Easy To Care Warm Mist Humidifier (HWM445, HWM445B)

I’ve had good success with this Honeywell model. Warm waist is better so you don’t have that goo building up. I do have to descale mine every month or two because I have hard water but other than that it works great. I put it on a smart plug and just have it automatically run a couple of hours per day over the winter to keep my house at a nice humidity level https://www.honeywellstore.com/store/products/easy-to-care-warm-mist-humidifier-hwm445b.htm

tl;dr: Get the Levoit 6000S and replace the wicks and filter every 1-2 years. Avoid ultrasonic humidifiers.   Where I'm from, the winters are terribly dry 20-32% humidity typically, over the years I have been trying different types of humidifiers so I have a pretty good idea of which ones are worth it and which ones aren't, I hope I can help people who have to deal with dry air save some money and stress as I wish I had this kind of resource when I was looking for humidifiers that worked.   Here is my quick review of the best ones I've tried. These were all used for a single large master bedroom with hard tap water and ran for 16+ hours a day over the course of 3-5 months during the fall/winter. None of them failed and are all still working but does require proper maintenance, if you are in an area with soft water then the maintence schedule may be better than what I will list below. Some are intended for a larger space, but the goal is to be able to achieve a consistent 50% humidity as my benchmark for a good humidifier. Humidity was tested with two ThermoPro TP55 hygrometers at two different spots in the room away from the humidifier, readings were consistent between the two (as well as with some smaller hygrometers I had left over from 3D printing). The built-in humidity sensors on every humidifier I tried has never really been accurate, they are usually higher by 5-10% compared to the room since they are often inside or right beside the humidification spot.   **Honeywell HWM440WC** Evaporative steam humidifier, this humidifier just uses steam and has no fans, it is pretty quiet, cheap, and works fairly well. I own two of these as they were my first humidifiers. However there are some pretty big drawbacks.   tl;dr: Requires maintenance and refilling often but cheap   **Pros:** * Cheap * Relatively quiet * Warms the room * Easy top fill * Simple 3 switch button * Auto shut off feature * No wicks to replace or clean * No additives needed * Can achieve 50%+ on high setting, low gets to 44-45% consistently at best. **Cons:** * Mineral Build-up is a pain to deal with: With tap water it will eventually develop mineral buildup on the heating element which is a hard plastic-like material. It is difficult to clean off the buiild-up as you don't want to damage the heating element and the space is difficult to work in. I typically soak in it a hot citric acid bath to dissolve and soften the build up then go at it carefully with a screwdriver. This needs to be done weekly if using it a lot otherwise the build up will get so bad it won't run anymore, if using the high setting often it should be descaled every 4-5 days. (If you use distilled you will be spending so much money on distilled water...) * Uses more water than other evaporative humidifiers * Requires refilling throughout the day. On the low setting a full tank running continuously lasts 10-12 hours. Running on the high setting it lasts 7-8.5 hours, ymmv. * Uses more electricity than others   **AirCare Space Saver Evaporative Humidifier** Uses a very large paper wick which absorbs the water and a top mount fan blows air out to humidify the space. The design does have a flaw in that the fan and wick aren't positioned in a way that lets air efficiently pull the moisture out of the wick. This is the cheapest evaporative humidifier of this size. I used bacteriostat additive for each refill to inhibit bacteria growth (imo not really nessecary if you go through your water as fast as me).   tl;dr: Loud but does the job and low maintenance   **Pros:** * Relatively cheap for the capacity * Humidifies the room to ~45% on low setting, medium/high can bring it past 50%. * Large tank, lasts for 3 days or so running continuously on low. * Simple dumb design, just one dial to set desired humidity shut off and one button to turn on/off the fan and dial the speed between low, medium, high. Inside is just a styrofoam bob for auto shut off and a big replaceable wick. * Easy top fill * Auto shut off: Uses a styrofoam bob to push a lever under the lid, when the water level is too low it can't push the lever and the machine stops. * Has wheels which can be helpful if you prefer filling at the tap for a capacity this large **Cons:** * Wick need replacing yearly based on my experience, they are very large and because of the design of it, it is difficult to properly clean all the mineral build up off of it. * Lid is slightly annoying to put on, since the bucket body is not made of very rigid plastic, the little amount of bending can make the lid difficult to seat in place, if the lid was designed better to have alignment pieces built into it then it wouldn't be an issue. * Realistically only usable on low setting if you are in the room, around the same loudness as a typical standing fan. Medium you need noise cancelling headphones and on high you are going to hear it no matter what and it is crazy loud, think hairdryer 3 arms length away. * No easy way to see the max fill line, if you overfill it, there is a drain hole out the back. Best way to see it without removing the lid and be annoyed at putting it back on is to just shine a light at where the max fill line is on the inside. You will be able to easily see the fill line and water level through the opening at the top for filling.   **Venta LW45** Filterless/Wickless style evaporative humidifier. Quiet and simple operation. Extremely expensive for what is really just a plastic bucket and drum. While filterless, you need to use their water treatment or make your own to avoid too much build up of minerals which ends up being more expensive than just buying a new wick every year (so much for the filterless advantage). They also advertise it as cleaning the air, this is mostly just a marketing gimmick imo. Also I've heard the customer support was terrible as they will blame you for not doing proper maintenance with their additives if anything happens.   tl;dr: Avoid, too pricey and mediocre performance   **Pros:** * Quiet * Auto shut off * Filterless * Top fill but you need to remove the lid * Humidifies the room to 42-45%, couldn't consistently keep at 50% or higher * Simple operation **Cons:** * Expensive Expensive Expensive * Cheap material build for the price * Requires using expensive additives on every refill which is very pricey if you go through water quickly * Below average capacity for the price * Requires cleaning every ~10 days * Average humidification for the price   **Levoit 6000S** Modern looking evaporative humidifier that works very well and uses 4 small wicks. Quiet operation and for full functionality and customization you need to use an app on your smartphone. Refill requires taking off the top pieces and using a provided funnel if filling from the tap or if you have a bucket you can just pour water directly into the wide basin. I used bacteriostat additive for each refill to inhibit bacteria growth (imo not really nessecary if you go through your water as fast as me).   tl;dr: Great humidifier, good price   **Pros:** * Great humidification, achieves 50%+ easily on 4/10 fan speed which is still quieter than the Aircare on low. * Quiet * Top fill but you need to remove the top pieces * Durable small wicks, can survive a descale with citric acid and hot water once or twice * Modern looking * Has wheels which can be helpful if you prefer filling at the tap for a capacity this large * Large capacity, requires refilling slightly more often than the Aircare (still can go days) * Comes with a cover for storage * Lots of different features and settings for a humidifier * Viewing window for max fill line **Cons:** * Requires an app for full functionality and best experience, buttons on the machine are still adequate though * Requires buying wicks that are ~$10 more expensive than the Aircare and a filter, but lasts longer as you can descale it once or twice * Cleaning does require running the machine wickless with citric acid water then flushing with plain water, once a month   --- **Ultrasonic Rant** I started with ultrasonic humidifiers but those are just terrible to deal with. The only benefit to them is that they are cool looking and cheap. But if you don't use distilled water it gets mineral deposits everywhere (esp with hard water) and is not good for the air quality. Also their ability to humidify a very dry room is out of the question based on my experience with two different ultrasonic humidifiers in the $70-120 range (could barely hold 42% in a localized area). Highly recommend you stay away from these, they are very common and even if they say "warm mist" it can still be ultrasonic. If they don't say what type of humidifier it is or if the price seems too good, it is very likely ultrasonic.   Edit:   **Carepod Rant**   tl;dr: Avoid like the plague   Since several people have been asking for my opinion about Carepod, here is my 2-cents without first hand experience: They are over marketed, misleading, overpriced and nothing special. They don't specificy practically all of their humidifiers are ultrasonic without digging into the webpage and flipping the tabs to specs which is a major red flag. Their non-ultrasonic ones also has been reported to have issues with overheating and the design appears to be terribly inefficient since it looks like it is just boiling a pot of water (basically an electric kettle you run constantly). They definitely spent a ton of money on advertising and doesn't really innovate on anything with humidifiers. If you have knowledge and lots of experience with humidifiers you will be able to tell a lot of what they say in their advertisement is irrelevant garbage. I equate Carepod to all the other randomly branded humidifiers you find on Amazon except it is priced 3-10x+ more just because they do a lot of advertising and marketing. I do not personally recommend Carepod especially when they make dangerous statements such as "Safe for everyone, even babies" which is only the case if you use distilled water which there will be a significant amount of people who don't know to do that. Also them constantly promoting it is "made by a doctor" and won "awards" (from 2021) is a red flag.

