For about six weeks now I have been using my old Rival 6 qt (7 qt.?) crock pot to humidify my combination sleeping and living area. It works GREAT. When I get up I add about three quarts of hot tap water, 2 qts. or so mid-day and about three just before I go to bed. I just put hot tap water into a sauce pan, bring it into the room where the crock pot is and pour the water in to up close to the top where it would then hold a cover. [I certainly don't measure the amounts, just list them here to give you a clue approximately what amounts of moisture I am adding to the air. And how much work it is to keep filled. Answer: not much. If I'm experiencing days when my wrists are weaker I just make a few more trips with less water.] Of course I don't use a cover! ;) I have the setting as "high". Without a cover it doesn't actually simmer the way it would even on the low setting if the cover were on. It just nicely evaporates/ gently releases steam. I do have the area under it protected but haven't spilled anything yet. This is the best winter sleeping I've had in years. I still have insomnia but, not infrequently now, I'll come up with 5 or 6 or a rare 7 hours...I can hardly believe it. Now I don't have to get up in the middle of the night to put pots of water on the stove.
We have very hard water. I use a teaspoon or two of baking soda---once---in the bottom of the crock pot before I fill it for the first time each week. That's after I've cooled the crock a bit, dumped the water, and soaked/swished it with quarter strength vinegar for about 20 minutes. [That is, a half cup vinegar to 1-1/2 cups water would work.] Sometimes I use a plastic scrub pad on the sides a bit. That's IT for the cleaning and disinfecting process!
[I had a more than disappointing experience with an ultrasonic humidifier---will post that in another thread.]
Hey sometimes homemade is best! That's improvising for ya!
Thanks for letting us know about "your crock pot" invention. We might need it some day and almost everyone has a crock pot. Lucy
Great Idea!
i love this idea because its so easy to keep clean-the humidifier i am using now has a fan and the fan is very dirty and that drives me insane and its not easy to clean-i am going to use the crock pot from now on! thanks for sharing!
Great idea, thanks! I have been boiling water on the stove to humidify the downstairs, but I am always afraid I'll forget and burn the pan... :)
Hi olmphoto2,
Now that's a neat idea! Way to go!!!
Patze
Great idea, wish I had seen it last week...we just bought a new cool mist humidifier for the bedroom. I think it has helped some. I do know it has helped my husband snore less! Which in turn helps me sleep better! ;D
Robin
What do you guys think they did in the old days? They put a pot of water on the wood stove to humidify their house. The only word of caution I would have is how do you know how much humidity you are putting out? Too much humidity can cause damage to your house during the winter!
i have two gauges that tell me how much humdity my house has...i have one in the bedroom and one in the living room--and it varies a lot by what time of year and how often we run our heat whether its been raining out or not...etc...etc....i too have used the cook stove but thats expensive and we did have a wood stove i always had a tea kettle on there--the crock pot is still a great idea! And so sanitary too and easy to clean!
I don't know if I made myself clear on this, but there is a scale of interior humidity that is dependent on the outside temperature.
As the outside temperature drops, so must interior humidity to avoid damage to your house. I think you will find this information in a past post of mine. I the old days home were not very tight and less susceptible to over humidifying.
I'm not aware of any crock pots equipped with a humastat that can turn the crook pot off in the middle of the night when your sleeping as humidity levels reach an unsafe level.
My mother (not an auto-immune suffer) always put pans of water on the wood stove and radiators. She even just put out pans of water near the windows. Old fashioned, but it helps.
I don't always run the fan in the bathroom when I take a bath in the winter - I love that steam.
I too will try the crockpot. I think the warm steam would be wonderful. I and my husband never did like the blowing fan on humidifiers. He coughs, spits, sputters and sneezes and he blames the humidifier and I try to keep the bedroom dust free. the warm steam will be very soothing to my nose, throat and eyes. Thanks
My mother used to put pans of water near the floor vents to help out with moisture. Also set a few pans out around the house. In Michigan, the heat gets pretty high (and dry) in the winter. Lucy :P
I have my trusty crock pot out and working for me once again. Yeah for the simple solutions! ;-)
Epson, I don't know the calculations, or whatever, in the humidity to temperature ratio, but I can imagine that with too much humidity mold will start to grow in strange places---and that ain't good.
I am wondering if using the crock pot just at night would be a better way to control the amount of moisture in the air. Sometimes the windows will freeze up in the corners if the humidity is too high.
