Aromatherapy Essential Oil Diffuser – What You Need To Know About Them

If you are new to aromatherapy and essential oil diffusers there is a lot of information that you need to know about them.

I remember the first day that I bought an essential oil diffuser. I really didn’t know much about them. I remember going to Bed Bath & Beyond and just picking out one that was cheap. Over the years I have learned more and more about aromatherapy and essential oil diffusers.

There are a lot of different kinds of diffusers, different sizes, brands, and best practices. In this article, I will briefly explain the different kinds of essential oil diffusers and then talk mostly about electronic diffusers or more commonly known as ultrasonic diffusers.

Heated Essential Oil Diffusers

You should avoid using diffusers that use heat. Believe it or not, they are sold in the store. For instance, there are candle tea diffusers and lamp diffusers. For starters, they can be a fire hazard. But, the biggest reason you shouldn’t use them is that they heat up the essential oils will change the chemistry of the oils.  Also, essential oils are highly flammable. It’s been debated for years, but in general, most aromatherapists don’t recommend the use of heated essential oil diffusers.

Tea Light Diffusers

Now let me completely contradict myself and tell you about tea light burners. These burners can be used for essential oils. In fact, they don’t heat up the essential oil to chemically change compound enough. They are actually pretty good for filling large rooms which I have tested out.

However, if you are going to use a tea light burner I would make sure you get a ceramic one. You want to make sure that you’re pets don’t get anywhere close to it and you don’t want to leave it on overnight. Also, you can get a lot of tea light candles for cheap; the tea light candles last for 2-3 hours.  Also, if you want 72 10 hour candles you can get them for cheap by clicking here clicking here.  Make sure you put 4-8 drops of essential oil.  The oils will evaporate into the air pretty quickly and it stays around for a while.

Lastly, make sure you blow it out if the water has evaporated otherwise you could end up ruining your burner.

Evaporative Diffusers

These diffusers will put the essential oil in the air passively. Meaning, you can put a couple drops of oil on some tissue paper and the oil naturally gets into the air. For example, a reed diffuser and clay pendant can also be considered an evaporative diffuser. Typically, these diffusers are only for very small areas and don’t put a strong scent of essential oil into the air. Personally, I’m really not a big fan of these and don’t recommend you purchase them.

Don’t get me wrong they do look nice but I don’t really feel that they smell very potent and really just seem to be a waste of time and money.

Nebulizer Diffusers

Sometimes these kinds of diffusers are called atomizers. You don’t need any water, filter, etc. to use a nebulizer. Instead, you put in several drops of essential oil into the diffuser. There are some nebulizers that have a hose that hooks directly to a 5 to 10 ml bottle of essential oil. The nebulizer will then break the oils into smaller molecules and release them into the air.

Typically, nebulizers are higher priced than other diffusers.  They work great for larger rooms and don’t have to be run as frequently. Nebulizers can be kind of noisy. The strength of the oil that is released into the air is very potent, though. It’s highly recommended that you only use pure oils and don’t use carrier oils or diluted essential oils with nebulizers.

I highly recommend the Advanced Aromatherapy Essential Oil Diffuser by DiffuserWorld.

Ultrasonic/Electric Diffusers

The rest of this article will talk about ultrasonic or electric diffusers. Electric diffusers or ultrasonic diffusers are the most popular diffusers used today. These diffusers are easy to use and don’t use any heat to diffuse the oils into the air. Typically, you add in some water and then a couple drops of essential oil. They can be used to help get humidity in the air and in the colder months.  An example would be the 500 ml URPOWER electronic diffuser.

Essential Oil Diffusers Sizes

There are several different sizes of diffusers. No, I’m not speaking about the size of the actual device. There is a tank which is measured in milliliters. Depending on the milliliters that the diffuser holds will determine how long it will last. Meaning, that bigger diffusers will be able to hold more water and last longer.

However, the size of the electronic diffuser has nothing to do with the amount of coverage you get. Meaning, a 150 ml device can cover as much area as a 500 ml device. The way you measure the coverage is by how many milliliters per hour the diffuser puts out.

Small Ultrasonic Diffusers

Small diffusers can be used for rooms that are 200 square feet or less.  For instance,  an entry way in your house or a small bathroom.

Company	InnoGear	GreenAir	URPOWER
Capacity	150 ml	150 ml	150 ml
Warranty	12 month warranty	12 month warranty	18 month warranty

Medium Ultrasonic Diffusers

Medium diffusers can be used for rooms that are 200- 400 square feet.  For instance, an office, and smaller bedroom.

Company	URPOWER	VicTsing	TaoTronics
Capacity	300 ml	300 ml	300 ml
Warranty	18 month warranty	12 month warranty	12 month warranty

Large Ultrasonic Diffusers

Large diffusers can be used for rooms that are 400 square feet or more.  For instance, a living room or dinning room.

