20 Best Humidifiers For Whole House (2023 Updated)

We had an older model of the Aprilaire 700M installed many years ago. We replaced the fan and solenoid over the years – but over quite a few years (around 15 years). We also replaced the evaporative panel every few years, but that’s normal maintenance.

(The owner’s manual says to replace it every year, but in our house, the humidifier only runs about 4 months a year. ) The plastic case had gotten brittle, so when the solenoid wouldn’t kick open this year, we decided to get another whole unit as we had been happy with the old one.

The new one uses nearly the same frame and fits the same opening, so I had it the main unit installed in under an hour. The pictures don’t show that the box also includes a saddle valve and 110V-to-24VAC transformer.

You may not need the transformer, but in my case, the furnace’s circuit board wasn’t delivering 24VAC (though it must have at one time for the old unit to work), so I did end up using it. I also replaced the old saddle valve with the new one, since it was as old as the unit.

The manual humidistat in the new 700M is smaller than the one in the old one, so that required covering over the old humidistat’s opening in the air return and installing the new one near that. If I had any complaint about this unit, it would be that the humidistat knob is very small, and the full rotational travel of it is less than 180°.

(That was true of the old one, too. ) That makes it hard to get it dialed into the correct level humidity level. Once we get it set where we like it, we tend not to touch it. Our house is not very large (< 2000 sq ft), but it's also not particularly "tight" either.

The Aprilaire 700M can keep the humidity in the high 40’s – low 50’s pretty effortlessly. It would do more, but we get a lot of condensation on the windows/doors if we go much above 45% RH, so we try to stay in the mid 40’s.

That’s enough to keep me from getting shocked on every metal surface in the house.

With this type of humidifier of any brand, Water is pooling at the bottom tray and mold goes into the air duct. Buy the one with water feeds through to floor drain to protect your family health. A year after moving into a new home, my son was looking tired, bagged eyes coughed, had bronchitis, and was sick for years.

We took him for a test and he had developed asthma. One day, I opened the humidifier and the water on the tray was like thick yogurt. We moved to a new home with no central humidifier, my son was back healthy as any normal kid.

Took him in for an asthma test and he was cured.

I purchased this whole house humidifier to protect my newly installed maple hardwood floors during Colorado’s notoriously dry winter conditions. My humidity dropped to 9% in January. After installation, my 2300 square foot house has a stable 40-45%.

Installation was a 7/10 difficulty, and I’m a relatively experienced handyman homeowner. If I had to improve one thing about the unit, I’d prefer it have a small reservoir of water that automatically purges.

There’s a constant trickle of water to the drain which adds up over time. It’s a minor problem given the overall benefit.

So, for those of you looking to install a new whole home humidifier this is a good choice, but there are somethings that you must be aware of before purchasing. First off unlike a conventional bypass humidifier that you install on the return side ( Cold air Return ) this unit is designed to be installed on the supply side ( the furnace side ) this means you need room above your furnace to install this unit, you can install it above the furnace even if you have central air and have an A coil providing you do it on the opposite side the coil goes it at and you have at least 1 inch of space between the coil and the Humidifier, personally I had enough room to go above my coil and that would be the preferred choice.

Now as I mentioned this goes on the supply side so what does that mean, its means that instead of stealing warm air from your furnace and blowing it through a tube to the return side like in a conventional Humidifier where your evaporated water now must go down and pass through your filter and you lose half your moisture, now that moisture is sent directly up and get distributed through you home, so make sure you have enough space for this unit because it is not small.

Now the actual installation was straight forward and I’m confident in saying that and handy person shouldn’t have any real trouble with the installation until the part where you go to get the Humidistat and SURPRISE!!!!!! Honeywell has decided that they where going to upgrade the Humidistat from a mechanical switch like the one pictured on the box with a digital controller which I thought was fantastic only to realize that all the literature in the box and all the instructions still refer to the mechanical switch, there is zero information that comes in the box mentioning the digital switch I mean nothing no wiring diagrams no pictures no references at all.

