The number of drops of essential oil to use depends on the capacity of your diffuser. You can always use less depending on the size of the room and how close you will be to the diffuser. If you are developing a headache, it means you are overloading your olfactory system, in this case if your diffuser allow, reduce the mist output, move the diffuser further away, open some windows or step outside for few minutes, and empty half of the diffuser and cut the remaining with more water.

This is the guide we use for ours:

• A 100 ML diffuser, we use up to 12 drops

• A 200 ML, up to 15 drops.

• 300 to 500 ML, we use up to 25 drops. The larger diffuser run for longer and having more oils will get the scent to last longer.

Some oils like Cedarwood and Patchouli are thick oils and can leave some residue inside the diffuser once the water ran its course. You can always pour more water to try using the remaining oil.

Giving proper care to your diffuser is also crucial so it can work at its best and last longer, and for that we have outline the following instructions.

If you remove the top cover of your diffuser and look inside the water tank, you will notice a white disk made of ceramic, or a metal disk which is call a piezoelectric transducer. Depending on the diffuser, the disk vibrates between 1.5 MHz to 3 MHz the most common is 2.4 MHz, to create the mist and to carry out the essential oils.

For your diffuser to last, the water you use is important. The water has to be at room temperature, do not use cold water, it can damage the disk and the mist output will be affected. The type of water used can also, with time, affect the function of the diffuser why using distilled water is best. If you use any other water than distilled, the minerals are heavy and will leave a white residue around your diffuser, whereas the distilled water since it has no minerals will be gentle on your diffuser and furniture.

When pouring water into your diffuser, never go above the water line, if you do the disk will have a difficult time breaking down the water, instead keep the water slightly below the line.

Providing proper care can extend the life of your diffuser. At Canyon Zen we have diffusers running 24/7 for years and are still working to this day with their original parts. We clean our diffusers when it is done running or before diffusing again, to help get the most out of the diffusers since some essential oils can leave residue onto the disk, which can then prevent it from working the way it was intended.

How to clean your water diffuser:

1. Empty the remaining water. Make sure to empty it by pouring it opposite to the opening where the air comes out to push the mist.

2. Use one drop of a gentle soap and clean the diffuser.

3. Rinse it until no more soap is left.

4. Pour a little bit of rubbing alcohol onto the disk, and using a cotton swab, gently clean the disk.

5. Rinse it with water.

6. Dry it.

Note that if you are using regular water to diffuse instead of distilled water, after step 1 use white vinegar, make sure the disk is submerged and let it soak for 5 minutes. Then, turn on the diffuser for 5 minutes to break down the minerals and empty the diffuser. Continue with the cleaning starting from step 2.

The number of drops of essential oil to use all depends of the type of waterless diffuser you have. Most instruction manual will let you know how much oil you can pour inside the unit. Too much oil is not good; the pump will work a lot harder and can get damage, and you can notice by the mist output if you have too much oil since the mist will be little. For some other diffuser, the pump will start working backwards and no mist will come out, instead there will be bubbles, like blowing air in a straw in a glass of water. If that happens, unplug the unit, empty the oil, clean the unit as per below, and let it cool off. If the instruction manual is not clear on how much oil can be put in the unit, pour a little, get use to the sound the diffuser makes, and the mist output, that will give you a bearing on what to expect. From there, you can always increase the quantity of oil.

As for us we pour about 50 drops, we found it to be the perfect balance in both waterless diffusers we use.

At Canyon Zen we love waterless diffusers which allow you to experience the essential oils full strength. However, waterless diffusers are more delicate and need more regular cleaning. With a water diffuser you could leave it unclean for 3 days or so, then clean it and you are good to diffuse again. A waterless one, if you leave the essential oil unused, it can dry up and it will become very difficult to clean and can damage the pump as well.

Each time we are done diffusing with either one essential oil or a blend we clean it before reuse or before storing it. Cleaning it regularly requires the following steps:

1. If there is any essential oil left you can save it for later by pouring it into a cup.

2. Pour rubbing alcohol into the diffuser, switch it around and empty it.

3. Pour some more rubbing alcohol, and this time turn on the diffuser for 5 minutes. Do not inhale the fumes. Depending on the diffuser, some have a little tank next to the nozzle, so the idea is to empty that little tank and clean the nozzle. Rubbing alcohol works great at dissolving essential oils.

4. When the 5 minutes have passed turn off the diffuser, empty the remaining of the alcohol, and turn it on again to empty the little tank inside if you have one, to remove any alcohol left.

5. Let it dry and it is ready to be used again.

If the essential oil has dried up inside the nozzle follow these steps:

1. Remove the remaining essential oil and do not use again, the oil may have dried up or thickened. Pour alcohol, switch it around and discard it.

2. Put a little bit of alcohol and turn on the diffuser.

3. With one of your finger, plug the top of the diffuser where the mist usually comes out for few seconds, until you feel a little bit of pressure then remove your finger. Doing that helps the oil to move out of the nozzle.

4. When the oil is removed the diffuser makes like a hissing sound, and is ready to diffuse.

Still not working? This step depends on the diffuser you have. For some the nozzle is nowhere near the essential oil, but rather moved by a pump to the nozzle. If you have the nozzle near the essential oil (usually those diffuser are glass), pour alcohol to submerge the nozzle. Depending how stuck the oil is, you may have to let it submerged for few hours, hopefully the alcohol will dissolve the essential oil. Once in a while, turn on and off the diffuser quickly to try to have the alcohol make its way inside the nozzle. Do not leave the diffuser on, it will build too much pressure and damage the pump.

1. After a few hours, remove the alcohol and turn on the diffuser to get the flow going again.

2. If the oil is still not moving, most of the glass waterless diffuser can have the tank removed from its base, by pulling upright so the glass neck holding it onto the base won’t break. You can then blow inside the neck and building pressure to remove the oil. You can also try using an air can, keeping it upright to avoid ice condensation and slowly getting the air inside.

As you can see cleaning a waterless diffuser is a lot easier than trying to remove dry essential oils. When diffusing thicker oils like Patchouli and Cedarwood, mix them with other lighter oils like Eucalyptus, Lemon and so on, it will be easier to diffuse.

If you need parts for your diffuser, even if you have not purchased it from Canyon Zen, we do carry fans along with piezoelectric. Visit www.canyonzen.com/diffuser-parts