How to Make a DIY Reed Diffuser [Step-by-Step]

Making a homemade room diffuser like a reed diffuser is pretty simple.

These are also inexpensive to make since you can make them easily by using a few essential oils and rattan reeds at home.

Things you will need to make a homemade reed diffuser are:

• Water
• Essential oils
• 5-10 Rattan reeds
• A container or a bottle

Here are the exact steps which can be followed to make one.

Step 1- Find a container with a narrow neck. Your old unused bottles, such as soda bottles, are perfect to use.

You can also buy a new designer-colored bottle or a mason jar if you do not want to use the old ones.

Step 2- Get some rattan reeds to add to the container. These should be 15-20 inches longer than the container.

An appropriate length increases the scenting capability of the reed diffuser and may help them last longer.

Step 3- Choose your favorite scented essential oil for reed diffusers (like sweet almond oil, lavender oil, or safflower oils).

These aroma oils should be of high quality and should work for a longer period.

Step 4- If you want, you can blend the oil with propylene oil, which acts as a base oil for your desired aroma oil.

Mix the oils with more consistency of essential oil. Care that you do not dilute the oil with water as it does not mix well.

Step 5- Now, fill the diffuser bottle with the diffuser oil up to 75 to 80 percent. Filling the bottle may contaminate the reeds or lead to overflow.

Step 6- Place reeds in the aroma oil and lets them sit for an hour or two, based on the strength of the aroma oil.

As the essential oil travels to these rattan reeds, it starts working, spreading the aroma all over.

Step 7- You can increase the number of reeds later as per the requirement.

Try refilling, flipping, or replacing with new reeds from time to time to enjoy the best environment in your home.

Well, having made your DIY reed diffuser, you can now place it at your desired place in your home, office, classroom, etc.

The best part is that these are inexpensive and long-lasting. With its fantastic sweet scent in the room, you can enhance your emotions and mood anytime you want.

Why not try these DIY homemade reed diffusers at home to have a great time with your spouse and dear ones?

Making Diffuser Oil for Reeds from Essential Oil?

Essential oils in diffusers purify and make your room refreshing with the aroma and essence present in them.

However, many industrial products are now available in the market as essential oils but are not pure.

Some of them contain highly toxic contents that can make the air in our room toxic.

Hence it is better to make one for ourselves to use in aromatherapy diffusers as these are very cheap and easy to make.

Making the aroma diffuser oil is very simple and overwhelming because, once you learn how to make diffuser oil, you will realize that it is so simple.

This can be made by using different ingredients and also by different methods.

Ingredients Required

The basic ingredients needed to prepare essential oil for your diffuser are:

✅ Base oil:

Base oil or carrier oil is the main ingredient or backbone of making diffuser oil. This oil will help to temper the effects of the essential oil that you choose to use in our diffuser mixture.

The base oil will also carry essential oil to the top of the mixture so that it can diffuse into the surrounding air. There are a lot of options for the base oil, and some of them are:

• Almond oil
• Safflower oil
• Fractionated coconut oil
• Grapeseed oil

I prefer to use Almond oil for the carrier oil, as it’s great for the health of my family.

✅ Essential oil:

The next thing is to choose pure essential oil because that is what is going to be wafting around your house.

So it is better to pick an essential oil to our liking. Many other essential oils are also available in the market, and some of them are:

• Spearmint
• Pine
• Peppermint
• Rose
• Lavender

The best thing to start with is peppermint essential oil. And then you can try more afterward as per your need.

✅ Alcohol:

Alcohol is unnecessary; it helps the oil to thin and makes diffuser oil be drawn to the top of the lid.

Some people will get better results without using alcohol. Alcohol evaporates faster than water, making it a better option for drawing a diffuser to the reeds and not making a greasy mixture out of the substance.

Once you make this and pour it into the reed diffuser of your choice, you can use it for months, enjoying a lovely fragrance throughout your home.

Steps for Making

The basic general method to make diffuser oil from an essential oil is: Take a half cup of base oil and mix it with 2-3 tablespoons of alcohol (rubbing alcohol or vodka).

Add 30-50 drops of essential oil to the mixture to get the desired aroma for the oil. Stir the mixture well and use more drops of alcohol if the mixture is thick.

Well, now that you know about the steps to prepare aromatherapy diffuser oil from pure essential oils, why not prepare them at your home in a DIY way?

This will surely give you the best health benefits you seek without risk.

How to Open Reed Diffuser Bottle Without Spilling?

If you have purchased an oil bottle from the market (rather than making it at home), you will need to be careful when opening the oil bottle.

