Desktop Humidifier

Every winter its the same thing. Temperatures drop, the air gets dry and noses start running away. One thing that helps is having a good humidifier in your home. But hat about your office at work? Most humidifiers i see are pretty big and would take up too much desk space. Not to mention can be overkill for a small office. I for one sit in a little 10'x10' office. So i need a decent humidifier that is no bigger then an adult shoe box. Having found nothing that size commercially i had to come up with something on my own. Here is what i came up with. 

Materials Needed:

- Empty baby wipes container
- Scrap piece of aluminum (approximately 7.5"x5")
- 20oz Dasani water bottle
- 80mm PC fan with mounting screws
- SPDT switch (any switch will do)
- 9V AC/DC power adapter 
- power connector compatible with your AC/DC power adapter
- Humidifier filter
- Small peice of scrap wire ( approximately 6")

Tools Needed:

- Dremel with fiberglass reinforced cutting wheel. 
- Cordless drill
- 1/4" drill bit
- 5/32" drill bit
- jewelers file set
- Tin snips
- Hot glue gun
- Phillips head screw driver
- Soldering iron
- Scissors

Steps:

- Laying out the Container
- Fitting the top plate
- Adapt the bottle
- Wire the electronics
- Final product

Step 1: Laying out the Container

For the container we will be using an empty baby wipe container. The top of the container is rounded and makes it very difficult to mount anything to it. Rather then remove the top completely we want to hold onto it for easy access to the inside for cleaning and changing of the filter. Using our Dremel with cut off wheel we want to cut out a 6.25"x 4.5" section from the top of the container. Leave about 1/4" of material along the back side of the container. This will put you in line with the back side of the flip up lid's hinge joint. 

Next we need to make a couple of 1/4" cuts into the front part of the lid. The area where the flip lid release button use to be. This is where the top plate will be fitted and helps hold it in place.

Along the left side of the container we need to create a vent. This is where the air will be drawn through the filter collecting the moisture. The plan is for the bottle to be on the left side of the container. First you want to measure about 1.5" up from the bottom then start drilling 1/4" holes into the side. The more holes you put in the better airflow you will have across the filter. I did 4 rows of 7 holes.

Don't forget to use your files or even some sand paper to clean up the cut and drilled edges.

Comments

[DrChill]

This might work more efficiently atop a board on a radiator, or near a source of heat, or a heat register.

[mpilchfamily]

This is meant to be a cool mist humidifier. I own this humidifier and loosely based the build off it.

[pooh1485]

This is a great idea .I hope you dont mind I built one with a few mods, My daughter is sick and needed one and I saw this. It works great I made mine child friendly. Thanks for sharing.

[mpilchfamily]

Glad it could help. I'd love to see what kinds of changes you made when you get a chance.

[skeetshooter11]

awsome idea but i dont want to get my computer wet

[mpilchfamily]

How would you get your computer wet. If your worried about it being to close to your PC its not a problem. Even in a little 10' x 10' room it only raises the humidity to about 30% at best. That's just a guess but it doesn't put that much moisture in the air. Like i said it takes about 8 or 9 hours for it to put 20oz of water into the air.

[Brad I.]

This is a great looking project.

I have a question. Why is the filter closer to the bottle than the fan?

[jj.inc]

The fan sucks the air through the filter through the holes he drilled in the side of the container. This forces air through it instead of just going over it

[Brad I.]

Ahh... Thanks.

[mpilchfamily]

Plus the bottle helps to hold the filter against the side of the container.

[glenco45]

Looks good. I want to build a bigger one for the bedroom. 2 fans and 2 liter soda bottle. I can get filters at Habitat for Humanity.

[heathbar64]

this is very neat. One question. in my experience using a bottle this way, the suction tended to collapse the botte. how have you solved thath problem here?

[mpilchfamily]

There is a little bit of suction but not enough to overwhelm the bottle's integrity. No water is being sucked out of the bottle its all gravity fed. Just like any self feeding dog water dish or water cooler. Once the water level drops below the cut outs the bottles sucks in an air bubble allowing more water to fill the unit. In the past 2 weeks i haven't seen any part of the bottle collapse.

[heathbar64]

Maybe I tried a thinner bottle or something in my project, but it had enough give that it sucked in and let too much water come out.

[jj.inc]

I really like this, but I figured I would let you know you can find small "travel sized" humidifiers really easily. We have one we picked up at Walgreens. It is an ultrasonic one and poors out cool water vapor before dispersing into the air.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ie=UTF-8&ion=1#hl=en&tbm=shop&sa=X&ei=hKfzTu_aLKnYiQL1hYW4Dg&ved=0CG8QBSgA&q=travel+humidifier+ultrasonic&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=2279860aca39e76e&ion=1&biw=1920&bih=995

[mpilchfamily]

Thanks! I've seen the small units, but why buy something when you can build one for free out of items you already have around the house?

[Madcatw]

Great project. Two observations, if I may.

1) Perhaps a cage over the fan to keep fingers out.

2) Wouldn't it be better to reverse the airflow and blow out the holes rather than be constantly bathing the fan in moisture?

[mpilchfamily]

Oddly enough i didn't have any 80mm fan grills on hand. I do have a couple of 90mm but didn't want to put additional holes in the unit to mount it.

The amount of moisture going by the fan is no worst then it gets on a day with 70% humidity. I've had this running constantly for about 2 weeks now and have had no problems.

[hzizh]

great project. But there is small humidifier sold in taobao

[mpilchfamily]

Yep i've seen the small humidifiers online. Didn't see any at my local retailers and figured i could build one rather then spend $13 on one. I already had all the parts on hand so it cost me nothing to make.

[Itscrafty]

Thank you so much for making this instructable!!!

[imabrat]

My iguana thanks you kindly. Wonderful project; thank you!

[chuckr44]

Simple, minimal parts, and cheap. That's what I like. You get 5 stars from me. Thanks!

My humidifer helps prevent colds, so it saves me on my medical bills in the long run.