Humidifiers

[adrianlondon]

Wow, it's gan-bloody-zao in Beijing at the moment.

Anyone got a humidifier? They're usually in the shape of a frog, for some reason, and simply release water vapour. They're called 空气加湿器 in Mandarin.

What I want to know is : are they worth it?

[roddy]

They work fine - it's fairly simply technology after all. The dryness doesn't really bother me, but if you find it annoying then get one. You might want to try just sticking a bowl of water on the radiator though.

[adrianlondon]

I guess I need to rephrase my question a little bit :

Do you feel better when you use one? Does your skin feel/look better? Do you breathe easier? I know they work mechanically.

As for putting some water on a radiator - we have hot-air heating (from a climate control thingy in the ceiling) here. It's probably cheaper to buy a humidifier than make some contraption for hanging water next to the air outlet ;)

[roddy]

Yeah, and I should have read yours before answering it

To be honest I've never felt a need for one, maybe I should try it.

[Seandoo]

I'm using one, I put 1 liter of water in it before I go to bed. It works fine, my skin feels better, but my nose still feel dry in the morning

[adrianlondon]

I bought one; 148y from the BNU on-campus supermarket. My skin feels and looks better and my plants seem to appreciate it, too.

Mine's in the shape of a cute little frog (albeit one with water vapour coming out of the top of its head) and it lasts for a few days before running out of water; the reservour is quite large.

[teachinator]

I think they ranged in price from like 89 kuai for the popular green frog to 200+ for ones that have bigger reservoirs and can give hot or cold steam, and probably more for ones with timers and such. I only paid attention to the cheap ones.

But being a short-termer, in the end I didn't buy a humidifier. Now I just put a big pot of water on the hot plate and turn it to medium low (it has auto-shutoff or I wouldn't do this) and repeat as necessary ... I usually do three or four two-hour sessions every night. It's a bit noisy, but I don't mind that.

For me, humidifying the room really is worth it; I was getting the weirdest super-dry skin, and I even had a dry rash that got better after I had been humidifying for a week or so. My reaction to the dryness surprised me because I grew up in L.A. (technically a desert) and still live in a pretty dry part of California, but Beijing seems to be on a whole different level of aridity. If I were living here for a longer period, I would buy a humidifier with a timer and maybe hot/cold steam.

[adrianlondon]

Mine doesn't have a timer or a hot/cold option. I can adjust the steam output though and it's totaly silent. I turn it relatively low and let it run all the time; I turn it up a bit if I keep the door to my room wide open, and that is enough for the small attached living room too.

Seems 148y was a bit of a rip-off; I was just too lazy to go to the 5-star market ;)

[zhwj]

One of the Beijing TV channels aired a consumer show on these things a few weeks ago, comparing the different models. From their report:

The cheap ones may jack your electric bill a bit since they're just boiling the water, but other than that they have no major problems to worry about, except for mineral deposits if you use tap water.

The more expensive kind that fogs the water through ultrasonics need distilled water, since those minerals that deposit around the heaters of the cheap kind get kicked into the air from these. They also can spread mold if you don't clean them. They don't cost much to operate, though. Another type that didn't use ultrasonics had similar properties, but I can't remember the exact technology used.

I'd put another vote in for their usefulness. I don't have one myself, but I notice that when I stay with people who have them, my skin feels better.