In the past few years, a certain trend has become noticeable - humidifiers and air washes become fashionable. There are various devices with their own features, pluses and minuses; consumers need to understand this abundance well before choosing and buying a device.
Despite the fact that sinks and humidifiers have the same purpose, there is a difference between them; According to user reviews, you can understand that a sink is an order of magnitude more efficient at moisturizing and purifying the air compared to humidifiers.
Humidifiers: types and features
Humidifier allows you to provide the desired level of humidity for a comfortable life.
Since humidity in cities is far from always meeting the norm of 40-60%, experts have developed devices that can saturate the air in the living space with moisture.
There are three types of humidifiers:
- traditional. In this type of appliance, water through a special tank enters the replaceable filters, through which the air mass is driven, moistened. At the same time, minimal dust removal occurs - the largest fractions are captured. The traditional humidifier has its minus - noisy work that interferes with sleep at night;
- steam. Boiling water occurs; turning into steam, it moistens the space of the room. But the steam type of humidifiers has many disadvantages: noise during operation, high energy consumption, does not distribute humidified air evenly throughout the room, forms condensate, harmful to wood, plaster, etc. Steam from boiling is hot: it can burn, there is also a risk of waterlogging the room;
- ultrasonic. Such humidifiers are considered the most modern; in them, water is converted into steam using a membrane vibrating from ultrasound. Its advantages are that the work is almost silent, there is the possibility of adjusting humidity, some models are able to heat and disinfect water. The disadvantage is the need for thorough care: you need to use distilled water, regularly and timely change cartridges (filters), etc.
Air washing: features and benefits
This device has the following functions:
- in addition to moisturizing, it cleans the air mass;
- provides its constant recycling;
- gives a natural level of humidity, excluding waterlogging.
There is an opinion that the sink, in principle, can be called the best air humidifier; it is necessary to understand this in more detail.
Moisturizing and Cleansing Function
It is noted that in rooms with a working sink it is easier and more natural to breathe. The reason lies in the name itself - it washes the air of the room in the same way as heavy rain or thunder storm dusts the ground, and immediately breathes very easily and freshly.
A similar process occurs during the operation of the washing: passing the air mass through the built-in filters, the device retains dust, dirt, pollen, wool, etc. Moisture makes dirt heavier, and it loses its ability to soar, settles in a special tank with liquid, or - speaking of smaller particles - on the room floor. The size of the dirt that the filter elements of the device “catch” depends on their throughput.
Thanks to dust settling in the device and repeated “run” of air through filters, its purity is ensured. This is a great advantage for allergy sufferers: for people who respond to dirt, pollen, fungal spores, etc., washing becomes an excellent solution! Also, this is a plus in the matter of room maintenance - the dust that can settle on things even in the most inaccessible places is simply captured by the device.
The principle of operation of humidifiers can also be understood by name - they moisturize precisely; in these devices (both steam and ultrasonic type) the function of high-quality air purification is not incorporated.
If you give the sink the exact name, then it can be called a moisturizing air purifier - so the function of the device will be described as clearly as possible.
Continuous recirculation function
Thanks to its work, the device is able to distribute humidified air in the room evenly; An ordinary humidifier imbues moisture directly around itself.
This effect is provided by a special fan built into the design of the device. She constantly passes through herself all the room air. Therefore, sinks must be specially selected for the area of the room - so that twice an hour the entire volume of air mass passes through the device. So it will be cleaned of impurities and normally moisturized, without a feeling of stagnation.
A high-quality device provides effective moisture consumption and uniform moisturizing. For example, in a situation with humidifiers, one sometimes gets the feeling that hydration does not occur, although the water itself leaves. There are several reasons for this:
- distribution of moisture not so effective in comparison with sinks on volume of the room
- To normalize humidity at the very beginning, a week or two of constant operation of the humidifier in the room is required.
What is happening at this time? In fact, moisture in space appears after it is absorbed into the surrounding things - walls, wooden furniture, flooring, carpets, etc. This takes a very large amount of moisture. As soon as this happens, the humidifier will immediately enrich the air itself.
Sinks can spend from 5 to 20 liters of water per day - all of it will evaporate into the surrounding space! Between the rooms of the apartment there is air exchange, masses come in that need to be saturated with moisture.
Since things are saturated with moisture, the presence of a fan sink (the ability to evenly distribute moisture in the room) is an additional plus. Moisture does not concentrate in one place, does not create condensation and does not oversaturate nearby objects, walls and plaster, that is, it is better from the point of view of the safety of things.
Natural moisturizing function
Sinks are specially designed to better control the humidity in the room, its level. Oddly enough, they do not have special systems that could control it. Regulation occurs naturally, close to natural phenomena.
A feature of the air is used - it always tries to come to its equilibrium state, in which humidity is about 50%: a level normal for human life. This is called relative humidity, it depends on temperature: the hotter, the higher the temperature, the more water is needed to maintain this level of humidity, and vice versa.
Therefore, in winter, the street air seems humid, but in fact it is dry at room temperature (if on a frosty street it is about 60-80%, then in heat it is no more than 20%).
Constantly passing through the device, the air mass takes the right amount of moisture, finding its equilibrium state - optimal for humans 50%. In this case, waterlogging is simply impossible. Thus, sinks use simple laws of nature to ensure their effectiveness; there is simply no need for additional equipment and sensors. Due to this, condensation does not precipitate and there is no effect of strong humidity, as in the equatorial jungle.
To maintain efficient operation, simply adding water to the machine’s tank in time is enough.
What is the result
Everyone chooses a device for their needs and capabilities.A sink, although it is considered better, is more expensive and larger in size, in a small room it can take up unreasonably much space, and in this case it is optimal to choose a compact air humidifier.
Comparing the models of humidifiers and sinks, we can say that the working properties of the latter are better. In essence, a sink is an improved version of a humidifier. By its ability to clean, moisturize and distribute air - this device is much more effective.
