How do I clean my humidifier inside?

I don't think they want you to open the motor housing as it could cause them problems. This unit was not intended to do the job your asking it to do and you should consider a humidifier for your home or apartment. they can be added by a HVAC man and are not to expensive. I think this would help you with both your problems.

Or put some CLR threw the motor and it will clean it up.

You need a star head screw driver to take this apart. they can be found at almost any harware store.

You might need to clean around the heating element...
we have very hard water and calcium builds up on and around the heating element and all the surrounding parts. I take it apart and pour CPR around the element and scrub with a brush .. once you get it clean it should stay running.

more and likely it is calcium build up on the unit. especially if your using tap water. even if you cleaned it before putting it away for the season the build up can happen. if it's on the heating coil you need to get like a toothbrush and some vinegar water and lightly scrub the coils. now as far as the tank. let the tank soak in vinegar and water for about a half hour and then wash thoroughly. the portions is one cap full of vinegar per gallon of water.

the white film is just dust particles from the unit. it's also a bit of condensation that is building up. the particles are not harmful. but it's nice to keep it clean after every use. also the film is coming from the vicks. that is normal. so nothing worry about as far as harming the childs air or anything.

I have a Holmes cool-mist One-Touch Humidifier, and you can't reach the blades to clean them, and you can't take the console apart. I finally decided to use two spray bottles and clean and them rinse the Humidifer while holding the console upside down and over a sink. The one bottle you could fill with any mild cleaner plus a lot of water to dilute the cleaner. Maybe dishwashing liquid (not the dishwasher stuff), or a little bit of ammonia, or rubbing alcohol, or vinegar. Spray that on the blades while the machine is upside down, and a lot of sooty dirt drips out. Then rinse with another spray bottle full of plain water. Leave the console upside down on a towel to drip-dry. This is also how you can clean silk flowers that collect dust.

thanks for your question,
seems to me you have a calcium build up inside the unit, something has slowed down the humidification process and that would be the most likely cause, you should run some diluted (CLR) through it and this should take care of the build up, leave it set for a while with the diluted solution in it then drain it out, and refill, give that a try and it should help, also check to make sure the fan is not getting cloged with dust and clean that too, thanks again for your question, please let us know how we did,
mr.grzz

Suggest you try using distilled water in the Humidifier in the baby's room. If your seeing that much dust you must have heavy hard water in your borough, suggest you replace the filter more often & or Demineralization Cartrid if your not already doing so.
Hard water is tough on many things in your home. Washing clothing can produce dark & light spots, some rust in color. Build up of rust & minerals through out the water lines in home. Bad taste. Build up of white stains in glasses & the list goes on.
The best choice would be a filtering system to remove most if not all hard water as it enters your water lines. Many companies near you can help you remove this problem. Listed below is one such company.
http://www.raindancewatersystems.com/maxicure.html

CPSC Issues Alert About Care Of Room Humidifiers
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/5046.html

Goog luck & Best Regards.

Thanks for using FixYa
please vote...

I talked to Kaz, a manufacturer of humidifiers, and they said this is referred to as "white dust". It's simply the minerals from your water settling on your furniture...I had to same problem so I called the manufacturer.

He said it's not dangerous but that I should use distilled water in my humidifier from now on since my water will always do that. He also stressed the importance of cleaning the unit weekly with a bleach and vinegar solution per the manufacturers specs.

As the previous poster said, it's probably a problem with your water.

Are you using tap water or bottled mineral water? If so, there are minerals which get nebulized along with the water, and leaves a white, dusty, residue. I fill my Crane Pig humidifier with DISTILLED water, which is pretty pure. Make sure that the water is DISTILLED ONLY, since some of the water companies distill the water and then add minerals back in (they almost got me here until I noticed the label that said "with minerals added"). The reason this is important is because during the distilling process, the water is boiled, evaporated, and then the vapor is condensed back to liquid. This removes any impurities or dissolved minerals from the water. You can see Wikipedia for more on this topic here.

Additionally, I use both the Crane Demineralization Filter Cartridge (which works for the penguin as well, and gets installed in place of the original water tank cap), and the ProTec PC-1 Humidifier Tank Cleaning Cartridge (which I plop into the water tank) to keep the water both de-mineralized and bacteria free. I got both products at Amazon.com.

With these 3 things, so far I haven't had any white dust residue, and the mist feels fresh and clean.

On a side note, by using distilled water, you also prevent any mineralization from building up on the nebulizer or water level sensor, which can cause the humidifier to eventually stop producing mist...