You might be wondering why a singer would need a device like a humidifier. In fact, some people might not even know what a humidifier is.
However, if you’re looking for a method to greatly enhance the health of your vocal cords, getting a humidifier might be a great idea. Read on if you’re looking the best humidifier for singers!
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Why Should a Singer Buy a Humidifier?
Simply put, a humidifier is a simple electric device that disperses and spreads water in the form of mist to fill up the room.
This mist can be hot or cold, and you can also add essential oils to the humidifiers to turn it into a diffuser. The mist produced by the humidifier is inhaled and absorbed by our bodies.
When that happens, you’ll be enjoying a lot of benefits. These perks won’t only work well for your music career, but it’ll benefit your personal health as well.
Let’s have a brief overview of some of the advantages that you’ll enjoy by having one of these appliances in your room.
Easier Breathing
As a rule of thumb, moist air is much easier to breathe than the dry ones. A singer must be able to breathe comfortably to reach and unlock certain levels of their voice. In other words, a humidifier will easily help you sound better.
Easier breathing also has a lot of benefits. With easier breathing, more oxygen reaches the brain, which can help a songwriter think more clearly while writing a new song.
Hydrates Your Vocal Cords Better than Water
As a singer, your vocal cords are your bread and butter. That’s why you’ll find some singers go to some far extremes to boost the condition of their vocal cords.
As you know, singing requires easy breathing, which is always achieved by keeping the air a bit moist. However, a humidifier won’t only boost your sound quality, but it’ll also protect it from damages.
The science behind air quality and vocal cords is easy. To put it in the clearest way possible, dry air will slowly pull all the moisture out of your throat.
When that happens, the body tries to compensate for the throat dryness by pulling the moisture of your vocal cords to balance things out. This will make your vocal cords highly irritated, itchy, and produce the grating and deteriorated sound.
That’s why singers of all levels keep a handy bottle of water to hydrate their vocal cords whenever they get dry.
While water is great for hydration in general, it might not be enough to reach and remoisten your vocal cords, as they take two different routes once you swallow water.
The problem is, once you drink, singers get a false sensation of relief and continue singing, which can damage their vocal cords permanently with time.
That’s why a humidifier is much better at reaching your vocal cords in a much faster and more convenient way, keeping them moist at all times.
Keeps Your Skin and Hair at Optimum Moisture
A singer who just sings has become a thing of the past in our modern world. Today, a singer is better called a “showperson”, as they now have to sing, play music, and even throw a performance to move the audience.
That’s why you need to make sure that you’re on a top-level when it comes to your health and self-care. Luckily, a humidifier can also help with that, as it can improve the quality of your hair and skin and reduce aging by keeping them moisturized.
Retains the Structure of Many Musical Instruments
If you play music, you’ll also notice a remarkable improvement in the quality of sounds produced by the musical instruments kept with a room that has a humidifier.
For example, the strings of a guitar or piano need to stay at a certain level of humidity to give the best sounds. Not only that, but it’ll also extend the time between some maintenance breaks noticeably.
Preventing Flu and Speeding Up Recovery
At the end of the day, some bad flu is all it takes for a singer to lose his voice for a week, which can be problematic if it’s your only source of income.
While humidifiers are exceptionally beneficial for musicians and singers, they’re mainly used as a method to prevent some diseases like influenza, allergies, and coughs.
In fact, there’s a study that confirms that humidity levels above 40% reduce the transmission of influenza.
Additionally, it makes the cough much more productive, so you’ll get rid of all the sputum that’s messing with your voice much quicker.
How to Protect Your Voice?
As you already know, your vocal cords are the most precious thing to you as a singer. In fact, protecting your voice is probably the main reason you’re reading this.
Temporary hoarseness of voice is something you shouldn’t worry about. However, you can significantly reduce its incidence by following some health tips.
Here are some of the best methods to protect your vocal cords and voice from temporary and permanent hoarseness of voice.
Keep a Humidifier Around You
As you now know, the humidity of the air is your key to achieve an unbeatable level of air quality. Humidifiers are the best and easiest way to maintain the air at an acceptable level of humidity.
Especially in winter, you need to keep the air within a humidity level of 30 to 45% at all times to protect your voice from breaking easily.
Avoid Excessive Alcohols and Coffee Consumption
Alcohol is a direct dehydrating agent. This means that it’ll directly draw the moisture out of your throat and strain your vocal cords.
Also, drinking a lot of caffeine will make you lose a lot of the fluids in your body, which will indirectly draw the moisture of your vocal cords. That’s why you need to drink them with moderation and follow them up with a cup of water.
Make A Habit of Warming Up Before Performing
Never underestimate the effect of warming up before rehearsals and performing. This can be as simple as gliding through high and low tones with some vowel sounds.
Simple stretches to your neck and shoulders as well as humming can greatly boost the condition of your vocal cords and protect them from damage.
Quit Smoking for Good
Singing depends on the health of the mouth, throat, and lungs. However, smoking can easily destroy the three of them, as they can cause a lot of inflammation and unnecessary coughing that damages the throat.