So, I called and off to Mexico we go, I tried, I really did to explain to the person on the other end of the phone that I just wanted information on how to connect the unit, but sadly he was of no use, luckily we have the power of the internet and within 20 minutes I worked out all my issues and hopefully this information will help some of you.

So, the digital unit looks like a thermostat and it separates like one, you will mount the the back half of the unit to your cold air return and drill a ½ hole, there should be a long tube looking piece that slides into the back half and then goes into the cold air duct.

So, when you’re at the part when you must run your wires from the pressure switch to the Humidistat and from the humidifier to the humidistat and you have a white and red wire coming from both and there is a block on the back half of the humidistat with letters that say CRUUSS.

You will run one red wire from the pressure switch and connect it to one of the U terminals and one red wire from the humidifier to the other U terminal and then connect the two white wires together with a twist cap.

Now the fun part that they don’t mention because its digital it requires power and where are you going to get power from? This is the part where you have to go into your furnace and some of you may not be comfortable doing this, for those of you with a newer furnace you may have a board with dedicated terminals for a humidifier where you could get power but for those of use with older furnaces you want to look for a block with letters that say R W Y G C your thermostat is usually connected here you will notice that on your humidistat above the two U terminals there are the letters C and R you need to run some wire’s from the R and C from your furnace to the R and C on your humidistat in order to get power.

Now keep in mind after I went through all this I sent Honeywell a nasty email and this was there response. “Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this has caused you. These products are trade; hence they are installed by contractors only” Not something that is stated on the box when you are purchasing it.

Also with the humidistat comes a black wire with a probe on the end, the two remaining terminals on the humidistat block the ones marked SS are for this probe the idea being you run the probe outside and the unit sensing the outside temperature will automatically adjust your humidity levels for you.

All in all compared to the price of the aprilaire this unit is a fraction of the cost and has the same benefits, but the lack of installations instructions is mind boggling so be prepared. You can find the Humidistat installation instructions by going here https://forwardthinking.

honeywell. com/related_links/humidification/69-2794. pdf.

IšverstiShow in original languageWe have a newish Geostar geothermal heatpump in our 2500 sqft house. It gets really dry in the winter and I asked my HVAC contractor for recommendations. He said the heat pump would do best with a steam type humidifier and recommended the Aprilaire 800.

He said I could install it myself. The unit is good quality, as is the included H-stat, steam hose, and drain hose. I had to provide the 220v line, a short piece of T-stat cable, 1/4″ cold water line, and 2 conductor wire to the outdoor temp probe.

All as expected. The instructions are good and the installation was straightforward, but it did take the better part of a day, but that’s how first installs go for a DIY’er, right? Luckily I had 220v power and a cold water line at the unit.

I ran the drain from the unit downstream into the existing 3/4 PVC condensate line which goes to an outside drain. The drain water is tempered with the cold water so no problems for the condensate line.

The unit has worked like a charm from the first power-up. I have the H-stat set pretty high and it keeps a nice 45% RH in the house. Shrinkage in wood floors and furniture is gone. And no complaints of dry skin and noses in the mornings.

The variable speed fan in the heatpump is set to the “on” position at the T-stat so the steam will be generated even when the heatpump is not providing heat. The included H-stat is also enabled to turn the HP blower on if needed when steam is called for.

Judging by how much the steam humidifier runs, I can tell this would be plenty good for a much bigger house, too. After a month of operation, I am plenty pleased. BTW, I have been buying from SupplyHouse for several years, and I keep coming back.

IšverstiShow in original languageAfter years of using a small humidifier at night in our bedroom, we finally decided to buy and install the Aprilaire 800. Our house is approximately 4500 square feet.

My father-in-law and I installed this unit ourselves. I went with the 240v, 16A option. Our furnace and water heater are in the center of the house’s lower level, so we had everything needed close by for the installation.

I’d say the hardest part for my installation was fitting the steam dispersion tube into the duct. There’s not a lot of space between the return duct and the main duct in our system. I had to cut a large hole in the main duct and then attach the dispersion tube to a smaller piece of sheet metal that could then be installed into the main duct.

This was needed to allow for room/angle to put the dispersion tube into the main duct. The bend in the steam tube is tight, but not restricted. As far as plumbing, we added a water hammer arrestor just in case.

