Free and easy humidifier?

Any thoughts on placing a cast iron pot or regular pot of water on top of stove to help keep air from making it too dry in the house? A friend of mine with a free standing wood stove does it-- loves the added moisture she gets....does it work? is it safe for stove and surroundings? thoughts appreciated..

Water needs to get pretty warm to evaporate on a stove at a decent rate. But yes it helps. Wood stove tops can be cooked on though.

It'll work but like Bioburner said, its gotta get pretty hot. You may not get the level of humidity you want. Also, unless you're extremely careful, you may scratch up the top of your stove.

true- thanks

thanks for the reply

If you look at my avatar, you can see I have a simmer pot on mine. I think I got it at tsc for around 20 bucks. I fill it up a couple of times a day when the stove is running hot, but it"s not really enough moisture for my house. Every little bit helps, I guess.

thanks for the info- what is TSC? thanks guess i can use a regular cook pot til i get a nicer one - huh?

If you have an Ocean State Job Lots store near you, they had some nice looking cast iron kettles a few months back. $20.

don't have that store here on LI-NY thanks though for idea-----can try Big Lots or Walmart though.........cheers !

If lowering the temperature, increase the evaporative area. Use a cake pan!

I was doing this for a while and one of the things with a cake pan is it's easy for clutzy me to spill the H2O. So you have to be careful about spilling warm water on the hot glass and more so in the hopper. If the pellets in the hopper get wet that's a helluva mess!

I dont think its worth the trouble to put a metal pot on top of the stove incase of scratches or damage from spilling water. I have an insert so I dont have the option anyway it does not get hot enough I think you are better off getting a whole house humidifier. Just 1 problem to your stove from the water damage Or scratches cost much more then the cost of the humidifier

I have an insert and use a 1/2 kettle on it designed just for the short shelf on an insert. It holds 1.7L of water and I fill it every day. Not sure that will make a difference in the house...but it's better than nothing.

When I first got it, there was not enough heat on the top of the stove to heat and boil the water off. I started heating the water in my electric kettle water maker hotter thing and that made a huge difference.

My Humidifier uses over 5-7 gal a day and barely keeps up.... And it has to run 24/7

That little but may help if your right in front of the stove, but its a drop in the bucket compared to what's really needed.

If you need moisture, put the kettle money towards a large floor unit (a wick type unit / Not a Mist unit/ Misting leads to mildew and mold probs)

Humidifiers are on clearance now. Was just in to check on getting some presto log pellets at HD and they went through almost a whole truck of pellets yesterday and where out. Smaller store but the weather has been colder than normal and a storm coming with no relief coming in temps getting back to normal in the future.

Tractor Supply Company.

I just use a simmer pot on the stove. The wife throws potpourri in it,makes the house smell good.

I have been using a cast iron pot from day one fill it once a day with water and a few dabs of black Chery oil from the dollar store for sent

I've tried that, doesn't get hot enough for the potpourri to really give off much aroma.

I use a 4 qt stainless pot set on top of my smoke dragon... I don't care if it scratches the stove... (like you'd even notice ) A gallon of water lasts between 3 and 6 hours depending on the rate I am firing the stove.

You don't have to keep the water boiling to have an acceptable evaporation rate... IMHO

My cat can sleep on top of my stove so the temp is not warm enough for evaporating water. Even if it did work, you would need to fill it every couple hours if you want any impact.

My asthmatic wife would disagree...

thanks! for all the great replies and ideas! great bunch of peeps here