@@harriehausenman8623 Yeah, in most of his old videos, the explosions of capacitators and things are edited in, even his electric guitar video is fake :(
@@Straiferdt01 I never considered them to be fake, actually. To me it always was just a kind of slapstick comedy but with electricity. He know his electrons and was never in any actual danger. It's a little strange to hear that some people thought he might really zap himself by accident....
Ironically, you are correct. Touch the water inside of this thing while it is connected and running and you will electrocute yourself at 120VAC -- even with the plastic cover over the electrodes!
Could be extremely dangerous though cause that amount of power will blow up a low quality extension cord and could very well cause a fire, I'm not saying it's a terrible idea but when this can be sold with a 5$ extension cord that's terrifying
@@tenderjerky3504 Actually, even at five or six amps a 16 gauge extension cord would not overheat. If this thing builds up substantial scale on the electrodes and starts drawing 10-12 amps continuously as my old Duracraft did you might heat up the cord a bit but the NEC states that 16 gauge cords can carry 13 amps continuously if the cord combination is 99 feet or less. I am not a fan of 16 gauge extension cords (my main use for them is to cut the female end off and use the rest to replace an old lamp's cord) in general but even the $2 extension cord at Wal-Mart is 16 gauge and according to the organization that writes the NEC and designs most state electrical codes (not Michigan's, though -- our electrical code is virtually unchanged from the 1950's) this is supposed to be safe. Both the old Duracraft that finally quit working for me and my Sunbeam of this type came with 16 gauge cord attached to the electrodes. The cord itself didn't give me any problems, the Duracraft failed at the connection point where it was soldered (yes, soldered) to the electrodes after 20 winters of use. I still use the tank to this day when draining oil out of my van's engine while changing the oil and filter. That isn't the tank's intended use but it works!
@@OutInLeftField2 The 120 volts of electricity going into the meter demonstrated in the video could go through someone's body, instead. It would be severely dangerous, basically.
Next week on ElectroBOOM: "Making a TAZER out of humidifier!" This is literally a cattle prod that connects to mains voltage and sits in a plastic case. Yikes.
Bro It is encased in plastic (twice) and grounded in normal operation. You literally gonna get shocked only if you disassemble it and grab both electrodes. Only really shitty thing about it is that there's no way to control current. It probably can trip your breakers if your water is too conductive. Or if you, idk, put it in brine or something.
@@koghs You sure it's grounded? I can't see the plug (haven't watched the main video, that's next), but the cable looks like it only has two conductors in it...
I would think that in this case it's actually safer to use an electrode boiler than an element. It stops working by default when the water level drops and nothing in the unit gets hot enough to start a fire. The tank is also sealed, so if someone is touching the water while it's in use, then they're doing something extremely wrong.
@@poyopoyo4619 by nature, it has to stop working when the water level drops below the elctrodes since the water is needed to complete the circuit. so there is no float sensor or smart current or temp detection but this is still a thought-out safety measure - for cheap
@@rolls_8798 Also, to touch the water you have to remove the electrodes. And said electrodes are in a protective plastic shell. Actually decently safe!
@@qwertykeyboard5901 true. I still majorly dislike them because the design (the rim that holds water when it is upside down) makes it almost impossible to empty the water from and if it is tipped upside down (hard to do by accident, admittedly) the water pours out of the top through all the direct live wires. and there is the matter of the mineral buildup. there is a smaller handheld version which I find to be more acceptable. In India (where these are very common) people often put foil balls inside the unit and I've always wondered what it is for. Maybe to prevent as much buildup? I've never noticed an actual effect from it though.
Hey ,ive torn this thing down alllll the way too, taken the electrodes out, unscrewed those things, and put new ones in it, replaced the screws that were screwed into the the electrodes...mine stopped heating up completely, with water with all different kinds of water, also, mine was dang near 20 years old I think. I love that I've found someone else who's done this too though, I was so curious. Didn't test it with my meter though ,and now that's my next step,cus it's still not working.
@@or2kr and electorlyzing salt makes chlorine gas that goes straight into your air and could intoxicate you in a bad deadly sort of way, yay! Also it smells bad
@@tfwmemedumpster The salt stays at the bottom of the tank for the most part. A pinch or two of salt will keep my humidifier going for two weeks worth of refills. Two refills a day (3 gallons) every day for 2 weeks. Boiling salt water is not going to make chlorine gas at these low voltages If I forget to add salt again after cleaning out the reservoir, the water output is dramatically lower.
@@tfwmemedumpster Because the device operates on AC voltage it doesn't make any pure elemental gases. If you where to operate the same device on direct DC it would produce even with the addition of salt primarily H2 and O2 so I would be more worried about it exploding then it releasing toxic gases. The reason you don't need to worry about pure elemental gas release is that the small amount of gas generated on one half of the sign wave will be consumed by the other half. The electrolysis isn't perfect which is how it dumps the electrical energy into the solvent to boil it.
Yes! My dad took one apart when I was 6 or 7 to clean the lime deposits from the electrodes. He cautioned about putting too much salt in the water. So what did I do? Put more salt in the water. You could see the arcing through the plastic tub! It tripped the breaker after a few minutes.
I think he'd also have to crank the voltage. It took about 10,000 volts for me to make a pretty nifty Jacob's Ladder in high school. Bottom was about 1 inch apart, to was about 5 inches to break the arc and send it back to the bottom.
@@playgroundchooser It already sparks enough to boil water. That itself would be impressive. Also, water has less resistance than air, and the electrodes are closer together.
We used to have one of those years ago and I remember having to constantly open it up and scrape off the electrodes. It made a huge difference in how much steam came out.
The only way I've found to modulate how much it puts out is by varying the amount of salt you put into the water. One time my wife put way too much salt into the water and it tripped the breaker. It probably gets that crusty after just a few uses. There's always that garbage in the water after just one use.
I have a whole home humidifier that is essentially this but scaled up (Aprilaire model 800). It draws 4.8 kW maximum, but it only runs for short intervals. The humidifier is connected to the home's water supply and drain. I installed it when I got frustrated that the standard whole-home wet-pad humidifiers could never reach their setpoints because they only wet the pad when the heater is running, and the heater didn't run frequently enough to humidify the house to the setpoint. What's cool about it is self-regulated. It adds more water from the home's supply when needed, but it also and drains water and refills with fresh water when the water becomes too salty and the humidifer starts drawing too much power. You can watch the unit, when you first turn it for the season, fill the canister to the top with fresh water. As some water boils off, the power uses increases until it hits the maximum (water becomes saltier), at which point the humidifier starts letting the water level drop (less electrode exposed) to control power. Yes, it uses a lot of energy, but that energy is also heating the house so it's not completely wasted. And there is basically zero maintenance - no bio growth because it's boiling water, no manual refilling, and no descaling. Basically the only time I have to touch it is about once every two years to replace the electrodes as they erode away.
I had one for a while. The instruction manual says to clean it by letting it soak in vinegar weekly. Mine stopped working I think because I got too lazy to clean it weekly and the buildup caused things to fail. Once it stopped working, I disassembled it. It was so badly degraded that the wires to the plug just came off of the screws attaching them to the prongs.
