Cleaning Humidifier Question?

[hsrunning]

Hi All, I've read in several posts of people cleaning their humidifiers with white wine vinegar, so off I trundled to Tesco and purchased a bottle for 85p. Despite the humidifier being brand new I have cleaned it religiously every week despite there being NO buildup of lime scale. I have also purchased a WATER DISTILLER to save money in the long run as I use the distilled water for other things as well. With the distiller came a tub of CITRIC ACID used to clean the deposits left after the distillation process, I was so impressed with the results I cleaned out my kettle and was amazed at the bright shiny inside.

Now my question is can I use this citric acid to clean out the humidifier chamber periodically? The metal base is aluminum but do NOT want to create some chemical reaction that renders the chamber useless.

As I said previously there has been no build up of lime scale up until now which I put down to using distilled water anyway.
I bought a TDS meter (totally dissolved solids) to check my tap water and the reading was: 360ppm, My filtered water comes out of the filter at: 120ppm, and the distilled water measures 0-2ppm, which I put down to solids on the testing jar already there.

The process in distilling the water takes a while, 4-5 hrs for 4 litres of distilled water but taking into account the cost of the distiller and the electricity used I figure it out that it will have paid for itself in approximately 12-14 months. Well I must go and clean my mask/hose, thanks in advance.

HSRUNNING

[Tigers Fan]

Strength of solution

Hi hsrunning

Citric acid, lemon juice should do no harm to your humidifier chamber provided it is sufficiently diluted. Does the bottle/container the citric acid came in have any indication of strength? Look for something like 'N/10' or 'N' over any number or a percentage.

If you are not sure, do a trial spot and observe over a few minutes. I'd guess the seals are more likely to be at risk than the aluminium.

I use phosphoric acid at 5% (I think) and it cleans up the scale and then stops fizzing.

TF

[tonybrentwood]

Hi hsrunning, did you know you can get distilled water on prescription from your GP for your humidifier? I get 25 litres a month, no cost as I'm over 60.
Regards,
Tony

[ElleCee]

My doctor said to use ordinary water and that it it was a waste of money using anything else and to wash it out with mild soap if I see any bits of limescale in it.
L

[Simes2112]

Lazy Me

I just use plain tap water. And wash the humidifier out 2-3 times a week with liquid soap and give it a very good rinse out with cold water afterwards. After a while I did notice a build-up of limescale. So I got some white vinegar from ASDA - made a 10% solution with it and cold water and left the chamber to soak for about an hour. Rinsed it out good and proper afterwards with cold water. No vinegar smell and the chamber was shiny as a new pin.