Maybe it dawned on you one night while binging Netflix that you have yet to replace the filter on your humidifier… Or maybe you plan to purchase a humidifier and want to know the total cost of maintenance over time. 

To function properly and effectively, a humidifier needs a regularly scheduled filter replacement. Replacing the filter on your humidifier is only required every 1 to 3 months, depending on how frequently you use your humidifier and what type of water you use in the water tank. 

How Often Should You Change Your Humidifier Filter?

While most humidifier filters contain a unique coat that slows the production of mold, these filters are not mold proof. Unless your humidifier has a reusable, clean-it-yourself filter, you will need to replace your device filter on a regular basis. 

How frequently you need to replace your humidifier filter is determined by how often you run your device and whether you use tap water or distilled water in the water tank. 

How Often Do You Use Your Humidifier?

If you use your humidifier 1-2 times per week, you will need to replace your filter once every three months. If, on the other hand, you use your humidifier daily, you will need to replace your filter once every six weeks. 

What Type of Water Do You Use?

Another factor that determines how frequently you should replace your humidifier filter is the type of water that you use in your device. 

If you use distilled water or filtered water in your device, you can follow the timeline for filter replacement outlined in the last section. If you use tap water, especially if you live in an area with hard water, you will need to replace your filter once every month. 

Tap water contains micro-fine minerals that can build up in your humidifier. When these minerals are dispersed into the air you will see a thin layer of mineral deposits known as “white dust” either on or near your device. Most humidifiers require distilled or filtered water to avoid the development of white dust, which is potentially harmful to allergy and asthma sufferers when inhaled.

If you are unsure whether the water from your tap is highly concentrated with minerals, there are several tap water testing kits available online. Tap Score is a New York Times approved tap water tester kit that gives a full mineral and toxicology panel on your water. 

How to Replace a Canopy Filter

Our Canopy humidifier features a disposable, anti-microbial paper filter that catches bacteria, metals, and other particles that can be found in your tap water. Canopy filters are more effective than synthetic filters in both their wicking and evaporating capabilities. 

Replacing your Canopy filter is simple! No need to set an appointment in Google calendars or ask Siri to set a reminder… When your Canopy filter is ready to be replaced, the filter light will illuminate reminding you to order a replacement. 

If you like to streamline your task list, our filter subscription option is for you. Simply select “Canopy with Filter Subscription” at check-out for $25 off your purchase and an automatic shipment of a new filter every 45 days. It really doesn’t get any easier than that!

Winter bites. The cold, dry winter air can feel like it is actually biting your nose, cracking your skin, and generally making life harder than it should be. 

While you can’t change the weather, you can control your home environment and make living conditions more comfortable. Using a humidifier in your home during the winter months brings a bevy of benefits that may have you saying “hey! I wouldn’t mind a few more months of winter.” 

Who would have thought?

What are the Benefits of a Humidifier in the Winter Months?

Placing a humidifier in the most commonly used rooms of your home during the winter months can help to improve dry throat and cough, reduce static electricity, rehydrate dry or flaky skin, and kill common winter viruses. 

Let’s get into the details. 

Benefit #1: improve dry throat and cough from dry, winter air.

Ever wondered why you experience a dry throat or chronic cough during the winter months? The cold air that accompanies winter reduces the moisture content in the nasal passage and throat, leading to congestion, a dry or itchy throat, or an uncomfortable cough.  

Increasing the relative humidity (RH) levels in your home can help to lubricate your nasal passage and throat, helping to reduce inflammation and improve your breathing. 

Benefit #2: reduce static electricity build-up.

The dry, cold air of the winter months increases the build-up of static electricity. Why is this the case? Dry air binds electrons to surfaces with a strong force. Over time, electrons build-up until they reach a critical maximum, in which case they discharge. This discharge causes a shock upon contact that is, for lack of better words: super annoying. 

Increasing the moisture level of the air in your home helps to reduce the strength of the bond between electrons and the surfaces on which they build. The result is an almost unnoticeable discharge meaning no shocks and less static electricity.

Benefit #3: rehydrate dry or flaky winter skin. 

Dry, cold air causes an acceleration of water loss from the skin into the atmosphere. When your skin loses water more rapidly than it can be replaced by natural moisturizers (sweat and sebum), you will experience dry skin. When you experience dry skin for an extended period of time, this can lead to cracking, bleeding, or trigger a flareup of common skin conditions like psoriasis or eczema. 

Humidifiers are exceptionally effective for dry, flaky skin during the winter months and can help you to maintain healthy, hydrated skin all year long. 