When I was a kid and had a cold, I had one of these put in my room with Vicks Vapo Rub in it. Later, I took it apart. Yes, elecro-boiler. I bought one again about 10 years ago; same setup inside and required salt to get it to work and also cleaning of the electrodes annually. What I like about them is that the evaporated water from them is sterile (no mould or odour) and they don't seem to leave that white dust. I put mine on a timer. When I lived in an old apartment with hot water radiators for heating, I used to put small pots with water on top of the rads to humidify the apartment.
Agreed. The white dust seems like a bad call for lungs and for electrical equipment. I use one of these as an apartment humidifier but yeah, 600 Watts seems like a waste. Still - I'm only using it during winter so the 600 watts is just inefficient heat - not a total waste. You can often pick these up at thrift stores for like $3 which is great - unless it's all scaled up inside.
@@jeffjackelen744 You can soak the electrodes in straight vinegar (unplugged, of course) for 6-8 hours and the scale will come right off using your fingers to remove it. At least in the US you can buy a gallon of vinegar for $3-$4 so it is cheaper than replacing the vaporizer (you likely won't use the whole gallon for this). The cheaper "cleaning vinegar" is fine, the lavender added to it won't hurt this. You will probably only have to do this every 3-4 years unless you have crazy hard water. You do have to remove the plastic cover, though. A 32 ounce pitcher worked for me to soak the electrodes, set the unit on top with the electrodes soaking in the vinegar and let sit for 6-8 hours. After soaking and scale removal, wash the electrodes with water (with the unit unplugged), let dry for a couple of hours (just in case the connection points got wet), replace the plastic electrode cover, fill the tank, assemble and then use the vaporizer.
@@vuthara8725 Well, since he demonstrated a similar thing ( th-cam.com/video/FDaT3FG7bws/w-d-xo.html ), except that while Alec has a carbon electrode, Big Clive's are made of steel that has chromium (toxic element).
I remember these when I was a kid in the 90s. Had a red one with a very large base that held quite a bit of water. I would always pull the top out of the base as it was running to see how it worked. These did not have a plastic shroud around the electrodes but were exposed right to the water.
I can confirm they're still made this way, I bought one last month due to getting bad nose bleeds from the dry air as well as some sinus stuff so I wanted this one so I could breath the warm steam as well as just letting run. Mine works extremely fast, pumping out steam within a minute or two but it does require some salt and the biggest downside is that there seems to be too much water vapor rather than steam which doesn't evaporate fast enough and will settle on the desk or bureau unless a fan is on too.
a year later, I can confirm the exact same for myself. with my well water, it boils so fast that it made the floors and desk overly saturated with moisture instead of actually putting the majority of it into the air.
@@Deviated09 that sounds more like a thermal difference than boiling speed. If the floor is poorly insulated, you may well just have water condensing out of the air because of it.
@@Ornithopter470 I'd imagine it's partly that, and partly very rapidly boiling off water with the steam directed in a cone shape Not from poor insulation but more so keeping the bedroom cold.
BEST VIDEO EVER! My favorite part is when you reacted at the 2:10 point! Priceless! I've had this same type of teardown happen to me where I thought I was going to need a grinder or a cutter to progress, then the thing just fell apart in my hands. Putting it back together again was a different story which required me to use three or four hands. Clearly, machines build these things and no humans.
The one reason i prefer these over "cool mist" + ultrasonic humidifiers is that they sterilize the water vapor they put out. the downside is the scaling and oxidation (which is what that black crud is), but the upside is youre not breathing mold and mildew. That and they kind of double as a very inefficient space heater if you're like me and you live in a house with a poorly-placed thermostat and your room is always cold anyway.
Is is possible that some kind of electrolysis occurs and that discolors the deposit, because it's not just limestone but also some elementar components?
I think electroplating might be a little more relevant in this scenario; Whatever the anode and cathodes are made out of is a dark metal. I would argue that the electrical current is moving the metal from one peg to the other, but not at 100% efficacy so the metal is getting lost inside of the limescale which effectively darkens it.
I have had several of these. The older ones just had steel electrodes that got nasty rusty in addition to scale. But it still worked great for several years. The newer ones have what appear to be carbon electrodes. Yes scale is a problem, but you can clean it easily enough. Just unplug it first. I also love the simplicity. They inherently shut off when the water level drops below the electrodes. No moving parts. I switched to a ultrasonic when my child was born because I was afraid he'd put his hand on the vapor outlet which is hot enough to burn if you get right up on it. Yesterday after watching your other video, I built a home made evaporative one with a plastic tote, a fan and some hand towels. It raised my bedroom humidity from 25% to 32%. I may build a bigger one. But these electrode boilers are more compact and less noisy. So don't be too down on them. Thanks for all your great videos!
I actually prefer these to any other humidifier because they don't have mold issues. I don't find them to be tricky at all. I just add salt once per season. At the end of the season, I drain them and set outside to dry. Also, since I use in winter, they are nice because they also heat up the room.
I actually love this style. Yeah, they are kind of a pain, but they are really nice when you're sick. I love the warm steam and the bubbling/boiling sound they make; I find them relaxing. Not good for everyday use, but nice when you feel crappy with a cold.
When I do take-aparts like this, I always plug into a power strip so that I have a easy On/Off switch. It also helps with stability so the cord doesn't move the electrodes!
I haven't seen anyone mention that the "high power usage" is converted to heat, which helps heat your house in the winter. In that sense, it's actually the most efficient, as all the power is used by your house. In the summer though, these things suuuuck. Also, it's not really that scary. It's completely isolated when it's actually screwed together. I would recommend putting it on a GFCI outlet though.
I haven't seen anyone mention that the admittedly gross-looking scale is more or less harmless, and the mold that grows in other style humidifiers is far more dangerous. Wick style and "cold mist" style humidifiers will spew mold spores around your home if you don't take proper care. Meanwhile the electro-boiler not only kills anything in the jug whenever you use it, since it's boiling water your only adding pure water to the air... all the grossness stays in the jug.
@@MrVTPhil Good points. I take mine apart and peel off the scale once a year at the end of the season. It's also really easy to make replacement electrodes for it, just drill and tap some graphite crucible rod, takes 10 minutes. Granted, it might be overkill, but I don't like throwing away what I can fix.
The amount of power used is directly related to how much and what kind of minerals are in the water and how much of the electrodes are submerged at any given point. As the water boils away the power consumption will go down. High mineral content will draw more power, but with a high mineral content, the water will boil away faster. These have not changed much since I was a kid in the 1950s, and probably earlier. I opened my first one of these back around 1956.
I wasn't a kid but I used to buy and use a vaporizer that had a cream colored top and brown tank (which IIRC held about five gallons of water and would run a day or two on a tank). It had a rotating white plastic part on an electric motor that allowed it to emit water vapor, I forget the brand name but I had several over the years. They quit selling these about 30-35 years ago, they used to sell them in the children's section of Meijer (and probably Wal-Mart down south). They were sold in Ontario, Canada as well. I would take a cotton ball soaked with eucalyptus oil and place it where the vapor exited the vaporizer to make the room smell good.
