It gets very dry where I live at this time of year. This is not just hard on my skin, but the 17% indoor humidity isn’t great for my houseplants. Can anybody recommend a humidifier? My priority is on reliability and although it isn’t essential, it should be able to start up when power is cut and restored via a smart plug. I’m looking forward to hearing what /c/houseplants suggests!
Edit: So far, I’m leaning towards options from ConsumerReports since they prioritize reliability. I’m curious if anybody has experience with any of these models: https://www.consumerreports.org/appliances/humidifiers/best-humidifiers-of-the-year-a1138350061/
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My only recommendation is that you should spend a little more money on specifically an evaporative humidifier. They’re a bit louder (I think I’ve got a Vornado EV100 or something?) but the cheap humidifiers on Amazon will cover everything in the room in very fine white powder after a few weeks/months, which gets super annoying. The evaporative-type humidifiers don’t do that. Not sure about smart-plug compatibility, though.
(The ultrasonic type is the one that leaves the white dust)
I can’t recommend a specific one because where i live we have the opposite problem; but in general the type of humidifier is the most important when it comes to resilience and maintenance, best info source i can point to is ths video from technology connections where he talks about different types; all of the ones he talks about in the video (aside from the big one) are fairly simplistic in construction, so they’ll start as soon as power is applied. Also be mindful about the size of the room, since a small one may not be fast enough.
I am living in a dry region (now it’s like 60% bc it’s winter, but in summer reaches almost 0%humidity). I was like you and also got humidifiers before, but my recommendation is that you forget about it and just let nature do it’s thing and plants adapt to your environment.
Obviously we cannot have ferns, but some plants like hoyas and such, you may be surprised that they adapt at the end and even thrive. At the end you do as you think best, but overcaring for plants that may be sick or cannot live in your climate is too big of a challenge long-term, take that into account
Yeah, you’re probably right. No sense in wasting electricity to change my climate when I can adapt to it. Thanks for the suggestion on the hoyas!
Is this a winter or summer issue for you? Do you have central HVAC/forced air?
It’s a winter issue for me. In the summer I almost get too much humidity lol. No central HVAC or air circulation other than my window.
Got it. Winter + forced air heat opens up the possibility of a whole home humidifier but since you can’t go that route a evaporative humidifier or two is the way to go.
