Do you use a humidifier?

[dharmama]

I'm probably getting a PE Summit Insert and a friend of mine told me that we'll need a humidifier to deal with the dryness. Do you all have one and if so what kind?

 

[babalu87]

We have a cool mist machines but will be buying warm mist machines before this heating season. The cool mist machines are too loud.
I am hoping the cowboy coffee pot on the stove top keeps enough humidity on the first floor so we wont need one downstairs.

Your friend is correct, you will need one a wood stove will sap your house of moisture and make it very dry.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

For a wood stove the best method is to have a pot of water sitting on the stove. Check it often or you will have no water left at the end of the day.

 

[Corey]

As for the fire, I have 3 pyrex pie plates that sit on top of the insert. They are about 9" diameter each and get a little bit of air movement from the blowers on the insert. With the big evaporative surface area and slight breeze, the set-up goes through about 1 to 1-1/2 gallons of water in a 12 hour period even on the relatively cool outer shell of the insert.

Many years ago I bought a cool mist humidifier and liked it due to the relatively low power consumption per unit of water put into the air. It did make sort of a "dribble" noise due to the water splashing near the ultrasonic disk - and also I used distilled, or at least deionized (not softened) water to avoid white powder on the furniture.

To fix the dribble noise, I took a short piece of urethane pipe insulation and cut it to fit in the big hole near the vaporizer disk. The water would then splash up, hit the foam and be gently returned to the holding pool while the vapor would flow through the central hole of the piece. It reduced the noise about 95% and I could actually sleep with the thing running in the bedroom - and I am notoriously aggravated by little drips and clicks as I am trying to go to sleep.

That unit crapped out a few years ago and I bought a new one thinking technology would surely have caught up with the dribble noise, but nope - the new unit required the same treatment as the old one! But now it is quiet as well.

Corey

 

[rdrcr56]

We use a warm mist humidifier and a tea pot on the stove also, the guy at the hardware store where we bought the humidifier told us that the cool mist ones need to be placed up high as the mist is cool and will stay on the floor. The only place we had to place one is on the floor, thus the decision to go with warm mist.

 

[DiscoInferno]

We have a decent size wick-style humidifier, but it doesn't seem to make a dent according to my bleeding nose and the tabletop temp/humidity meter. Plus the fan is loud and the wick grows mildew. We've also tried the kind with a heating element, but those don't seem to put the water out any faster and well-water gunk (tannins and iron) built up on the element.

 

[tutu_sue]

I have a Holmes warm mist humidifier in the bedroom where I keep my guitars. I keep a large Hunter evaporative humidifier in the kitchen, but evaporative humidifiers are too slow. This year I want to get a big cool mist humdiifer with a filter to keep the white dust away.

 

[velvetfoot]

No.

 

[Highbeam]

Since starting our stoapstone kettle, the RH has risen by about 10%. Not big but not bad and we like the kettle anyway. The one kid got croup which is a nasty wheezy cough and the doc tried blaming the low humidity. So wife likes the kettle.

 

[dharmama]

When you say kettle - you just put a tea kettle full of water on top of stove? Thanks. Whitney

 

[Blkbeard]

On this topic of setting the kettles on the stove I have an Insert and there is very little room on the ledge not even for one of the 1/2 kettles what are the insert users using that have the same type of small ledge on the stove?



----
Regency - 1200i

 

[petejung]

I've got an AprilAire installed on my gas furnace. I'm planning on still using that furnace to heat the upstairs of the home. Hopefully, that'll keep the RH up in the house over the winter.

 

[Highbeam]

Drat, I'll take a pic. I owe the helpful folks here a pic anyways. When I say kettle I mean a soapstone kettle made by hearthsone which is a bowl of stone plus a cast iron lid that is intended to be used to produce steam atop a stove. It is a piece of art almost and I am not an artsy fartsy guy. A decoration that actually gives a benefit. Some folks install entire woodstoves for just such a purpose.

 

[CountryGal]

Yes! Otherwise I am getting zapped every time I touch the sliding glass door or anything else. Even the cat's fur can zap me. I bought a cute humidifier at Target and it is a black and white cow. I'm sure it is for children but it fits right in with my cowboy stuff. Also, my oldest grandson gets nosebleeds here in the winter if I don't have the humidifier going.

 

[Vermontster]

If I don't have both a pot on the stove and the humidifier in my bedroom at night I wake up with a "hangover" from being dehydrated (not from beer, but sometimes it hard to tell which... but, thats another forum)

and Highbeam, I would like to see pics of the "kettle" you have, sounds pretty sweet, whether your artsy or fartsy!
I'm using an old copper pot that is probably worth a fortune reconditioned, if I found something better I would retire it , it's probably giving me Alzheimers or something. What were we talking about?

 

[elkimmeg]

I hope some learn from my experience. I had a tea kettle on my cast iron enamel stove If I leave to cover on it can boil over. One day my wife added porpori
and it foamed over contacting the enamel a few days later the enamel came off all around the griddle It looked like Chit Finally after the season
I bought a replacement top removing the top on a two year stove required a total rebuild. I will never place a tea kettle on a wood stove again and open lattice type humidifier
yes but not those cheap cast iron tea kettles.

 

[Yooper Burning]

Oh yeah, you betcha! Bemis whole house pumping out in the loft and a Holmes cool mist in the bedroom. Still tough to keep the RH above 30-35% in the living area unless I have the Bemis cranking full the whole time. It puts between 2.5 and 7 gallons of water in the air on a daily basis depending on how much we burn and how high we have the settings. We also have a stove top kettle. With young kids we don't want to have things too dry so their little noses bleed and are cranky (crankier?) all the time.

 

[Highbeam]

Yes Elk, I've adequately warened the bajeepers out of my wife to put nothing but clean water in the kettle. I don't want the thing to boil over and crack stones or who knows what else.

 

[jqgs214]

Humidifier here. Vick's Ultrasonic I think. Its quiet and we keep it in the bedroom running all day and night. Holds about 2.5 gallons and that lasts about 24 hours.

 

[Highbeam]

OK folks, here's a soapstone kettle in action. Don't look for a steam plume becasue you won't see one. We only refill every couple of days and there's still an inch or so in there when we do.

 

[njtomatoguy]

I use a lattice top steamer all the time, and also an old tea kettle.