I can certainly say they are still built the same. I bought one last winter, and ran it almost continuously for several months. Eventually the output was very minimal compared to when I first bought it, and could hear something loose shaking in the unit when I moved it. I took it apart and found the electrodes corroded and full of scale.
That is weird, mine boil hotter with a bunch of scale on the electrodes. Your scale must have a drastically different mineral content than mine. Water mineral content varies by region so that is reasonable.
Yes they are still made like this. They are my favorite type of humidifier. I run one constantly all winter and fill it twice a day. When you were looking for the power consumption you should also have seen that while the unit is marketed as Vicks it is made by Kaz. As for efficiency they are very near 100% as I'm using them during the heating season. The heat generated is not waste it is just shifting the load slightly from my central heating. I've had the same unit for over 10 years and every couple years I take it apart and chip the scale off. Compared to an evaporative model I'd say that's pretty good. No wick to get funky and replace, very little noise, nothing mechanical to fail. This same design is also still available as a whole home humidifier that installs in your ductwork. As for safety I'm sure you noticed it took a fairly odd size Torx driver to disassemble. When correctly assembled the only danger would be a detached neutral electrode. Even if that did happen, note the design of the reservoir prevents contact with the water. Remove the head with it plugged in and a tab slows you down giving the water a chance to drain away from the electrodes. Yes I'll admit they are a pain to clean but if they were easy to clean they couldn't perform the safety function.
Had a DeVilbiss electrode vaporizer that was made in the 60s. It had a heavy glass reservoir that got blistering hot. It was unique because it had a knob on top that adjusted how much steam was produced by changing the spacing between the electrodes.
DeVibliss made my first asthma nebulizer pump. They were mainly a hospital and doctor office item back then (I was the second person in Michigan to have one at home in 1987) and cost $4K. Now they are cheap (I have seen them sold online new for about $30) and most people with asthma have them at home.
@@mharris5047 Wait, is this how asthma nebulizers work? I remember my brother using one as a toddler (on loan from the hospital, so we were VERY careful with it). This was about 2001. The entire inner workings of the device were concealed in beige plastic.
I used a similar Duracraft humidifier for many years. I found that the more scale on the electrodes, the more the power draw and the more it heated the water. It eventually got to where it boiled so forcefully that it spat water out of the vapor hole. I disassembled it, soaked the electrodes in straight vinegar and took at least a quarter inch thick layer of scale off of them. After that, it worked just like new for several years. These depend on the mineral content of the water (and possibly the electrodes if it has been used a lot) to conduct electricity and boil the water. I keep one around for the coldest Michigan nights when the ultrasonic humidifier doesn't do enough of the job. My current electrode humidifier is a Sunbeam and it draws about 300 watts using my home's tap water.
The nice thing about these is that since the water is boiling the buildup is generally less gross than you get with others. I mean there is that black mineral stuff but that beats mold
A much safer way to test the electrode theory would have been to use the continuity function on the multimeter instead of plugging it into the mains and probing it... just saying for next time. 😅
@@face1990 No it doesn't, because the electrodes are directly wired to the plug, which is open. Your path would come out of one probe of the multimeter, into the first electrode, through the wire, hit the plug, and then the circuit would be open and you would not get continuity because the two prongs of the plug aren't connected. Nishith is correct that the plug needs to be shorted to complete the circuit.
Bet they charge a lot more for these than what you can get a Chinese dip mains water heater/boiler for (though I'd suspect better longevity and less leached stuff from the electrodes) BigClive got his baby-cutor (bucket heater) up to 5kW IIRC...
@@ninjamaster3453 Agreed, and I would guess that cleaning it would actually reduce the power draw. That stuff is what's left by the H20 evaporating away through multiple tankfuls.
There are plenty of warm mist humidifiers that use a resistive heating element, have multiple heat settings, and use a hygrometer to turn themselves on and off.
God damn dude, I bet they have nicer prisons in Mexico than they do here in the US. They certainly have WAY less of an incarceration rate. Any other country on earth does, actually.
When I was a child, about four decades ago, my parents had a humidifier that turned out to be fully mechanical (in misting the water). It was even a bit bigger than your device here. It made nice mist and an interesting low hum noise. In my teens they no longer used it, and I took it apart. It had an induction motor (vertical axis) rotating a quite large sort of funnel-shaped plastic rotor. Most of its height was a slowly tapering quite thin (averaging a couple of centimeters) part that had a hole in the bottom and that part went into the water tank. Then at the topmost part the funnel quite suddenly flared to some twenty or more centimeters and around that part was a metal mesh about two centimeters tall surrounding the whole lip of the funnel but stationary (fixed to the chassis). So I realized that it "pumped" water by centrifugal force up the funnel and the top large diameter then accelerated that water to a high speed and the water then hit the metal mesh that "broke" it into fine mist. It was fascinating.
Fun fact: Calcium carbonate (which lime scale is made of) has the unusual property that it becomes more soluble in colder water and less soluble in warmer water, that's why it's so common to have such deposits in places where warm or boiling water is involved, it's not just evaporation, it's actually becoming less soluble as the water heats up.
This is how my steamer works for my furnace (Aprilaire is the brand). It requires slightly hard water to create enough resistance to boil the water and make steam. The electrodes are contained within a very thick cartridge/bottle/container and it makes tons of sediment and the electrodes degrade requiring frequent replacement (once a year). It’s on a 240V breaker.
I'd have used the multimeter to test resistance from the two tubes that go in the water, to the cord plugin ends. Testing by plugging it into the wall didn't even occur to me, what with the self preservation instinct and all. But hey, you don't know until you know, and now you now, and you were safe & didn't shock yourself so good job!
My similar unit is long overdue for a cleaning, and the manufacturer's directions to just soak in a pool of vinegar seems inefficient and like a waste of vinegar. Thanks for opening it up, it's always good to see an example before risking doing something destructive
I have this exact humidifier. Its maybe 10 years old now and I just cleaned it out the other day so its funny you did this video. It works well enough but yeah, they're pretty sketchy at best! It's a similar process to how the nortec humidifiers work, except they will vary the water level to change the humidification output based on the current draw. They will fill themselves up to a certain water level, and start or stop the fill solenoid based on current draw which would then give them a specific LB/hr output. Its a pretty simplistic approach to capacity control but it works really well!
From what I was able to find over the course of his videos including the word processing type writer video where he talks about HS, I believe our dear TC is around 30.
At $14, I've been buying a new one each year instead of dealing with the scale. Thought I was saving money versus replacement filters for the other types. Now the spikes in the electric bill make more sense. Thanks for posting!
I have this Vick's humidifier, and the Equate version, brand new. That is not scale, it comes with this coating that unfortunately begins to flake off very quickly. The Equate version begins to flake immediately and creates a horrible sludge in the container. Thanks for the review! Had no idea how potentially dangerous and using so much energy.
