Looking for recommendation: full room humidifiers

[Mhjanus]

Hi All,

I live in the Raleigh, NC area and remarkably it is very dry and cool to cold in the winter months. During the summer it is super humid and hot. As such we must always be running heat or AC to stay comfortable in my house.

Because we always have to be running the AC or forced hot air the ambient humidity in my house is always very low. I struggle to keep it near 50% in my chameleon's enclosure during the day and that requires fogging all the time. At night getting it to stay even close to 75% or above requires constant misting and fogging (I understand we should fog in the night time hours regardless). While it wouldn't be so bad to mist more or fog even more, I have a baby chameleon and don't want to keep blasting him with the mister.

I have a dragon strange hybrid cage and that is a bit better than a screen enclosure, it is still not maintaining the humidity levels I'm going for.

Before I abandon ship and bite the bullet to try a glass terrarium I wanted to try just humidifying my whole room. I was looking for recommendations for whole room humidifiers that ideally have a built in hygrostat that would turn off at the desired humidity levels.

Thanks and I appreciate any help/advice!

 

[dinomom]

Hi All,

I live in the Raleigh, NC area and remarkably it is very dry and cool to cold in the winter months. During the summer it is super humid and hot. As such we must always be running heat or AC to stay comfortable in my house.

Because we always have to be running the AC or forced hot air the ambient humidity in my house is always very low. I struggle to keep it near 50% in my chameleon's enclosure during the day and that requires fogging all the time. At night getting it to stay even close to 75% or above requires constant misting and fogging (I understand we should fog in the night time hours regardless). While it wouldn't be so bad to mist more or fog even more, I have a baby chameleon and don't want to keep blasting him with the mister.

I have a dragon strange hybrid cage and that is a bit better than a screen enclosure, it is still not maintaining the humidity levels I'm going for.

Before I abandon ship and bite the bullet to try a glass terrarium I wanted to try just humidifying my whole room. I was looking for recommendations for whole room humidifiers that ideally have a built in hygrostat that would turn off at the desired humidity levels.

Thanks and I appreciate any help/advice!

These are really expensive but work great:
https://www.dyson.com/air-treatment/air-purifier-humidifiers

You can set it for the exact humidity you want, and the water container is easy to take out and fill and seems to last pretty long between times-they even recommend just using tap water. It also monitors air quality and has HEPA filtration. You can use it as a fan as well, or not. You change settings with a remote or your phone. It gives you particulate as well as pollen readings and you will hear it crank up when they are high.

 

[EmilioTheAnkify]

I’d try making adjustments to your enclosure before making an entire room humid.
What does your enclosure currently look like? Do you have pics?

 

[DocZ]

I’d consider wrapping the front door with a window seal kit, leaving the lower small door open screen
Do you have lots of live plants? Packing the enclosure with live plants will help some too

A room humidifier can lead to issues in the room itself. Metal will rust, paint will peel, etc. something to consider before creating a whole very humid room.

Maybe with some adjustments to the cage, you can avoid this. The other consideration is a whole house humidifier that will make your home a bit less dry when the heater and AC are running

 

[Mhjanus]

These are really expensive but work great:
https://www.dyson.com/air-treatment/air-purifier-humidifiers

You can set it for the exact humidity you want, and the water container is easy to take out and fill and seems to last pretty long between times-they even recommend just using tap water. It also monitors air quality and has HEPA filtration. You can use it as a fan as well, or not. You change settings with a remote or your phone. It gives you particulate as well as pollen readings and you will hear it crank up when they are high.

Dinomom, wow that does look exactly what I am looking for. Thank you for the suggestion, might be a little too pricy for me, though!

 

[Mhjanus]

I’d consider wrapping the front door with a window seal kit, leaving the lower small door open screen
Do you have lots of live plants? Packing the enclosure with live plants will help some too

A room humidifier can lead to issues in the room itself. Metal will rust, paint will peel, etc. something to consider before creating a whole very humid room.

Maybe with some adjustments to the cage, you can avoid this. The other consideration is a whole house humidifier that will make your home a bit less dry when the heater and AC are running

DocZ, great suggestions and I've done all that. I have a dragon strand hybrid cage that has an acrylic front door and pvc walls. The only thing that is screen is the bottom service door and top panel to create a chimney effect for air flow.

