Electric water boiler for humidity!

[doo-bop]

I just thought about it-
Why boiling water for tea in the kitchen, when you can do it in the room where your bass is stored?

Sounds like a bad idea?
Please tell me what you think!
(:

[arnoldschnitzer]

Bad idea. The boiling water is a hazard, and when it runs out (inadvertently) the hot pot can burn out and cause a fire. This is unlikely, but possible. I have left mine on overnight a few times, and though it did not burn or melt, the smell was horrendous.

[thomasholley]

I melted a metal tea pot to an electric burner on my stove when it ran out of water and I wasn't paying attention to things. Like Arnold said it smelled terrible and I had to replace the burner because the tea pot had become one with it. I advise against it because even if you aren't an idiot like me, it is much too easy for any number of accidents to happen.

[drurb]

Forget the boiling water-- get a good evaporative humidifier-- not the kind that produces a mist.

[dkpawlowski]

Originally Posted by drurb

Forget the boiling water-- get a good evaporative humidifier-- not the kind that produces a mist.

And a good (electronic) hygrometer.

[Ric5]

Originally Posted by drurb

Forget the boiling water-- get a good evaporative humidifier-- not the kind that produces a mist.

+1

I live in Denver and it is a fight to keep the humidity levels up ... I run several humidifiers in my house.

[drurb]

Originally Posted by dkpawlowski

And a good (electronic) hygrometer.

Yup-- that's a must! I have one right next to my bass. I run a whole-house humidifier off the furnace and the bass has its own evaporative humidifier. I can usually maintain percentages in the low to mid 40s despite what the Connecticut winter throws at me.

[gp_bass]

has anyone here ever made their own evaporative humidifier? i'm working on one, and looking for a place to source parts.

right now, i think it's going to involve a bucket of water, an old hard-drive fan, and an airstone from an aquarium supply store (to help agitate the water).

[uprightben]

You could probably get away with just the bucket of water, if it is dry in your house the water will evaporate.

[jschall84]

i have a humidifier built into my heater. i keep it at 40% years round. works awesome

[dkpawlowski]

Originally Posted by gp_bass

has anyone here ever made their own evaporative humidifier? i'm working on one, and looking for a place to source parts.

right now, i think it's going to involve a bucket of water, an old hard-drive fan, and an airstone from an aquarium supply store (to help agitate the water).

Probably a waste of effort- you won't get enough of a humidity increase to worry about. The belt type humidifiers have a spongelike belt that is motor driven and dips into a pan of water and then passes in front of a fairly powerful fan. Just blowing air over a pan of water won't do it. You need a big wetted area.

[Ric5]

Get something like this ...



http://www.holmesproducts.com/Product.aspx?pid=2387

[bonaventura]

Originally Posted by drurb

Forget the boiling water-- get a good evaporative humidifier-- not the kind that produces a mist.

+1 on not boiling water...

but what's wrong with the kind that sprays a mist into the air?

i've got a Honeywell in the bass room that keeps the humidity at whatever level i set it, say 48%, and uses about 2 gallons a week if i keep the door closed. i don't humidify the whole house. the only problem i had with it was if i don't decalcify the water, the mist can leave a film of calcium on all surfaces in the room. otherwise, i don't see what the problem is.

[gp_bass]

in my experience the ones that mist (ultrasonic) eventually leave white dust on everything in the room. i think this is due to minerals in the water -- you need to keep on top of changing the filter in the humidifier to remove these minerals. i've always found this to be a pain, since my humidifier is 10 years old and the filters aren't readily available.

[drurb]

Originally Posted by bonaventura

+1 on not boiling water...

but what's wrong with the kind that sprays a mist into the air?

i've got a Honeywell in the bass room that keeps the humidity at whatever level i set it, say 48%, and uses about 2 gallons a week if i keep the door closed. i don't humidify the whole house. the only problem i had with it was if i don't decalcify the water, the mist can leave a film of calcium on all surfaces in the room. otherwise, i don't see what the problem is.

Indeed, that's the problem. In addition, in my experience, a misting humidifier can be undesirable because, regardless of the humidity in the room, it will spit out the water (unless closely controlled as your seems to be). An evaporative humidifier does not suffer from that potential problem because the degree of evaporation off the pad follows the gradient of saturation. That is, if you run an evaporative humidifer in a room that already has high humidity, you will simply have little moisture evaporating off the pad. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so terse in my recommendation. I'd say an evaporative humifdifier is greatly preferred.

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by gp_bass

in my experience the ones that mist (ultrasonic) eventually leave white dust on everything in the room. i think this is due to minerals in the water -- you need to keep on top of changing the filter in the humidifier to remove these minerals. i've always found this to be a pain, since my humidifier is 10 years old and the filters aren't readily available.

An article I once read suggested that this dust is not good to breathe.