Can You Put Essential Oils in a Humidifier?

Putting essential oils in a humidifier can help you extract their maximum benefits by diffusing them in the air to produce their therapeutic as well as fragrant effects. 

However, despite its numerous positive effects like antibacterial and antifungal properties with a capability to treat and manage headaches and common cold better, is it safe to use essential oils in a humidifier is still a matter of concern among buyers. 

That is why after going through multiple online sources to bring you our answer to the question of Can you put essential oils in a humidifier we have prepared a short informative guide. 

In fact, apart from just answering questions like Is it safe to use essential oils in a humidifier we have also made a list of What essential oils can you put in a humidifier to help you better understand its utilization and advantages. 

What Are Essential Oils?

Essential oils, unlike their name, are not really ‘oils’. Instead, they are highly concentrated plant-based extracts usually obtained from natural sources like leaves, stems, and flowers of any therapeutic plant species. 

They can be used in a diffuser to produce their effect by mixing in the air. This method usually works best for people with a constant common cold, allergies, congestion, and other respiratory problems. 

Or, you can simply dilute the mixture with any compatible oil and apply it to the skin to get a local effect. This technique is generally employed to produce a cosmetic effect, as in the case of hair and face masks. It is also great for keeping your skin fresh and hydrated throughout dry weather conditions.

Are Essential Oils Good For Health?

Essential oils function excellently well towards helping you deal with health-related issues like:

• Sleeping problems
• Fungal infections
• Stress and anxiety

Apart from these, they are also known to contain antioxidant properties good for protecting the skin cells against damage by free radicals. Besides, when added to food items, they may also help to increase their shelf life. 

The fragrance-producing effect (e.g., Lavender oil) at the same time helps to improve sleep quality, particularly in individuals with dementia. So, we can undoubtedly conclude that they are, of course, good for health regardless of whether or not a person is suffering from severe health issues. 

Benefits of Using Essential Oils in a humidifier

When you search for the answer to Can you put essential oils in a humidifier, it is essential to first have a clear idea about how and why it is beneficial for your health in the long and short term. So, here is a list of the 5 most prominent benefits you can unlock by using essential oils in a humidifier.

Antimicrobial Nature: Essential oils have antimicrobial characteristics. Therefore, they help people suffering from flu or cold when given in the vapor form through a humidifier.

Easier Breathing: They encourage better and more effortless breathing by keeping your nasal passage moist and soft. Thus, they directly improve your immunity by protecting your lungs against germs and dirt that the air carries by purifying it and moisturizing it. 

To relieve stress: Essential oils are best known for their stress-relieving characteristics. Likewise, using essential oil-generated aromatherapy regularly helps you to relax and be at peace with yourself after having a stressful day at work. Henceforth, these can certainly help you stay away from depression in the long run.

Headaches and physical problems: Apart from being great mental relaxants, they are also incredible for physical problems like headaches, skin allergies and can produce a soothing effect on overworked muscles. 

Increases attentiveness: Research has proved that people who find it challenging to maintain focus while studying or working can use essential oil diffusers or humidifiers to focus better. 

Sleep Problems: Having a natural aroma in the air is soothing for the nose and creates a relaxant environment. By enhancing the ambiance of your bedroom, essential oil diffusers help to improve the overall quality and duration of your sleep, especially if you have a hard time staying asleep.

Can I Put Essential Oil In A Cool Mist Humidifier?

Even though cool mist humidifiers are good to use in dry summers, if you ask me Can you put essential oils in a regular cool mist humidifier, the answer will definitely be a NO; you cannot. Unless the humidifier’s description clearly mentions that you can use essential oil with it, never do it. 

Why? Because cool mist humidifiers use fans to produce a cold mist. Therefore, essential oil hinders the fan’s functioning; it may also clog the filters and damage the structure of the material used in the body of the humidifier. In fact, in the case of some humidifiers putting essential oil into the tank can even lead to the melting of the plastic with which it is made. 

So, you must never put essential oil in a cool-mist humidifier unless it contains an essential oil diffuser tray like Everlasting Comfort Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier.

It is a good example and also a positive answer to your question of Can you put essential oils in a regular humidifier if it revolves around cool Mist ultrasonic humidifiers. 

We went through the reviews of real-time customers who actually purchased the product and used it. Our research brought us to the conclusion that in some cases when Essential oil was put into the humidifier, the machine stopped working.

And that is why, although you can put Essential oil in a cool Mist humidifier, sometimes it may malfunction due to it. 

Besides, never put Essential oil in a humidifier if it does not contain an Essential oil diffuser. Additionally, you must take proper care about cleaning the Essential oil diffuser tray regularly to extract the maximum benefits from it. 

Can I Put Essential Oil In A Warm Mist Humidifier?

