doomsday said:
Just so you know, humidifiers won't create dense clouds of fog like a repti-fogger. They'll raise the humidity levels, for sure, but won't create a low hanging cloud.
Click to expand...

Well, I wouldnt really say that..

The reptifoggers make exquisite mist that hang for a little while and also raise humididty.
They have special crystal pads/ membranes that vibrate EXTRA fast, so the mist particles are extremely small.
This is what allows the vapor like hanging the clouds do.

Normal humidifiers do the exact same thing. Except they arent nearly as fast as the repti foggers,
So the mist wont hang in the air AS long, but it will hang for a little.
I use a walgreens humidifier for my nepenthes chamber. If I leave it on for more than ten minutes,
The entire growspace turns into a white cube. One so white and cloudy that you can no longer see the plants.

In the end, it comes down to what you like. I find it kind of hard to find specific humidifiers because The same model doesnt stay on the market for long. They constantly change in shape and function.
I suggest looking for something that puts out a good volume of humididty, and something that is easy to use with your setup.
 
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Does the one I posted look good?
 
Ive never seen it in action, So i cant say.
I also dont know what you inted to use it for, or how it would fit your enclosure.
The question is, does it look good to you?
 
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I have gone through a couple humidifiers (for a baby, musical instruments, orchids, Nepenthes), but I like this one best at this moment:
Amazon.com: Crane Drop Shape Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier with 2.3 Gallon output per day - Orange: Health & Personal Care
You can attach vinyl tubings easily to pump humidity into the grow tent (I have them controlled by humidistat). Some of the ultrasonic models didn't last more than 1-2 years, but most of the Crane ones (I also have a Hello Kitty model and a couple animal models) seem to last for a while.
 
  • #10
I have a cheap Pure Guardian unit that I got from Walmart at least 2 years ago that still works perfectly. The nice thing about it is when I popped off the little output diffuser it turned out that 1" schedule 40 PVC pipe is an easy but snug enough fit. I fitted a plastic "u" bend leftover from a sink repair to a short section of pipe and it discharges straight down. The unit sits on top of a light fixture above an open top 36" x 36" x 27" cube terrarium and produces a nice light fog in the tank. When I ran an additional ultrasonic fogger inside the enclosure I got whiteout conditions.
 
  • #11
I personally use a six disk ultrasonic fogger that can humidify a small room if you have a fan on it to keep the fog from ground hugging. It wasn't cheap but you can find smaller ones for ten to twenty dollars.
 
  • #12
Would the small ultrasonic foggers from eBay that are 24v work in this case? They are meant for small decorations but I mean they still make a small bit of fog for small setups and they are pretty cheap compared to the repti fogger for sure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • #13
What size enclosure are you looking to humidify? Even a small decorative ultrasonic mister will work for small enclosures (and be overkill).

Also, is your product within the warranty period? They've been pretty good with my warranty claims in the past.

There's been some misinformation about room humidifiers in this thread. There are plenty of humidifiers that utilize ultrasound and will output more than enough humidity for most enclosures. I have one that I got a few years back for about $40 that'll empty a mostly-full 1gal reservoir in the space of 8 to 10 hours. That's a good amount of water. On high it lets out a big, steady stream of visible water vapor.

The humidifier you linked has a 2.2L (~half gallon) capacity and a max run time of 12h to deplete it. So even at the lowest setting it'll put out about a half gallon over a single photoperiod. How much water were you going through with your previous unit?
 
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  • #15
[MENTION=4771]Est[/MENTION] The enclosure is a 30 gal tank. With the repti fogger I always kept it on the lowest setting, I believe it took around 8 hours to run out of water but I never really timed it, so not 100% sure. The warranty has expired, but even if it hadn't I wouldn't want a humidifier that leaks water into its electric parts.

The decorative misters have me intrigued, I am going to take a look at them.
 
  • #16
Yeah, 30gal is pretty tiny for a humidifier, which is great! Keep in mind that you'll need to figure out how you want to do your water reservoir and that the standalone decorative units may not have an auto-off function when water levels get too low. I believe those units will break themselves if run without water for long enough.
 
  • #17
There is ways to setup the ultrasonic foggers with a humidistat. A fully automated setup can run you a bit of money but it's too each his own you know. That's what I am working on currently even though I've only got a few cephs and dews in an old reptile enclosure. If your enclosure is sealed well the water will be circulated around and back into your res. Key to keeping your res from creating stuff in it is to circulate it. I have seen people use air stones to combat that. Est I don't think it's as bad to the ultrasonic Ceramic disks compared to a water pump that needs that pressure or it will burn out. But it won't hurt just to keep it filled at all times either lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • #19
Doomsday said:
Just so you know, humidifiers won't create dense clouds of fog like a repti-fogger. They'll raise the humidity levels, for sure, but won't create a low hanging cloud.

*Edit*
I actually spent some time looking around, and there are a lot more ultrasonic humidifiers now than I remember. They used to be almost all heat based, and I've gone through a few for my bedroom and never got clouds. I have no experience with some of the newer ultrasonic ones, but I'm still not sure it would make sense for them to create the same low hanging dense clouds, because that would primarily raise the humidity of a rooms floor, way before the upper parts of the room.
Click to expand...

Ok, so I did some research and decided that an ultrasonic humidifier could work, but it would need some DIY work. Using nothing but some weather/water resistant silicone sealant, a deli cup, and silicone tubing, I was able to create a beast of a cloud machine. Total price ~$55-60. I got a big humidifier for $45 because it had great reviews, looked good on a review video, fit my design idea well, and has a huge tank thats good for well over a single day.
E7033C4C-DD96-440C-9D8A-7BDBFA92A035_zpsp3su4f9x.jpg

1237A979-D777-4193-9557-0716BE6AC479_zpswozjoqb9.jpg

A9DB36DE-5E0A-4EF4-858A-ACCF5977B505_zpseij43wm0.jpg
 
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