It might use more power, but on the positive side, that extra power ends up heating up your home, which isn't such a bad thing in the winter. On the other hand, the evaporative ones will actually cool your home down slightly forcing your heaters to work harder. Hard to say which one leads to the higher overall power consumption, but probably about the same since heaters are always 100% efficient.
Alec, one thing you might do, if you want to actually descale thw whole thing: 1. Fill entirely with vinegar. 2. Run. Ideally outdoors. 3. rinse with overflowing water (best way to get the scale that's refusing to leave out) 4. Run with full water, again outdoors.
And they worked great! I remember being 4 years old and my mom setting up and running the vaporizer in the room. Glass "bowl" and bakelite plastic unit w/electrodes (long metal tangs).
@@colemanadamson5943 Yeah! But I don't remember the glass carafe looking like that -- it's been 50 years since I last saw ours -- so maybe? I remember the black bakelite top with the cord plugging in right behind the reservoir at 90deg for the [brandname] menthol goo for the steam to blow across to evaporate.
After years of trying every type of humidifier at every price-point which always ended up generating dust, suffering salt/lime/mineral deposits, and never lasting more than two winter seasons, I gave up on a long term, technological solution. Instead, I buy two of these for $20 each and run one upstairs and one downstairs 24x7 all winter and discard then in the spring. Repeat each year and I never have to clean them or repair them or buy filters or UV bulbs or anything. Life is simple and our home’s air well humidified every winter. Job done.
I literally did the same thing two days ago to try to revive my humidifier. I had the same exact reaction! I was expecting a heating element- not two electrodes. My daughter thought I was nuts for being fascinated. I’m going to make her watch this now.
"We may need to be destructive"
Humidifier falls apart.
Did you just threaten that thing apart? Gota admit that timing was epic
Kid: "Mom, can I buy a taser?"
Mom: "We have a taser at home."
The taser at home:
Just "accidentally" touch the electrodes while it's plugged in, and you have a legit ElectroBoom video
Not really. Mehdi survives it not by accident ;-)
I'm crossing my fingers for a big Clive style sideways schematic...
Even if its just 2 lines on a piece of paper
@@harriehausenman8623 Yeah, in most of his old videos, the explosions of capacitators and things are edited in, even his electric guitar video is fake :(
@@Straiferdt01 I never considered them to be fake, actually. To me it always was just a kind of slapstick comedy but with electricity. He know his electrons and was never in any actual danger. It's a little strange to hear that some people thought he might really zap himself by accident....
there is also the mandatory required yelling of curse words
Ah, yeah, the classic humidifier: A death cable in a bucket.
Suicide cords - useful for electrocution and boiling water!
Ironically, you are correct. Touch the water inside of this thing while it is connected and running and you will electrocute yourself at 120VAC -- even with the plastic cover over the electrodes!
That sounds like an execution method devised for a prototype concentration camp.
@@seronymus "prototype concentration camp" has to be one of the most horrifying strings of three words to think about
@@SoupVat Obamna 🥺 sends you to the humidifier fema camp 👍😵💀
"We may need to get destructive."
Humidifier: Allow me!
"Alright, alright, I'll open up. Just please don't hurt me!"
The bad cop got him
@@MrChanw11 ACAB
“Oh you mean THIS gate key.”
Yep, still made that way. "Auto-shut-off" when the water level gets too low. No moving parts.
Could be extremely dangerous though cause that amount of power will blow up a low quality extension cord and could very well cause a fire, I'm not saying it's a terrible idea but when this can be sold with a 5$ extension cord that's terrifying
@@tenderjerky3504 Actually, even at five or six amps a 16 gauge extension cord would not overheat. If this thing builds up substantial scale on the electrodes and starts drawing 10-12 amps continuously as my old Duracraft did you might heat up the cord a bit but the NEC states that 16 gauge cords can carry 13 amps continuously if the cord combination is 99 feet or less. I am not a fan of 16 gauge extension cords (my main use for them is to cut the female end off and use the rest to replace an old lamp's cord) in general but even the $2 extension cord at Wal-Mart is 16 gauge and according to the organization that writes the NEC and designs most state electrical codes (not Michigan's, though -- our electrical code is virtually unchanged from the 1950's) this is supposed to be safe. Both the old Duracraft that finally quit working for me and my Sunbeam of this type came with 16 gauge cord attached to the electrodes. The cord itself didn't give me any problems, the Duracraft failed at the connection point where it was soldered (yes, soldered) to the electrodes after 20 winters of use. I still use the tank to this day when draining oil out of my van's engine while changing the oil and filter. That isn't the tank's intended use but it works!
@@tenderjerky3504 You're assuming it specifically tries to pull 120v, it might just pull as much as it can.
That self-disassembly was almost comically timed
Also excellent companion content!
*it _was_ comically timed, just by accident! And if he ever wanted to replicate, boy that would take some tries for sure...
definitely comically timed, funniest shit i've seen today
2:06
I loled
Yeah I laughed. He has great comedic timing in the way he speaks as well.
As we call these boilers in Russia “euthanasia basin”
God I love Russian humor. I think my favorite is the old "today is worse than yesterday, but better than tomorrow."
тазик-эвтаназик? :)
Fuck me, that's a bit dark.
I'll play along, 100% Russian confirmed.
I don’t think it’d be pleasant to die from electrocution, though, so I don’t think “euthanasia” is the right word...
In Soviet Russia, the humidifiers boil YOU!!
"I could plug this thing into the wall and [stabbing motion]" 😁
Glorious
What would happen?
@@OutInLeftField2 death and destruction
@@OutInLeftField2 The 120 volts of electricity going into the meter demonstrated in the video could go through someone's body, instead. It would be severely dangerous, basically.
I like that :D
"This is only very terrifying" - Yes, it is quite only very terrifying.
mans could be 2 wire grabs away from receiving the mehdi sadaghdar experience lol
The definition of "terror" is "extreme fear". If you're terrified of this, then close the shades and wrap yourself in bubble wrap.
Yup, this is very much quite only very terrifying.
@@RonJohn63 Hyperbole exists.
@@endig4501 this is the Internet; I deny that hyperbole exists.
Next week on ElectroBOOM:
"Making a TAZER out of humidifier!"
This is literally a cattle prod that connects to mains voltage and sits in a plastic case. Yikes.
It's far worse actually. A cattle prod has a controlled current so it shouldn't be lethal. This will go for as long as your breakers allow
That sits _in a pool of water_ in a plastic case.
Bro
It is encased in plastic (twice) and grounded in normal operation.
You literally gonna get shocked only if you disassemble it and grab both electrodes.
Only really shitty thing about it is that there's no way to control current. It probably can trip your breakers if your water is too conductive.
Or if you, idk, put it in brine or something.
@@koghs You sure it's grounded? I can't see the plug (haven't watched the main video, that's next), but the cable looks like it only has two conductors in it...
@@koghs Unlikely that you could get the water conductivity high enough to trip even a 5A breaker. Maybe not even if you use a NaOH solution.
I would think that in this case it's actually safer to use an electrode boiler than an element. It stops working by default when the water level drops and nothing in the unit gets hot enough to start a fire. The tank is also sealed, so if someone is touching the water while it's in use, then they're doing something extremely wrong.