Here is a picture of my enclosure.

 

[Mhjanus]

I’d try making adjustments to your enclosure before making an entire room humid.
What does your enclosure currently look like? Do you have pics?

Emilio, sure here you go:

 

[DocZ]

DocZ, great suggestions and I've done all that. I have a dragon strand hybrid cage that has an acrylic front door and pvc walls. The only thing that is screen is the bottom service door and top panel to create a chimney effect for air flow.

Here is a picture of my enclosure.

Very nice looking enclosure!

I haven’t seen a lot of people do it, but you could consider closing off some, but not all of the lower access door too. This moves the enclosure towards more of a “glass” style where humidity is held pretty well.

I would even wonder, if you’re sitting on a Dragonstrand drainage tray if it couldn’t draw air from below the enclosure even if the entire front is closed, but that is total speculation

The super humid room just reminds me of what my teenage son does to my bathroom paint with his VERY long showers

 

[dinomom]

Dinomom, wow that does look exactly what I am looking for. Thank you for the suggestion, might be a little too pricy for me, though!

I know, that is the drawback. BUT it will help your whole house. I assume you are trying to get the room up to 30 or 40% so your dragonstrand can then do the rest inside the enclosure, versus creating a super-humid room.

I am from NC originally and of course the pollen there is awful as well so this gets rid of that, too.

Here in Socal, we get fires. There was one about a hundred miles away, I didn't think anything about it until the machine gave me an alert of poor air quality and kicked into overdrive to get the smoke out of the (inside!) air. It was sensitive enough to detect that the smoke was inside despite the house not being open at all.

I figure smoke, pollution, etc. is not good for any of the animals including us humans

Dinomom, wow that does look exactly what I am looking for. Thank you for the suggestion, might be a little too pricy for me, though!

 

[Mhjanus]

Very nice looking enclosure!

I haven’t seen a lot of people do it, but you could consider closing off some, but not all of the lower access door too. This moves the enclosure towards more of a “glass” style where humidity is held pretty well.

I would even wonder, if you’re sitting on a Dragonstrand drainage tray if it couldn’t draw air from below the enclosure even if the entire front is closed, but that is total speculation

The super humid room just reminds me of what my teenage son does to my bathroom paint with his VERY long showers

That's an idea, I hadn't considered sealing some of the service door. Thanks!!

 

[Mhjanus]

I know, that is the drawback. BUT it will help your whole house. I assume you are trying to get the room up to 30 or 40% so your dragonstrand can then do the rest inside the enclosure, versus creating a super-humid room.

I am from NC originally and of course the pollen there is awful as well so this gets rid of that, too.

Here in Socal, we get fires. There was one about a hundred miles away, I didn't think anything about it until the machine gave me an alert of poor air quality and kicked into overdrive to get the smoke out of the (inside!) air. It was sensitive enough to detect that the smoke was inside despite the house not being open at all.

I figure smoke, pollution, etc. is not good for any of the animals including us humans

Dinomom, that's funny. I am from Socal. Lived in San Diego for a long time. I know all about the fires!

We must have just missed each other moving across the country.

 

[Beman]

What are your actual humidity levels? How recently was the entire cage set up? how are you taking your readings? Reason why I am asking is that I have a hybrid and am in AZ. I can get daytime levels of 40%-50% and I only mist once in the morning and twice in the evenings. I have a ton of plants though and this makes a huge difference but you do as well. My cage however is established so I do not have to fight the extremely low humidity.

 

[Mhjanus]

What are your actual humidity levels? How recently was the entire cage set up? how are you taking your readings? Reason why I am asking is that I have a hybrid and am in AZ. I can get daytime levels of 40%-50% and I only mist once in the morning and twice in the evenings. I have a ton of plants though and this makes a huge difference but you do as well. My cage however is established so I do not have to fight the extremely low humidity.

Hi Beman, thanks for reaching out.

My humidity levels during the day are 40 to 50%, which is ok but that requires almost constant fogging.

During the night, what I'm more worried about, it only stays at like 40 to 50%. I do mist at night but it goes right back down. I'm worried my panther may be losing hydration during the night as it should be around 75% or more. I can get it higher but that would require more misting and I'm trying not to blast my baby too much.