Yes, you can put essential oil in a warm mist humidifier if it has an in-built essential oil diffuser. However, you must always read the given instructions properly.

For the reason that every humidifier may not support all types of essential oils, it is crucial to only use the specific essential oil (if mentioned in the product description) for best outputs. 

One example of a warm mist humidifier that does not support the use of essential oils is the Pure Enrichment® MistAire™ Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier. The instructions are given with this machine clearly say that you must never use the Essential oil with it. 

Moreover, if you are wondering that Can I put eucalyptus oil in humidifier (Talking exclusively about this one), one customer who tried to incorporate Eucalyptus oil in the Pure Enrichment® MistAire™ Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier reported that the plastic fibers underwent disintegration on doing so. Henceforth, it is not recommended. 

Best Essential Oils For Humidifier Use

Nevertheless, there are still some brands offering Essential oil diffuser trays in their humidifiers to support your requirements. But some questions still remain unanswered. These include:  

• What essential oils can you put in a humidifier?
• Can I put tea tree oil in humidifier?
• And, can I put eucalyptus oil in humidifier?

So, to make your search a little less troublesome, here is a shortlist of 10 amazing essential oils that work perfectly fine with humidifiers supporting Essential oil diffusion. Read on to find out what works best for you.

1. Lavender Essential Oil: It is the most common type of fragrance best known for inducing feelings of relaxation and calmness which ultimately help to reduce the stress levels of individuals of all ages. 

2. Tea Tree Essential Oil: Can i put tea tree oil in humidifier is one of buyers’ most frequently asked questions because of its never-ending beneficial health effects. The answer is yes, of course. Tea tree oil, in fact, is considered to be the best air purifying agent to be used in humidifiers.

3. Rose Essential Oil: Apart from just being a treat for your nostrils, research shows that smelling rose can help treat problems like high blood pressure and anxiety. 

4. Sandalwood Essential Oil: Long before discovering soap, ancient Indians used sandalwood for cosmetic purposes. But nowadays, sandalwood produces more than just a beautifying effect. It encourages mental clarity, brings down anxiety levels, and is known to alleviate bad moods. 

5. Peppermint Essential Oil: Good for treating nausea, common cold, headache, and flu.

6. Eucalyptus Essential Oil: Finally, here is the answer to your ‘Can i put eucalyptus oil in humidifier’ query. Eucalyptus is one of the primary ingredients of many OTC medicines meant for respiratory diseases. That is why Eucalyptus oil is suitable for people suffering from respiratory problems. 

7. Lemongrass Essential Oil: Are you sick of pests and insects damaging your furniture and other valuable materials? Try incorporating an Essential lemongrass oil in your humidifier. It is a good solution that helps resist mosquitoes and other small insects.

8. Marjoram Essential Oil: Marjoram is a very mild fragrance that helps to relieve anxiety.

9. Patchouli Essential Oil: For improving mood and reducing stress-related symptoms.

10. Bergamot Essential Oil: Bergamot Produces a smell that is very much like a mixture of citrus and spice. That is why it is known to be a suitable management method for treating severe problems of anxiety and depression.

What happens if you put essential oils in a humidifier?

The answer to ‘Can you put essential oils in a regular humidifier’ is based on its compatibility with essential oil. Moreover, certain factors like whether your humidifier has an oil tray or not also matters a lot when putting essential oils.

Therefore, depending on whether your humidifier supports essential oils or not, either of the following two things will occur when you put it into the machine.

Case 1: When the humidifier does not support essential oils

In this case, the answer to the question of can you put essential oils in a regular humidifier is a big fat NO, YOU CANNOT. Why? I because of the following three reasons:

Firstly, the essential oil will melt the time of your humidifier if you put Essential oil directly into the water of the time. 

Secondly, if it is a cool Mist humidifier, the essential oil may corrode the fans and other machinery like the nebulizer.

And lastly, it may also lead to malfunctioning because of the internal elements of your humidifier getting disturbed due to oils.

Case 2: When your humidifier supports essential oils

For a humidifier to support essential oil, two elements, the Essential oil tray, and an Essential oil diffuser are a must-have. Without these, the machine will not be able to process the Essential oil accurately. 

On the positive side, the humidifiers which support essential oils, the oil will get mixed with water and are released in the mist. As a result, they start producing their therapeutic and fragrant effects, which are highly beneficial for health in the long run. However, the only condition is that the humidifier must support essential oil diffusion. 

Wrapping up

That brings me to the end of this blog. We hope we were able to solve your query of can you put essential oils in a humidifier in the correct manner. Nevertheless, the only suggestion for you is to always check the product description before buying a humidifier. 

It is crucial to get a clear idea about whether or not you can use an Essential oil with the device. Also, it is an excellent practice to help you avoid buying the wrong product, which may not satisfy your needs completely. We hope it helps. Thanks for reading!