How to Choose a Humidifier for Dry Skin

Hello, I’m Doctor Neal Schultz and welcome to DermTV.

Now, that it’s fall and temperatures are dropping the colder air jus doesn’t hold as much moisture as warmer air did. So, there’s lower humidity and lower moisture in the air which can cause an uncomfortable drying on both your skin and your mucus membranes. An easy and relatively inexpensive fix for this problem is buying a humidifier because humidifiers increase the moisture in the air and get it back up to comfortable levels to avoid these problems.

All humidifiers work on the basis of having a water chamber and in that water chamber the water is put into the air or aerosolized by different mechanisms but the bottom line is regardless of what kind of humidifier you buy, in order to prevent the overgrowth of germs like bacteria and fungi, you must be committed to cleaning that water chamber and drying it and replacing the water on a daily basis.

Warm water humidifiers, which are called steam humidifiers, work on the basis of actually boiling the water and that warm steam is put into the air. They’re relatively quiet but you do feel and see this warm mist in the air.

Cold water humidifiers are two main types, one is the ultrasonic which has a very rapidly vibrating membrane that hits against the water and causes the formation of tiny microscopic droplets that then get pushed into the air. This is quiet, it’s very easy to use but one disadvantage is that if you’re not using ionized water the minerals in the water can also be put into the air and you can see a white coating on different surfaces in your apartment.

The third type of humidifier is also a cold water and it’s called the evaporative type because it causes evaporation of water by having a wick in the water chamber, the wick becomes wet and a fan blows air against that wick and causes the water to evaporate and get pushed into the air but that fan can make a lot of noise.

My choice of these three is the ultrasonic because I think it works the best and is the quietest. But remember, regardless of which type you have, they’re all going to have a water chamber which you have to take care of regularly in order to prevent an overgrowth of germs. And by the way, if your apartment has a free standing radiator there’s one more type of humidifier, it’s this pot with some water on top of the radiator and every time the radiator comes on, it causes the evaporation of water, a very inexpensive humidifier.

Please join me again at DermTV.com. if you have a question, please send it to me by visiting DermTv.com/question. I'm Doctor Neil Schultz and thank you for watching today.