Blueair - InvisibleMist™ Humidifier

The humidifier will be costly to run (cost of electricity), because it works by boiling water. There are decent evaporative humidifiers, for example the ones from Blue Air. They are not noisy. They pump water silently over a wick and the water is exposed to UV light inside the pump housing to kill any mold or bacteria. These are not your grandmother’s ginormous, noisy, moldy console humidifier.

I have 4 small (one 2-gallon, 3 1-gallon) BlueAir evaporative humidifiers running 24/7. They are set to a desired humidity level (I have to lie to them a bit, but there’s a reason). I don’t screw with fan speed controls (the fan speed adjust automatically to maintain the desired humidity) nor timers. They only consume about 5 W each. I’m not worried about saving the electricity and it’s better just to have them going all the time. Unfortunately, I cannot particularly recommend BlueAir. It’s a very clever design, and the newer Dream Well models are better designed than the older H 35I, but it seems they still have mechanical bugs to work out. In current weather – hovering around 0F – I need to fill the 1 gallon ones every single day. So that is what you are getting yourself into if you were going to properly humidify. I have mine distributed around the house, one in each room, except for the kitchen and the bathroom. I don’t have much of a choice in the matter because I do not have a forced-air system. I have steam heat. And so FWIW, the reason I have to lie to the humidifiers is because I have placed them near radiators which increases the heat locally, and thus increases the humidity in the vicinity of the radiator, but that doesn’t represent the humidity in the room as a whole. Now, do you see why I am trying to talk you out of this if you do have the option of adding a humidifier to your forced-air system? I would suggest asking the same question in a sub about HVAC. Your problem is not specific to century homes. Be specific, and post pictures. Copy/paste what HVAC techs wrote (if they did) as to why this is “impossible”. A lot of of them just don’t like to work on old houses - you need to find the gems who will, and who are in fact expert at it. My neighbors who have newer (but still old just not as old as the steam age lol) homes seem to be happy with their humidifiers incorporated into their forced natural gas furnace systems. And all of them have it because it is necessary in the winter here. What a joy it would be not to have to carry humidifiers back-and-forth to the sink every single day! And yes, you could choose just to top them up – you might want to use a watering can to help prevent spilling on the floor. But if you don’t empty the remainder out of the humidifier, and at least wipe the inner surface of the reservoir, even evaporative humidifiers will get yucky eventually. One of the actually good things about the blue airs is that they say that the reservoirs are dishwasher safe. I haven’t felt the need to put them in the dishwasher though because simply wiping them down each time they are filled seems sufficient.

Id recommend the Blueair H35i. its evaporative, so you wont deal with that nasty white dust from tap water, and the tank is dishwasher safe so cleaning is way less of a headache. Its usually right around your budget and has auto humidity control, so you can just set it near 45–50% and let it run without babysitting. You can find some good options [in this thread](https://www.reddit.com/user/SecureRich1212/comments/1nvesr8/the_best_humidifiers/ )

I trust Wirecutter and have recently purchased the Blueair listed here: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/the-best-humidifier/ and it's been awesome for a single, fairly large, vaulted ceiling bedroom. I opted for this one because it's much easier to clean and won't leave white residue (supposedly - and it hasn't happened yet). In my quest to solve this problem I also did install a whole-house humidifier which leaked almost immediately (then got it fixed and the new one did too). We don't use it now. We have the BlueAir where we sleep, and several water features throughout the house and it's generally 45-50% in the bedroom, ~30% the rest of the house, even though the bedroom's door never closes. I've also had other cool mist humidifiers which, even though I cleaned them regularly I had a very scary experience where one made me quite ill (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5081304/). I kept at cleaning it and running it, but only got sicker. My doctor recommended _not_ using it and I was quickly better, but it was among the sickest I'd ever been.

I would highly recommend this BlueAir humidifier: https://www.blueair.com/en-ca/products/invisiblemist-humidifier Pros: - easy to clean (no weird nooks and crannies that are hard to get into) - uses a filter so you will not get the hard water dust all over your home if you are using tap water - can use tap water (because of the filter, it will be saving you lots of money from having to buy distilled water) - can be filled from the top without having to remove the water reservoir - has a screen that shows humidity % - humidity % can be controlled by an app Cons: - Price $199.99 plus tax (try getting it on sale if you can wait) - Have to buy replacement filter eventually (though I’ve had mine for 6 months and I am only at 75% filter). A filter costs currently about $26 plus tax. - no warm mist capability Overall, I really love this humidifier. They do have another model that is a humidifier and air purifier combo but I haven’t checked that one out.

