Getting the conditions of a room's atmosphere to perfectly suit a person can be tricky. Some people love to have a room heated, and some people love to have a room feel a bit cooler. One of the most popular tools for controlling the atmosphere of a room is a humidifier. This is of course outside central air conditioning, which removes moisture from the air.
A humidifier can affect the moisture levels in any given room. A lot of people find a more humid environment desirable. Given that its job is to pump out moisture into the air, the question often asked is simple: Can a humidifier cause mold? The answer to that question is: Absolutely.
Here is how a humidifier can become a mold nightmare and how you can keep things from getting worse.
Little Mold Machine
The first thing you need to understand about a humidifier is that it is the perfect device to create mold in your home if you do not take care of it or understand what you’re doing with it. This is because mold needs three things in order to thrive: moisture, organic material (food source) and heat. A dehumidifier supplies two of the 3 in spades.
Under the right circumstances, if you are not careful, your dehumidifier can take your perfectly humid room and turn it into a veritable breeding ground for mold.
How Does It Spread Mold?
The core function of a humidifier is to pump out moist air. You are supposed to do this for timed intervals until your home is between 30% and 50% humidity, as recommended by the EPA. However, there are two ways in which misusing your humidifier can cause mold to spread.
The first way is a matter of maintenance. When you use a humidifier, you fill its reservoir with water. More often than not, people will fill their humidifiers with plain tap water. Tap water contains a wide variety of minerals, depending on where you live.
All mold really needs in order to thrive is a dark, warm, wet place with an organic food source, such as the paper covering on drywall. The inner workings of a humidifier certainly fit that bill. When you add the minerals found in tap water to that mix you have a potential powder keg of mold waiting to go off, both in the machine and the minerals catapulted into the air.
If you go long periods of time without using your humidifier, but do not also empty out the reservoir and ensure that it is dry on the inside, then you are essentially creating a breeding ground for mold inside of the humidifier. When you turn your humidifier on again after mold has started to grow inside of it, the humidifier will spit moisture out into the air…with mold spores in it.
Bringing your humidity levels above 50% is a sure way to introduce mold into your home.
How to Know Your Humidifier is Spreading Mold
One of the first things you are likely to notice if your humidifier begins to spread mold is an odor. The odor can best be described as musty. It will start off as faint, but it will become more pungent in time. As soon as you notice a smell you need to turn off the humidifier.
You will likely notice mold around the vents that the humidity is pushed out of. The walls nearest the humidifier will probably have streaks or splotches that were not there before. These are the tell-tale signs that mold is present.
The Human Indicator
One of the worst indicators of your humidifier spreading mold may not be immediately obvious to you. If you or your loved ones start to get sick, particularly with a cough or difficulty breathing, that could be a sign of mold. Here are some of the symptoms that mold exposure can cause:
- Rashes
- Coughing
- Runny nose
- Sneezing
These symptoms can get dramatically worse if you do not act quickly to get rid of the mold and stop its source.
How to Prevent Further Spread
The first thing you need to do is turn the humidifier off. This will prevent the mold from spreading further throughout your home. You need to completely empty the reservoir and inspect the inner components for any and all traces of mold. Make sure that you are wearing a mask or respirator along with gloves and safety glasses so that you do not expose yourself further to mold.
To clean the interior of your humidifier you must use a cleaning solution. You can use peroxide instead to kill the mold, but if you want to go above and beyond then bleach may be what you want to use. Bleach will absolutely eradicate any lingering germs and spores that are in the service of your humidifier. You want to use small cleaning tools such as a toothbrush, cotton swabs, and q-tips. These tools can get into all of the tiny grooves and hard-to-reach places.
Once you have cleaned up the mold, use a dry towel or rag and dry off the interior of your humidifier. You can even use a hair dryer's low-heat setting to completely dry out your humidifier.
You now need to kill that mold that has gotten into the parts of the humidifier that you can't reach. To do that, you need to use four parts distilled water with one part 3% hydrogen peroxide. Place it in the reservoir and allow it to sit for roughly an hour. You will then empty the reservoir again and rinse it out thoroughly with clean water. Your humidifier should now be clean.
Preventing Initial Mold
If you are worried about creating mold with your humidifier then you will be happy to know that there are ways that you can prevent mold from occurring in the first place. The first thing you can do to prevent mold is to keep an eye on your humidifier's humidistat. If you have humidity levels that exceed 50% then you are pumping out too much-heated moisture.
The other thing that you can do to prevent mold in your humidifier is to clean it regularly. If you are doing regular cleanings once a week, you can avoid mold development. The best part is that you do not have to worry about using heavy cleaners. Water mixed with white vinegar at a 50/50 ratio will suffice to keep your humidifier clean. Once you have your water and vinegar mixed together, you simply run your humidifier as normal. If you end up with visual mold on your drywall, it’s time to have an expert test for mold.
