Hey guys I am inquiring to see if anyone has experience with a long room humidifier for a very dry basement? I am ultimately seeking something large that will take tap water and not need me to run a line into it for it to function, but also have a large enough reservoir where I’m not filling it daily with a hose. Does anyone know of anything that would check the box? I was eyeing an active air machine albeit pricey.
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Active air one are the most interesting ive seen. I wana say they are $300 plus. Really nice looking tho. I like that you can pipe water from a hose to it for constant full.never seen one that doesn’t advise using filtered water. I jave the ACI thermoforge 6($150) i think. Awesome capacity(4 gal maybe) works really good but no constant fill like the active air.
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Haven’t tried them but seen decent reviews of these types of humidifiers Amazon.com
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I have this ac infinity machine but unfortunately filling it daily is getting tedious.
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This one IS ac infinity. You have the t-3 maybe? This one will last AT LEAST 4 days for me no matter how dry its been.
Using it now to keep the drying room(lung riom) at 60% rh. Room is about 7x13 with 2 tents.
I have the same one pictured. I have to top off a gallon daily in it , sometimes 2
.
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I would consider putting a float valve in your humidifier and attaching it to a larger water supply
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Holy isht. Thats some arid conditions then. This amd the active air are the only ones that looked good to me.
It’s under 35% right now in the room. Plus the Niwa controller kicks on the fans often so it requires a lot inside my tent.
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I really like the idea of the Active humidifier and had considered the steep price tag. I find it especially nice that you can plum it into any size water container you want. With the ultrasonic humidifiers you have to take in account that it will leave white residue unless you use r/o or equivalent water.
With that in mind, I do have a small r/o unit but it’s not enough to keep up with one of those Active style humidifers.
I ended up going with a Vornado 40 Evap40 Evaporative Humidifier - Vornado
Since it uses wicks and evaporation, tap water does just fine. The downside are two. 4gal of water lasts me 1-1/2 2 days on sub 10%rh days. And the wicks don’t last long at all! That’s when I found these and gave it a gamble. Reusable Replacement filter for Vornado MD1-0001 -Natural Breeze- – Natural-Breeze. Both of these are available on Amazon.
These are what I use in my lung room and when I do the 10day dry. It works well but you do have to remember to clean the wicks and replace the water.
Edit: I forgot to say that the reusable blue filter do work. The needs to be soaked to “prime” them so to speak. And while they do work, they don’t work as well as those white replaceable ones. With evap, you have to wait longer for the rh to equalize.
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The one that @DesertHeartGardens linked looks cool. You could hust have a second 5 gal jug ready to switch to when one empties. Easy peasy
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I think this may be the best solution without having to get a tankless RO system in the basement and run any lines into the active air.
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I do not have direct experience with this or similar. I have just seen them a lot in my searches for other humidifiers:
This style that attaches to the top of a 5 gallon jug. I think they look goofy, but certainly have a known quantity of water that’s easy to check!
Edited to add: sorry, that’s a duplicate! @DesertHeartGardens linked similar!
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I have this. Works great.
Set it right on a 5gal jug. 
Hell I could rig it to a 55 gal drum if I wanted to! 
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Does it need to be distilled / RO though?
Unfortunately, I believe so.
I havent used it in over a year. But, I do remember that it would leave a white dust(so-to-speak) on sufaces. This is because I was using regular water I’m sure.
Easy enough to wipe off. Just very annoying.
Especially if it is to close to the vegging plants and you have spend hours of your evening wipping eight hundred and seventy nine leaves off with a damp cloth!
Don’t ask how I know this. 
I was actually recently thinkjng of putting this unit back in service. The way I see it, I have two options.
Try and catch that stuff, but not to much of the moisture. Possibly a cloth, filter, or board. Idk yet. It’s just been a back seat idea in my head.
Or option two, the easy route:
Buy a countertop distilled water generator!
I will likely choose the latter.
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I have a water cooler and refill 5 gallon jugs from a filter because I don’t like our tap water and I don’t want to buy water from the grocery store. You could do the same with RO water. My dad actually used to have an RO system rigged to fill a 5 gallon jug actually. The filter was mounted to a utility sink in the basement. He just had a pump on top of it, but he didn’t run hydro or have a humidifier set up on it.
If you add in the cost of the ro in a basement, mim better off buying the one I linked above. It takes tap.
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Respectfully, I know running r/o sucks but it’s definitely the better route, for you and your plants. Speaking bluntly here, and this may be just for me in the city i was in but the tap water coated my leaves and everything else in the grow room with a nasty residue, I dont even want to know what i was inhaling every time i went in the grow, the plants looked choked out after a month or so.
The cheapest most reliable solution for me was running a 1/4 hose from under the nearest sink and running that to a budget friendly R/O filter then to a 5 gallon bucket with a float valve and a 10 head mist maker.
I’ve been running this in a 12 by 12 room for 2 years and it gets the job done. It cycles on maybe 35 to 45 seconds and has no issues keeping the room stable even with a large portable ac running.
R/O filter. Not the one i used but affordable.
Mist maker. Exactly what i use.
Ceap computer fan to push the air in the bucket
A 30 dollar plug inkbird humidistat. Not the same but similar probably better imo.
A cheap timer. Not the one i use but surely it keeps time
Only problem ive had and i have had this with the BS little humidifiers on Amazon, is run away; meaning the relay on the humidistat gets stuck in the on position, so i added a second in line lol.
Hope this helps, i know its not the cheapest route, that said only thing ive had to do with this thing for 2 years is keep it clean