Can You Put Essential Oils In A Humidifier?

Humidifiers are extremely popular for people who suffer from breathing problems or breathing difficulties that are caused by or worsened by dry air.

Using a humidifier is important for helping to ease these problems as they release moisture into the air, but humidifiers can also worsen your condition if they are not properly maintained. 

As humidifiers release moisture into the air, some people want to add essential oils to the humidifier to spread the essential oils to create an aroma.

Can you add essential oils to the humidifier and does it work? You don’t want to damage your humidifier, but can essential oils be added?

This article will explain if you can put essential oils in a humidifier to create a relaxing aroma.

It is vital to make sure that you can add them in as you do not want to damage your humidifier, so find out more below!

Can You Put Essential Oils In A Humidifier?

You can put essential oils in a humidifier if you want to, but it isn’t recommended.

The main reason that it isn’t recommended is that essential oils can clog your humidifier and affect how it works.

It can cause them to work slower and the oil can build up inside until you can no longer use the humidifier properly. 

There are also other reasons you shouldn’t put essential oils in a humidifier. You can find out more about why you shouldn’t add essential oils to a humidifier below. 

The Moisture Can Affect The Essential Oils

The essential oils can become affected by the moisture that is released from the humidifier as the mist is warm, so the properties of the essential oils can become damaged.

The water is boiled inside the humidifier so that the moisture that is released is warm, which means that the essential oils become boiled too. 

When essential oils are boiled, the properties of the oil can become damaged and the benefits can disappear.

Therefore, adding essential oils to a humidifier isn’t the best way for your body to absorb them and feel the benefits. 

Humidifiers Cannot Turn Essential Oils Into Mist

Humidifiers have been designed to turn water into mist, so they are not effective when oils are added.

When oils are released into the air as mist, they need to be broken down into particles, and humidifiers are unable to do this. 

As humidifiers cannot break the oils into particles to be released into the air as mist, there are not many benefits that we can get from putting essential oils in humidifiers.

They cannot be released as mist, so our bodies will struggle to absorb them this way. 

There Is A Risk Of Absorbing Too Much

Humidifiers do not have a way of not dispersing essential oils, so there is a risk that you can absorb too much and it can affect your health.

Although humidifiers do not work well at dispersing critical oils, your body will still be able to absorb some, and as there is no limit, you could over-absorb. 

You do not want to over-absorb essential oils as this can harm your health.

Therefore, it is not advised that you add essential oils to humidifiers as this can cause you to absorb too much and negatively affect your health. 

What To Do If You Want To Add Essential Oils To Your Humidifier?

Can You Put Essential Oils In A Humidifier?

If you are certain that you want to add essential oils to your humidifier, there are a few things that you need to do.

Although it is not recommended that you add them in, it is important to look after your humidifier, so there are things that you need to do if you decide to add them in to prevent any damage to your humidifier. 

Turn Off The Humidifier After 15 Minutes

To avoid over-absorbing essential oils, make sure that you turn the humidifier off after 15 minutes to ensure that there is not too much released into the air.

As humidifiers do not have a limit, it is important to regularly turn them off to avoid over-absorbing too much of the essential oils. 

Make The Mist Cool Instead Of Warm

Having warm mist means that the properties of the essential oils can become damaged, but setting your humidifier to a cooler setting can stop the mist from damaging the oils.

You can set your humidifier to a cooler setting by reading the manual of your humidifier, but it is more beneficial to have the mist set to a cooler setting rather than a warm setting. 

Clean The Humidifier

It is extremely important to regularly clean your humidifier if you add essential oils inside. This will prevent the oil from drying and clogging up the humidifier.

If you do not clean the humidifier, you will risk your humidifier becoming blocked and you will be unable to use it as it will work very slowly and eventually become too clogged to work. 

Do Not Add Too Much Oil

If you decide to add essential oils to your humidifier, ensure that you do not add too much at once.

Adding too much will damage your humidifier and cause you to absorb too much.

You will also be wasting your essential oils, so only add a small amount in if you decide to. To avoid damaging your humidifier, do not add too much to the humidifier. 

Final Thoughts

To conclude, you can put essential oils in a humidifier, but it isn’t recommended as they can end up damaging your humidifier.

The essential oils can clog up your humidifier and make it unusable, so it is not advised that you add them to your humidifier as you may see more damage than good from doing so. 

If you decide to add essential oils to your humidifier, you need to make sure that you regularly clean the humidifier to avoid clogging.

Adding essential oils to your humidifier isn’t the best way to use them, but you can add a small amount to a cool mist to make sure that you do not over-absorb them and feel some benefits.