AIRCARE - Valiant HD1409

With that level of guitar, I would recommend investing a bit more and look into humidifying the room your guitars are in or humidifying your whole house. That way, you can leave your guitar out on a stand or hanging on the wall, and you get the added benefit of making your house much more comfortable. My house is \~1200 sq ft, and [this humidifier](https://www.homedepot.com/p/AIRCARE-VALIANT-Gal-Cool-Mist-Evaporative-Whole-House-Humidifier-for-4-000-sq-ft-Brushed-Nickel-HD1409/204364015) is capable of keeping the whole house at 45% (though I do need to fill it more often in the winter months). You would fill it much less often if you're just keeping a single room humidified. The other thing to look into is a [humidifier that plug into your furnace](https://www.homedepot.com/p/AprilAire-Model-400-m-Water-Saver-17-Gal-for-up-to-5-000-sq-ft-Whole-House-Evaporative-Humidifier-With-Manual-Control-400M/312148211). These are great because, once the initial water line is run and the humidifier is installed, you don't have to worry about refilling. It's literally a set it and forget it solution.

I have one like this- https://a.co/d/5kWnqex We don’t use it anymore because we have some big fish tanks that keep our house very humid now. But those worked well and would run all day for a few days before having to fill it up. It provided humidity for the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms.

I would likely recommend an evaporative humidifier, not a warm mist one. The mist ones have a lot of problems, such as being more prone to bacteria growth and harder to clean. They also try to add more moisture than the air can actually hold, resulting in mineral condensation (white dust) appearing everywhere over time, especially if you have hard water. Aircare makes a decent console-style evap humidifier with a decent tank size and is pretty easy to clean. I used one for years until we moved to a house with a humidifier on the furnace. Now I use a smaller Honeywell evaporative humidifier upstairs only. It gets filled each evening, runs constantly all winter, and cleaned each weekend. I went through about half a dozen of those warm mist ones before converting. It didn't matter the brand, how much I treated the water of cleaned them, they were all pieces of junk that lasted only 1-2 years. Crane ones were probably the worst.

I own this and my wick turned orangey from my hard water so quickly. I use bacteriostatic additive so I don’t think that bacteria is the issue but the wick changing color certainly doesn’t give me confidence so this humidifier doesn’t feel low maintenance to me, at least not with hard water

I have a whole house evaporative humidifier that I use year round that has been going strong for 4 years so far. The warm mist humidifiers I've used last only a year before my very hard water breaks them. And ultrasonic humidifiers coat everything in a sticky dust that's hard to clean. The humidifier I use (older version of this one: https://share.google/fFdK2WzaIkj0Lc09W) has a wick that needs replacing about once every other month, so long as I keep it saturated. I buy a cheaper generic wick from Walmart to save money. Other than that, I just need to clean it occasionally to remove dust and prevent bacterial growth.

Evaporative is the solution. Once you try one you will never go back willingly. I had one for several years that used a single wick replacement each season. The only maintenance I had to do was add the anti microbial solution to the tap water i dumped into the container every other day, it was spotless inside after months of continuous use. I had a fairly large aircare console that had a humidistat as a controller, it ran through 5 gallons in about two days all winter long.m Before I got an evaporative I went through several cool mist, ultrasonic, style humidifiers. Without fail they all became a petri dish of slime and mold within a week on average. I cleaned these things with vinegar, dish soap, antibacterial solutions, and finally bleach which only extended the average by a couple of days. These require DI water since any dissolved salts will get misted as well, precipitating as dust and being an irritant for many people. I've also read some comments about the slime and bacteria getting turned into mist and either spreading spores or endotoxin to cause problems. Tldr: evaporative is cheaper and easier to use

There are a few high end brands that might be superior, but most are very similar, within their categories. No BIFL humidifiers, and better ones will be costly. For longevity, evaporative seems to be the best type. I suggest you narrow it down to what will work for you and check reviews online. I wanted to add one lower priced gallon size evaporative model for my kitchen area and concluded they all suck and don't last too long. I'm guessing you're looking for a room size, vs whole house. First consider the type: warm mist, ultrasonic, evaporative. Warm mist will cost the most to operate. Ultrasonic often leaves a white dust on surfaces. Evaporative can be noisy due to the fan. Ease of use is key - filling and cleaning, lugging to sink, capacity. Every stinking plastic contraption that deals with air has a ridiculous amount of nooks, crannies, and fins that can be impossible to clean. Check consumables for cost of replacement wicks, filters. I use two whole house evaporative humidifiers along with water additives to inhibit bacteria. One is twenty years old, a Bemis hamper style, now AirCare. In winter they run 24/7 along with woodstoves. Wicks need cleaning or replacing monthly, $25 each. Some can hold up to a vinegar soak to give it another month.

my dumb whole house humidifier is on all the time. to make it smart, this video helped [AIRCARE Large Evaporative Whole House Humidifier is good. but here's how to make it great!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qp7Ak0-T2M) basically, a smart plug to monitor energy. if power is low, the unit stopped, time to fill it with more water.

I used to love our evaporative humidifier by Aircare. It's just a bin of cold water, a filter to wick up the water, and a fan to pull the moisture out and blow it into the room. The fan has a nice drone to it to create a white noise effect.

They are, but I have had two running for multiple years between them. I had a large Air Care - i’m not sure why - but the fan mechanism leaked all of its lubricant and corroded badly. I assume user error haha. But even it lasted 3 years! Now I have my ~5yo Air Care running in our upstairs, and we got a new Vissani 6 gal this past year.