It does not stop by default most of the time
@@poyopoyo4619 by nature, it has to stop working when the water level drops below the elctrodes since the water is needed to complete the circuit. so there is no float sensor or smart current or temp detection but this is still a thought-out safety measure - for cheap
@@rolls_8798 Also, to touch the water you have to remove the electrodes.
And said electrodes are in a protective plastic shell. Actually decently safe!
@@qwertykeyboard5901 true. I still majorly dislike them because the design (the rim that holds water when it is upside down) makes it almost impossible to empty the water from and if it is tipped upside down (hard to do by accident, admittedly) the water pours out of the top through all the direct live wires. and there is the matter of the mineral buildup.
there is a smaller handheld version which I find to be more acceptable. In India (where these are very common) people often put foil balls inside the unit and I've always wondered what it is for. Maybe to prevent as much buildup? I've never noticed an actual effect from it though.
Hey ,ive torn this thing down alllll the way too, taken the electrodes out, unscrewed those things, and put new ones in it, replaced the screws that were screwed into the the electrodes...mine stopped heating up completely, with water with all different kinds of water, also, mine was dang near 20 years old I think. I love that I've found someone else who's done this too though, I was so curious. Didn't test it with my meter though ,and now that's my next step,cus it's still not working.
Well, the add-salt tip makes more sense now.
The very thing that helps it actually work is also making it grosser than it already was, yay
@@or2kr and electorlyzing salt makes chlorine gas that goes straight into your air and could intoxicate you in a bad deadly sort of way, yay! Also it smells bad
@@tfwmemedumpster The salt stays at the bottom of the tank for the most part. A pinch or two of salt will keep my humidifier going for two weeks worth of refills. Two refills a day (3 gallons) every day for 2 weeks. Boiling salt water is not going to make chlorine gas at these low voltages
If I forget to add salt again after cleaning out the reservoir, the water output is dramatically lower.
@@tfwmemedumpster Because the device operates on AC voltage it doesn't make any pure elemental gases. If you where to operate the same device on direct DC it would produce even with the addition of salt primarily H2 and O2 so I would be more worried about it exploding then it releasing toxic gases. The reason you don't need to worry about pure elemental gas release is that the small amount of gas generated on one half of the sign wave will be consumed by the other half. The electrolysis isn't perfect which is how it dumps the electrical energy into the solvent to boil it.
@@Willcol100 so. This can be easily modified to be a hydrogen generator? Good to know.
This is some serioys Midwest Big Clive content right here.
Also, yes, they are still made EXACTLY like this.
Yes but it's not in bright pink.
only missing the "one moment please"
Yes! My dad took one apart when I was 6 or 7 to clean the lime deposits from the electrodes. He cautioned about putting too much salt in the water. So what did I do? Put more salt in the water. You could see the arcing through the plastic tub! It tripped the breaker after a few minutes.
That's the most badass metal thing that's ever happened to one of these things.
LOL... Hey, that's how you learn things, pushing the envelop. Sounds like something I would have done.
EVEN MORE SAAAAAALT!
@@westelaudio943 The whole room is VIBRATTTING
@@harshvithlani9399 bloody hell
Next week: How to make a prison soup heater out of a humidifier
Next week at the guards weekly meeting: How to use a Vicks humidifier to torture recalcitrant inmates.
this is a home alone trap in the making
Imagine Macaulay Culkin replacing the swinging paint buckets on the stairs with one of these....
This is my new favorite video ever.
Just raw, unfiltered bewilderment. THIS is why I love your channels.
"Simpler is Better?"
Vicks: "Hold my water"
And put salt in it
@@2_-_449 and breathe in all the nice HCl.
DONT HOLD THE WATER!! Unless you like potentually deadly electric shocks of course.
This is possibly the best video of your entire library, Alec. The disbelief in your voice as it comes apart is simply amazing.
1:51 That thing looks like an extremely exhausted lion. Now you can't unsee it.
You win the Internets today, my friend. 🤣🤣🤣👍👍
So true lol
Damn it...
😧 lion
I saw a face, but not a lion's, but instead a yawning gargoyle's.
Even when I know it's unplugged, him touching it makes me nervous
If you put it in a glass tube, that might make a nifty sct-fi background prop for your back wall.
I think he'd also have to crank the voltage. It took about 10,000 volts for me to make a pretty nifty Jacob's Ladder in high school. Bottom was about 1 inch apart, to was about 5 inches to break the arc and send it back to the bottom.
@@playgroundchooser It already sparks enough to boil water. That itself would be impressive.
Also, water has less resistance than air, and the electrodes are closer together.
@@JonesNate it doesn’t spark to boil the water
@@ErebuBat Only if you add too much salt it would (and trip the breaker).
We used to have one of those years ago and I remember having to constantly open it up and scrape off the electrodes. It made a huge difference in how much steam came out.
Proper maintenance is part of any humidifier.
That's why I would use CLR.
I’ll have to do the same thing later.
and you cant even use deionised water because then it wouldn't work. caught between a rock and a hard place
@@Gigaguenther It's a $15 device and at least for me it lasted a decade. If you need more steam just buy a 2nd one lol
The only way I've found to modulate how much it puts out is by varying the amount of salt you put into the water. One time my wife put way too much salt into the water and it tripped the breaker. It probably gets that crusty after just a few uses. There's always that garbage in the water after just one use.
I was just wondering whether is will burn a fuse when the water is to salty.
I have a whole home humidifier that is essentially this but scaled up (Aprilaire model 800). It draws 4.8 kW maximum, but it only runs for short intervals. The humidifier is connected to the home's water supply and drain. I installed it when I got frustrated that the standard whole-home wet-pad humidifiers could never reach their setpoints because they only wet the pad when the heater is running, and the heater didn't run frequently enough to humidify the house to the setpoint.
What's cool about it is self-regulated. It adds more water from the home's supply when needed, but it also and drains water and refills with fresh water when the water becomes too salty and the humidifer starts drawing too much power. You can watch the unit, when you first turn it for the season, fill the canister to the top with fresh water. As some water boils off, the power uses increases until it hits the maximum (water becomes saltier), at which point the humidifier starts letting the water level drop (less electrode exposed) to control power.
Yes, it uses a lot of energy, but that energy is also heating the house so it's not completely wasted. And there is basically zero maintenance - no bio growth because it's boiling water, no manual refilling, and no descaling. Basically the only time I have to touch it is about once every two years to replace the electrodes as they erode away.
I had one for a while. The instruction manual says to clean it by letting it soak in vinegar weekly. Mine stopped working I think because I got too lazy to clean it weekly and the buildup caused things to fail. Once it stopped working, I disassembled it. It was so badly degraded that the wires to the plug just came off of the screws attaching them to the prongs.
I’m a fan of them in winter in kids bedrooms. The vicks liquid can be added to the water and helpful for colds.
