Best humidifiers of 2024

Our humidifier test candidates are a mix of 12 established artists, bestsellers and promising new products from 10 companies. Adding moisture to indoor air is the sole responsibility of a humidifier – all other features are secondary – so the bulk of our testing focuses on how well each product performs this task. I completed our testing by measuring power consumption and evaluating the controls.

Humidification

To measure humidification, I placed each product in an enclosed 5 square meter room with humidity sensors. SwitchBot hub 2 And Ecowitt GW1200 — about four feet from the nozzle on either side. To prevent this from affecting the results, I turned off our central heating system during each test. I only turned on the fan for a few minutes to remove the high humidity between tests. Although I couldn’t reliably get the room to the same relative humidity every time, I aimed for a starting range between 45% and 50%.

I recorded the humidity at the start and end of each 10-minute test to track a product’s overall humidification effects. There were two rounds of testing for each device to evaluate the lowest and highest settings for the cool mist (or evaporative) humidifier. A third test session followed for the Dreo and Levoit units with warm mist capabilities on the high setting.

Leviot’s warm mist mode increased humidity the fastest at our test site, from 46% to 60% in just 10 minutes, an increase of 14 percentage points. The Dreo HM713S (warm and cool mist) and HM524S came in second place by increasing humidity by 10 points. Blueair is another notable standout, adding nine percentage points during the test while using a fraction of the energy of other top performers.

The output of the Vornado UH100, Dreo HM311S, GoveeLife H7140 and Everlasting Comfort was lower, but these models are sufficient for most people. Every product under $38 delivered sub-par humidification in our relatively small test room: Rosekm, Raydrop, Movtip, and Saunana. This suggests that they would be more suitable for use as short-range personal humidifiers – ideal for local humidification in a shared office or enclosed vehicle – rather than in an entire room.

How airflow and mist production affect humidification

I held an anemometer 4 inches away from the nozzle of each humidifier and recorded the air velocity to measure airflow. I couldn’t find a satisfactory way to form an airtight seal with the anemometer due to the larger nozzles on some units, so the overall accuracy is lower than I would like. I have gathered enough information to come to some useful conclusions.

When I compared mist production to the overall increase in humidity, I found that each humidifier used approximately the same volume of water to increase ambient humidity by one percentage point – the air next to a humidifier can only absorb a certain amount of moisture at a time. before it becomes saturated. This means that improving airflow is the best way to increase both mist production and humidification.

After testing, I found that air speeds equal to or greater than 1.0 meters per second provided the best performance and fog yield. Blueair (2.3 m/s) and Vornado (1.8 m/s) use larger fans than the competition. Unsurprisingly, they had the highest airflow in our tests, followed by all three Dreo units at 1.2m/s. All these products improve humidity by at least eight percentage points.

While Everlasting Comfort matched the Dreo’s airflow, the humidification was weaker overall. Levoit’s airspeed was slightly lower at 1.0 m/s, but still outperformed the budget products in cool mist mode. The lower air movement did not stop the warm mist result from providing the best humidification in our range. GoveeLife’s 0.7 m/s met the bare minimum for a quick noticeable improvement in humidity and was the standout among budget models under $50.

Movtip, Saunana, Rosekm and Raydrop produced the lowest airflow, making them much slower at humidification than more expensive rivals. They should perform better when used alongside a fan, but this also makes them more susceptible to losing their power when dry air enters the room while the furnace or air conditioner is running. (You can compensate for low humidity air with humidifiers in other rooms or a whole-house humidifier, but that’s beyond the scope of our review.)

Power consumption

The Blueair H35i was the most energy-efficient humidifier I tested, drawing just 6 watts on high. You can expect similar performance from other evaporative humidifiers. Movtip and Saunana used less energy than Blueair, but were also the least effective options for humidifying a large room.

Ultrasonic cool mist humidifiers used less than 30 watts of electricity during use, with the products in our review using an average of 11 watts on low and 17 watts on high. This is more than a typical LED bulb, it’s still highly efficient and eight hours of daily runtime adds no more than $0.75 to your monthly energy bill.

I based this estimate on the national average electricity price of $0.18 per kilowatt hour from a October 2024 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. I recommend getting one online calculator for a figure that more accurately reflects your local electricity rates.

Warm mist humidifiers, such as Dreo HM713S and Levoit OasisMist, consume more than 10 times as much energy with a maximum power consumption of 280 watts. According to our tests, they use about half as much energy after the first heating cycle. This would increase your monthly electric bill by about $6 to $12. Luckily, both models have cool mist modes, so you can reserve warm mist for times when you need it.

Controls

The manual controls of all humidifiers are easy to use. I like that the control panels on Dreo, Levoit and Blueair offer the same functionality as their respective mobile apps. Still, the apps were easier for adjusting settings such as the timer and humidistat. (A humidistat allows a unit to achieve and maintain optimal humidity.) Although Vornado doesn’t use an app or timer, the clear labels on the automatic humidity controls help you know which settings are active.

Rosekm also has a built-in humidistat, but you cannot choose a target humidity. Instead, the device reduces its power as humidity rises, before switching off completely at 80% humidity. This seems very high unless you are using the device in a grow room for houseplants. Fortunately, the display shows the current humidity, so you can monitor moisture levels over time. Rosekm’s timer, which tops out at 12 hours, may be better for controlling humidity while you sleep.

On-device controls for Raydrop, Everlasting Comfort, Movtip, Saunana and GoveeLife were simplistic. These units offer multiple mist settings, but they don’t have humidistats and timers, so the units run until you turn them off or until the water runs out. GoveeLife offers timer settings in the Govee app, but requires an additional humidity sensor to enable the automatic functionality.

Ultimately, I preferred units with timers and humidistats, which are less likely to over-humidify a room. Still, choosing a lower mist setting on simple devices can achieve a similar result even if you don’t know the exact humidity.