When operating, the unit is virtually silent compared to the noise made by the furnace. The only noise is from the drain valve and that’s not loud at all. We noticed a difference in how our house felt very shortly after we began using it.

Our noses weren’t as dry and had less skin-cracking on our hands this winter. Worth it!.

IšverstiShow in original languageI live in the northern mid-west in a 3500 sq-ft house with a single furnace. I think I’ve been through every type of humidifier out there (several bypass types, fan assisted drum, mister, and now this one).

The bypass types could only add a couple of percent humidity. The fan assisted drum humidifier worked alright, but with the concerns about Legionnaire’s I couldn’t get parts. The mister could humidify the house, but at the start of the second season using it, my wife was wondering what happened as the house was coated in white dust.

The humidifier is the most capable of all the humidifier’s I’ve tried. It can keep the dew point in the house in the low 40’s even when it’s around zero F outside, which is quite comfortable. I have this hooked up to a dedicated 240v circuit.

The only downside is the power consumption. I have a smart meter that allows me to see the instantaneous power consumption of the house. The humidifier takes just under 3 kW when it’s running. When the temperature is around zero, this is running 80+% of the time (on the order of 60 kW-hours per day).

When the temp is around 40F, it runs about 10% of the time. For those in my family with dry skin, this is worth it. Just wanted to mention the downside. This is just the physics of this type of humidifier.

Had AirCare for 15 years. Purchased a new one a year ago. This new one is a piece of junk. Sorry I had to give it one “star”! They replaced older parts with cheap. Plastic float will stick and unit will not operate because the float is telling the unit it is empty and needs refilling.

With that you have to remove the entire casing and hope the casing (shell) does not again push down the plastic float. The light inside is a nice feature, however the light operates occasionally. Water fill spout is a joke.

Finally, and worst feature is the thermostat that controls humidity. Can not be controlled. Called factory, I was told to turn up heat in my home, increase humidity level and increase the fan speed. This produces moisture throughout the home with wet windows and walls.

I also told I live in a really cold climate (Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I made the mistake of not purchasing a comparable humidifier with better star ratings. I would not recommend this humidifier.

Current humidifiers use a wick/filter to evaporate water. This method is not as efficient as older models of humidifiers. Thankfully, this model uses a large base to hold water which is filled directly.

There are no bottles to contend with as their other models have. However, the funnel provided is useless as it is not secure and easily falls off. You need a watering can or pitcher with a long, small curved tube as a spout to fit into the slots of the opening used to fill the base.

The fan is quite loud and the air comes out 2 opposite sides rather than out the top. This causes a cool draft across the floor to add to the discomfort of our cold winters. Since this air does not rise into the room, the circulation of humidity is lower than it could be.

The humidistat on the power cord is inaccurate and you will need a wall unit to measure humidity in your house. The manufacturer of this unit could easily correct the problems. If done, this unit has the potential to be a very useful model.

It is keeping our humidity at 48 – 50% at the start of winter with the fan set at 6. When the outside temperature reaches the coldest point for the winter, I believe this unit will maintain this level of humidity by increasing the fan to the maximum setting of 9.

Bought this unit during early Dec ’20 sale. It rests in a corner of a large open-plan living area. It looks like a piece of furniture, but from an 1990’s era. But that’s acceptable given it will only reside in it’s obscure location during cold months only.

Even though the humidifier keeps the air humidity balanced (with our built-in HRV on ultra-low), the fan speed has to be kept near “high” (or F8/F9) to maintain the desired humidity. Unfortunately, anything above F6 sounds like being on the YYJ tarmac — it will drown out any conversations or tv events.

Even with HRV off, with the humidifier on the lowest speeds there is an annoying motor hum that overrides the whirl of the fan. This sound really transmits throughout the main floor area of the home.

Yes, dedicating it to only overnight use may be the best answer to these loud noises, but really??, what about maintaining the humidity levels during other times of the day and evening? And even during overnight the high fan speeds can be heard in the remote areas of the home, including the closed-door master bedroom.