I'm in a similar sized place and after going through a bunch of humidifiers over the years, the 6000s is the only unit that keeps the humidity consistent without a bunch of maintenance. I've had mine for about two months... there is maintenance but it's much easier than many other models out there. At a minimum: 1. When the tank is empty, dump out the remaining water, rinse the tank and dry before refilling. 2. Run dry mode at least every 3 days to dry the filters and dry the rest of the parts when dry mode completes. 3. Once a month, dry and remove the filters and run a solution of citric acid through the system for 30 minutes. Run clean water for 10 minutes, then remove and rinse/dry everything before reassembling. For my first month I did more cleaning: rinsing, brushing and drying the filters during every refill, washing the tank with soapy water during every refill, and washing all the parts with soapy water weekly. After the first month I started feeling I was going overboard and scaled back to the minimum maintenance above, which is what Levoit recommends. If I start noticing grime, I'll wash with soapy water once a week. The only alternative I can recommend is the warm mist Honeywell HWM440/HWM445, but you will be filling the tank much more often and keeping the heating element clean with vinegar is pretty time consuming if you have really hard water (I was soaking it in vinegar weekly for 1-2hrs, and even after that would need to scrape and scrub the minerals to actually get it clean).

I used both a Honeywell hwm440 and hwm845 (one is larger capacity/different design). As for mineral build up, you can buy citric acid for pretty cheap. Drop a teaspoon in the water and it will all fall out after soaking for 10 min and you can dump that water.

The warm mist humidifiers should be safe if they're of decent quality. Teflon starts to degrade at 230\*C (around 450\*F) and that's when they become a problem for birds - I don't have the personal data to prove they don't go that high but given water boils at 100\*C, I'd be concerned if a warm mist humidifier, which is basically a big specialized kettle that boils a little bit of water at a time, reached temperatures that high. Just having the presence of Teflon isn't enough of a danger, it must be sufficiently heated to start decomposing or degrading (although still best to avoid as much as possible to not risk things like manufacturing byproducts being present - you could always run it in a different room with a vent for a few days). I'm in Canada though and have used the Honeywell Warm Mist humidifiers without much issue. AFAIK you want to avoid the ultrasonic mist humidifiers as it sends everything into the air. I don't have experience with non-ultrasonic cold mist humidifiers, but you can watch this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHeehYYgl28&ab\_channel=TechnologyConnections](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHeehYYgl28&ab_channel=TechnologyConnections) The other option is to make a DIY swamp cooler which is what I was thinking of doing, AFAIK/understand you have a reservoir of water in a container/bowl (pyrex container) and drape a towel in it so the water diffuses up the towel. Have warm air circulate through the towel and it'll add some humidity to the air. It's appealing to me because it's easy to change out and wash the towels regularly, and clean the reservoir. Downsides - probably not as effective as a humidifier, you have to protect the reservoir so your bird doesn't fall in and drown, and the risk of having water near a heater or electronics. Haven't done it though.

I LOVE my Honeywell warm mist humidifier. I got it from target. It’s like $39 and can pump out a gallon of water every day. Fun side note, since we have hard water, mineral deposits can build up on the inside of your humidifier. Either clean regularly with white vinegar or use bottles of distilled water.

Get a warm mist humidifier. It'll make your space feel cozy, and winter colds will be a thing of the past. My go-to ones are by Vick's and Honeywell. They look identical, with different branding, but can usually be found everywhere, online and in drug stores.

It's also cleaner, and safer. No worries about spreading bacteria, or mold, through the air, because the unit needed to be clean, and no dust from your water evaporating leaving it's mineral content behind on your furniture. I tried cool mist once, to see why they were so popular, and they made the room feel cold an clammy. Blech! I think people like them because you're less likely to deal with burns from kids, or animals messing with it. It also uses less energy since there's no heat source, but the result are sub par.