Humidifier help - any solution to this?

[nanette1985]

My son's in college, lives at home, he's a tenor (opera), plans to teach afterwards and hopefully perform. With the help of his voice MD and his allergists, he's figured out a good routine for keeping his breathing and his voice clear. Part of that is that he sleeps with a humidifier. He's currently rehearsing for La Boheme with some pretty impressive people and of course needs to be in best condition.

His girlfriend has pretty much moved in with us. She works full time. She's a sweetie. She's been getting horrible colds a lot. She's convinced that the colds are caused by his humidifier (which is possible, I can't sleep with a humidifier).

She says she needs to get rid of the humidifier because her job is important. He needs his humidifier, and all his other stuff, for his voice.

She's been sleeping on the sofa, instead of their room, and it's a huge problem.

Any suggestions for the humidifier/no humidifier situation?

 

[minendo]

Run bacteriostat through the humidifier.

 

[yuchai]

Check this out:

http://www.venta-airwasher.com/

I have 2 of the smaller models and am very pleased with them. The mechanism is very simple but works very well.

 

[Ken g6]

I need a humidifier, but I use the kind that boils ("warm mist"), so it kills bacteria that way automatically.

I also suggest Mucinex - if you drink enough water like the packaging says, it's like a humidifier in a pill!

 

[dullard]

I personally dislike sleeping with humidifiers (I never seem to get a cold unless I sleep with one), but my wife and her family all insist on them. When they all come over, the whole house gets covered with that horrible white dust from the non-fan based humidifiers. At least they could switch the type, but no, they insist on their model. After searching the medical journals (trying to come up with a good excuse to end their use) I came up with a few conclusions:

1) Humidifiers could theoretically reduce some disease transmission (such as influenza). But you'd need a major change in humidity to really have any effect.

2) Humidifiers can be a source of disease (bacteria growing in the water tank and/or a better habitat for growth in your nasal passages). But, that isn't too common and can be treated by microbiocide.

3) Either way (harmful or beneficial), typical use seems to have very little effect. Why? They just aren't powerful enough for most uses. It might move the humidity from 30% to 33%, but to really do anything humidity would need to change by 20% or more. So essentially, they are useless and harmless. No strong reason to fight for them and no reason to fight against them.

So ultimately, I bought some microbiocides, and decided to fight another battle.

I can't say what it'll do for your son's vocal cords, but I bet the result is very similar to diseases: basically ineffective since you can't change humidity much with a typical home device. He can keep using it knowing that it likely won't help. His girlfriend can move back into his room knowing that it most likely won't hurt.

 

[nanette1985]

Thanks for the thoughts. The humidifier is a higher-end thing that his voice MD recommends and it does make a difference in humidity. Yes, it has special anti-whatever cleaners. I'm not sure of the brand and I'm not at home now to check.

I agree about Mucinex - great stuff. It's one of the first things son's MD got him to do, and since it worked well for him, I've been using it too.

The humidifier makes a big difference for his singing. Maybe there's a psychological effect there - but when you're on stage nailing a bunch of high d's you need all the psychology you can get.

There's probably just as much psychology involved in girlfriend's colds.

 

[lokiju]

Check this out:

http://www.venta-airwasher.com/

I have 2 of the smaller models and am very pleased with them. The mechanism is very simple but works very well.

How's the mildew on that?

 

[yuchai]

How's the mildew on that?

All the dirt goes into the water and you have to clean the water compartment out about once every two months. There is a slimy substance on the walls of the water compartment and some effort is needed to clean it properly. I think it is an advantage of this unit in that the dirt gets trapped inside the water compartment and not as exposed to the air.

However, due to the design, I believe the humidifying properties aren't as strong as other units. The air it blows out is only slightly humidified. Even if you put your hands directly in front of the air for a minute there is no visible collection of water. It does actually work though because half the water in the compartment is gone after a night of use, and I can actually "feel" the difference in humidity (placebo effect?).

Edited: I think the following Amazon reviews list the pros and cons of this unit pretty well.

http://www.amazon.com/VENTA-AIRWASH...2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1262121267&sr=8-2

 

[slayer202]

got any extra space to store some cigars in his room for me?

 

[seepy83]

She's been sleeping on the sofa, instead of their room, and it's a huge problem.

Pics?



Sorry....someone had to do it...

 

[Capt Caveman]

3) Either way (harmful or beneficial), typical use seems to have very little effect. Why? They just aren't powerful enough for most uses. It might move the humidity from 30% to 33%, but to really do anything humidity would need to change by 20% or more. So essentially, they are useless and harmless. No strong reason to fight for them and no reason to fight against them.

Are you talking about the humidifier that your relatives use? B/c the one I use keeps the house a nice 40% humidity. A simple hygrometer shows the humidity in my house would be around 25% if I didn't have my humidifier running.

A humidifier also helps all of the woodwork in the house from drying out, electronics, my skin and also helps with heating costs.

OP - a warm mist humidifier or a cool mist humidifier with a UV light should kill any harmful bacteria that could cause issues with your son's girlfriend.