Ultrasonic humidifiers - can cats hear them? Should I stay away from them?

lawguy

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Hi guys.  I don't remember the last time I posted here, but it was probably over a year ago at least.  Sorry about that, my life has been set to "Chaos" mode throughout law school.

Right now I've got a problem though that you can help me with.  My apartment is dry - really dry - 16% humidity.  I've never had to purchase a humidifier before this winter, and I'm up in the North Pole (which apparently was renamed Minneapolis some time back), so this winter has been brutal so far.

Are ultrasonic humidifiers not to be used with cats?  I avoided them for the last 2 days of shopping for a humidifier because I'm under the impression that cats can hear them.

The secondary follow up if yes, is whether it is something that they can hear but not unpleasant or damaging for them, or whether I'd be basically torturing them by buying one and using it?

They need a humidifier as much as I do so I'm trying to move fast on this but I keep hitting obstacles, mainly that stores are out of stock and liquidating their inventory of humidifiers because, and I'm going to quote a Home Depot employee here, "It's the end of the season."  

(up here we've got months of cold to look forward to, so I have no idea if that was wishful thinking by the guy or what that meant)
 
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lawguy

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hmm.  Seems somewhat quiet.

Let me ask this more directly:

Do you have an ultrasonic humidifier?  If so, does it appear to bother your cats?

Invisible imaginary brownies for whomever answers first.
 

cheylink

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  I have been using humidifiers for atleast 15 years during the winter when the air is especially dry from heat. They really do make a huge difference for me and even more so my kitties over the years! Cats need the moisture for their skin, especially with all the self cleaning they do. Maia has had a couple years of bacterial skin infections if I don't break out the humidifier early enough.

    Any way, as far as ultrasonic, I don't know. I can tell you that I have bought both cheap, 40-60 dollar, gallon tank humidifiers where you clean the dish once a week, as well as the more expensive with UV light to kill bacteria. After purchasing 3 of the more expensive, and either having to exchange within warranty, or them not working the following season, I decided to stick with the cheaper, warm air, gallon, Holmes humidifier which the most recent one is on its third year.

     No matter what u choose, you have to clean the dishes regularly. And I would never leave it running when your not home
 
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lawguy

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Do you by any chance know the brand and model numbers for what you're using now and additionally for those you've used in the past?

You mentioned a UV bulb which makes me think it might have been an ultrasonic unit.

Most humidifiers are ultrasonic now it seems. I'm just hesitant to try one until I know the answer to this thread's question.

As far as not running it when I'm not home - that's a problem. I want Ally and Alfie to enjoy relief from the dry air while I'm out, and I'm not home much these days unfortunately.

I was going to get a humidifier for my bedroom and another one for the living room, kitchen, and bathroom (litter box) area. Two units, or alternatively 1 large unit.

If the humidity will hold during the day when I'm out, then ok, no problem - but otherwise I'd like to figure out how to keep them comfortable when I'm not here. This is the first year it's gotten this dry and being originally from South Florida I know about dehumidifiers but I've never had to increase humidity before.

Until recently the idea seemed borderline absurd... then I learned what "dry" actually means and what it does to everything (static electricity, etc.)

I'm just praying that I can graduate in less than a year and move somewhere less north pole'ish.
 

cheylink

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  The one I have now is Holmes, HM5082, and it is actually on its third winter, the longest working one I have had yet! The expensive one I had was a Honeywell 2 gallon uv, probably was ultrasonic, don't know serial no., several years ago and all 3 I purchased did not work the following season. I lived in NYC then, and the water was so hard that mineral deposits were a huge problem. The more mineral deposits, the tougher it is to clean the heating element. I moved 2 years ago and the water is so much softer!

    What I do is run it at night when I'm sleeping, in my bedroom where Maia spends most of her time, and turn it off when I wake. This will definitely make the hugest difference for all. Everything from static electricity, you and your kitties skin dryness, sinuses, any wood furniture or musical instruments, plants.  Sometimes I only run it for a couple hours then turn it off! I don't know how large your place is, but I think that if you run one in the bedroom at night only, it will benefit all throughout the day. I have the one in my bedroom which is at the end of 4 other rooms. No need to buy one for each room. You can buy a humidity meter as well.

   What type of heat do you have?
 
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lawguy

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Alfie and Ally don't sleep in the bedroom up here. When I'm staying with my family in Florida, like I was for the last 3 weeks (got back mid last week), they stay in the bedroom with me - but I have to keep them in the living room/kitchen area. That whole area is actually their. Of my 800 square foot apartment they pretty much have 700 of it because my bedroom is tiny.

As for humidity meters, I already had one as part of my home "weather station" but I ordered 4 hygrometers yesterday morning that I can calibrate for precise accuracy. 1 for each room/area.

