How To Clean Honeywell Cool Moisture Humidifier

What you need

A humidifier sitting next to a a sink with cleaning materials including a bottle of vinegar, a scrubbing brush and a rag. — Photo: Michael Hession

Water: Sometimes you need water to clean water—in this example, for rinsing, though you lot might need to soak some pieces, too.

White vinegar, citric acid pulverisation, or a similar weak acid: One of these volition help you remove whatever buildup of limescale and other minerals that can stick to parts of your humidifier.

A scrubbing brush or sponge: Some other general cleaning assistance, a castor or sponge will give y'all a petty actress scrubbing power in case you need to deal with particularly stubborn gunk or crud. We like the Jetz-Scrubz Scrubber Sponge.

Bleach or hydrogen peroxide (optional but recommended): You may occasionally need to disinfect your humidifier, every bit well, and 1 of these chemicals will help impale off any nasty microbes that may have tried to make a abode of your humidifier.

How long will this accept to clean?

Well-nigh 20 to xxx minutes per calendar week, plus drying time. For a deeper make clean or disinfecting, you may need an hour once a month or so, although that span of time also includes a lot of soaking and drying.

Empty the h2o tank and allow it air dry

No affair where your h2o comes from, it will still have some microbes that volition eventually develop into a biofilm. Then if yous plan to turn your humidifier off for a day, don't simply leave the water sitting in there. Pour it out, let the tank dry out for 30 to threescore minutes, and then refill it when you're ready to use the humidifier again.

If y'all tend to run your humidifier until the tank is empty, yous should all the same perform manual emptying every couple of days. Adding a bacteriostatic treatment such as Essick Air or a Protec Humidifier Tank Cleaner to the tank every time you fill it up will also assist discourage any nasty little organisms from growing in there.

Take the whole humidifier apart and rinse all the pieces

A humidifier shown disassembled. — Photograph: Michael Hession

This process is a basic surface clean that will help go rid of anything undesirable that's starting to stick. But make sure non to soak any of the parts with electronic components. Consult your humidifier's user manual if you accept any questions or concerns. You should practise this type of cleaning at least once a week. If you lot have a dishwasher-friendly humidifier like the Honeywell HCM-350 or the Canopy, going that route works, as well.

Wipe or scrub the tank and tray with vinegar or citric acrid

A closeup of the tank of a humidifier being filled with water in a bathroom sink as a hand holds it up. — Photo: Michael Hession

At this point, you might also detect a chalky white substance on some parts. This is limescale buildup from whatever minerals were present in your water. It'southward totally normal, but you lot should withal get rid of it.

Use a little white vinegar, citric acid pulverisation, or a like weak acidic substance to your sponge, brush, or cloth, and information technology volition help dislodge the gunk. You should need only almost 2 tablespoons of this acrid per half-gallon of water. Read the characterization on the substance'southward container, or check the instruction manual that came with your humidifier, if you lot're nervous.

Apply some elbow grease, and make sure to go effectually all the awkward corners, too. We try to recommend humidifiers that are easy to make clean, just some humidifier tanks are awkward and frustrating to bargain with.

When y'all're washed, rinse off the pieces again to become rid of whatever backlog acid, and get out them to air dry. You may need to let the humidifier run for a chip to eliminate any leftover vinegar odour.

Soak whatever stubborn limescale or other sediment

If that sediment buildup just won't budge, pour your weak acid of choice (white vinegar or citric acid) right into the tank or tray and let it sit at that place for about xx minutes. Then go at it again with your brush or sponge, and that should do the flim-flam. Once you've gotten rid of all the sediment, rinse the pieces in running h2o and exit them to dry out.

Disinfect your humidifier

Although vinegar or citric acid will help with the visible limescale, information technology won't impale off the mold or invisible microbes that are e'er attempting to take root in your humidifier. So y'all'll need to periodically disinfect the whole unit using a solution of bleach or hydrogen peroxide. Typically y'all should do this cleaning once or twice a calendar month. You lot'll know it's overdue if your humidifier starts smelling sort of dank.

You have a few different ways to arroyo this job, depending on how gross or contaminated your humidifier is. You can use a brush to scrub all of the parts merely as you did to eliminate the limescale (don't mix vinegar and bleach!), or you tin can soak the plastic parts for 20 to 30 minutes earlier elimination, rinsing, and wiping them clean.

To make sure you're getting into all the crevices and corners, some people recommend taking the humidifier outside, plugging it in, pouring the bleach solution right into the tank, and and then letting it run on loftier for 30 to lx minutes so the bleach can work its way through the whole system. The "exterior" part is primal here—you lot don't want to exhale in any bleach fumes.