I think that another thing that would help would be to run a small fan in the house in an out of the way place that would still help move air about and distribute the humidity better. I am a much happier camper if I am cool with just a smidgeon of humidity. Too much heat and I am just miserable. Gets so hot that I can't hardly breathe.
Our house was 62 degrees tonight in the kitchen and it felt wonderful. I wear some of hubbies old flannel shirts over my top and it goes off and on depending how hot I am. I would much rather be cool with more clothes on.
Time for the sjoggies to get our humidifiers out. Just a little info---made a trip to Menards today and there are more types of humidifiers out this year. Every year brings some new ones. Finding the one that is easy to clean is the trick. I still like the Hunter brand. I clean mine with vinegar and water in the bathtub once a week. That way if I spill I don't have to worry about cleaning up a mess. Irish ;D
This is one of the best ideas I've heard in a while!
I've started putting a pot of water on the stove for a short time most days. Don't think we'll need to worry about high humidity too much; we rent an older house right now and it has some air cracks and crevices. Since it's begun to get colder here in KY and we are running the old gas furnace I (especially my eyes, nose and throat) can tell it's much drier in the house.
I'm going to try this tomorrow. Awesome idea... :)
Thanks,
Melinda
I got out my trusty crock pot for use as my humidifier yesterday (at least for one area of the house). FYI, last year and this year, I'm now using a good handful (1/2 cup?) of baking soda in the pot as I mentioned in another thread. I'm a little late this year on getting it out. Ahhhhh...enjoying the gentle boost in humidity. Oh---I now have a indoor temperature and humidity monitor. The humidity levels are not in any way too high. I still am using a pot of water on the stove also during the day in our less than 900 sq. ft. house. :)
Wonderful idea! Thank you:)
Quote from: olmphoto2 on November 27, 2012, 12:09:39 PM
I still am using a pot of water on the stove also during the day in our less than 900 sq. ft. house. :)
-
I was going to do this .. or do the crockpot thing. I use a humidifier in my bedroom and I'm happy with that. Just wondering about the pot of water on the stove. How high do you turn the heat up on the stove?? Do you make sure it steams??
Any way to PREVENT the build up in the pot? We have very hard water here. Lots of residue.
I love this idea especially for the downstairs part of my home. Not having to worry about cleaning it the way I do the one in my bedroom is a huge plus....thanks for sharing
XOXO
Jazzlover, I have the gas as low as it goes under the pot once I get it up to temperature (I use hot tap water under a high flame at first for a few minutes). I usually can see just a very gentle wafting of stream/humidity...I not sure I could even say the water is simmering...in my opinion, it isn't.
We have extremely hard water here also. I don't bother adding baking soda to this pot simply because I already 'ruined' it before I knew baking soda would help. You could try a small amount of baking soda during use---or just use a little vinegar in the bottom for a bit every few days to clean it.
In the crock pot, the really low pH that I obtain by tossing in the handful of baking soda not only inhibits build up of hard water deposits but most bacteria also. :)
One cautionary tale with the crock pot that happened to me. I should have known better. One time I let it nearly run dry. I didn't occur to me that it was over heated at that point. I added water---hot tap water---but the temperature difference was too great and the pot cracked ALL OVER and began slow leaking! Lesson learned---on the rare occasion when I might forget about refilling the pot and the water level is quite low, I'll for sure turn it off and allow it to cool down a bit.
I just bought and set up a new humidifier in my bedroom: Sunpentown Dual Mist Humidifier. I also purchased 2 of the portable Hunter humidifiers that Irish recommended a while back for my office and my "spot" in the living room. I too love them, Irish - great recommendation.
I use my Brita filtering pitcher to clean the tap water before loading the humidifiers. Not sure if that's enough or if I should buy bottled water.
Also, I had never heard of this internal/external humidity ratio that you all are talking about. Will you please elaborate? And if there are any signs of structural damage I should be aware of so I can keep my eyes on the issue?
Thanks,
iraisin
I'd like to know more about the ratio as well, the house we just bought is almost 100 years old but not drafty(good new windows) but I for one hurt when the barometer changes. Does anyone know whats the ideal barometric pressure for both the house as well as having the pain effect, I'm thinking constant but wondering if there's a known # out there. I should of been a weather forecaster, I get it right more often.
XOXO
Saundra, as far as I know there is nothing that can be done to alter barometric pressure.
one more question, how do you know if your waters hard or not?
XOXO
Sounds like a great idea you have discovered. I will give it a try.