A reed diffuser has three parts: a glass bottle of scent liquid, a set of fibre or rattan sticks, and a small neck to hold them. The sticks draw liquid up by capillary action and release it into the air. There is no flame, no electricity and nothing to plug in.
Setting it up
- Unwrap the sticks and put the bottle on a coaster or a small dish — the outside of the glass will pick up oil.
- Put the sticks in and flip them once so both ends are wet. That is what starts the flow.
- Leave it alone for the first hour. The scent builds from almost nothing.
How strong it is, and how to change that
You control intensity with the number of sticks, not the amount of liquid. Two or three sticks is a bathroom or a hallway; five to seven is a living room. Fewer sticks means a longer-lasting bottle, because less liquid is being pulled out and evaporated.
Flip the sticks once a week — pull them out, turn them over, put them back. After a couple of months the sticks saturate and the output drops; that is when you replace the sticks (and sometimes the liquid) rather than adding more sticks.
Where to put it (and where not to)
- Good: a shelf with still air, a hallway console, a bedside table, a bathroom counter away from the shower.
- Bad: next to an air-conditioning vent or window draught, on top of a radiator or near a heater, in direct sunlight. Heat and moving air make the liquid disappear without much scent in the room.
- Keep it out of reach of children and pets, and do not put it on a surface that oil could stain — unfinished wood, painted plaster and some fabrics mark permanently.
Refilling instead of replacing
A diffuser bottle is reusable. Buy the same fragrance as a refill bottle — ours are 300 ml — and top the glass up when it runs low. Measure roughly: refilling to about three-quarters full keeps the neck dry and the bottle stable. Wash the glass with warm soapy water if you want to switch scents, and dry it fully before refilling, because water stops the sticks working.
How long a bottle lasts
There is no single answer: it depends on the number of sticks, the room, the airflow and the temperature. A 150 ml bottle with three sticks in a still room lasts far longer than the same bottle with seven sticks beside a vent. If a bottle is emptying quickly, remove sticks.
General product information, not medical or safety advice.