According to tons of studies, smoking is the lead cause of lung cancer and throat cancer. In the late stages of that cancer, the entire voice box and cords are surgically removed and patients lose the ability to talk permanently.
Get Enough Rest
Just like any part in the body, your vocal cords deserve their share of rest, especially after a long day of rehearsing or singing.
Always make sure that you give your voice some rest after using it continuously for some time. This can be as easy as watching TV or browsing the internet silently all the way to full 8-hour sleep.
Don’t Overwork Your Vocal Cords
It goes without saying that shouting and screaming have some extremely bad impacts on the long-term health of your vocal cords. That’s why you need to fight the urge to shout.
Don’t Use Intense Mouthwashes and Gargles
Some people are too conscious of their breath. However, simple mouthwashes can do the trick.
You can also use products like Singer’s Saving Grace Professional Strength, which is a herbal remedy for the throat that is specifically designed for professional vocal users.
Considerations When Buying a Humidifier for Singers
As a singer, you’ll be using a humidifier for specific reasons that aren’t relevant to the common buyer.
For that reason, there are some aspects and points that you should keep in mind while shopping for a humidifier. Here are some of these aspects and what you should do about them.
Coverage
One of the first things a singer should consider while shopping for a humidifier is its coverage level.
Every humidifier has its own coverage that’s usually in square feet. However, some manufacturers measure it according to the recommended room size. In that case, they’re small rooms, medium rooms, and large rooms.
It’s essential that you choose a nice spot that suits the humidifier. Ideally, music production studios count as small to medium rooms. So, if you were going to use it in a studio you won’t have to buy one with huge square footage.
If you’re going for a portable humidifier that you can take anywhere, coverage of about 100 square feet should be more than enough.
You should also know that high ceilings count as extra square feet, so you’ll need a higher coverage one if you’re using it in a high ceiling room.
Water Tank Size
The tank size is another crucial factor that you should keep in mind. A larger tank means a longer time until you need to refill the device.
This can be annoying if you’re mid-sessions. However, if you don’t mind frequent refilling you can settle for a small tank.
need a 6-liter (1.6 gallons) tank to keep the device running for 24 hours. Using this little piece of information, you can do the math and find a suitable tank size for you.
Operation Noise
Humidifiers produce some noise, which might be unacceptable for singers. If that’s the case, you should avoid loud evaporative humidifiers.
Instead, you should opt for ultrasonic humidifiers. These ones are extremely quiet while staying ultra-efficient.
Ease of Use and Adjustability
No matter how feature-packed the humidifier is, it can be pointless if you don’t know how to use it.
It’s important that the humidifier comes with clear instructions and an easy-to-use control panel that shows you everything you need to know to run the device. Additionally, the device needs to be easily adjustable to set it on your ideal requirements.
Filter
Although a filterless humidifier would give you excellent results, it still doesn’t compare to the filtered ones.
If you’re a singer, you need to make sure that the air quality is at its top condition. In that case, you should opt for a humidifier with a filter.
These ones get rid of all the harmful microbes and minerals that might be floating in the air. This allows for a healthier and smoother voice.
However, you need to know that filtered devices come with some drawbacks. For example, filters have fans, so they’re usually a bit noisier than filterless devices.
Also, they require manual maintenance of changing the filter periodically. So, you should weigh in all the pros and cons of filters before making your final decision.
Cool and Warm Mist
While both cool and warm humidifiers are equally good for singers, you should know that warm misters come in various types.
If you’d appreciate a warmer mist in the cold room, you should go for warm humidifiers. However, I recommend ultrasonic ones, as they’re the quietest of all the warm humidifiers.
Top 5 Humidifiers for Singers Available on the Market
Finding a good humidifier for singers’ purposes can be quite overwhelming with all the options available out there.
To make the search process easier for you, I’ve compiled a list that features the top 5 options on the market along with a brief overview of each one.
1. GENIANI Top Fill Cool Mist Humidifiers & Essential Oil Diffuser
Kicking off the list with one of my favorite cool mist humidifiers that are available on the shelves.
This smart mist humidifier is a highly versatile model. On one hand, you can use it as a cool-mist humidifier to moisten your vocal cords, skin, and hair. On the other hand, you can easily turn it into an essential oil diffuser.
All you have to do is add little drops of your favorite essential oil for the perfect soothing session and aromatherapy before and after the performances.
The machine is extremely easy to use and highly adjustable, which many users were pleased to have. The device comes ready with a clear instructions manual, so you can adjust the diffuser to your likings.
The humidifier has 3 different speed settings for mist dispensing. Not only that, but you can set the device to automatically adjust the settings to maintain a healthy level of humidity.
The device can take up to 4 liters of water and users claimed that it can work non stop for 18 hours before it needs a refill. The best part about it is that it has an automatic shut off for when you forget about it, so you can save the water for later.