Benefit #4: kill common viruses prominent in the winter months.

Air with less than 40% RH can increase your chances of viral infection by interfering with the body’s immune function, increasing the amount of time a virus can “float” in the air, and increasing the survival rate of the virus in your home. 

Regular use of a humidifier to maintain optimal humidity levels can help to reduce the survival rate of viruses in your home and decrease the chances of illness during the winter months. 

Which is the Best Humidifier During Winter?

Choosing the best humidifier during winter months is crucial to keep you and your family comfortable despite the cold, dry weather. 

You should consider output, tank size, and maintenance requirements when choosing the best humidifier for your home. 

Sufficient Output 

One of the most important features when choosing a humidifier for your home during the winter months is output. A larger-sized room requires a humidifier with more output than a smaller-sized room. 

Let’s say that you plan to place your humidifier in your bedroom since this is the room in which you spend the most time. If your room is 400 square feet, then you need a humidifier with at least a 400 square foot output to sufficiently raise RH levels in your bedroom. For reference, Canopy humidifiers have a 500 square foot output, which will effectively humidify an average-sized room.

Larger Tank = Longer Run Time

When choosing the best humidifier for a healthy winter season, you need a device with a moderate to large-sized tank. The larger the water tank, the longer your humidifier can run, uninterrupted. Bonus: the longer the run time, the less often you have to refill the water tank. Win, win.

Make sure to check the tank size and run time before making your purchase. For example, our Canopy humidifier has a 2.5 liter tank with up to 36 hours of run time. This equates to almost 5 nights with no tank refill at an average of 8 hours of sleep per night.  

Low Maintenance

During the dry, winter months, you are likely to run your humidifier more often than during the summer months. More frequent usage means more frequent maintenance for most humidifiers, including daily wipe-down, weekly deep cleaning, and scheduled filter replacement. 

You want to invest in a high quality, low maintenance humidifier for your winter needs. The less arduous the cleaning process, the more likely you are to avoid cleaning fatigue. Our Canopy humidifier is as low maintenance as it gets. Our proprietary SPA (Smart Persistent Airflow) technology prevents mold from growing inside the unit. All Canopy humidifier parts that touch water (apart from the paper filter) are dishwasher safe, reducing manual cleaning time. We also offer a filter subscription service, which delivers a new filter to your home every 45 days - no Google Calendar reminders necessary.

Additional Benefits of Using a Humidifier

Regular use of a humidifier during the winter months is guaranteed to increase your overall health and comfortability despite environmental conditions. 

You now know that humidifiers will improve dry, itchy throat and cough, reduce static electricity in your home, hydrate dry or flaky skin on your face and body, and reduce the spread of common winter viruses. But, did you know that there are even more benefits unrelated to regular humidifier use during the winter months? 

Maintaining RH (relative humidity) levels between 40% and 60% throughout the year can improve skin conditions and common breathing problems in babies and children, and can improve the overall health and vibrancy of your house plants. 

For Babies and Children…

Babies and young children can hugely benefit from a humidifier in their nursery. Humidifiers can help to relieve cold symptoms, ease uncomfortable congestion, and improve dry, sensitive skin in babies and young children. 

It is important to note that the AAP recommends the use of a cool mist humidifier in your child’s nursery as opposed to a vaporizer or steam-based humidifier. Vaporizers are considered a burn hazard, and should not be placed within the reach of a child or a pet for safety.

For Houseplants…

Controlled humidity levels in your home will help your plants thrive. 

If you frequently question why you can’t manage to keep houseplants alive, it may not have anything to do with you, per say. Many houseplants including ferns, orchids, fiddle leaf, and more, require higher levels of humidity to thrive. Placing your plants near or in the same room as your humidifier will help to provide them with the perfect amount of moisture for a long, healthy life.

As temperatures dip in the late fall and winter weather takes center stage, you may experience congestion, a sore throat, or a dry, itchy cough that just won’t quit. These are all common symptoms that accompany cold, windy temperatures. 

How Does a Humidifier Help with a Cough?

The moisture content of the air that surrounds you has a significant impact on your overall health and comfortability. Too much moisture (think: tropical vacation) and you feel supremely warm, sluggish, and maybe even dizzy. Too little moisture (think: a cold, windy day) and your skin is dry, your lips crack, you get a stuffy nose, and you cough up a storm. 

Cold, dry air accelerates transepidermal water loss (TEWL), which is a fancy word for the body’s process of releasing water into the atmosphere through the epidermal layer of skin. Cold air also deprives the nose and throat of crucial moisture, which often leads to congestion, a dry throat, or a cough. 

