I am looking for 3 humidifiers - one for each of the kid's rooms. I am hoping it will help with dry air which results in stuffy noses and dry skin. Can I just get a $20 cheapo from wal mart, or should I splurge for a better one? I remember the last humidifier we had leaked everywhere and ruined our hardwod floor, and also mildewed very quickly!
What brand is best? Cool or Warm mist? I need ones that are EASY to care for/clean, as I am pressed for time as it is.
We bought a Crane humidifier from Target. It works well and has never leaked. We've had the green frog one for almost 4 years and it still works great. I have read that the cool mist humidifiers raw recommended if you have young children for safety reasons.
We had the cute Crane one that looked like a frog, but we are in St. Louis and we have hard water. It's ultrasonic, so it shoots out an ultrafine mist that you can see, but it also makes the minerals ultrafine in the air...we found that we had white dust on all our tvs, electronics, cd's, etc...not sure what it was doing to the inside of electronics and computers, but we didn't like it. We also noticed that our daughter's boogers were opaque white. Not sure if that's good for the lungs either. If you read the manual it suggests distilled water, which would eliminate that issue, but it gets expensive quickly. We switched to the el cheapo kaz with a filter and a fan. I don't know if it moisturizes quite as effectively, but I don't see how it could leak unless you dropped and cracked it. The filters do look pretty gross pretty quickly because of the hard water.
I got a Thomas the Tank Engine Cool Mist humidifier from Target last year and it works great! The mist comes out of the smokestack, the 'steam' is adjustable, and even it has running lights (green for good, red for when water gets low) and a nightlight! I paid $19.99 shipped.
Cool mist are best in kid's rooms because there is no risk of steam burns.
I've had a Hunter Cool Mist Humidifier and a Vicks Warm Mist Humidifier for several years now and both work well. I think the key is cleaning them frequently and air-drying all the parts.
We have a Crane one as well. Love it! It's a green frog and looks cute in my daughters bedroom....not like the big old ones I had as a child! I think it was $30 at Target. We've had it for a year and never had a leak- and it takes literally less than a minute to fill. The directions say to keep it elevated, but we usually keep it on the floor. My teenage step-daughters actually asked for the other animal shapes for their rooms for Christmas! They had borrowed the baby's a few times while sick last year and loved it!
Don't get the cheapo from Walmart. We did and it leaked all over the place after about 10 uses. It still leaks but we put a towel underneath it. I look forward to your answers b/c we need a new one too.
We have been using one which we got from Sears some 6 years back. Very nice one, no problem at all. Dont remember the cost now, but it was good enough for 3 rooms.
We really love the Crane ones that look like animals. I don't know how old your kids are but mine love them! They are competivitely priced and look cute in any room. You can buy them at Wal Mart, Target and Babies R Us that I've seen. They also sell filters that go in them to help with the cleaning. You will still need to clean it on ocassion, but if you run some vinegar water through them every now and again that helps too! You will surely want a cool mist humidifier to help with dry skin and stuffy noses. We haven't had any issue with either of ours leaking on anything, but a word to the wise is to elevate the humidifier on top of a shelf, dresser, night stand, something b/c the humidity will sink a bit, so you want it at or above face level.
