How to Add Scent Oil to your Humidifier

What are essential oils?

The essential oil has been used for thousands of years for their health and medicinal properties. Because of their anti-depressant, antiviral, detoxifying and calming benefits, essential oils are gaining popularity as natural and cost-effective therapy for some health concerns. But what are essential oils?
Essential oils are a highly concentrated form of natural oil in plants that have a strong aroma. The oil is extracted from distilling different parts of a plant like seeds, roots, bark, leaves or peels. These oils contain the healing properties and fragrance of a plant. The most common use of essential oils is in aromatherapy where the healing properties of the oil are achieved through their aroma.
One of the best practice to utilize essential oil is through inhaling them. These essential oils when inhaled, have psychological and physical benefits. Not only the strong aroma of essential oil stimulate the brain to trigger a reaction, but their natural constituents can supply therapeutic benefits on the lungs.

The use of Essential oil in Humidifier

Humidifiers are the machines that are used to add the water vapor into the atmosphere of a room. Dry weather can cause the humidity level of a room to drop to 10-20 %. This low humidity can cause a cough, allergies, snoring and many other severe health conditions. Humidifiers add water vapor into the air that can lubricate our nasal passage giving relief from sinusitis, congestion, and many other health problems.

Adding essential oils to humidifiers

Humidifiers are used to lower the symptoms of respiratory illness and sinus problems. Adding a few drops of essential oils into the water of humidifiers can disperse the scent. This soothing scent gives instant comfort and you can get relief from cold and congestion.
Many people, who wish to achieve the therapeutic and pleasing effect of essential oils, put them into the tanks of humidifier so that the aroma of oil is spread into the room with water vapors, giving you and your loved ones their multiple benefits. But are humidifiers really built for this?

What are Diffusers

Humidifiers can easily be confused with diffusers. Both are machines have water tanks and send water vapor into the air with electricity. Although diffusers look like humidifiers they release cold water into the air. Diffusers are built to break down the molecules of essential oils in water and add these aromatic molecules into the air. Thus the aroma of these essential oils is penetrated the atmosphere of the room. So Diffusers are specially designed for this task. While humidifiers, on the other hand, are not built for this purpose and they are not fit for the job for these two reasons.

Most of the humidifiers work by heating the water and sending water vapor into the air by steam. Heating can compromise the characteristics of the sensitive oil in water. So you cannot expect desired results as heating can even affect the quality of the oil.
Humidifiers are mostly made of plastic and essential oil in water can degrade the plastic parts and create problems with your humidifier.

However cool-air humidifiers can work as a diffuser and can be used for this purpose and you should check in the inserts that come with the specifications of your humidifier if it can be used with essential oils. If you can afford then you should go for a diffuser as it is built for this particular task.

Essential Oils for Babies

Essential oils are a highly concentrated form of oils that are extracted from plants. Even adults should be careful of applying them and when it comes to the babies, we should be extra careful. Even inhaling of essential oils is not recommended to the babies under 6 months old.
Some oils can be safe for your baby but still, they should only be diffused for the smaller period. You can put a drop or two into the water for clearing baby up but precautions should be taken for allergic reactions in babies.

What are the best essential oils for humidifiers?

While adding few drops of essential oil to your humidifier mind you don’t end up buying synthetic and mere scented oils which are meant to spread fragrance into a room without having any therapeutic properties. Buy the best quality healing oil that is organic and non-flavored, so that you get the maximum benefits out of it.
Few essential oils that you can use in your humidifier:

Peppermint Oil

It is also called happy oil. Peppermint oil is great for enhancing focus, relieving headaches and sinus problems. It can also help in depression. If you are on a diet, peppermint has shown to affect the satiety cells in the brain, giving you a full feeling.

Lavender Oil

Lavender oil can give you a very calm and soothing effect. If you are having some sleep issues then diffuse a few drops of lavender oil into your room and get a restful night. Lavender oil is also helpful in depression, fatigue, body pains, and stress.

Eucalyptus oil

Eucalyptus oil has healing properties. It is anti-fungal and antibacterial and can give relief in cold, flue, muscle pains and also prevent cavities. Oil is also an anti-depressant and uplift mood.

Tea tree oil

Tea tree oil is also anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. It cleans the air of your room. You can get rid of the toxic mold in your house by diffusing tea tree oil. It can help in relieving cold, flue, respiratory diseases, and allergies. It also gives a calm and soothing feeling in depression and mental stress.

Rose oil and Sandalwood oil

These oils are not actually used for their healing properties. These are highly aromatic oils and diffusing them into your room would spread a delightful scent into the room. You can plan a romantic night with the aroma of Rose oil or Sandalwood oil. You can relax and forget all the issues and give yourself a luxury treatment once in a while.

How to put essential oil into your humidifier

Like we said earlier, humidifiers are made for diffusing the essential oils but some humidifiers are built for this purpose. There are humidifiers that which act as a diffuser as well. These humidifiers maintain the moisture of your room and at the same time disperse the aromatic and therapeutic scent of oil into the air. These humidifiers add a special mister or fragrance diffuser to the humidifier that holds the oils separate from the water tank and mist them into the air.
You can choose the humidifier that suits best your requirement. Like a small device will do well in a small room but if you are thinking of changing the atmosphere of a big living room or a house then certainly a bigger device is appropriate.

Essential oils have many therapeutic qualities and give relief from flue, cold, congestion, allergies, and depression. Diffusing them into the air is the best way to utilize their healing powers. Diffusers or humidifiers for these oils can be used for dispersing the molecules of these oils into the air of the room. The regular humidifiers should not be used for this purpose as these oils can clog their machinery and degrade their plastic. If you still want to use a humidifier for this purpose then a cool-mist humidifier is more suitable as warm-mist humidifier can change or destroy the healing properties of essential oils.

Best Humidifiers To Use With Scent Oil

A complete list with the best Humidifier Diffusers has been already written for you. Below are just a few models.

Aromatherapy

Feature:

•Modes: continuous mist,1H/3H/6H pattern, lights only and mist only
•Natural design and materials
•Auto shut-off when water runs out for safety
•Operates up to 10 hours on a full tank of water
•Operates approximately 10 hours on one filling
•LED mood lighting with separate on/off control
•Ideal for large and small rooms, including bedrooms, offices, dorms, and hotel rooms
•Runs continuously or on an automatic shutoff timer(60/180/360mins)