Humidifiers are designed to improve the air quality in a room by increasing the overall amount of moisture. You can buy these devices to improve the air in just one room or all over your house. There are different types of humidifiers, depending on how you want to use them.

Single point machines, that is machine meant to be placed at a fixed point in a given room, are ideal for a single targeted room. Furnaces are used when a person wants to increase the moisture all over their house and they are connected to your existing heating and air conditioning unit. Finally, for those who only want to change the air of the room they are in, a portable humidifier is probably the best option.

Wick humidifiers are perhaps the best known and most common type of humidifier. The wick humidifier is made up of three basic elements, the reservoir, the wick and the fan. The reservoir is a tank containing water that is filled before the humidifier is in use, this water is used for the moisture that the machine sends into the air. Not all humidifiers use a reservoir, some have a continuous feed to a water line but are often more expensive.

Essentially, said wick is used to absorb the water that is in the reservoir. The rate at which the water will evaporate through the wick depends very largely on the amount of humidity already in a room. A room with low humidity means that the water will evaporate more quickly and where there is greater humidity the water will take longer to evaporate - in this sense the humidifier is self regulating because it adjusts according to differing humidity levels. With this type of machine you must remember to clean and change the wick on a regular basis. Water will remain at the same level in the tank because if the wick is dirty or needs changing the machine cannot continue to humidify the area it is in. The final part of a humidifier is the fan. The fan is usually next to the wick and is designed to blow air across the wick to increase the rate at which the water evaporates through the wick.

There are other types of humidifiers, the vaporizer, the impeller humidifier and the ultrasonic humidifier. Out of all the humidifiers the vaporizer is probably the best for someone suffering from a medical condition, the water has to be boiled, which takes more electricity but the steam not only means that a medication can be added to the vaporizer, but there are no harmful minerals because boiling has sterilized the steam. The impeller uses a rotating disc to fling water at a diffuser, which then sprinkles the droplets of water throughout the room. The ultrasonic has a metal cage that vibrates at a frequency that is ultrasonic (beyond sound) and this creates drops of water, which are then distributed round the room as a cool mist. Ultrasonic humidifiers need regular cleaning in order to prevent any bacteria or other contaminants being distributed with the moisture.