Evaporative Humidifiers VS Ultrasonic Humidifiers: The Key Differences

There is nothing worse than having a home that is permeated with nothing but dry air. You can feel your skin begging for moisture. Never mind your poor dry sinuses, and your terribly sore throat. Thankfully, there is an answer to your problem, humidifiers. 

There are two categories of humidifier; cool mist and warm mist. Some models of warm mist humidifiers use steam, and as a result the unit acts as a ‘kettle’, which can be dangerous. However, our warm mist humidifiers do not act in such a way, in fact, before the mist even leaves the unit, it is cooled. In the cool mist category, there are two portable options to choose from, namely; Evaporative and Ultrasonic. 

Both are equally effective at adding humidity into a room, but how they go about doing this is vastly different. However, trying to decide on which one is better suited to your situation can be tricky if you don’t have the right information. In this blog, we will strive to give you all the necessary information you need to make the right choice for you. 

Evaporative Humidifiers VS Ultrasonic Humidifiers

There are four main factors to consider when choosing a Humidifier.

• Is the unit suited to the room size?
• Noise output
• Price
• How they deal with mineral scale deposits 

Before we delve into the above, lets learn about how each one works: 

Ultrasonic Humidifiers: 

Using high-frequency sound vibrations, ultrasonic vibrations create an extra-fine water mist which adds moisture into the air. 

Evaporative Humidifier: 

The more commonly known humidifier of the two, evaporative humidifiers, work on the principle that if you put a body of water into a room, it will naturally evaporate into the air. Using this idea, it is modified so that water is placed in a water tank, the unit’s fan then draws in air, and then pushes moist air through a filter, that air is pushed out as a mist. 

When and How to Use an Evaporative or Ultrasonic Humidifier: 

The real question is what size room would these options be most effective for? 

The Meaco Deluxe 202 Humidifier and Air Purifier is suitable for rooms up to 65m2. It also has a quiet mode built in, so it is perfect for your or your babies bedroom. 

The Stylies Alaze Humidifier is perfect for rooms up to 40m2 or 110m3. It is also the perfect option for a babies bedroom. 

Ultrasonic humidifiers, although effective in their own right, usually provide more of a decorative quality with features such as LED display lights. For someone who needs a humidifier in their bedroom, you have to decide between the quiet nature of an ultrasonic humidifier, and the bright lights it may come with. Luckily, the new Meaco Ultrasonic Humidifier comes with a night mode and is designed to be quiet enough for a bedroom! As an added bonus, the Meaco Deluxe is also an air purifier, cleaning the air for you whilst creating a healthy humidity. 

This unit costs R2,999.00. When it comes to cleaning, this unit has a hard water filter to remove limescale and a two directional nozzle to reduce the chances of condensation forming in the front. 

Portable evaporative humidifiers are normally a little more cumbersome and bulky in design, due to the fact that they need a water tank and a few filters. Having said that, there are designs that will suit any room and are less cumbersome like our Stylies option. This small evaporative humidifier is breaking rules and setting new standards with it’s DAST Technology and easy to understand functions. 

This unit costs R2,499.00. It may not have it’s own cleaning system, but you can easily clean it by removing the bottom half, and putting it into your dishwasher.  

Evaporative or Ultrasonic? 

Truthfully both options are amazing. Their price points are not far off. Pay a little extra and you have a unit that cleans your air while adding humidity into it, pay a little less and have a humidifier that still packs a huge punch, but needs to be cleaned manually.