Construction: Humidifier Box

Wash the Sabra hummus container (“container”) thoroughly. Create a hole in the center of the lid since you will be letting in water, otherwise the container will float within the box. You may wish to remove a few labels before placing the lid on top and placing the whole assembly within the Sterilite FlipTop box. Cut about 1 foot of air tubing (this may be too short for your needs, but ideal if you are locating the pump directly alongside the box). Attach the tubing to the pump, then attach the air stone to the other end of the tubing. The air stone is the blue porous ceramic object; air blows into the stone and finely diffuses through to create many small bubbles.

Place the container inside the box. It should fit very nicely and effectively divide the space between the upper and lower halves of the box.

Fill the box up to the level of the container lid with water. Allow the water to go into the container as well. The water level should be up to the top of the lid (the whole container should be submerged). Place the air stone so that it is on its side, alongside the submerged container. One of the back corners near the box’s hinge is a good place. You may wish to drill a hole in the lid to allow the air tubing to easily pass through. We did not find a hole necessary, as the lid can be snapped mostly shut with the air tubing in place.

Place the 1 quart container lid on top of the hummus container lid. It will float in place and should not sink. This is shown below.

When ready to do a run, you will add a coffee filter with the desired amount of $Ca(OH)_2$ onto the 1 quart container lid, close the box lid, then plug in the air pump and let it run for your desired amount of time (below).

If you wish to speed up the drying process after you remove the coffee filter (i.e. to weigh the product and find out how much $CO_2$ you obtained), please go on to the next section, which is the box and fan assembly.

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