Which Essential Oil Diffuser is the Best?
I haven't tried every diffuser yet, but I've tried quite a few that Doterra has to offer. Here is how they shook out:
This little beauty is the easiest to use and the least expensive! It has 1, 2, and 4 hour continuous settings (as opposed to intermittent setting, where the diffuser turns itself on and off throughout the running time). I'll try to get some more pictures of mine on here. All you do is lift the white part off, fill the bottom with water to the red dot, then add about 6-8 drops of your chosen essential oils, plug it in, and hit the mist button until it's on the time setting that you want. It even has a nice little glow light, which can be switched off if you want to. The petal diffuser is super quiet. It also has a fairly high clumsiness factor, meaning that you can bump it a little without spilling all of your water everywhere. It is round, so it's not the perfect score on clumsiness, but it's really good.
For cleaning, just rinse it out and leave it open to dry when you aren't using it for the most part. You can also use gentle cleansers, like baby wipes on it.
The Aroma Lite is also an amazing diffuser. The main reason it comes in second is that it's more expensive. It's also not as quiet as the Petal Diffuser, it has just a little bit of a whine to it while it's running. However, it has a higher rating on the clumsiness factor, because it has higher sides and a double lid feature to help keep the water in if it gets knocked around a little. This diffuser has two different time settings a 4 hour continuous setting and a 8 hour intermittent setting. I like the 8 hour one for night time. It also has a nice little night light in it which can be turned off if you don't want it. Just like the Petal diffuser, you take the lids off, fill to the line with water, then add about 6-8 drops of your chosen essential oils, then just put the lids back on and press the start button until the light is on the setting you desire.
I should note that the Aroma Lite Diffuser is skinnier than the petal diffuser, so it might fit better in smaller spaces.
To clean, just rinse between and leave open to dry. You can use the same gentle cleaners, like baby wipes on this one as well.
Okay, so here's what I have to say about this one. doTerra recently redid the Lotus Diffuser. I ordered one of the old ones, and as soon as I got it out of the box, I put it back in and returned it. The reason was because it was a huge diffuser, but it only had an teensy-winsy water holder, which would only hold enough water to diffuse for an hour at a time. I am happy to say that this newer version says it has run times of 1,2, and 4 hours, like the petal diffuser, but I do not know if they are continuous or intermittent. I will be honest that I am not in a hurry to try ordering another of these, simply because they only claim to have the advantages of the petal diffuser, but they have the disadvantages of being bigger and bulkier, along with costing a bunch more. Basically, unless you are just in love with the look of this one, I would just stick with a petal diffuser over this one.
Okay, so here's the deal,
On Guard is an awesome oil blend, I highly recommend it. The Aroma Ace is probably your worse choice for diffuser. Here's the deal, you don't add water, you just hook up your whole bottle of essential oil to this diffuser. This really gets a lot of the essential oil into the air, but it is super expensive. This diffuser will literally guzzle your oils if you are not careful. Do not have it set higher than running for about 15 sec at a time. The other problem is that if you have pets of any kind, have small children ever enter your home, or anyone in your home ever has clumsy moments, then this diffuser can turn into a huge disaster really fast. If the Aroma Ace gets knocked over for any reason, then you aren't spilling water with a few drops of oil in it, you are spilling an entire bottle of essential oil! (Yeah we learned about this problem the hard way, the desk smelled pretty strong for quite awhile) The other problem is that in order to do personalized mixes, you have to mix a bottle of it. For example, when my son has stuffy nose and a cough I will generally diffuse
Breathe, but sometimes I add a few extra drops of straight
Eucalyptus to the diffuser. I would have to mix enough Breath and Eucalyptus in a bottle to connect to the Aroma Ace. Basically, it's not the best choice for diffuser.
Whisper Diffuser - Not my Favorite (sold on the Aroma Tools site)
This diffuser is quiet, and it has a multitude of time settings, however, it only has enough water to run for about an hour continuously. It's a little more complicated to use, because you have to take out a liner and fill up the liner with water and oil, and it isn't always clear how much water to use. They also tend to leak water all over everywhere if you bump them at all. You wouldn't even think that much water was in there until it's spilling all over the counter. They don't tend to be very sturdy. Some people I've known have had them last a long time, but a lot of times they don't seem to make it a full year if you diffuse a lot. It's not the worst diffuser in the world, but really not my favorite.
If there's a diffuser you want me to check out or you have questions about, then send me a message using the contact links at the bottom of the page, and I'll see what I can find out for you!
