Our Editors Tested 6 Humidifiers That Can Combat Winter's Dry Air (2024)

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IF YOU LIVE in a dry climate or find yourself nursing a perpetually stuffy nose around this time of year, you may want to consider getting a humidifier for your home. If you've ever seen a cigar humidor, you've seen the magic of humidifiers up close and personal. Humidors utilize a humidifier to preserve freshness and flavor in cigars by controlling the level of moisture in the air. Humidifiers for your home do the same thing, but on a much larger scale.

Best Humidifiers

The ideal relative humidity is somewhere between 30-50%, and the level of natural humidity in your home can fluctuate depending on where you live, the time of year, and how much heat or A/C you use. Dry air can aggravate asthma or sinus problems, which may leave you feeling like you're constantly congested. Dr. Jess Mandel, pulmonologist and Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at UCSD, says, "Most of the problems that dry air causes tend to be in terms of symptoms like eye irritation, feeling thirsty, and maybe some soreness in the throat. However, in some cases, it can cause worsening of symptoms like like asthma or sinusitis or nosebleeds."

Humidifiers work by adding moisture back into the air, which can help loosen up mucus in the lungs and sinuses and alleviate dry cough. Not only is this of help during waking hours, but a humidifier can aid in sleep better—much like an air purifier or white noise machine. What a good humidifier boils down to is how well can it properly adjust the air you breath. Of course you want a humidifier that will gently spread moisture into the air, but you also want one that's easy to use and clean. Some of the best humidifiers even have special filters. Others can also have chambers to pour in essentials oils, which is great if you're into aromatherapy.

What to Consider

Size

Depending on the size of the tank and how quickly it reaches ideal humidity, humidifiers are intended for a specific room size. This will typically be indicated on the packaging, but if you're in the market for smaller, portable machines (like some on this list), you'll likely need one for every room. Whole-home humidifiers are typically more expensive and require some expert installation into your HVAC system.

Run Time

Smaller humidifiers will only run for a few hours, which means you may only experience relief from your symptoms for a short while before the dry air returns. Larger models can run for over 24 hours before refilling. Consider the tank capacity and run time to figure out how long a single tank fill will last. The models we've picked as the best below all run for at least 24 hours, which is extremely helpful.

Setup and Sound

Since humidifiers need a near-constant supply of fresh water to circulate throughout the room, you'll want to make sure that doing so is as easy as possible. If you're a light sleeper, you'll also want to consider how loud the humidifier is when it's operating, and potentially spring for a quieter model.

Ease of Cleaning

If you're going to use a humidifier in your home, you should also expect to clean it at least once a week—as well as change the water daily. Humidifiers trap mold, bacteria, and microbes and if they aren't cleaned regularly, they can end up making your allergy or respiratory issues even worse. Disassembling and scrubbing the unit once a week prevents those pathogens from escaping back into the air.

Types

The two primary types of humidifiers are evaporative and ultrasonic. Ultrasonic humidifiers use high-frequency sound vibrations to create a mist of water droplets, which are released into the air. It operates quietly and is often compact but may emit more white dust if the water has minerals. This is why lots of humidifiers say to use distilled water.

An evaporative humidifier uses a fan to blow air over a wet wick or filter, evaporating water naturally into the air. It is generally quieter but bulkier, and it tends to self-regulate humidity levels since evaporation slows when the air becomes saturated.

How We Selected

For the past three years, Men's Health editors and writers have consulted with experts on the best humidifiers. We've consistently tested over a dozen humidifiers to determine which ones are the absolute best. We've done so in various settings from home offices to our NYC office to bedrooms to living rooms with wood burning stoves. When testing humidifiers we evaluated their run time, coverage area, tank capacity, ease of cleaning, operating noise, and overall ease of use. Cleaning a humidifier is always going to be a chore, so we especially make note of any that make that task easier.

After our testing and consulting with experts like Dr. Mandel, we've determined the following six are the best humidifiers for every type of room.

LV600S Smart Hybrid Ultrasonic Humidifier

The LV600S from Levoit is a great purifier for large rooms thanks to a high mist height that easily covers an entire space and smart features that let you change the settings via the companion app. This means you don’t have to get up and walk across the room to make adjustments, a huge benefit when you’re cozied up on the couch.

Our tester found the setup to be super simple and filling up the tank was easier than other purifiers they’d used, though the eventual need for a filter replacement was something they didn’t love. The tank has a large opening that is not only easy to fill, but easy to clean. There’s also a handle on the tank that makes it easy to transport to the sink so you don’t have to walk back and forth with endless cups of water (filling six liters that way would take a lifetime).

They were big fans of the essential oil box, though it can get sticky if you don’t clean it out right after use. The customization options are pretty substantial, but our tester found that they really only used them while they were asleep or home sick. One final thing our tester loved was the lack of noise coming from the machine, even when it was running on high—it can get even quieter during sleep mode when it only kicks out 28 decibels (and turns off all display lights).

$110.00 at amazon.com

Classic 200S Smart Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier

$46.99 at amazon.com

Cube Plus X50V

The CarePod One 31S stands out thanks to its stainless steel parts that are tremendously easy to clean (and stay clean longer than most). While the original Carepod One is well-liked, we were tried out this larger version. The setup is an easy process: The only step required is the attachment of an interior wand. Our tester noted that it felt similar to setting up a rice maker.