The whole room is vibrating.. EVEN MORE SAAALT
When I was a kid and had a cold, I had one of these put in my room with Vicks Vapo Rub in it. Later, I took it apart. Yes, elecro-boiler. I bought one again about 10 years ago; same setup inside and required salt to get it to work and also cleaning of the electrodes annually. What I like about them is that the evaporated water from them is sterile (no mould or odour) and they don't seem to leave that white dust. I put mine on a timer. When I lived in an old apartment with hot water radiators for heating, I used to put small pots with water on top of the rads to humidify the apartment.
Agreed. The white dust seems like a bad call for lungs and for electrical equipment. I use one of these as an apartment humidifier but yeah, 600 Watts seems like a waste. Still - I'm only using it during winter so the 600 watts is just inefficient heat - not a total waste. You can often pick these up at thrift stores for like $3 which is great - unless it's all scaled up inside.
@@jeffjackelen744 You can soak the electrodes in straight vinegar (unplugged, of course) for 6-8 hours and the scale will come right off using your fingers to remove it. At least in the US you can buy a gallon of vinegar for $3-$4 so it is cheaper than replacing the vaporizer (you likely won't use the whole gallon for this). The cheaper "cleaning vinegar" is fine, the lavender added to it won't hurt this. You will probably only have to do this every 3-4 years unless you have crazy hard water. You do have to remove the plastic cover, though. A 32 ounce pitcher worked for me to soak the electrodes, set the unit on top with the electrodes soaking in the vinegar and let sit for 6-8 hours. After soaking and scale removal, wash the electrodes with water (with the unit unplugged), let dry for a couple of hours (just in case the connection points got wet), replace the plastic electrode cover, fill the tank, assemble and then use the vaporizer.
Came for the connextras found myself on electroboom
Does this count as a BigCliveDotCom cameo because of the camera angle?
@@vuthara8725 Well, since he demonstrated a similar thing ( th-cam.com/video/FDaT3FG7bws/w-d-xo.html ), except that while Alec has a carbon electrode, Big Clive's are made of steel that has chromium (toxic element).
I remember these when I was a kid in the 90s. Had a red one with a very large base that held quite a bit of water. I would always pull the top out of the base as it was running to see how it worked. These did not have a plastic shroud around the electrodes but were exposed right to the water.
Well that’s TOTALLY NOT an deadly accident waiting to happen 😆
A Big-Clive-esque video, and you didn't once say "take it to bits." For shame! ;-)
I didn't see the explosion containment pie dish, it must have been just off camera.
@@cheekychappy1234 Maybe there was a hotdog just out of frame too. :P
@@TheCodeDaemon I think I'll pass on an electrocuted hot dog cooked by those electrodes, though.
Not to worry.
Unreasonable force!
I can confirm they're still made this way, I bought one last month due to getting bad nose bleeds from the dry air as well as some sinus stuff so I wanted this one so I could breath the warm steam as well as just letting run. Mine works extremely fast, pumping out steam within a minute or two but it does require some salt and the biggest downside is that there seems to be too much water vapor rather than steam which doesn't evaporate fast enough and will settle on the desk or bureau unless a fan is on too.
a year later, I can confirm the exact same for myself. with my well water, it boils so fast that it made the floors and desk overly saturated with moisture instead of actually putting the majority of it into the air.
@@Deviated09 that sounds more like a thermal difference than boiling speed. If the floor is poorly insulated, you may well just have water condensing out of the air because of it.
@@Ornithopter470 I'd imagine it's partly that, and partly very rapidly boiling off water with the steam directed in a cone shape
Not from poor insulation but more so keeping the bedroom cold.
Mine is brand new and barely puts out steam
@@gwengough7944 try adding a bit of salt
"GOOD LORD!" Best understatement ever award goes to this channel, right there.
I read that in superintendent Chalmers' voice. Immediately followed by "What is happening in your kitchen?!"
Uhhhhh aurora borealis
BEST VIDEO EVER! My favorite part is when you reacted at the 2:10 point! Priceless! I've had this same type of teardown happen to me where I thought I was going to need a grinder or a cutter to progress, then the thing just fell apart in my hands. Putting it back together again was a different story which required me to use three or four hands. Clearly, machines build these things and no humans.
the instant i saw the watts go to zero when you lifted it, i knew what it was...
Now where was this type of quality content for No Effort November?
I now want a video where he just scrapes all the scale off that thing.
I am curious to see the power draw on this after a good descaling. however, I am content with this.
Send it to the guy with the laser cleaner restoration channel.
I want to take a small screwdriver and rap on the electrodes with the plastic handle to knock that scale crust off. 🤪
Just soak it in vinegar for a day
The one reason i prefer these over "cool mist" + ultrasonic humidifiers is that they sterilize the water vapor they put out. the downside is the scaling and oxidation (which is what that black crud is), but the upside is youre not breathing mold and mildew. That and they kind of double as a very inefficient space heater if you're like me and you live in a house with a poorly-placed thermostat and your room is always cold anyway.
Is is possible that some kind of electrolysis occurs and that discolors the deposit, because it's not just limestone but also some elementar components?
Electrolysis Mainly occurs in DC current, but maybe it happens in small amounts with this much constant AC?
@@BoomchacleV0 that's what I figured
I think electroplating might be a little more relevant in this scenario; Whatever the anode and cathodes are made out of is a dark metal. I would argue that the electrical current is moving the metal from one peg to the other, but not at 100% efficacy so the metal is getting lost inside of the limescale which effectively darkens it.
@@cazomsdragons2625 didnt alec say the electrodes were carbon?
Limestone is some grey color, there is not jute calcium in water.
I have had several of these. The older ones just had steel electrodes that got nasty rusty in addition to scale. But it still worked great for several years. The newer ones have what appear to be carbon electrodes. Yes scale is a problem, but you can clean it easily enough. Just unplug it first. I also love the simplicity. They inherently shut off when the water level drops below the electrodes. No moving parts.
I switched to a ultrasonic when my child was born because I was afraid he'd put his hand on the vapor outlet which is hot enough to burn if you get right up on it.
Yesterday after watching your other video, I built a home made evaporative one with a plastic tote, a fan and some hand towels. It raised my bedroom humidity from 25% to 32%. I may build a bigger one. But these electrode boilers are more compact and less noisy. So don't be too down on them.
Thanks for all your great videos!
I love how when you plug it into the orange extension cord off camera there is a shadow silhouette of you doing so in the bottom right. Very dramatic!
"This is slightly terrifying; now I could plug this thing into the wall, and..." *sudden silence to avoid demonetization*
"we may need to be destructive..." *detaches in fear* "oh!"
I actually prefer these to any other humidifier because they don't have mold issues. I don't find them to be tricky at all. I just add salt once per season. At the end of the season, I drain them and set outside to dry. Also, since I use in winter, they are nice because they also heat up the room.
I actually love this style. Yeah, they are kind of a pain, but they are really nice when you're sick. I love the warm steam and the bubbling/boiling sound they make; I find them relaxing. Not good for everyday use, but nice when you feel crappy with a cold.
Reminds me of the hot dog cooker popular in the 1980s. Basically wires from the wall connected directly to each end of a hot dog.