It’s also super quiet, producing only about 38 decibels, which is as quiet as a clock ticking, so it won’t interfere with your gigs. The device even comes with 2 years of warranty to add an extra layer of security to the purchase.
Pros
- Adjust the humidity automatically with a built-in sensor
- Comes with 2 years of warranty
- Ultra-quiet for music playing
- Mesmerizing LED lights
Cons
- The cable is a bit short
Customers Testimonials
A lot of users mentioned that the product is easy to use and extremely quiet.
2. LEVOIT Ultrasonic Air Humidifier for Large Rooms
If money isn’t your concern, and you’re looking for an option from the top of the shelf, Levoit air humidifier is a great one to consider.
The small devices rely mainly on some concepts of thermodynamics, where the fluid’s movement speed is slowed down and the static pressure is cranked up, which causes the water to evaporate.
It comes with a 1.5-liter capacity tank (6 liters). This means that you can use it for up to 36 hours before you run out of water. It’s also ideal for huge spaces as it has a large coverage with a strong mist output.
It has all the smart features that you might be looking for in a humidifier. This includes adding essential oils and a convenient shut off timer that you can adjust from 1 to 12 hours.
Not only that, but the ultrasonic air humidifier will also shut off when the water runs out, which guarantees the safety of your workspace.
Pros
- Huge water tank
- Powerful misting
- Packed with safety features
Cons
- Premium price tag
Customers Testimonials
Despite being relatively expensive many customers stated that they’re beyond satisfied with the device.
3. TaoTronics Cool Mist Humidifier for Large Bedrooms
What makes TaoTronics humidifier special is that it offers a lot of features of an ultra-modern mist humidifier while staying relatively affordable.
The ultrasonic humidifier has a 4-liter tank that allows it to last anywhere between 12 to 30 hours depending on the misting strength.
Users enjoyed the fact that it’s remarkably quiet, which is a key consideration factor for singers and performers. They also liked that it covers large rooms quite well.
The digital screen control panel will show you all the stats you need to know about the device. It lights brightly in LED lights at night, which is an additional touch of beauty for your studio. If you’re looking for the most bang for your buck, this device should be the one you opt for!
Pros
- Excellent value for money
- A 360-degree nozzle that can be directed easily
- LCD monitor to track the condition of the humidifier
Cons
- Doesn’t feature an oil diffusing feature
Customers Testimonials
“The product is great but its water dripping sound is a bit noticeable at night”
4. Honeywell HCM350W Germ-Free Cool Mist Humidifier
Honeywell is a reputable name in the production of fans and humidifiers, so it’s no surprise that one of its products makes the list.
If you prefer a small and portable humidifier that you can take along anywhere, the HCM350W model is a great pick.
The device’s tank has a capacity of about 1 gallon (3.8 liters). It also weighs less than 8 pounds, so you’ll be able to take it along anywhere.
The device is perfect for covering a medium-sized room like a studio. Not only will it help the air reach an optimum level of humidity, but it’ll also provide a germ-free mist.
According to Honeywell, this device comes with a special technology that helps it kill 99.9% of the bacteria in the water.
Pros
- An excellent choice for portability and singers on the move
- Cleans the air from germs
- Easy to clean and use
Cons
- Requires frequent refills
Customers Testimonials
Many users really enjoyed the fact that its tank is dishwasher safe and easy to clean.
5. Vicks Filter-Free Ultrasonic Visible Cool Mist Humidifier
If you’re short on money, but you’re a fan of ultrasonic humidifiers, this one should be among your top choices. While it won’t cost you an arm and a leg, it comes with multiple features that make it an excellent choice for buyers on a budget!
The device has a tank capacity of about 1.2 gallons (4.5 liters). According to Vicks, this device is able to produce cool mist for up to 33 hours before running out.
The device is relatively quiet, so you can keep it up close while singing and it won’t make you lose focus.
One of the things that makes this one extra special is that it’s ideal for health-conscious musicians. As you know, humidifiers have a lot of health benefits, especially when they’re used with essential oils.
The device is compatible with Vicks VapoPads and it can fit up to 2 pads at the same time for maximum relief of flu symptoms. In fact, the package includes one VapoPad, so you can try it out!
Pros
- An ideal choice for buyers on a budget
- Works for up to 33 hours
- Compatible with Vick VapoPads
Cons
- A bit difficult to clean
Customers Testimonials
A user mentioned that the machine is pretty quiet while working, but cleaning the humidifier is a bit tricky for many of them due to lack of instructions.
The Best Humidifier for Singers
There you have it. A complete guide with everything you need to know about humidifiers. As you can see, a humidifier is a great investment that every singer should make to enhance their vocal quality and protect their vocal cords for drying out.
A good humidifier for a singer needs to be efficient while staying quiet. For these reasons, I think that GENIANI Cool Mist Humidifier is the best humidifier for singers.
It has a decent tank size, so it won’t bother you with refills. Also, it’s backed with 2 years of warranty, so you won’t have to worry about that!
Related: check out our vocal humidifier review!
