Vocal steamers are sold by their makers as steam inhalers. The six models whose makers' own sites showed a price when we checked on October 11, 2026 (two from Crane, three from MyPurMist, one from Beurer) were listed at $39.99 to $179.95 for one device or base kit. Among the models we priced, plug-in ones started at $39.99 (Crane), and the two cordless ones were $89.99 (Crane) and $179.95 (MyPurMist). We did not price every steam inhaler on sale. We did not test any of these steamers hands-on: we compared manufacturer specifications and instructions, current prices (checked October 11, 2026) and published buyer ratings where a source is recorded. A bowl and towel cost nothing to buy. Prices change, so the tables below say whose figure each one is; Amazon prices were shown for delivery to Los Angeles. This page quotes no ratings.

Vocal steamer price by type

Type Recorded price (models we priced) Whose figure
Bowl and towel No purchase Nothing to buy
Steam-inhaling mug Less than £10 West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust leaflet (UK), not a seller's listing
Ceramic inhaler pot None recorded We found no current seller page with a price
Plug-in steam inhaler $39.99 to $159.95 Makers' own sites and Amazon.com, new units
Cordless steam inhaler $89.99 and $179.95 Makers' own sites
A hand holding a small plain cardboard box in front of blurred shop shelves

Plug-in steam inhalers we priced: $39.99 to $159.95

These are corded or plug-in, per their makers' pages and manuals. Prices are as of October 11, 2026.

Model Price Whose price
Crane Corded Steam Inhaler EE-5955 $39.99 Crane's own site, crane-usa.com; the same on Amazon.com, sold by Amazon
Vicks Sinus Inhaler VIH200 $42.98 Amazon.com, new unit, sold by Amazon. Walmart.com search results: $42.98 for a bundle with 4 bonus VapoPads
Vicks Personal Steam Inhaler V1200 $59.99 Amazon.com, sold by Amazon
Mypurmist 2 with handsfree strap $149.95 MyPurMist's own site, mypurmist.com; value packs $174.95 and $179.95
MyPurMist Classic $159.95 MyPurMist's own site

No maker's price is recorded for either Vicks model: vickshumidifiers.com showed a bot check that day, and archived copies of its product pages (November 13, 2025 for the V1200, August 5, 2025 for the VIH200) show a Buy Now button and no price. On Amazon.com, the listing titled Mypurmist 2 and the listing for the MyPurMist Classic both showed "Currently unavailable" and no price.

Beurer's US store, shop-beurer.com, listed the Beurer SI30 steam inhaler at $39.99. We did not record how it is powered, so it is in neither table.

Cordless steam inhalers: $89.99 and $179.95

Prices and the makers' battery figures were checked October 11, 2026.

Model Price Whose price
Crane Cordless Steam Inhaler EE-5948 $89.99 Crane's own site, crane-usa.com
Mypurmist Free, base kit $179.95 MyPurMist's own site; other packs $199.95 to $229.95. Amazon.com: Essential Kit $179.95 and the larger Premium Kit $199.95, from a seller whose name says it is MyPurMist's official manufacturer; we did not confirm that the Essential Kit holds the same items as the maker's base kit

At both makers the cordless model is listed higher than a plug-in one: $89.99 against $39.99 at Crane, and $179.95 for the Free base kit against $149.95 for the Mypurmist 2 with handsfree strap at MyPurMist. Those two kits do not hold the same accessories. MyPurMist's user guide says a full charge of the Free takes about 2 hours and provides 30 minutes of use. Crane's manual lists a 15-minute session and a 3-hour charge time, and does not say how many sessions a charge gives. Portable vocal steamers covers both.

Cheap vocal steamer options: a bowl, a mug or a pot

A bowl and a towel is the one option with nothing to buy. NHS sources describe it and differ: Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, on a page for people recovering from vocal cord surgery, says boiled water that has cooled a little and 5 to 10 minutes; St George's University Hospitals, in a leaflet for head and neck cancer patients, says hot water and 2 to 3 minutes. Hot water scalds; DIY vocal steamer has the steps.