For heat, technically I have a gas furnace built into the central air system but I'm on the top floor so everybody below me running their heaters is what really heats my apartment. I mainly turn on the A/C in winter because it gets so got from everybody else's heat. I only run heat when the system freezes up or the drip pan drainage pipe gets clogged with ice.

I'm trying to stay away from warm mist humidifiers if possible for that reason, it gets hot enough as it is. Evaporative cool mist humidifiers initially appealed to me as they're actually just miniature evaporative air conditioners. I didn't know about the mold and bacteria issue though.

So, I'm down to air washer humidifiers or ultrasonic, the former not having much info out there about and the latter concerning me since cats can hear some ultrasonic frequencies iirc.
 

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The definition of Ultrasonic is any frequency of sound above the range of human hearing; about 16 kHz for adults, 20 kHz for babies.  Or above above 20 kHz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_range
 
The human range is on average from 20 to 20,000 Hz

Cats have excellent hearing and can detect an extremely broad range of frequencies. They can hear higher-pitched sounds than either dogs or humans, detecting frequencies from 55 Hz up to 79 kHz

Humans can only hear from 31 Hz up to 18 kHz,

Dogs hear from 67 Hz to 44 kHz
The ultrasonic humidifier usually produce the high frequency of about 1.7 MHz.

Here is a convertor

http://www.rapidtables.com/convert/frequency/mhz-to-khz.htm
 
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lawguy

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Thank you, but what about non-linear propagation and any resulting harmonics?
 
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pushylady

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I'm trying to stay away from warm mist humidifiers if possible for that reason, it gets hot enough as it is. Evaporative cool mist humidifiers initially appealed to me as they're actually just miniature evaporative air conditioners. I didn't know about the mold and bacteria issue though.
I had never heard of ultrasonic humidifiers until now!
I have three in our apartment because it's always so dry in winter and my skin feels like stretched parchment paper. I'm sure it's good for the cats too.
Two are the warm mist and one is cool mist, with a fan. I like that one but it's a bit noisy because of that fan. It seems to work very well though. You have to make sure in a small space (like a bedroom) that there's a window or door cracked to allow for some air movement. When I don't do that I get condensation on the walls and ceiling.
 
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lawguy

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Since the cats have the bulk of the apartment and I just need the bedroom cold at night to sleep, I have the air vents closed in the living room to keep warm and the only vent open is in the bedroom. There's a nearly 2" gap under the door (I have no idea why) and the air return is in the living room, so there's a lot of air movement through that gap.

I'm still hoping somebody will come along and say that they either owned or tried an ultrasonic humidifier recently and it had __________ effect on their cats.
 
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lawguy

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Bought one. They hear something when I turn it on but I'm not sure what it is. Doesn't seem to bother them in any obvious way, but I'll see how it goes.

I bought an Air-O-Swiss 7135. I might get a second one if the cats end up being ok with it, I'll wait and see how much area this one really covers first.
 

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I'm glad you posted about this...I was also looking at an ultrasonic and had similar thoughts. I know my kitties reacted badly to the noisier air purifier (non-ultrasonic) I bought this summer, but they still pass out in the same room it's in, regardless. Do you like that model so far? I've put off buying one, but this winter is so bad, and my poor Maine Coon mix is soooo static-y!
 
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lawguy

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Honestly, I'm not thrilled with the one I got. The built in hygrometer is WAY off. I got a bunch of high quality hygrometers to place around the apartment - the kind you would use for a humidor or any other carefully monitored space or room - and they all agree on the humidity. My little home weather station is pretty close to what they say, but the 7135 is off by 10%-15%... in my opinion because it's relative humidity reading is thrown off by how close the sensors are to the built in water heater (plus it heats up even without the heater turned on).

So, the Auto mode and humidistat functionality is essentially non existent. For example right now the relative humidity in my bedroom is 44% (@ 70°F). Every other sensor in the room is within +/-2% of this depending upon how close they are to the unit. The unit is set to maintain (stop running above) 40%. Unfortunately the unit thinks it's 25% right now.

So, I was going to explore this weekend returning it and getting something with a functioning humidistat.

It's a good unit otherwise. It's almost silent and it does humidify well. Maybe not 650 square feet like the manufacturer claims, but well enough.
 
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di and bob

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I have used ultrasonics for years and truly love them because they don't use those expensive filters! My cats have NEVER acted like it bothers them. and even walk through the 'mist' they put out. I've got a reverse osmosis system in my house for our water, so at least I don't have to worry about buying water for them. I've even got one that is in it's 4th year now. I bought all of them at either Walmart or Menards, so they weren't too terribly expensive. They are a little higher then the plain ones, but I got tired of paying so much for the filters, even though we have soft water and the RO system!
 
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lawguy

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I just realized that I never updated this topic. Sorry.

I never figured out what the cats were hearing, but my guess is the little fan motor. They didn't mind the unit.

I'll definitely need a second one.
 
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