I am desperately trying to find an effective humidifier for my bone-dry NYC apartment and can't seem to find one that fits my needs. I live in a 1-bedroom, 850 square foot apartment. My amazon hygrometer typcially reads a humidity range of about 15-25% (typically closer to the 15% range). It's so dry that my houseplants, sinuses and skin are all suffering. I've tried a couple models so far, and neither has been worth it. First, I bought a single [Blueair Invisiblemist Humidifier h35i](https://a.co/d/5HmNetZ) and put it in my bedroom. I wasn't really impressed. The tank is relatively small (3.5L) so, running it on high, I'm refilling it about every 6-8 hours. After several days of running it constantly on high, I only got about a 10-15% increase. The best I saw was about 30-35% RH, which still feels uncomfortably dry. Then I tried two [Carepod One](https://hellocarepod.com/products/carepod-one) units (one in the bedroom and one in the living room), thinking ultrasonic might work better, and I liked the idea of easy maintenance on these models. However, in practice it's been a headache. To avoid the infamous "white dust", I'm using 0 TDS water through a ZeroWater filter, but filtering enough water is dreadfully slow and I have to refill the units twice a day each, so it becomes a real chore. Even worse, after a couple days of use, the Carepods seem to do ***even less*** to humidify my apartment - the max humidity levels I achieved running these units almost continuously for 48 hours was only 22%. Not worth it at all for these expensive devices. At this point I’m thinking my best option is evaporative. I don’t want the constant ultrasonic cleaning/disinfecting cycle and I don’t want to be locked into distilled/0 TDS water just to avoid dust. I’m mainly looking for something powerful enough to actually move the needle in an 850 sq ft space without being obnoxious. If you've owned an evaporative humidifier you've loved, I'd appreciate recommendations. I'm open to either one strong unit for the entire space or two units (preferred) (one for bed + living room).

Update: got the Levoit 6000s and have been using it for a couple days. I think there’s something seriously abnormal about my apartment because even the 6000s is putting 6 gallons of water into my air every 24 hours on high and it’s barely moving the needle. It’s supposed to cover 3000 sq ft. My apartment is 850 sq ft, and with the humidifier in the living room + bedroom door open, the bedroom stays at ~17-20%. Same for the living room when I’m running it in the bedroom. Living room also only gets up to about 30%-35% RH when the unit is running in there. I can’t imagine running two of these 6000s but it might be my only option. What’s also weird is that condensation is collecting on the metal window frames when I run it in my bedroom (usually a sign of overhumidification), but RH is still only 35%.

This is a super late comment, but just stumbled upon this thread, I LOVE my Blueair humidifier ! It’s on the pricier side…but to me it’s definitely worth it if you use the humidifier frequently. It’s an evaporative humidifier and it’s the easiest humidifier I’ve ever had to clean! I should mention that I honestly haven’t had it very long yet, but I use it pretty much all day everyday and haven’t had any issues! I’ve had quite a few humidifiers in my life and this is by far my favorite and most convenient. I highly recommend looking into the Blueair humidifier H35i model :) that’s the one I have and the base is even dishwasher safe which is super convenient. Blueair also has a 2 in 1 that is a humidifier and an air purifier that seems pretty nice and easy to clean as well, but that one is about double the price so I haven’t tried that one.

Also it comes with a 3 year warranty if you register it on Blueair within 30 days of purchasing which is definitely a plus!

I bought the Blueair H35i wick style humidifier last winter. I find it works well. No sound on “Auto”, no white chalky residue. It has a good filter system so can use tap water. Easy to add by just pouring it into the top part. It is easy to clean. [https://www.blueair.com/en-ca/products/invisiblemist-humidifier](https://www.blueair.com/en-ca/products/invisiblemist-humidifier)

Professionally, I work quite a bit with indoor air quality - definitely get a humidifier, but be careful about what kind you get. I usually do commercial building stuff but needed a humidifier for my apartment last year so I did a bunch of research, so here's the short version: I recommend wick-style (evaporative) humidifiers. They are more expensive than other types, but are far more safe and effective, and they (seem to) have a longer service life. Personally, I bought this one and it's been great: [https://www.blueair.com/products/invisiblemist-humidifier](https://www.blueair.com/products/invisiblemist-humidifier) DO NOT go with the ultra-sonic or "cool mist" style humidifiers. They basically launch un-evaporated droplets into the air along with any potential pathogens or particulates, plus those droplets can deposit, resulting in undesirable moisture issues. To mitigate the particulate and pathogen issue you can use RO water, but that is a pain in the ass. I also don't recommend the "hot mist" style evaporative humidifiers that actually have a heating element because they have essentially no real moisture control. They basically just dump water into the air until they're empty. Other wick-style humidifiers include (cannot speak to the quality): [https://crane-usa.com/product/evaporative-cool-mist-humidifier-0-5-gallon/](https://crane-usa.com/product/evaporative-cool-mist-humidifier-0-5-gallon/) [https://www.honeywellpluggedin.com/products/humidifiers/cool-moisture-humidifier/](https://www.honeywellpluggedin.com/products/humidifiers/cool-moisture-humidifier/) If there is interest, I can mention the cleaning/maintenance regime I use that has worked well, but I'm fully anticipating that this comment will go into the void lol

Id go with the Blueair H35i. its easy to use, dishwasher safe for cleaning, and keeps humidity steady without much maintenance

For hard water Id skip most of the ultrasonic models since they'll leave that annoying “white dust” everywhere. The Blueair H35i is a safer bet because its evaporative, so minerals mostly stay in the filter instead of going into the air, and the tank can go straight in the dishwasher which makes cleaning way easier. If you’re on well water then thats the one I’d recommend. You can find some good options [in this thread](https://www.reddit.com/user/SecureRich1212/comments/1nvesr8/the_best_humidifiers/)