A steam-inhaling mug comes next. West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust's "Practical voice care" leaflet (issued August 17, 2026) says one costs less than £10 at most large chemists. That is a UK hospital's figure, not a seller's listing.

For a ceramic inhaler pot (the Dr Nelson's style), an Amazon.com search on October 11, 2026 returned 19 first-page results and none was titled as a Dr Nelson's inhaler or a ceramic inhaler pot (two were titled "Steam Inhaler Cup"; we did not check what they are made of). A UK pharmacy, John Bell & Croyden, no longer lists one.

Running costs the makers state

From the makers' manuals and pages, checked October 11, 2026 (Vicks from Internet Archive copies of May 19, 2024 and November 13, 2025; see Sources).

Model What the maker says goes in it Recorded cost
Vicks V1200 Tap water; no filter required. Vicks VapoPads are optional, and one is included No VapoPad price recorded
Mypurmist Free and Mypurmist 2 Only MyPurMist's sealed sterile-water refills; each is good for 30 minutes $19.95 for a box of 20 on mypurmist.com
MyPurMist Classic MyPurMist's sterile water or store-bought distilled water No distilled-water price recorded
Crane EE-5948 Clean drinking or spring water; not distilled or purified water Replacement mask $8.99, reservoir $8.99, vapor pads $9.99 on crane-usa.com

MyPurMist's guides and warranty page say other water or additives will damage the Free and Mypurmist 2 and void the warranty, so refills are a recurring cost for those two. The Free's base kit comes with 8, and how far a refill goes depends on how long you steam.

The V1200 manual and MyPurMist's documents give no power-consumption figure for the devices, and we recorded none for the other models, so we state no electricity cost.

What a higher price does not tell you

We found no study that compared steamers by price, brand or model, and the steam studies in our research library are small. In Mahalingam & Boominathan (2016), 45 vocally healthy women inhaled steam from a facial steamer for 3 minutes after about 10 minutes of mouth breathing, and jitter, shimmer and harmonics-to-noise ratio moved back toward baseline. In Keltz & McHenry (2022), a warm-up study of 12 women, results were highly variable: of 7 analyzed participants, steam was best for 1 and worst for 3, who strongly disliked it.

If steaming makes you cough, or you have been hoarse for more than three weeks, stop and see a doctor. The NIDCD's hoarseness page lists further signs, such as coughing up blood or trouble swallowing or breathing.

How a portable nebulizer compares on price

A nebulizer is not a steamer: it makes a cool mist from saline rather than steam. For scale, the Mayluck MY139, a rechargeable mesh nebulizer sold by the company that owns this site, was listed on mayluck.store at US$49.99 for "1 device + 2 extra sets" and US$69.99 for a 2-pack (listing read October 8, 2026). The kit includes no saline, so sterile saline labeled for inhalation or nebulizer use is a separate, repeat purchase.

The saline research has a null result of its own: in Tanner et al. (2007), with 60 vocally healthy women, no nebulized treatment significantly improved recovery on the study's pressure measure after 15 minutes of dry air. The Mayluck store has a guide to nebulizer machine cost.

Questions

How much does a steam inhaler cost?

For the six models we priced on their makers' own sites, $39.99 to $179.95 for one device or base kit, as of October 11, 2026. We did not price every steam inhaler on sale. The tables above give the price and seller for each model we priced.

What is the cheapest vocal steamer?

A bowl of hot water and a towel, which needs no purchase. West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust's leaflet (issued August 17, 2026) says a steam-inhaling mug costs less than £10 at most large chemists; that is a UK hospital's figure, not a seller's listing. The lowest seller price we recorded for a new steam inhaler on October 11, 2026 was $39.99: the Crane Corded Steam Inhaler EE-5955 on Crane's own site and the Beurer SI30 on Beurer's US store.

Do vocal steamers need special water?

It depends on the manual. The Vicks V1200 manual (Internet Archive copy of May 19, 2024, read October 11, 2026) says tap water; MyPurMist's guides, checked the same day, say the Free and Mypurmist 2 work only with its sterile refills, listed at $19.95 for a box of 20 on mypurmist.com.

Sources