What is an Aromatherapy Humidifier?

Aromatherapy is the new buzzword for bedroom luxury. It is claimed that having aromatherapy diffusers and humidifiers will help with everything from breathing easier to sleeping soundly. They even come in fancy shapes and colors to help you customize your room.

But does using a humidifier for aromatherapy actually work? And can you add essential oils to your humidifier to save yourself some time and money?

Spoiler alert: adding essential oils to regular humidifiers will only cost you more.

Especially when diffusers are becoming so popular, you need to know the main differences between the two devices. This article can help you see which device is best for your needs.

We’ve even included a handy table, so you can directly compare.

What is an Aromatherapy Humidifier?

To answer this question, we first need to look at a different one. What is aromatherapy?

Aromatherapy is a holistic treatment where essential oils are mixed with water, heated, and the vapor is inhaled for medicinal purposes. Essential oils are the oils extracted from natural materials, such as lavender, the eucalyptus leaf, and rose. They can be mixed to create different aroma combinations.

Essential oils are considered beneficial. Different oils you use are supposed to have different healing properties and to help with different ailments. With over 100 different essential oils available, aromatherapy is said to ease pain, improve sleep quality, and even help your digestion.

An aromatherapy humidifier is a humidifier that allows you to humidify your room whilst infusing the air with essential oils.

In this device, the essential oils will be diffused into the mist that is created by the humidifier. This means you get the best of both worlds; you can increase the moisture in the air and create your own aromatherapy treatment!

Sometimes these can be called ultrasonic aroma humidifiers. They are perfect for people who think that they want to improve and infuse the dry air in their house, but do not want to purchase two different devices.

Moreover, it can be a great present if someone needs a humidifier. Rather than going for something average, you can give them the option of adding aromatherapy into their lives.

It is important to make sure you are buying the right kind of humidifier. Ultrasonic aroma humidifiers and humidifiers for aromatherapy are quite rare to find. Remember to check that the humidifier you want to buy specifically allows you to use essential oils before you purchase.

Aroma Essential Oil Diffuser vs Humidifier

Diffusers and humidifiers are often confused. This is because smaller humidifiers can look quite like diffusers. They also both offer a stream of mist, which seems at first glance like it does the same job.

However, diffusers have a different function to humidifiers. Knowing the difference between these will make all the difference when figuring out which one is perfect for your situation.

The way diffusers most commonly work is by using an ultrasonic technique, where plates inside the device vibrate to mix and vaporize the essential oil and water. With the exception of a few ultrasonic aroma humidifiers, humidifiers do not have this function.

Instead, humidifiers increase the humidity in the air to a set amount and control the levels through the day. Diffusers are unable to do this.

This is partially because of their small size, and partially because of the essential oils. Only a small amount of essential oils should be released at any one time. If you increased the mist spray of a diffuser dramatically then the amount of essential oils in the air would also increase. You need a specialized machine to control this.