Our tester fired it up and immediately found it useful for sleeping, specifically on cool mode. The only issue they experienced, however, was a persistent dripping sound when the humidifier was on full blast, which kept their partner up at night. If you want to pick up a CarePod, you might want to invest in a white noise machine, too. They didn’t experience any issues with the low or medium settings, though. The 32-hour run time is right in the sweet spot for most of the options we tested, and a 4.2-liter reservoir made it easy to get the most out of the run time.

Finally, they were impressed with the construction and cleanliness—they had no issues cleaning the entire reservoir and noted that there were no small crevices that were hard to get to. It's a very low-maintenance (as far as humidifiers can go) option that we've found.

$450.00 at amazon.com

Cloud Humidifier

Few humidifiers look as good as the Vitruvi humidifier. With its impeccable design and ease of use, it’s a great pick for style-focused folks who want to add some moisture to their air without much effort. Vitruvi’s focus as a brand is to promote healthy skin and hair, which they believe is greatly improved by avoiding dry air. Our tester agreed that the Vitruvi humidifier is helpful, but they admitted to already having good hair, so perhaps it was natural.

The humidifier is super easy to set up; our tester said it only took them about 2.5 minutes from the time they took it out of the box to having it fired up and ready to go. The top comes off easily without compromising the unit’s sturdiness and the reservoir was easy to fill. Our tester’s room felt different after just one night of use, helping battle a lingering cold.

The humidifying options are organized by the amount of time you want the humidifier to run: 8, 12, 16, or 24 hours. Each time frame has a different humidifying intensity, allowing you to control how fast or slow the room is humidified. The 24 hour setting uses a low enough setting for the unit to run the entire time without a refill, which is impressive considering it has one of the smallest reservoirs we tested at just 1.5 liters.

$171.75 at vitruvi.com

Classic 300S Ultrasonic Smart Humidifier

The Levoit 300s is one of the best air purifiers we tested—it can humidify a ton of space (505 sq. ft.), holds a whopping 6 liters of water, and has a smattering of useful features that make it an incredible value for the price.

Our tester found it incredibly easy to fill thanks to the top-fill design. They noted that the machine gets heavy when full of water, but if you have it set up in a location where it won’t move, this shouldn’t be a problem. Plus, the more you fill it up, the longer the runtime. Our tester also found it to be much quieter than the Levoit 200s and had no issues running it on full blast while also watching TV. They even had it in a room with a wood-burning stove and could tell that the humidifier kept the space from getting dried out the way it normally would with the stove burning.

The machine has high, medium, and low settings, plus an auto setting that lets you choose your preferred humidity level, which is indicated by a number on the actual machine itself—a feature our tester found helpful. It has a 360° nozzle and an aromatherapy pad you can fill with essential oils to brighten the room with smells. For $80, it's tough to beat this one if you're looking to humidify a large space.

$79.99 at amazon.com

Purifier Humidify+Cool PH03

Dyson's air purifier and humidifier might feel like a steep investment at first, but once you take into account the built-in tech and overall lifespan you'll find it's well worth the price point. Dyson's advanced filtration system also analyzes, cleans, and purifies the air in your home, capturing 99.97% of particles 0.3 microns in size. Oh yeah, it humidifies, too. Combine the purification and the humidification, and you’ll have clean air to breathe in no time.

Our tester found the 3.8L reservoir to be plenty big enough to run all night long without running out of water and, even though the square footage it can cover isn’t listed, our tester found no issues with humidifying a 15 x 15 ft room. The humidity can be controlled with the mobile app, which our tester found to be much more convenient than using the remote. Plus, the app tells you the outdoor temperature and humidity, current room temperature, indoor humidity level, and indoor air quality. Changing the air filter is a breeze, too. The filter lasts about 12 months with regular use, but you don’t need to worry about setting a calendar reminder; the machine will tell you when a new filter is required.

If you suffer from chronic allergies from air pollutants, this high-end option may just be worth it. Our tester has been using his for multiple years and it has helped alleviate allergies and dry sinuses—even when his dog and cat are in the room.

$899.95 at amazon.com

Meet the Expert

Dr. Jess Mandel is a pulmonologist and Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at UCSD.

How to Clean a Humidifier

Keeping your humidifier clean is imperative to its performance—let it go too long and you’ll start to see some gunk build up. Dr. Mandel stresses this point, saying, "It's important that if you use a humidifier, that you clean it appropriately because humidifiers can get colonized by fungus or mold, and that can create different kinds of problems."

He went on with a few tips how to keep it clean: “It's important to use distilled or demineralized water. It's important to clean the humidifier every three days, which is a lot. It's really a commitment to keep it clean."

To clean a humidifier, unplug it and empty any remaining water. Make sure you empty the water away from the motor vent.

Then, disassemble the parts and soak them in a solution of equal parts white vinegar and water to remove mineral buildup. Rinse thoroughly, dry all components, and reassemble before refilling with fresh water.

To maintain in between full cleanings, wipe down the water tank frequently, getting into the cracks and tricky crevices as much as possible.

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