A humidifier increases the relative humidity (RH) of a particular space by releasing moisture into the air. This increase in moisture helps to lubricate the nose and throat relieving dryness, reducing inflammation, and improving your breathing. 

What Type of Humidifier is Best for a Cough?

You may be wondering: how do you choose the best humidifier for your chronic cough? 

There are a few features you should examine before making your final humidifier purchase. To treat your dry, sore throat or cough, you want to choose a device with sufficient square footage output, ample run time, and essential oil compatibility.  

Output

The first step when choosing the best type of humidifier for your irritating cough is to determine in which room you will place your humidifier. It is best to set your humidifier in a room that is most occupied; this tends to be the bedroom since we spend between 7-9 hours sleeping in this room each night. 

Depending on the square footage of your bedroom, you need a humidifier with a comparable output. For example, if you have a 400 square foot bedroom, you need a humidifier with at least a 400 square foot output to sufficiently raise humidity levels in your space. Information about device output can be found in the product description either online or on the humidifier box.  

Run Time

Run time is another important feature to consider when choosing the best humidifier for your dry throat or cough. There are two factors that will help you to determine the optimal run time for your humidifier selection: how long you sleep per night on average and how frequently you are willing to fill your device water tank. 

Most humidifier devices will run from 12 hours to 24 hours, which will ensure elevated humidity levels throughout the night. If you plan to run your humidifier throughout the day, you will need a device that can run for at least 24 hours.

If your to-do list is far too long, and you prefer a humidifier that requires infrequent refills, you may want to choose a device with a larger water tank. Our Canopy humidifiers have a 2.5-liter tank for up to 36 hours of hydrated bliss, which means you spend less time refilling your humidifier and more time chipping away at that task list. 

Aromatherapy

If you suffer from a dry or sore throat accompanied by a relentless cough, you want to choose a humidifier that is compatible with essential oils. Adding oils like camphor, eucalyptus, or lavender to your humidifier can provide additional therapeutic value. 

It is important to note that not all humidifiers are compatible with essential oils. Make sure to check your device manual or choose a device with explicit oil compatibility before adding essential oils to your water tank. 

Canopy humidifiers have a built in aroma diffusion feature that uses the simple and clean process of evaporation to infuse your hydrated air with aromas. 

Additional Health Benefits

Incorporating a humidifier into your bevy of home wellness tools will not only help with a dry, sore throat during the chilly winter months; humidifiers benefits are quite numerous. 

Some of the key benefits of regular humidifier use include: help with allergies, improved sleep, reduced cold and flu symptoms (stopping some viruses dead in their tracks), and re-hydrating dry, flaky skin. 

Allergies

More than 50 million people suffer from allergies year around making it a very common ailment in the United States. If you are one of these 50 million people, you are in luck! 

Humidifiers can help to combat allergies and alleviate allergy symptoms including: sore throat, severe congestion, inflammation, sinus pain, and watery eyes. To learn more about how a humidifier helps with allergies, you can read our blog What Does A Humidifier Do For Allergies?

Sleep

A good night’s sleep can be fleeting when you have a stuffy or runny nose, congestion, dry eyes, or a sore throat. The right humidifier can ensure a restful night of shut-eye by eliminating these symptoms. 

When choosing the best humidifier for a peaceful sleep, you want to look for devices that have sufficient square footage output to reach every corner of your bedroom and a run time of at least 7-10 hours. 

Cold & Flu

A recent study conducted by the Yale University research team found that low levels of humidity affected immune response in three ways: 

1. Low humidity prevented cilia (fine, hair-like structures in the nasal passage) from removing virus and mucus properly.
2. Low humidity prevented airway cells from efficiently repairing the damage caused from viruses in the lungs.
3. Low humidity impacted the body’s immune response by failing to “warn” healthy neighboring cells of a viral threat. 

When humidity levels fall below the optimal range of 40-60%, cold and flu viruses thrive. Adding a humidifier to your home, especially in commonly occupied rooms, can raise humidity levels and improve your body’s immune response to the common cold or more serious viruses. 

Dry Skin

Xerosis, as we commonly refer to as “dry skin” is uncomfortable and irritating to say the least. Xerosis is commonly triggered by cold or dry weather, harsh skincare ingredients, hot water from your shower or bath, central heating, or skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis. 

Humidifiers work wonders on dry skin. The moisture emitted from your humidifier elevates relative humidity, which reduces TEWL and increases skin hydration.