Certainly MacGyver has taken out a goon with one of those at some point
When I do take-aparts like this, I always plug into a power strip so that I have a easy On/Off switch. It also helps with stability so the cord doesn't move the electrodes!
I haven't seen anyone mention that the "high power usage" is converted to heat, which helps heat your house in the winter. In that sense, it's actually the most efficient, as all the power is used by your house. In the summer though, these things suuuuck. Also, it's not really that scary. It's completely isolated when it's actually screwed together. I would recommend putting it on a GFCI outlet though.
I haven't seen anyone mention that the admittedly gross-looking scale is more or less harmless, and the mold that grows in other style humidifiers is far more dangerous. Wick style and "cold mist" style humidifiers will spew mold spores around your home if you don't take proper care. Meanwhile the electro-boiler not only kills anything in the jug whenever you use it, since it's boiling water your only adding pure water to the air... all the grossness stays in the jug.
@@MrVTPhil Good points. I take mine apart and peel off the scale once a year at the end of the season. It's also really easy to make replacement electrodes for it, just drill and tap some graphite crucible rod, takes 10 minutes. Granted, it might be overkill, but I don't like throwing away what I can fix.
The amount of power used is directly related to how much and what kind of minerals are in the water and how much of the electrodes are submerged at any given point. As the water boils away the power consumption will go down. High mineral content will draw more power, but with a high mineral content, the water will boil away faster. These have not changed much since I was a kid in the 1950s, and probably earlier. I opened my first one of these back around 1956.
I wasn't a kid but I used to buy and use a vaporizer that had a cream colored top and brown tank (which IIRC held about five gallons of water and would run a day or two on a tank). It had a rotating white plastic part on an electric motor that allowed it to emit water vapor, I forget the brand name but I had several over the years. They quit selling these about 30-35 years ago, they used to sell them in the children's section of Meijer (and probably Wal-Mart down south). They were sold in Ontario, Canada as well. I would take a cotton ball soaked with eucalyptus oil and place it where the vapor exited the vaporizer to make the room smell good.
I can certainly say they are still built the same. I bought one last winter, and ran it almost continuously for several months. Eventually the output was very minimal compared to when I first bought it, and could hear something loose shaking in the unit when I moved it. I took it apart and found the electrodes corroded and full of scale.
That is weird, mine boil hotter with a bunch of scale on the electrodes. Your scale must have a drastically different mineral content than mine. Water mineral content varies by region so that is reasonable.
imagine attaching a power cord to 2 metal rods and instructing consumers to stick it in a bowl of water
Yes they are still made like this. They are my favorite type of humidifier. I run one constantly all winter and fill it twice a day. When you were looking for the power consumption you should also have seen that while the unit is marketed as Vicks it is made by Kaz.
As for efficiency they are very near 100% as I'm using them during the heating season. The heat generated is not waste it is just shifting the load slightly from my central heating. I've had the same unit for over 10 years and every couple years I take it apart and chip the scale off. Compared to an evaporative model I'd say that's pretty good. No wick to get funky and replace, very little noise, nothing mechanical to fail. This same design is also still available as a whole home humidifier that installs in your ductwork.
As for safety I'm sure you noticed it took a fairly odd size Torx driver to disassemble. When correctly assembled the only danger would be a detached neutral electrode. Even if that did happen, note the design of the reservoir prevents contact with the water. Remove the head with it plugged in and a tab slows you down giving the water a chance to drain away from the electrodes. Yes I'll admit they are a pain to clean but if they were easy to clean they couldn't perform the safety function.
Had a DeVilbiss electrode vaporizer that was made in the 60s. It had a heavy glass reservoir that got blistering hot. It was unique because it had a knob on top that adjusted how much steam was produced by changing the spacing between the electrodes.
DeVibliss made my first asthma nebulizer pump. They were mainly a hospital and doctor office item back then (I was the second person in Michigan to have one at home in 1987) and cost $4K. Now they are cheap (I have seen them sold online new for about $30) and most people with asthma have them at home.
@@mharris5047 Wait, is this how asthma nebulizers work? I remember my brother using one as a toddler (on loan from the hospital, so we were VERY careful with it). This was about 2001. The entire inner workings of the device were concealed in beige plastic.
Is it just me, or does the blue cover look like Bert from Sesame Street screaming?
I used a similar Duracraft humidifier for many years. I found that the more scale on the electrodes, the more the power draw and the more it heated the water. It eventually got to where it boiled so forcefully that it spat water out of the vapor hole. I disassembled it, soaked the electrodes in straight vinegar and took at least a quarter inch thick layer of scale off of them. After that, it worked just like new for several years. These depend on the mineral content of the water (and possibly the electrodes if it has been used a lot) to conduct electricity and boil the water. I keep one around for the coldest Michigan nights when the ultrasonic humidifier doesn't do enough of the job. My current electrode humidifier is a Sunbeam and it draws about 300 watts using my home's tap water.
"I mean, this is only... what... *very* terrifying."
The nice thing about these is that since the water is boiling the buildup is generally less gross than you get with others. I mean there is that black mineral stuff but that beats mold
A much safer way to test the electrode theory would have been to use the continuity function on the multimeter instead of plugging it into the mains and probing it... just saying for next time. 😅
That still wouldn't complete a circuit.
You'd need to short the plug and then it would show up in continuity.
@@NishithThakkar Measure continuity between one electrode and the plug. Then the other
Yes, especially since there's water everywhere! Big Clive would not be happy.
@@NishithThakkar The multimeter completes a circuit between the two probes.
@@face1990 No it doesn't, because the electrodes are directly wired to the plug, which is open. Your path would come out of one probe of the multimeter, into the first electrode, through the wire, hit the plug, and then the circuit would be open and you would not get continuity because the two prongs of the plug aren't connected. Nishith is correct that the plug needs to be shorted to complete the circuit.
I highly appreciate the rawness of this video.
I'm really curious about how much power this would draw if you descaled and cleaned it, and then put it in a full tank.
300W?
Depends on the salt content. You could pull over 1000w with enough salt
Bet they charge a lot more for these than what you can get a Chinese dip mains water heater/boiler for (though I'd suspect better longevity and less leached stuff from the electrodes)
BigClive got his baby-cutor (bucket heater) up to 5kW IIRC...
@@ninjamaster3453 flashbacks to AvE "load cell" (a.k.a a big bucket full of 'ol angry Pixies)
@@ninjamaster3453 Agreed, and I would guess that cleaning it would actually reduce the power draw. That stuff is what's left by the H20 evaporating away through multiple tankfuls.
There are plenty of warm mist humidifiers that use a resistive heating element, have multiple heat settings, and use a hygrometer to turn themselves on and off.
All I see is a prison soup maker
What were you in for? It's OK to say, I understand the charges were overhyped. DA's always do that.
Use this bad boy to make a ramen swole!!!
To be fair, a length of cable, a pair of razorblades and a small twig is also a prison soup maker.
This one just comes with a fancy bowl.
God damn dude, I bet they have nicer prisons in Mexico than they do here in the US. They certainly have WAY less of an incarceration rate. Any other country on earth does, actually.
