AH550/AH555 Original Connect Humidifier

I can't sing the praises of my [Venta](https://www.venta-air.com/en_us/product/lw45-comfort-plus-humidifier/) highly enough. I moved from a house with integrated humidity control to one without, and it was a constant struggle. I started off with multiple ultrasonics around the house: white mist everywhere, constant 'clean the gunk out' of the larger reservoired units, and still had trouble keeping the place above 25% humidity. I switched to evaporative because I didn't like the dust everywhere and replacing the wicks was marginally less disgusting, and significantly less work, but man it was noisy. And those wicks aren't inexpensive, and crust up fast. The house had gotten down to 12% humidity one year, and the baluster cracking right next to me sounded like a rifle shot. That was when I started looking for other alternatives while saving up for the integrated solution, and found the Venta. Evaporative humidification, no wicks to constantly change, hUge reservoir, and much less noisy (comparatively quiet even!). Additional bonus: due to how it pulls air through the water to humidify it, a certain amount of dust/particulate matter is removed into the bottom of the reservoir. They used to call these things "air washers", but that was a stretch. It's by no means any sort of 'air filter', but it's not *nothing*. I got the LW45 Comfort Plus model (automatic fan speed control based on target humidity setting), and plunked it down in the most central spot of my split level. In concert with the HVAC helping recirculate things, even though the unit is rated for 645 sq ft, it took the humidity from 12% to 20% in a couple of days, and by the end of the 2nd week we were up to 30%. My house has central heating, and this was during a Wisconsin single digit cold stretch. There's an every-couple-of-weeks additive that keeps things from growing in the water, and an 'end-of-season' final wash-out cleaner, but that's it from a maintenance perspective. I noticed the levels in the house were getting down to the mid 20s, so it's time to bring it back out and set it up, again. Oh! It's been working so well for us, we haven't bothered continuing to consider the integrated solution.

I use this one currently https://www.venta-air.jp/products/#originalconnect I was impressed of the chemicals you can buy with it, all the residue is left in the water and a simple rinse will be enough maintenance. The ones that steam the air for example, there will be a ton of calcium buildup in the meshes that wick up the water to be heated up and evaporated. I've tried many, the piezoelectric ones (those that op talks about) are the worst.

Venta branded humidifiers are great

I went through this exact same obsession last winter when my bedroom was hitting like 18% humidity, felt like I was living in the sahara desert. Ended up going with a Venta after reading through probably 50 forum posts and I'm pretty happy with it - thing's been running daily for about 8 months now with zero issues. The maintainence is actually pretty minimal despite what some people say, just rinse the discs every couple weeks and change the water regularly. Only downside is it's not the fastest at humidifying but for your size room it should handle it fine, plus it's whisper quiet which was huge for me since I'm a light sleeper. The build quality feels solid too, like it could run for years without breaking down

I have one.  Haven’t needed service so no idea about the customer support.  I’m not sure the Venta formula cost is cheap enough to offset the cost for physical wicks, but otherwise it’s fine.