The enclosure was set up about a week ago. Although I've had these plants for a while and water them pretty often.

Taking my readings with a wall mounted digital thermometer/hygrometer. And I also have a probe that takes readings at a lower level in the cage where it is typically more humid. It controls my fogger.

 

[Beman]

Hi Beman, thanks for reaching out.

My humidity levels during the day are 40 to 50%, which is ok but that requires almost constant fogging.

During the night, what I'm more worried about, it only stays at like 40 to 50%. I do mist at night but it goes right back down. I'm worried my panther may be losing hydration during the night as it should be around 75% or more. I can get it higher but that would require more misting and I'm trying not to blast my baby too much.

The enclosure was set up about a week ago. Although I've had these plants for a while and water them pretty often.

Taking my readings with a wall mounted digital thermometer/hygrometer. And I also have a probe that takes readings at a lower level in the cage where it is typically more humid. It controls my fogger.

Ok so you are not going to be able to fog the enclosure during the day. This is going to create warm moist air which can lead to a cham developing a respiratory infection. I would order these readers... They work with an app on your phone and are very accurate. I use two one up on the basking level and one mid level. Just make sure they are not in the path of water. You can however put a cool mist humidifier in the room to up ambient levels however this can cause issues with too much moisture to your home. But first I would get the govee readers and make sure your levels are accurate. Basking should be lower than midlevel due to the heat from the lights and this is the way it should be. It creates gradients in the cage.
https://www.amazon.com/Govee-Thermo...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

If you are using an analog reader they are not very accurate.

So this is the thing about night time humidity. It is another source of hydration. It is not the end all be all of cham keeping. You work with the environment you have. Now at night if your temps are actually cool and this would be below 68 in the cage you can fog for hours at a time to pull levels up. The cooler the better here. But your never going to get 100% humidity and the thing people forget is you have to have airflow. You do not want to just pump fog into a cage without it. That is not healthy for the cham either. You have a full hybrid with the screen bottom and top panel. This is where your airflow comes from. But this is where you also loose the fog. It comes down the cage and falls out the service door. And this is normal.

Tell me about your misting schedule, length of mistings, timing, and if you are using an automated mister?

 

[Mhjanus]

Ok so you are not going to be able to fog the enclosure during the day. This is going to create warm moist air which can lead to a cham developing a respiratory infection. I would order these readers... They work with an app on your phone and are very accurate. I use two one up on the basking level and one mid level. Just make sure they are not in the path of water. You can however put a cool mist humidifier in the room to up ambient levels however this can cause issues with too much moisture to your home. But first I would get the govee readers and make sure your levels are accurate. Basking should be lower than midlevel due to the heat from the lights and this is the way it should be. It creates gradients in the cage.
https://www.amazon.com/Govee-Thermometer-Hygrometer-Bluetooth-Temperature/dp/B07R586J37/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=2TGO7SHHXVIRS&keywords=govee+thermometer/hygrometer&qid=1645630608&sprefix=govee,aps,139&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&smid=A2KZ7X05DCDJDL&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExMjRXWjhWVDcwTUkwJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDgyOTM5MktFMko3TzM2S1ZXMiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMzk3MTQ4MjVKV1EyUkhNNEhCUiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

If you are using an analog reader they are not very accurate.

So this is the thing about night time humidity. It is another source of hydration. It is not the end all be all of cham keeping. You work with the environment you have. Now at night if your temps are actually cool and this would be below 68 in the cage you can fog for hours at a time to pull levels up. The cooler the better here. But your never going to get 100% humidity and the thing people forget is you have to have airflow. You do not want to just pump fog into a cage without it. That is not healthy for the cham either. You have a full hybrid with the screen bottom and top panel. This is where your airflow comes from. But this is where you also loose the fog. It comes down the cage and falls out the service door. And this is normal.

Tell me about your misting schedule, length of mistings, timing, and if you are using an automated mister?

Beman,

Ok i ordered those readers. Thanks for the recommendation! But I wasn't sure what you meant when you wrote basking should be lower than mid-level?

I have a mist king automated misting system. I run the mister for 30 seconds when the lights go out at around 7 pm.

Then it runs for 2 mins at 1 am, 3 mins at 9 pm, and 2 mins at 7 am.

The fogger runs pretty much all night. The temperature is around 68 at night.