Company	ASAKUKI	URPOWER	Exqline
Capacity	500 ml	1,000 ml	1,500 ml
Warranty	6 month warranty	18 month warranty	12 month warranty

How To Use An Essential Oil Diffuser

Next, so you got the device and now you want to use the aromatherapy diffuser. But, what are the best practices for using it and how should you use it?

There are a lot of different diffusers to choose from. For this example I am going to show you how to do it with my InnoGear 150 ml diffuser. It might be slightly different depending on which electronic diffuser you have.

Twist the casing counter clock-wise to remove the casing.

Then you will see the plastic casing. This lifts off. Lay both of them somewhere clean.

Pour water to the diffuser. The one with InnoGear comes with a little plastic measuring cup. Do not over fill it; there is a max line which you should NEVER fill above it. Put the desired amount of essential oils after you put the water in.

Put the plastic container and casing back on. Make sure you line up the wholes so that the casing lines up with the plastic insert. Otherwise there will not be anywhere for the oil mist to escape.

Please note that a lot of essential oil diffusers just have a top that you remove and add water and oils to.  Again, I highly recommend that you don’t purchase any diffusers with a filter where you add drops to it.  Those diffusers are not very good.

Putting Essential Oils In Diffuser

You want to put the correct amount of essential oils into your diffuser. You don’t want the smell to be to weak. However, you don’t want to overdo it and make the scent extremely strong. The table down below shows the recommended drops of essential oil for the amount of water you are using in your diffuser:

Milliliters	Drops
100 ml	3-5
200 ml	6-10
300 ml	9-12
400 ml	12-15
500 ml	15-20

How Long Should You Use A Diffuser

It’s recommended that you use a diffuser for 30 minutes on and then shut it off.  Let the essential oils circulate through the air for about an hour after that.  You can use the diffuser 3 times a day. Remember that essential oils are powerful and too much of a good thing can be bad for your health. For instance, with peppermint if you breathe it in too long it can cause difficulty breathing. Several electronic diffusers have auto-timers which diffuse the oil and shut on/off.  Also, some electronic diffusers do come with a remote control and you can adjust how much mist comes out of the diffuser.

How To Clean An Essential Oil Diffuser

It’s a good idea to clean your diffuser. This will keep it lasting longer and more efficiently.

You should clean it after 5-7 uses. Meaning, that if you have it on and runs completely out of water 5-7 times I would recommend cleaning it then. You don’t have to clean it if you use it for 30 minutes and turn it off 5 times.  That would be a hassle.

Optionally, a lot of manufacturers do state that you need to clean out your diffuser after every single use. This seems kind of obsessive to me. However, if you do decide to make sure you have a small plastic bottle where you can pour your water and oils in while you clean it.

Here are the steps you need to take to clean your diffuser:

1. Fill the diffuser about half way. There is usually a “max line” on most electronic diffusers.
2. Add about 10-20 drops of white vinegar. Make sure it’s pure white vinegar, though. This helps remove the oils from the walls of the diffuser and plastic pieces.
3. Let the diffuser run for about 5-10 minutes. This will allow the mixture of vinegar and water cycle through the diffuser.
4. Pour the water and vinegar mixture out.
5. Use a cotton ball to dry all spots of the diffuser. Make sure there are not any spots with essential oil residue.
6. Rinse the diffuser with clean water. Just the inside where you fill it with water.
7. Empty the water.
8. You can use a cotton ball to wipe down the inside or paper towels or a dry cloth.

Do make sure that your electronic diffuser is unplugged from the wall prior to cleaning it.

Ultrasonic Essential Oil Diffuser Pros & Cons

Pros

• Cheaper than nebulizers.
• Not a fire hazard.
• Easy to use and clean.
• Very quiet.
• Can put humidity in the air.

Cons

• Less potent than nebulizers.
• Can leak water.
• The scent doesn’t stay around as long as nebulizers.

The Hopefully, this article has taught you all about aromatherapy essential oil diffusers. If you want to use them to inhale your essential oils they are required. If you don’t use an electronic diffuser you can always use a nebulizer, which is much more expensive. It’s vital that you have the correct size for the room that you are in, though; otherwise, you won’t be able to smell it. For large rooms, I would recommend using two smaller electronic diffusers. A lot of people will try to tell you to use lamps or heat in larger rooms. However, I don’t recommend using heat with essential oils.

There are a lot of essential oil diffusers on the market. I would highly recommend choosing a trusted brand name. Don’t just go with the cheapest diffuser you can find. Expect for them to last for a couple years if you use them daily. Some companies will actually replace them if they go out within their warranty.

Hopefully, this article helps you when using essential oils for aromatherapy. If there is anything that you’re unclear about in the article please leave a comment down below.