A Big Clive-esque Connextras follow-up (before the main video!)

Aside from being cheap, it's also fail safe - once it runs dry it will automatically turn off rather than catch fire. I'm curious to know, is there any current regulator to limit the current to 5.8A, or is the current draw limited only by the conductivity of the water? (what happens if you fill it with really salty water?)

I used to run a DEhumdifier (NZ is a wet wet place) and it used a reasonable amount of energy (600watt consumption or so) but that was also 600w heat. I even had a rack of incandescent bulbs as I needed the heat, but in summer, all but one were replaced with CFL lamps. (Electricity is also crippling expensive in NZ and Australia, though Australia pays high wages)

Anton

My assumption is that it is the electrodes themselves that are reacting and oxidizing

sand500

While it may seem wasteful, remember any waste is heat...which if you're running in the cold season means it's heating your room with any wasted energy. Yes?

Sierra Mistystep

One of them gave birth.

Stephen Gillie

I don't think Vicks vaporizers are meant to be used as humidifiers for long stretches. If it's marketed that way, it shouldn't be. I thought they are meant to be used to permeate a bedroom with the Vicks solution for medicinal purposes. I find them to be helpful and besides that, I think Vicks smells great.

Professor Kroog

Was just getting ready to comment on this very thing. Get a Fluke, Fieldpiece, or Extech (see Dave Jones' video on 'cheap' multimeters.)

Brad Wilmot

Please, get yourself a not cheap and SAFE multimeter to work with mains with at least CAT II safety rating. These import multimeters can easily blow up in your face or set on fire, that's how cheaply they are made.

Ahhhh humidifiers! That's what you're using gallons per watt hour for!!

Jennifer Holz

I actually took advantage of the energy hog to heat up my room a little bit. I always wondered if it had any real regulations on how much to heat the water, because in the manual for my humidifier, it said if it's not working, add some salt. And oh, I have the same cheap meter but in red.

I'm 63, and the older ones that I grew up with used flat electrodes in the basin. Every couple of years, we'd take it apart, descale the electrodes and polish them, and put it back together again. The area of Chicagoland we lived in (McHenry County) had well-water which was really hard. But there's not really anything unsafe, as long as you cover it all back up again. We named our humidifier Mt. Vesuvius.

Mike Bird

I have a cheap source of de-ionized water and I've been using that in my humidifier lately. No scale problems so far. Edit: this approach might not work well with an electrode humidifier, which relies on conducting electricity through the water.

nobody

There were times where I thought the video froze, but it was just a pregnant pause.

Mike Chimeri

Why descale when you live in a disposable culture and it fits in the trash can, amirite? Hope your 2021 is going smoothly.

Stephen Gillie

Growing up we had one of those!! Just two rows of spikes wired DIRECTLY to the mains and you stuck a hot dog onto each pair of spikes and electrocuted the dogs. I don't even think there was a switch on the cover.

Hank Lloyd Right

My humidifier is a cast iron kettle sitting on top of my wood stove.

Michael Steeves

Just "accidentally" touch the electrodes while it's plugged in, and you have a legit ElectroBoom video

That's exactly what I'd expect to be hiding inside that thing. It's merely a scaled-down version of commercial electric humidifiers that use the water, itself, as a conductor; and the amount of current draw is determined by the water level and the conductivity of the water. Scale and lime build-up is simply a fact of life with these things, and theoretically, enough scale build-up could cause internal shorting and arcing. And with no fuse protection - wheeeee...

Nope, I saw it, too.

Michael Dunn

In a remarkable coincidence, Clive made a Patreon post at almost the same time as you!

Michael Dunn

Now you just need to take a picture of it and blow it up real big so you can explain it!

Jurassic_Jacob

Not gonna lie, for a second I thought I was watching electroboom when you just plugged it in :)

Am I the only one seeing a face in the top of that thing? (where you removed the 2 Torx screws)

Try using it as a hot dog cooker!

Mark Hesse

disgustingly primitive!

Brian Miller

I am HERE for this. Hope your accent is on point.

insert me, scrolling youtube, despairing that i can’t find anything to watch insert patreon notification insert relief

Aaron Carson

Big Clivesque!! Lol.