We are still trying to decide whether it’s worth keeping as I doubt an exchange unit will be any different. Too bad, as we were really hoping that this unit would solve our overall dryness issues, while also not introducing another distraction: noise.

Will make the ultimate decision of what to do come early January.

I prefer the 700 model with the fan. also this unit was much harder to set up than the 700 model. It costs us more in labor and was harder to install with little profit because its a smaller unit but costs more to install than the bigger 700 size unit.

So we can charge less but pay more in labor. Not good for business. But the unit worked fine and did what it says it will. Make sure to mount the humistat far enough from the air handler return plenum, it in the return side, or the system reads too high humidity in the duct and won’t turn on.

This is my second Aprilaire humidifier. The first on lasted over 20 years before the plastic parts got too brittle. Since the sizes and placement of holes did not change, the replacement process was a breeze.

Removed the old one, install the new one, connect the wires and water and back in operation. Under an hour total time and I am NOT a handyman. A contractor wanted over $800 to supply and install the same item claiming that the replacement would take over eight hours.

Works great! It takes a little time cutting the sheet metal and hooking up wires, but I definitely recommend it, especially not having to keep filling up portable humidifiers. Plus you dont have the minerals collecting all over your house.

The best part with model 400A is the automatic controller and its drainless.

The forced-air heating system dries us out in the Winter and the built-in humidifiers only work when it’s on and blowing (duh) so this humidistatically-controlled (quarter of the cost) version is a no-brainer.

It’s whisper quiet (on the lowest setting) for bedroom use and really effective for large area treatment. Get TWO (upstairs and downstairs) in a med/large house and you’re good to go. It’s wheeled base makes for easy manuvering and, as long as you up-end the filter (housed under the blower-unit) each time you re-fill, you’ll get at least a whole season’s fresh use out of one filter.

Yes, the water canisters are a little awkward to handle when refilling (with plain water over the bath, in our case) but so what. You’ll need a few weeks of running it on ‘high’ to fully ‘moisten’ the air in your house before the air is sufficiently saturated to feel the beneficial effects, so switch it to ‘high/constant’ (down at night for the white-noise) until you ‘feel’ the air better, then you can moderate the humidity quite accurately with the two simple controls (blow-speed and humidity level).

The whole unit breaks down into 4 light/medium weight pieces, takes less than 2 minutes to put together (including plugging in the ‘wheels’). fill the tanks, upend them into place, position the unit, plug in and you’re good to go.

Highly recommended – good quality product, does exactly what it’s supposed to (for a quarter of the price of a built-in), is infinitely controllable. We’re getting a second one today.

Bought this to combat the dry, heated Texas air in my house. It works well. Took it a couple of days to get the house up to about 50% humidity then easily holds it there. It has three fan speeds with low being very quiet–can hardly hear it running.

While it’s running non-stop to build up the house’s humidity you’ll need to fill the two water tanks maybe several times a day. When it starts maintaining your humidity level you won’t need to fill the tanks nearly as often.

You unscrew a cap on the bottom of the tank to fill it. Because the tank handle, on the other end from the fill cap, is not level you have to balance the tank while filling it and putting the fill cap back on.

A little challenge since the full tank weighs about 8 lbs. (Two tanks you fill separately). You will need a separate humidistat to measure and know the actual humidity of your air since the machine does not have one.

You can easily set the desired humidity level the machine will maintain but it does not give you the actual level numbers like 50% or 45%. It will humidify several rooms. I’m easily maintaining about 1200 sq ft.

I highly recommend for the money.

It looks nice. Came in sturdy box. Jugs are easy to handle. They fill easily but need to be manipulated often. No noticeable operating noise unless one is in the same room with the appliance. Needs a night light or instructions to not be set in a night time high traffic area.

Our Great Dane was terrified by the machine at first but will now quickly traverse the room when the contraption is functioning. I have not tried using it in our bedroom because of the excessive noise.

I do recommending installing the wheel kit provided to prevent marking any finished floor. Have no experience with carpets due to not being able to afford them and this machine. I am sure the water bill will reflect its use due to the excessive need to be replenished.

It will probably serve admirably when one considers these limitations.

