Grow Room DIY Evaporative Humidifer

[Kreatnkaos]

I’m wondering if anyone has tried building their own evaporative humidifier. It doesn’t seem that challenging in terms of materials. I see quite a few builds for evaporative coolers but not humidifiers, are these the same?

I have a larger room that needsa larger humidifer then my current one can handle. Figured building one might be better then spending $200 for a room sized unit.

 

[DCLXVI]

Evaporative units are not as effective as the ultrasonics. Depending on the space and how much you need to raise humidity, an evap unit might not be able to put enough moisture in the air quickly enough. Just a thought. Basically just need a reservoir, wick of some sort, and a fan to pull air across the wick.

A $65 ultrasonic can put out a lot of humidity. You do need to use distilled water or you run the risk of accumulating a white dust from the minerals in tap water.

EDIT: 2 $65 units positioned differently in the room might give better coverage than a single large unit as well.

 

[Olderfart]

FWIW, I built my own evaporative unit, but it feeds the drobe directly through a 4" duct. All incoming air entering the drobe comes through the humidifier.

The unit is just a large plastic tote with terry towel pieces hanging from the lid down into the water in the bottom of the tote. Air is drawn into holes in one end of the tote, and exits into the duct to the drobe at the other end. The towel pieces are arranged to force the air back and forth over the wet towel. The unit does not have a fan of its own, the air is drawn through it by the main exhaust fan in the drobe. As I recall, using the thing would raise humidity in the drobe by something like 10% over what it would otherwise be. Sorry, no pics, it is all put away for the summer.

 

[Kreatnkaos]

Evaporative units are not as effective as the ultrasonics. Depending on the space and how much you need to raise humidity, an evap unit might not be able to put enough moisture in the air quickly enough. Just a thought. Basically just need a reservoir, wick of some sort, and a fan to pull air across the wick.

A $65 ultrasonic can put out a lot of humidity. You do need to use distilled water or you run the risk of accumulating a white dust from the minerals in tap water.

EDIT: 2 $65 units positioned differently in the room might give better coverage than a single large unit as well.

the problem is purchasing enough distilled water doesn’t make sense.I did think about installing afilter but I’d prefer just to build my own unit. If I can do it economically, I might just buy a light filter and use my evaporative humidifiers. The problem is the minerals they leave behind with tap water.

FWIW, I built my own evaporative unit, but it feeds the drobe directly through a 4" duct. All incoming air entering the drobe comes through the humidifier.

The unit is just a large plastic tote with terry towel pieces hanging from the lid down into the water in the bottom of the tote. Air is drawn into holes in one end of the tote, and exits into the duct to the drobe at the other end. The towel pieces are arranged to force the air back and forth over the wet towel. The unit does not have a fan of its own, the air is drawn through it by the main exhaust fan in the drobe. As I recall, using the thing would raise humidity in the drobe by something like 10% over what it would otherwise be. Sorry, no pics, it is all put away for the summer.

Neat idea. My humidifer just had a filter material soaking in some water and then has a fan pulling it through, shouldn’t be too hard to make it but I’d want a large water cooler or I might just pipe a float valve into my reservoir.

 

[Animatey]

I haven't done one DIY, but I use a large 4 gallon evaporative humidifier in a 10x10 room and it does a great job. It is basically a fan on top of some filters in water like you are saying.

They are less maintenance than ultrasonics but they take longer to humidify, and they also hit like a "max point" where even if you run it 24/7 the humidity wont go past a certain point.

My 4 gallon unit was able to get my 10x10 room up to about 68% RH with mid 70s temps.

 

[GreenBean]

If you look on Amazon (ugh) you can usually find the Vornado 4 gallon evaporative units used, like new for around $70-$80. I have nothing against DIY and enjoy doing it a lot, just depends on the project I suppose.

Speaking of coolers, if you live in a dry climate, a swamp cooler can kill 2 birds with one stone. I use one in my shop in Southern California and it cools pretty damn well, and adds a decent amount of humidity, which benefits me while I print (so my inks don't dry out) and also when I had my large tent out there.