Perhaps you are a Simpsons fan who saw the episode where Homer was inhaling Vodka by putting it in his humidifier. Or maybe you heard about Alcohol inhalation somewhere and thought it might be a fun experiment to try?
In any case, the idea of breathing alcohol as vapor rather than drinking it slowly is not new.
It has been around for at least 20 years since a British businessman created a product called Alcohol Without Liquid (AWOL). At the time, it was all the rage at parties and nightclubs, but it soon fell out of favor as newer fads came in.
In summary: no, you shouldn’t put alcohol in a humidifier. It’s a dangerous idea that can damage your machine or, worse, start a fire in the house.
But let us not get ahead of ourselves. We will explain all this in more detail as the article progresses.
Why Would You Want To Put Alcohol in an Electronic Device?
Well, simply put: it sounds a lot like smoking but with alcohol.
What machinations our human brain uses to generate such devilish ideas is a subject of behavioral psychology.
But the idea itself is not hard to understand.
The humidifier turns the alcohol into a mist.
By sitting in the room, you inhale this alco-vapor, taking in a more concentrated form of the stuff.
And, in turn, you get hammered pretty quickly without lifting a finger.
Sadly for those who want to try this experiment, nothing works as simply and easily as you are imagining it.
Why Putting Alcohol in a Humidifier is a Terrible Idea
We hinted at this earlier, but here are the four big reasons we don’t want our readers to go trying out this concept.
It Can Catch Fire
Now, if there’s anything we know about alcohol, it is that the stuff can light up pretty quickly.
Consider for a moment what a humidifier is and does.
It’s a machine that turns water into mist, which is then blown across the room with the help of a fan.
Now, if you have a vaporizer or a warm mist humidifier, the “converting into mist” part is done by a heating element.
So essentially, you are putting alcohol on a pan that is set on top of a heating element.
Do you see where we are going with this?
If, by some chance, the heating element does not set the whisky on fire – there are other things in the room that easily can.
Did you know that turning on an electric device sometimes creates a spark in older switches? Yes, that’s a big risk you are taking.
What if the adjacent room is a kitchen, and someone turns on a gas stove? Kaboom.
We don’t think any high in the world is worth setting your house on fire, and I’m sure all our readers will agree with it.
Your Humidifier Can Get Damaged
Humidifiers are supposed to work with water. Alcohol (as you can judge by the name rubbing alcohol) is a corrosive agent.
If you start putting alcohol in a tray designed to hold water, it might react with the substance and damage the whole humidifier.
Health Risks
All alcohol is bad for you. But some are worse than others.
When we drink alcohol through our mouths, it goes through our stomachs, is absorbed in the gastric juices there, and then a diluted form enters our bloodstream.
Inhalation works very differently – the alcohol goes directly into our blood.
That means you can get hammered almost immediately, which is not a good thing.
Alcohol is a suppressant. If consumed in large quantities, it can dull your heartbeat and slow down your breathing.
If it starts having a reaction with your body, you won’t be in a position to stop anything, you will be too drunk to notice what is happening.
Moreover, if there are children or others in the home, the vapor would spread quickly and affect them too.
It would be like intentionally spreading carbon monoxide in the house.
Moreover, if you OD on alcohol, the typical response of the body is to vomit and hence purge it out.
But with inhaled alcohol, this is simply not possible.
It Doesn’t Work!
There are several accounts online that alcohol-vapor devices do not work.
Apparently, people get too high too quickly.
But the moment they come out of the room, it doesn’t take more than a few minutes for the alcohol level in the body to go down.
While we are no experts in the matter, it won’t make any sense to risk so much for a high that doesn’t even work, as per most people who tried it.
How About Putting Rubbing Alcohol in a Humidifier?
Rubbing alcohol is different from concentrated drinking alcohol. It’s basically just a cleaning agent that we use around the house.
It is in a very diluted form and is safe to use on most surfaces.
Rubbing alcohol is also a disinfectant, so it can help kill fungi and bacteria in your machine.
So it’s ok to use rubbing alcohol to clean out your humidifier.
But, wait a second, hold your horses.
Just because it is safe as a cleaning agent does not mean you should go around breathing in a fine mist of rubbing alcohol.
So it needs to be cleaned out from your machine before using it. Rubbing alcohol in the air can get in your lungs and cause harm.
You can use it for cleaning, but remember to wipe it all out after you are done. Rinse the humidifier with water and dry it out before turning it on the next time.
Also read: What Kind of Water to Use in a Humidifier? (spoiler: distilled water)
Wrap Up
Don’t put alcohol in your humidifier, people. It might seem like a fun idea in a cartoon, but this is real life.
It can catch fire, destroy your device, and cause medical problems for you. So just make sure you enjoy your drink responsibly from inside a glass, where it belongs.
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