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At any time of year humidifiers add moisture to indoor air to alleviate irritating dryness for comfort, health, and to help your skin look its best. Especially important this year, increasing humidity levels to 43% helps prevent the spread of airborne viruses by up to 85%. More efficient humidifiers can also help people sleep more soundly at night by reducing the chances of snoring and allergy-related itching or sneezing. Another bonus is that humidified air helps protect your home’s wooden furnishings. Like air purifiers, humidity control is a proactive solution to boost indoor air quality. And today, you don’t have to break the bank to buy a humidifier — we’ve gathered the best humidifier deals from Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot.
Best humidifier deals
How to choose a humidifier
There are two main types of humidifiers. Cool mist humidifiers are great for hard water areas and for those living with asthma. While these are usually energy-efficient, its fan could be a little noisy. Ultrasonic is a kind of cool mist humidifier that is virtually silent as it uses vibrating sound waves to diffuse moisture as a fine mist. On the other hand, warm mist humidifiers are the ones to get if you like aromatherapy and when you want it to be extremely quiet as if you were in a tranquil spa. Instead of a fan, it has a heating element that disperses vapor in the air and often comes with a separate compartment for diffusing herbal or medicinal oils, so your room smells as good as it is fresh. Basically, you want your humidifier to match up to your environment and usage. For instance, cool mist humidifiers are ideal if you’re placing it in your kid’s room as it is generally safer without the risk of scalding accidents whereas warm mist humidifiers are recommended in colder climates.
Your budget is understandably a factor to consider but you’d want to make sure your humidifier is able to cover your room’s square footage. Although it is safe to assume that bigger units can humidify larger areas, you want it to be just the right size to avoid condensation on surfaces that could lead to mold growth. Next up is the water tank’s capacity as this would determine how long it can run in a given period of time and how frequent you’d have to refill it. You’d also want to check if the water tank is easy to remove to prevent messy spills.
In terms of features, ease of use is a priority so look for user-friendly controls or those that make for one-touch operation. Those with timers or the ability to auto shut-off spares the humidifier from burning out. A humidistat that would switch it off once the desired humidity level is reached would also come in handy but you can opt to buy a hygrometer which would cost around $10 if it doesn’t have one built-in. To make maintenance almost painless, a water tank and filter indicator save you the guesswork so you’re assured its parts aren’t compromised.
Looking for more great stuff? Browse through our curated deals page for robot vacuums like the iRobot Roomba, and more.
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