Opening the reed diffuser bottle may sound easy, but it is not.

Just in case you are not careful while opening the oil bottle, the oil can get spilled around and can cause great damage.

First of all, spilled essential oil on wood can ruin your expensive furniture and other décor items at home.

Secondly, if, by chance, the essential oil splashes into your eyes while opening the bottle, it can cause irritation or severe eye damage.

Therefore, you need to be very careful when opening your reed diffuser.

Follow these easy steps, and you are good to go without any risk:

• Unscrew the bottle cap
• Pull out the plastic plug underneath

To remove the plastic plug on the bottle, you can use needle-nose pliers, a corkscrew, or simply a butter knife in your kitchen.

How to Use a DIY Reed Diffuser Properly – How Long Does it Last?

Many people who want to use reed diffusers often have a question in mind: Do Reed Diffusers Work?

Yes, it works great.

The reed diffuser is the best option to use your desired aromatic oil and enhance your living or workplace with a scented smell.

However, to make it work efficiently and to get maximum benefits out of it, you need to know how to use them properly.

A few important things to care about before you use these reed diffusers for diffusing essential oils are:

1- Choose the Right Reeds:

The first and most important thing to consider is using the correct type of reeds for diffusing the oil.

FYI: Reeds are not bamboo. As rattan reeds look similar to bamboo skewers, many people confuse both and end up buying bamboo sticks in place of rattan reeds.

Bamboo reeds do not contain channels to wick the oil up like rattan reeds. Therefore these do not work at all if you choose them for making your reed diffuser.

If you are concerned about where to buy reed diffuser sticks best, we recommend searching for them online at stores such as Amazon.

Here you can find the best natural Rattan reeds at the most affordable price for making your reed diffuser.

2- Choose The Right Number of Reeds:

Deciding how many reeds you should use in your diffuser is a matter of personal preference. We recommend placing anything between 5-10 reeds as per your requirement.

As more reeds mean more scent, try using a fewer number of reeds initially. If you feel the aroma is too light or too strong, you can prefer adding or removing the reeds respectively.

3- Turn, Flip, and Change Your Reeds with Time:

Turn over the reeds daily (or at least every 2-3 days) to saturate both ends well in the reed diffuser oil refill.

This technique helps to speed up the process of soaking them from the bottom and diffusing the entire wood reed.

When the reeds start to lose their fragrance, recognize the need to change the reeds before the oil is drained.

The best is to keep on changing the reeds every week. As these reeds get completely saturated over time OR clogged with dust and other impurities present in the air, they should be replaced every week or every fortnight.

This is important so that you continue to have a pleasant and sweet home environment with your family weekly.

4- Do Not Re-Use The Reeds:

Care that you do not try using the same reeds again, especially when you want to get a more pungent smell.

The reeds you have used for a particular scent before should not be used again for another scent or aroma oil.

If you use them, they may end up providing an undesirable scent due to the combination of two or more oils.

Using new rattan reeds is hence recommended at a time when you feel that the reeds have become fully saturated OR in case you want to use a different fragrance.

5- Do Not Light The Reeds:

Few people think that lightning the reeds may prove better for getting the aroma in the room.

But be alarmed. As diffuser essential oils are flammable, you need to keep your reeds away from open flame.

6- Place The Diffuser Safely:

Make sure to keep it away from electronic appliances, small children, and pets.

If there are kids or pets at home, you should try placing them at a higher level so that it becomes out of reach for them.

Also, care that you do not place your reed diffuser jar/bottle on the wooden surfaces as it can leave marks of essential oils.

Children at home can also make it spill over the wooden surfaces, leaving your wood tables and furniture damaged.

Furthermore, you must be cautious enough while opening the oil bottle, flipping the reeds, or refilling your diffuser bottle.

As spilling some essential oils can permanently damage the surfaces, you need to be a bit careful.

The best is to place your reed diffuser on a glass table or glass surface. Place it in such a way that it is near a source of airflow (like a window or vent).

This will help fragrance your room fast without any risk. Having placed it in a safe place, you can feel a slight smell which goes on increasing within 24 hours.

How Long Do Reed Diffusers Last?

The average time the aroma oil can last in your reed diffuser may depend on various factors.

These factors may include:

• Dehumidifier in your room
• The room ventilation (open or closed doors)
• Air conditioner or heater operating in your room

After using about 20 reed diffusers simultaneously at different locations, we have found that a bottle of 100ml of essential oil can last for up to 3-4 months on average.

However, as mentioned above, this will depend on your room’s temperature and humidity.