Will a room humidifier damage my Mac?

According to Apple, the iMac (and really all Mac products) have the following environmental requirements.

Operating environment Operating your iMac outside these ranges may affect performance:

Operating temperature: 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C) Storage temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C) Relative humidity: 5% to 90% (noncondensing) Operating altitude: 0 to 10,000 feet (0 to 3048 meters)

You probably will not get to above 90% relative humidity in your room. It would be more uncomfortable for you and your baby than the iMac too.

I would keep your room between 30 and 50% with a target of 45%. That is comfortable and above 50% promote bacteria and virus growth.

By virus I mean the ones that affect us, not computers. :)

Remember to mark if helpful. Thanks!

If your humidifier is an ultrasonic humidifier, do not keep it in the same room as an iMac.

https://support.apple.com/en-bn/guide/imac/apd876e1a2ea/mac

Do not operate your iMac in areas with significant amounts of airborne dust, or smoke from cigarettes, cigars, ashtrays, stoves, or fireplaces, or near an ultrasonic humidifier using unfiltered tap water. Tiny airborne particles produced by smoking, cooking, burning, or using an ultrasonic humidifier with unfiltered water may, in rare instances, enter the ventilation openings of your iMac and, under certain conditions, result in a slight haze on the inside surface of the glass panel that covers the iMac display.

This happened to my 2012 iMac once upon a time and was a huge bummer.

I wouldn't put the Mac right next to it but unless you have it set to a really, really high humidity level it should be okay. It probably won't be any worse than a muggy summer day (and hopefully not even that).

Modern humidifiers use ultrasonic methods to produce really fine water drops so that's why you don't want that directly settling on your computer.

As I indicated in my first post, you would have to have the humidity level set to the equivalent of having taken a hot shower. For general winter purposes a humidity level of 40-50% is sufficient. I just wouldn't take a notebook that had been sitting in a cold car all afternoon and set it down right next to the humidifier. You want to avoid condensation or having a fine mist settling on it.

Well that is bad news indeed. Ultrasonic Humidifiers throw everything in the water into the air, including any impurities or minerals in your water.

If you ran it so high it condensed, you could possibly have wetted the inside of your Mac. That is bad news, because once wetted, it will tend to grow mineral crystals between close traces on the circuit boards. That can be deadly.

As was mentioned earlier, the humidity in your room can be up to 90% and your Mac will be safe. When we bought Vicks for our bedroom (where I work sometimes), I also worried about excess humidity in a room. Then I've read that humidifiers can't damage iMac, and only after that I calmed :) Thank's Internet you can find the right information or people who can answer your questions.

P.S. We maintain 40% humidity in our bedroom and my Mac is OK :)

Ultrasonic. It was on medium, but really close to it. On a shelf above the desk. And yes, this morning had water on surfaces.

Felt a little water on the vents (my iMac is quite old 2007)

DaniMnzs wrote:

I bought a humidifier yesterday and stupidly left it close to my iMac. Now it won’t turn on. Any tips?

was it an ultrasonic humidifier, or steam or pad-type?

Did you run it set so high that the room was like a jungle, VERY high humidity? possibly so high there was condensation on cold surfaces?

I bought a humidifier yesterday and stupidly left it close to my iMac. Now it won’t turn on. Any tips?

You know any way to try to get it dry?

The "classic"way is to seal it in a bag with some rice, which seems to have unlimited ability to soak up excess water. whether that will solve the problem, remains to be seen.

Limnos note about cold computers into a moist environment is VERY IMPORTANT.

Bringing a cold computer into a moist environment and running it BEFORE it has acclimated to the ambient temperature will pull in very moist air when the computer is still cold -- so moist it may condense on the cold aluminum. This can set off the one-shot Moisture detectors inside your computer, which can cause Apple to refuse service in future.