 

[Beman]

Beman,

Ok i ordered those readers. Thanks for the recommendation! But I wasn't sure what you meant when you wrote basking should be lower than mid-level?

I have a mist king automated misting system. I run the mister for 30 seconds when the lights go out at around 7 pm.

Then it runs for 2 mins at 1 am, 3 mins at 9 pm, and 2 mins at 7 am.

The fogger runs pretty much all night. The temperature is around 68 at night.

So your basking level... Meaning the highest level in your cage will be a reduced humidity level and higher heat level due to your lighting. Then as you go down into the plants your humidity level will increase while your ambient temp will decrease. These are the gradients that are needed.

Ok so play with your misting times... For example this is my schedule. My 3 T5HO lighting fixtures start kicking on at 7:30am then start kicking off at 4:00pm (I run 2 daylight bulbs and a UVB) So these are staggered on and off. My basking runs from 9:00-3pm. My first misting is at 7:45 for 5 minutes. Then I have another 5 minutes at 4:30pm and another at 5:30 PM. All lights are off at 6:30pm. So my cage is cooler when I do my mistings and basking is not running to add more heat. This gives my ambient humidity a kick. Also provides long enough mistings if my cham wants to drink. My ambient night humidity hovers around 60-70% without fogging and by midnight my cage temps hit about 61 degrees. Cooler temps help increase humidity.

Remember you are going for ranges. One person in their environment is not going to be the exact same as another. And high humidity without airflow and without cool temps is not advised. It is all a balancing act and you do the best you can by tweaking your misting/ lighting schedules. We have to think about how a natural environment works and try to recreate it.

I love the govee gauges. You can actually look at every minute during the day to see what it is doing. you will then know what your real night time temps are as well.

 

[Mhjanus]

So your basking level... Meaning the highest level in your cage will be a reduced humidity level and higher heat level due to your lighting. Then as you go down into the plants your humidity level will increase while your ambient temp will decrease. These are the gradients that are needed.

Ok so play with your misting times... For example this is my schedule. My 3 T5HO lighting fixtures start kicking on at 7:30am then start kicking off at 4:00pm (I run 2 daylight bulbs and a UVB) So these are staggered on and off. My basking runs from 9:00-3pm. My first misting is at 7:45 for 5 minutes. Then I have another 5 minutes at 4:30pm and another at 5:30 PM. All lights are off at 6:30pm. So my cage is cooler when I do my mistings and basking is not running to add more heat. This gives my ambient humidity a kick. Also provides long enough mistings if my cham wants to drink. My ambient night humidity hovers around 60-70% without fogging and by midnight my cage temps hit about 61 degrees. Cooler temps help increase humidity.

Remember you are going for ranges. One person in their environment is not going to be the exact same as another. And high humidity without airflow and without cool temps is not advised. It is all a balancing act and you do the best you can by tweaking your misting/ lighting schedules. We have to think about how a natural environment works and try to recreate it.

I love the govee gauges. You can actually look at every minute during the day to see what it is doing. you will then know what your real night time temps are as well.

Thank you for the advice! I modified some stuff to help. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[wanabthemoon]

I have this one in my room: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Air-Inno...r-Large-Rooms-Up-To-700-sq-ft-Black/140699244
It is super powerful and you can set it to automatic with the humidity levels you want.

I've set it to "mist" setting and left if for a few hours and you can actually see the humidity in the room (not on the walls, but in the air).

 

[Beman]

Thank you for the advice! I modified some stuff to help. I'll let you know how it goes.

Remember you may have to keep adjusting and tweaking stuff. Took me two weeks to get my cage perfect in AZ. I moved from a very high humidity environment to next to nothing lol. Get as close as you can with your environment to the recommended levels and then take a breath. Also note from season to season you may have to make adjustments.

 

[Mhjanus]

Remember you may have to keep adjusting and tweaking stuff. Took me two weeks to get my cage perfect in AZ. I moved from a very high humidity environment to next to nothing lol. Get as close as you can with your environment to the recommended levels and then take a breath. Also note from season to season you may have to make adjustments.

Beman, those govee thermo/hygrometers really helped me dial in my hydration. Thanks for the great recommendation! I'll keep monitoring and tweaking until perfect.

Thanks!