An essential oil diffuser is a fantastic, and easy way, to enjoy the wonderful aromas and benefits of your essential oils. If you’re a beginner who’s not quite sure about the best way to use your diffuser, or even how it works, we’ll break down all the ins and outs of your diffuser for you. That way you can get the most out of diffusing your essential oils and keep your diffuser running like new. And if you’re a seasoned pro who knows all the ins and outs of your diffuser, who knows, you might still learn something new!
How Does a Diffuser Work?
Most diffusers you’ll see on the market are ultrasonic diffusers. This simple technology uses electronic frequencies to vibrate a small disk at the bottom of your diffuser. It sits under the reservoir of water and your essential oils. When it vibrates, it produces a fine mist that sends your essential oils into the air. These diffusers come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and designs. No matter the size of your space or design aesthetic, you’re sure to find one that works for you.
Different Diffusers
Plant Therapy has a number of different diffusers available. Some big or some small. Some with crazy features like Bluetooth or a color-changing light. And some that just diffuse. No matter which diffuser you have, you’ll notice a few features in common. Each diffuser has a different sized water reservoir, which affects how long your diffuser will run as well as how big of an area it can cover. Each diffuser also has different timer settings allowing you to diffuse for a continuous amount of time or intermittently. But no matter which diffuser you own, the directions will be the same. Let’s get started.
Add Your Water
Each diffuser will have a water reservoir. And although they are different sizes, each one will also have a handy red dot on the fill line to let you know just how much water to add. It’s important to not overfill your diffuser as it could cause it to not work altogether or cause water to spurt out. The manual for your diffuser will also let you know if there are specific requirements for which water to use in your diffuser. Unless otherwise specified, tap water will work just fine.
Add Your Essential Oils
Now comes the fun part! You get to add your essential oils. There are a few considerations to make when you’re deciding how many drops to use: the size of your space, the size of your diffuser and the intensity of the aroma.
All of our diffusion guidelines for our single essential oils and blends will tell you how many drops to use per 100 mL of water. In the case of a bigger diffuser, like the AromaFuse with a 380 mL reservoir, you’ll bring that number up. Smaller diffusers, like the NovaFuse with its 70 mL reservoir, will require fewer drops.
You might also find a diffuser blend recipe on our blog or in our Facebook group, which will usually have anywhere from 4-8 drops. Many times, these recipes take into account how mild or strong some of these oils are. They may be designed for a purpose, like sleep or focus. Or they can just be blended for their beautiful aromatic notes.
Remember, you can always add more drops to your diffuser, but you can’t take any out. When in doubt, start with less and build from there. When choosing the essential oils you want to diffuse, keep in mind that it is good practice to swap the oils you use frequently with oils you use less frequently once in a while. This prevents your body from becoming too used to an oil and building up an immune-response to it (sensitization).
Select Your Settings
The timer settings on our diffuser will vary slightly by model, but you’ll find a variation of these settings: continuous, continuous with a timer, intermittent intervals in seconds and intermittent intervals in minutes. Some models like the AromaFuse will have the most options while our NovaFuse has simpler options. Also, each of our diffusers will automatically shut off when the reservoir is empty. To start your diffuser, press the mist button once. Press the mist button again to cycle through the mist settings. Once you’ve cycled through all the settings, press the mist button again to turn your diffuser off.
If you plan on diffusing for long periods of time, we recommend using an intermittent setting. This is not only safer, but it’s also more effective as both our bodies and our nervous system habituate to essential oils after this period. To avoid any potential issues, we recommend diffusing for half an hour at a time with at least a 15-30 minute break in-between.
Also, make sure the lid to your diffuser is in place before turning it on.
Cleaning
One important part of keeping your diffuser running smoothly is to keep it clean. In most cases, simply rinsing your diffuser and wiping it down will be plenty. But in the case of some oils that are thicker, darker, or in the case of Blue Tansy, very blue, it might require a little more TLC. You can read our step by step guide on how to clean your diffuser here. Often times, if your diffuser isn’t running like you know it should, it just needs a good cleaning.
Enjoy!
There’s nothing left for you to do but sit back and enjoy the wonderful aroma of essential oils. Plus all of our essential oil diffusers have safety features so that they automatically shut off when they run out of water.