<p>Sending a humidifier to ds, who is dying at his college because of the sealed buildings and constant pumping in of heat. I’m wondering if anyone has one they love.</p>
<p>One caveat: Buying for a lazy, nasty boy who didn’t wash his sheets his entire first trimester, so it has to have easy upkeep.</p>
<p>TIA</p>
<p>I don’t think there is any such thing as “easy” upkeep. But I was very satisfied with Holmes products, after having many other brands (I’ve used Sunbeam, Bionaire and others I don’t remember) that just couldn’t clean up and involved a lot of trouble trying. You can find the humidifiers at various retailers, and I used to order the filters online. The filters are part of what makes these easy to clean - the minerals etc. adhere to the filter, you throw it away and pop in a new one. Other brands… the crud adheres to the unit’s parts… definitely problem for upkeep.
[Humidifiers</a> by Holmes](<a href=“http://www.holmesproducts.com/Category.aspx?cid=229]Humidifiers”>http://www.holmesproducts.com/Category.aspx?cid=229)</p>
<p>Humidifiers unattended to can build up bacteria/mold… so he needs to be careful of that. He’s a male college student, but we can hope :).</p>
<p>The reason I say “used to” order the filters is that DH found and we decided to try this “weird” option. We were skeptical but it turned out to be perfect. ZERO upkeep! You make it part of your showerhead, so will only work for him if he has his own/shared bathroom in a suite-type setup. Won’t work if it’s a common bathroom down the hall. We put ours in our first floor master bath and it kept me comfortable throughout the house. Unbelievable but true.</p>
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<p>I suffered greatly from the dry environment and there was no moisturizing cream that could provide relief. So I think the humidifier is likely the only effective way to go.</p>
<p>YDS,</p>
<p>Have you thought about a vaporizer? I think they are easy to keep up. Just fill w/water and plug in. He would use it at night to sleep. We have a central humidifier, but still used one of these in winter when the kids were little.</p>
<p>And, on the cheapo side, if he can use a drying rack in his room, he can hang his clothes to dry there and it will help in the room.</p>
<p>Hmmm, maybe I don’t know the difference between a vaporizer and humidifier. Will look into those.</p>
<p>The basic difference is warm (v) or cold (h) moisture.</p>
<p>Ds school is in the 3rd rolling black out of the day.</p>
<p>I forget which brand I have at my house… I’ll check for you when I get home. Mine works very very nicely. I also have a vaporizer as well. Nice thing with vaporizers is you can put medicine in them when you are sick and it puts it in the air. You breathe it in when you sleep. It works wonders for colds! My humidifer is a warm mist type.
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<p>I’d suggest a warm mist type or a vaporizer (vicks makes one) that way he could use it when sick if possible… or just to put some water in the air.</p>
<p>We air dry our clothes in doorways and on a wooden rack when the heat is turned up for winter. (Doubt that will work for college dorm room!) It works well for us and saves electricity bills for the dryer (fluff the towels and H’s t-shirts for 20 minutes on low to make them soft). Most things are totally dry within 5-6 hours. We found that running any kind of vaporizer caused paint problems.</p>
<p>Ditto…we had finish come off of furniture and hardwood floors from vaporizers and we were semi-careful. Doubt a college male or female for that matter would pay attention to where that excess moisture was landing.</p>
<p>You need to make sure they aren’t right next to a wall or under something. I made that mistake once in my living room then I realized my one wall was sweating, lol. I moved it a foot out into the room and it was fine. I have oil heat and my house is quite dry. I think I might get those trays that you hang on the radiator that way they put water in the air. Anyone have any experience with those?</p>
<p>When I was in college I bought a cheap roasting pan and kept it on the radiator in my room with an inch of water in it. It was easy to clean and the price was right. Only works if you have a flat-top radiator, though.</p>
<p>I recently indulged myself and added a whole-house humidifier to the furnace–DH didn’t see the need, but both of us are now very pleased we did it.</p>
<p>dmd, I have radiator covers surrounding my radiators so I don’t think there is room for any sort of roasting pan on top, but good idea. 
House humidifier is interesting… I may consider looking into that. My bedroom is just always soooo staticy!</p>
<p>My wife is also very sensitive to dry air. Over the years we have probably owned at least 6 humidifiers. </p>
<p>This year I suggested a germguardian after learning that Liza Minelli specified one for her hotel suite in her performance contracts. </p>
<p>It has warm and cool mist and is very quiet. There are different capacities. I can’t speak to the maintenance but they have 3-7 days water capacity depending on the model. They’re not cheap.</p>
<p>She loved the first one and now we own three. </p>
<p>Happy wife! Happy Life!</p>
<p>No matter what your hopes are, if you S is anything like my 2S or their roommates, there is no way they are ever going to clean this thing or change its filter.</p>
<p>Keeping that in mind, buy a cheap on from Walmart for $20-30 and replace it every winter. I don’t think it’s going to contribute any more bacteria or germs for a few months than are already in a college boys’ dorm room.</p>
<p>Whole house humidifier–makes all the difference in the world. No maintenance and NO filling it constantly. My H was very against it, but he wasn’t the one schlepping the buckets of water every day and making sure any drips were mopped up. Installed it 4 years ago w/ new furnace and it is great! There is a humidistat to control how high one wants the moisture. Ours humidifies 3000 sf.</p>
<p>syrstress, How much does something like that cost? My house is about 1600 sf.</p>
<p>I think it added ~$400 to the cost of the furnace. Maybe a little more. Since our house is large and we will live here forever, I got the biggest, best one they had. Has a water line hooked to it. Never fill it, never do anything. The filter is a metal material–it doesn’t gunk up and we have well water with lots of iron. I probably should rinse it out once a year. I haven’t. It looks fine.</p>
<p>I have a whole-house humidifier on my furnace and it doesn’t seem to help much (just had it fixed, too. . .). I also use 3 portable humidifiers–one on each level of the house. Get a cool-mist one. (I have 2 of those and one hot mist–the hot one often needs cleaning. The cool ones are quieter and don’t get clogged up with mineral deposits like the steamer does. Also, the cool ones are safer. All you do is fill them up. Don’t put it on carpet.)</p>