@@Bacopa68 didn't do it. Lawyer fucked me. #Shawshank
"I'm doing this for you..." and we appreciate it!
I've added too much salt to mine before...you can hear the lovely sound of arcing electricity
When I was a child, about four decades ago, my parents had a humidifier that turned out to be fully mechanical (in misting the water). It was even a bit bigger than your device here. It made nice mist and an interesting low hum noise. In my teens they no longer used it, and I took it apart. It had an induction motor (vertical axis) rotating a quite large sort of funnel-shaped plastic rotor. Most of its height was a slowly tapering quite thin (averaging a couple of centimeters) part that had a hole in the bottom and that part went into the water tank. Then at the topmost part the funnel quite suddenly flared to some twenty or more centimeters and around that part was a metal mesh about two centimeters tall surrounding the whole lip of the funnel but stationary (fixed to the chassis). So I realized that it "pumped" water by centrifugal force up the funnel and the top large diameter then accelerated that water to a high speed and the water then hit the metal mesh that "broke" it into fine mist. It was fascinating.
Sounds like the one we had when I was little. Then we moved to Florida where if anything you wanted a dehumidifier.
My mom would set this thing up for me in my room whenever I was sick as a child. I always thought it did absolutely nothing for me lol
As you started rubbing scale off of the electrodes after having it plugged in, I was in the middle of thinking "does that have a capacitor?"
0:11 Anybody noticed this thing looks like a weird face from the top?
Fun fact: Calcium carbonate (which lime scale is made of) has the unusual property that it becomes more soluble in colder water and less soluble in warmer water, that's why it's so common to have such deposits in places where warm or boiling water is involved, it's not just evaporation, it's actually becoming less soluble as the water heats up.
"I am a little safe." Famous last words.
This is how my steamer works for my furnace (Aprilaire is the brand). It requires slightly hard water to create enough resistance to boil the water and make steam. The electrodes are contained within a very thick cartridge/bottle/container and it makes tons of sediment and the electrodes degrade requiring frequent replacement (once a year).
It’s on a 240V breaker.
Everyone: Don't mix electricity and water.
Vicks: lol electricity go bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt
I'd have used the multimeter to test resistance from the two tubes that go in the water, to the cord plugin ends. Testing by plugging it into the wall didn't even occur to me, what with the self preservation instinct and all.
But hey, you don't know until you know, and now you now, and you were safe & didn't shock yourself so good job!
"Every humidifier is gross in its own way."
My similar unit is long overdue for a cleaning, and the manufacturer's directions to just soak in a pool of vinegar seems inefficient and like a waste of vinegar. Thanks for opening it up, it's always good to see an example before risking doing something destructive
Alec started tearing down the Vick’s Electrolux and I thought I was watching BigClive
I have this exact humidifier. Its maybe 10 years old now and I just cleaned it out the other day so its funny you did this video. It works well enough but yeah, they're pretty sketchy at best! It's a similar process to how the nortec humidifiers work, except they will vary the water level to change the humidification output based on the current draw.
They will fill themselves up to a certain water level, and start or stop the fill solenoid based on current draw which would then give them a specific LB/hr output. Its a pretty simplistic approach to capacity control but it works really well!
*What year did you graduate HS* ? Your knowledge and references made me think you were much older
From what I was able to find over the course of his videos including the word processing type writer video where he talks about HS, I believe our dear TC is around 30.
Never thought I'd see the day...
In which he made a video where he's quiet more often than speaking...
I work at a grocery store and we sell this exact same thing still.
These are definitely still being sold. We sell them at Target, I have a picture of the box explaining how it works too if you want it.
I got one of those for my daughter's room a couple years ago and oh god. I want to go get it out of storage and take it apart now.
Welp... there you have it. Vicks self-defense vaporizer.
At $14, I've been buying a new one each year instead of dealing with the scale. Thought I was saving money versus replacement filters for the other types. Now the spikes in the electric bill make more sense. Thanks for posting!
just filling landfills full of slightly used humidifiers... we're so fucked
@@howdareyou41 Exactly my thoughts
The Sunbeam and Vicks ones are pretty easy to clean though. It maybe takes me 5 min tops.
I have this Vick's humidifier, and the Equate version, brand new. That is not scale, it comes with this coating that unfortunately begins to flake off very quickly. The Equate version begins to flake immediately and creates a horrible sludge in the container. Thanks for the review! Had no idea how potentially dangerous and using so much energy.
120 volts right on your kitchen table - you'd be better off going Billy Idol on the circuit breaker.
It might use more power, but on the positive side, that extra power ends up heating up your home, which isn't such a bad thing in the winter. On the other hand, the evaporative ones will actually cool your home down slightly forcing your heaters to work harder. Hard to say which one leads to the higher overall power consumption, but probably about the same since heaters are always 100% efficient.
That's a good point!
This is more of a steam maker than humidifier.
Alec, one thing you might do, if you want to actually descale thw whole thing:
1. Fill entirely with vinegar.
2. Run. Ideally outdoors.
3. rinse with overflowing water (best way to get the scale that's refusing to leave out)
4. Run with full water, again outdoors.
650 watts? I'll just go plug in my electric tea kettle and call it a humidifier.
I admire your ability to not immediately run screaming from being just two inches away from two metals sticks with 120V potential across them.
Look up the "devilbiss 145 vicks humidifier" -- those were standard issue in the 1950s and 1960s when I was a toddler.
And they worked great! I remember being 4 years old and my mom setting up and running the vaporizer in the room. Glass "bowl" and bakelite plastic unit w/electrodes (long metal tangs).
@@colemanadamson5943 Yeah! But I don't remember the glass carafe looking like that -- it's been 50 years since I last saw ours -- so maybe? I remember the black bakelite top with the cord plugging in right behind the reservoir at 90deg for the [brandname] menthol goo for the steam to blow across to evaporate.
This is my favorite humidifier angst channel.
Anybody else with a bout of pareidolia? I cannot avoid seeing a very sad face in the blue top cover of the device.
I actually like this channel better , seems more “raw”. But definitely appreciate the work that goes into your other channel! Keep it up
"I am a LITTLE unsafe" ---aren't we all?
It's rare that you talk about a thing I actually have, so this is extra interesting.
You should have measured the voltage between the water and ground when the thing is running.
That's why you want 3-phase power for electrode boilers.
That leaves the water at a comfy neutral midpoint.
After years of trying every type of humidifier at every price-point which always ended up generating dust, suffering salt/lime/mineral deposits, and never lasting more than two winter seasons, I gave up on a long term, technological solution. Instead, I buy two of these for $20 each and run one upstairs and one downstairs 24x7 all winter and discard then in the spring. Repeat each year and I never have to clean them or repair them or buy filters or UV bulbs or anything. Life is simple and our home’s air well humidified every winter. Job done.
00:20 The top of it looks like a sad robot lion's face.
I literally did the same thing two days ago to try to revive my humidifier. I had the same exact reaction! I was expecting a heating element- not two electrodes.
My daughter thought I was nuts for being fascinated. I’m going to make her watch this now.