Is tap water in humidifier ok?

Grow Cycle
1

Is tap water in humidifier ok? Or should I buy distilled? How critical is it? Don’t feel like buying water unless I have to. Options?

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The most important part is keeping the humidifier clean so I always use filtered water and clean often.

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3

This really depends on the amount of calcium that’s dissolved in your water. The calcium will become air born and clog your carbon filter if you have one.
If you’re unsure distilled water is always a safe option. @DrNoobThumb

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4

Lime buildup too.

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5

yes it is fine,
i prefer it in a humidifier, it has chlorine and/or chloride in it which helps keep the unit cleaner.
chlorine free water seems to invite mold quicker.
keep the unit in a cool place, low temps help with mold also.!

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6

Depends on humidifier placement and water quality. If you have water that is considered hard and you put your humidifier in the tent, the saltz will clog your charcoal filter and the fabric pre-filter. I have literally seen within a period of a day or two temperatures in the tent Skyrocket.

The first day I didn’t know what was going on so I just turn the AC down colder but came back the next day and the temperatures were even higher. After looking at my tent I noticed there wasn’t much negative pressure cuz the walls were not sunk in. After examining my charcoal filter and fabric pre-filter I found out they were full of salts from my tap water which is about 350 PPM. My six inch fan was unable to move any air through the filter. When I took the pre-filter off the charcoal filter began to beat it against the wall in my garage, the whole garage filled up with a white cloud which was all salts from the tap water.

If you put the humidifier on the outside of the tent you will probably be okay just need to check your exhaust from time to time to make sure it’s working well and if you do have problems maybe consider reverse osmosis or distilled.

I’ve also heard there different types of humidifiers. I know one is called an oscillating humidifier and I’m not sure what the others are called, but I’ve heard that there is one type it doesn’t emit salts into the air with the vapor. Might be good homework to figure that one out

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@SlowOldGuy is there a need to balance the Ph?

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@TDubWilly both my humidifier and filter are on the outside left side of the tent. I currently do not have the filter connected to the exhaust fan. I wasn’t going to hook the filter up till flower

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As long as the filter is not on there, you can put the humidifier wherever you want and run any kind of water in it you want.

You probably won’t need the humidifier during flower so it should work out well for you.

I have never seen tap water hurt any of my humidifiers, just filter clogging

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@TDubWilly I was more worried about the water coming out the humidifier being harmful to the plant. If that’s not an issue than I’ll continue to use tap water

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11

shouldn’t be an issue

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12

adjust the pH in the humidifier…???
no, just 8.0 pH tap water is good.!

fill it up and let it run.!!
K.I.S.S.!!
until u have bad luck like Willy, then u have to adjust chit.! LOL

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13

That’s terrible advice telling people it’s ok to use tap water without knowing their water. My water is city water and it clogged my brand new filter in under 3 days with all the calcium and whatever else is in it. That’s a quick way to ruin a filter. And that’s speaking from experience. Not to mention that same dust that clogged my filter coats everything in the room plants included.

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@DoobieNoobie as of right now I don’t have my filter connected. Didn’t plan on using it till flower.

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I have found it easier to get a water distiller for 80 bucks on Amazon and distill my tap water through that first and you don’t have to worry about a huge collection of water jugs i have had good luck with this

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@ThcinKC can you link the one you have?

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O.k. here you go

https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Distillation-Countertop-Connection-Food-Grade/dp/B07DHGPM89/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1548421986&sr=8-6&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=water+distiller&dpPl=1&dpID=51-P4oPkOQL&ref=plSrch

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18

You can buy a small RO system for less than that as well. The RO Buddy is $70 on Amazon

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19

what r the chances that he is using your municipal water and the same brand/style humidifier.???
u r the 1st person i have EVER seen have this problem in 3 days.!!!
what humidifier did u have.?

if your water is so contaminated with calcium and other hard minerals,
how do your faucets not get clogged every week.?
u need a good sediment filter on your system.!!
can u post your water report so we know what to look for.?

personally, i think this is “terrible advice”.!!
Amazon sells a lot of junk, that could possibly be $70 wasted,
that money could be spent towards a good RO system.!!

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Well the RO buddy is in use by many many growers here so I’m certain it’s not a waste. And no it doesn’t clog my faucets but it leaves a film on dishes, showers, toilets, etc. The water report is next to useless. But I assure you it took me longer to clean up the dust than I ever thought possible. And when I took the filter back down to figure out why air wasn’t going through the exhaust line it looked like someone dumped a bottle of baby powder on me. Is a plain $30 ultrasonic humidifier from home depot. So I stand by my statement. And I’m sure there’s many more here that can attest to tap water clogging filters so why not tell people that it’s a risk and safer to use distilled or RO. Maybe not as fast if they have decent water but it still will if they have minerals in it it will clog over time. My water comes out the tap at 265 PPMs some days worse.

Here’s a link to the report.
https://www.cityofmoore.com/uploads/CityofMoore_WaterQualityReport_2018_final2_printPostalpatron.pdf

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