Saturday, November 13, 2010

Sometimes Retro Meets Utility in a Beautiful Way. Status: Plugged In

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Asked for by the Girlfriend. Found at the thrift store down the street!

A few days ago the weather finally cooled off enough to turn on the heat. Since

the house has radiant heat (hot water flows through the floor...so awesome!) it

takes a little while for it to have an effect. We keep a small but efficient space

heater to warm up the bedroom for the few days it takes for the heat to even out in

the house but it's little electric elements REALLY dry out the air. The Girlfriend

bugged me last year to get us a Humidifier but I never got around to it. Well fret

no more sweety!

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When I looked at it at the Goodwill I plugged it in to see if it worked. Nothing

happened. I thought, well...some things like this won't work without the water so it

doesn't burn itself out when it empties. I thought I'd give it a chance seeing as it

was just 9 bucks! So I brought it home a put some water in the jar, plugged it in

and....nothin'. Huh, not a sound. I decided that since it was put together with

screws the manufacturer wanted me to take it apart. Upon opening it up and

examining the innards I found No Moving Parts.

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I expected a fan or a siphon pump or Something. Just 2 metal bars that are

covered by a closed plastic tube with a few holes in the bottom to let water in. The

two bars are connected to the 2 wires that plug into the wall. The bars heat up the

water in the enclosed tube, it collects in the cap and comes out of a small opening

near the top. I cleaned off the 2 bars and put it all back together, filled the jar

again, plugged it back in and waited. About 3 minutes later there was the steam!

The great thing is, it'll never wear out!

4 comments:

  1. Nice! I'm going to have to keep my eye out for one of those. I have radiator heat which requires a humidifier at all times so you can't really have to many.

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  2. I've seen these at the Antique Malls around town from time to time but never really investigated what they were. When I spotted this one next to what was obviously a humidifier, the "mystery" was solved! I bought the other humidifier as a backup! It's more of a '60s design so I was covered either way!

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  3. My family had a bevvy of those with plastic reservoirs but exactly the same top.
    I'd probably develop some anxiety seeing them around the house these days. Too many memories of being a little kid coughing up my lungs in bed.

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  4. It does have an "air" of medical equipment. But it also looks a little like a fat little rocket. And man does it work!

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