Ukulele Humidifier???

Depends on the kind. If its sponge based, it's probably fine. If it's membrane based, in the long run tap water will scale depositing the minerals on the inside surfaces slowing down the evaporation.
 
If it says use distilled water, you must use distilled water. Or you will permanently damage the humidifier.

These types of humidifiers are usually the water-gel based ones (eg: Oasis) and sponge-type ones (eg: Planet Waves).
If you use tap water, it will cause residue to be left behind and eventually making the humidifier un-usable.

Good news is, distilled water is easy to find and very cheap. I get mine from the pharmacy (I work in one). We use distilled water to make up antibiotic syrups.
 
If it says use distilled water, you must use distilled water. Or you will permanently damage the humidifier.

These types of humidifiers are usually the water-gel based ones (eg: Oasis) and sponge-type ones (eg: Planet Waves).
If you use tap water, it will cause residue to be left behind and eventually making the humidifier un-usable.

Good news is, distilled water is easy to find and very cheap. I get mine from the pharmacy (I work in one). We use distilled water to make up antibiotic syrups.

You must have healthy ukes.
 
The problem isnt the gel, it's the barrier that keeps the gel in. Water vapor has to pass out of the container for it to work. If the pores get covered with scale(lime/calcium) it will slow down or stop the evaporation.

For example.. I just replaced the water pad in my home humidifier (kind strapped to the furnace). Just going to a new pad raised the humidity 10% without touching the humidity dial.

The reason I mention this, is that the gel is cheap and easy to replace. If it was a matter of gel, you'd be better off using tap and then changing out the gel once in a while. But the gel is held in by something, either a membrane, some kinda fabric, gortex, etc. If that barrier gets scaled, you'll need to replace the whole thing.

Sponge ones usually don't have a barrier, and there's just a hole. I'm not convinced you can get enough scale on a sponge to ruin it because you wring it each time you soak the sponge. If there was scale, it would break/flake out when you wring it out.
 
I always assumed that the extra minerals in tap water would gunk up the pores (to be technical about it), and I do use distilled water, but the funny thing is that the Oasis web site just says that distilled water is recommended, and that if you do use tap water, use a low flow (apparently assuming that you're going to put the Oasis directly under the faucet). Yes, long, run-on sentence.
 
Sponge ones usually don't have a barrier, and there's just a hole. I'm not convinced you can get enough scale on a sponge to ruin it because you wring it each time you soak the sponge. If there was scale, it would break/flake out when you wring it out.

The "sponge" used for some humidifiers are not for wringing out. They're a special, somewhat "hard" sponge that is behind a solid mesh of some sort. The manufacturer instructions say using tap water will cause residue to start clogging up the pores of the sponge and reduce effectiveness

eg:

humidifier.jpg
 
I think I've used about half of my gallon jug of distilled water in 2 years. That's for 4 case and 2 large cabinet sponge based humidifiers. And the jug cost less than $2. It's hardly worth thinking about.
 
To be honest, I don't use a humidifier for my ukes. My ukes all live outside their cases and I don't see the point in keeping it at a constant humidity only when it is in its case, only to abruptly expose it to humidity changes when it leaves the case.. The humidify in my room is fairly stable most of the time at 50-70 humidity.

A GREAT use for my humidifier is to keep my Cuban cigars at the right storage conditions. I store them in my ukulele case.

I managed to create the perfect conditions for cigars (21 degrees Celsius, 70% Humidity)



The Oasis works really well.

I had lesser success with Herco humidifiers, which only managed to get the humidity level to 50-60.
 
I have seven Oasis humidifiers that have only been filled with tap water. They have worked just fine like that for years...
 
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