Sharing this in case it’s useful to others.
I got tired of constantly refilling my small AC infinity humidifier (and I needed a solution for when I’d be gone over a weekend), so I set up a gravity fed system. Now I just fill up my 3 gallon reservoir when needed! I’ve been using this setup for a couple of months and it’s worked well so far.
Parts:
- Float valve
- Tubing
- Push connect fittings
- Shutoff valve (you can buy cheap kits with all of the above)
- Water reservoir
- Bulkhead fitting with a barbed end
- A wide drill bit (match the size of the fitting on your float valve)
To set it up, I installed the bulkhead fitting to my reservoir, attached tubing and ran it toward the humidifier, installed a shutoff valve, connected a short run of tubing to the float valve, drilled a hole into my humidifier lid, and installed the float valve. If you try this, make sure you check that your float valve can be installed this way in your humidifier and has enough room to raise and lower with the water level.
A few key things to make this work well:
- Your reservoir should be elevated compared to the humidifier
- Ideally the reservoir has a bottom opening, but it can be top-fed with some drawbacks (I did this at first - ask about if you want more details). You could also just drill an opening in it.
- Use the least amount of tubing so you don’t have a bunch of extra slack. Try to have a clean line down and straight to the humidifier without dips/loops
- Install the shutoff close to the humidifier end, and make sure you have a push connect fitting to your float valve that you can easily disconnect for when you need to move the humidifier to clean it.
- You might have to get the water flowing by sucking on the bottom end of the tubing
but I’ve found with the bottom opening on the reservoir, water will start flowing once there’s enough water in it to force the air out of the tubing
Good luck if you give it a go, ask questions if you have them, and share tips if you’ve tried something similar!
