Maintaining the Humidifier

During winter that air gets really dry, and therefor drying for the skin. This really affects my boyfriend, especially if he is breaking out from eczema. One way we help reduce that is by using a humidifier at night in the bedroom. We have a Crane Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier and have been using it for a couple of years now. One problem we ran into is cleaning it. Our tap water likes to produce a pink slime on anything it is allowed to sit in for longer than a day, and though we dumped and refilled the tank and basin daily and cleaned it with vinegar weekly, it would always grow this slime.

I started looking online about what to do. I came across a few websites saying to rinse it with vinegar diluted in water daily instead of the weekly. We did that for a while but it took up some extra time to do this so I looked online some more. A few people said that their primary care provider suggested that they pour a couple of tablespoons per gallon into the tank for use (to keep mold from growing), not just cleaning out. We have been doing this for the past couple of months now. There is no more slime growing - it looks brand new! The one downside is that it makes the room smell like vinegar, but we have gotten over that since I also clean regularly with vinegar.

Humidifier water:

• 1-3 TBS white distilled vinegar
• 1 gallon water

For this humidifier, this lasts about 10-12 hours on the highest setting and about 24 hours on the lowest. One thing to remember is that the humidifier still needs to be cleaned regularly using the manufacturer's instructions.