Venta - AH550/AH555 Original Connect Humidifier

Look up the venta humidifier. It spins a plastic cylinder of disks slowly and blows air over it. I got mine shipped from home depot but Amazon has them too. Get that and a bottle of steramine tablets. Put a half in once a month or two when you clean it. It won't get nasty, you don't need to replace any paper filters, it doesn't get mildew or messy gross like ultrasonic. And seems well built enough to actually be bifl.

Get a Venta Humidifier, it's uses evaporation instead of the usual ultrasonic humidifier (which can be harmful). It's pricier but way easier to clean and maintain and last a long time. 

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.

I use a Venta and I’m happy with it. Yes it’s marketed as an air purifier, but I have a coway air purifier that I run all the time anyway.

When you’ve made it to buyitforlife- asking for functionality over aesthetics. “Please excuse the large window unit sitting on the floor in the middle of the walkway in my bedroom”

I second Levoit 6000S, I just got it after owning the AirCare, Honeywell, and Venta. None of them comes close to the Levoit in terms of humidifying power and noise. For reference, where I'm from it is 20-32% humidity without a humidifier. I get to 50% with the Levoit, the only one that can easily achieve that.

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.

Yes. I run my Venta with distilled only. I make my own distilled was with a Vevor distiller bit of a pain but better then buying. I wash out the distiller with just plain white vinager every 2 weeks to remove build up.

Evaporative. Get a Venta. I don't recommend anything but I'll recommend the shit out of those humidifiers. The air purification part is minimal but it's the easiest and best humidifier. Just a box of water open to the air, never gets nasty and even if the water gets a little dusty it doesn't take that shit with it, and cleaning it is wiping the box. A literal miracle as far as I'm concerned