This humidifier performs really well. It has useful features to set target humidity percentage, flow rate, temperature etc. , or auto mode if you like to keep things simple. It is very quiet and has a soothing mist.

The remote is quite useful to operate it from anywhere. This model doesn’t have the Wi-Fi or app features, but I was able to use the IR remote to automate some tasks with a IR blaster instead.

So far so good, I’ll be curious how it is acting in a year from now. While it was a little expensive, so far it’s the best humidifier I’ve seen. I like the ability to switch between warm and cool mist.

The cleaning process is simple – so glad there is no filter. The actual reading of humidity on the machine is helpful, not always accurate but I’m just looking for a solid machine and this fits that bill- it’s quiet yet powerful.

This unit is nothing special to look at without bells or whistles, true. But, this thing is fabulous! I couldn’t be more pleased. I’ve had many different types of humidifiers (including a whole house floor model) and thought some of them were fine.

But, the tanks were only a few gallons at most and it seemed like I spent all my time refilling them or cleaning them. This inexpensive no frills machine does what’s needed without all the fuss and bother.

It works quietly, the water tank lasts and lasts, it’s easy to refill, it’s easy to clean. Buy it! If it’s not pretty enough for you, then hide it behind something. The price here beat everywhere else, plus there was no shipping charge.

It arrived quickly so, it was a perfect transaction all the way around.

I certainly did not say it was better than expected. It is quieter than expected on low speed and I like that very much, but it is also very flimsy and I worry that it won’t last moving into storage etc.

at the end of each winter. That is a design flaw in my opinion. It was easy to set up but not so easy to operate because there is scant info. about the controls, etc. I learned the most by reading other purchaser reviews.

One cannot give a product review when its been up and running for only a few days. Try me again after a few weeks at least!.

I searched the internet for best rated and good reviews for a humidifier with no positive results. Then I saw this one at my parent’s home and they couldn’t say enough about it. Unlike like other humidifiers, this one is very easy to fill as there is no tank to remove, you just pour in the water at the front of it! It runs quietly unless you have the fan on high, then you can hear it.

The filter is easy to clean and replace. It is also the perfect size and doesn’t take up much space. It humidifies our 1800 sq. ft. home very well.

Saved $400 replacing humidifier myself. Just remove the old and replace with the new GeneralAire 1137. Discovered that my water feed into humidifier was wasting too much city water and adjuster valve to limit waste.

Also, took off parts that might fail one day from old unit like solenoid valve, filter and transformer.

Fast delivery and good instructions. I ordered this one to replace another General unit that had gone bad. Was easy to install as everything was already in place. Had to change some wiring as it was installed the first time incorrectly.

The water was always running through it as it should only run when the furnace runs. Started making a difference as soon as it was started. Am happy with this purchase.

product arrived in a timely fashion. Company shipped it promptly. It was packed well. The installation CD that was included was not that helpful. They did however send plenty of emails that were helpful as far as installation instructions.

Installation is still a bit difficult. If you do not have someone with some HVAC or plumbing knowledge to help you you might have some serious problems. performance of the unit has been fantastic. I would buy again and recommend to a friend.

This unit is installed on a 3000 square foot home and works great.

We live in the upstate of SC and have a wood burning fireplace. When indoor humidity levels reached the upper 20s I had to make a decision on how to humidify our home. The air handler is in the attic and didn’t want to pipe water to this unconditioned space.

I mounted the unit in an area of the crawl space that you can stand in. It was also next to a sump pit and water supply. The 15′ steam hose extension was a necessity and was the perfect length to meet the duct work and unit at a serviceable height.

I wired it for 220. The only complaint that I have was a contradiction between the installation instructions of the unit and the supplied humidistat as to where the preferred mounting location of the humidistat was.

I installed it in the duct work. The installation booklet seemed outdated as far as wiring options and fan interlocks. There was also an overlay issue with the way the instructions were printed which made the wiring diagrams hard to read.

Going online solved that problem. I am currently using the outside air temp sensor. These leads were to to short to make it to the outside eave. I programmed for the humidity boost option that helps when using the fireplace for extended periods of time.

I ordered two of these humidifiers and two differential pressure switches to install in a PassivHaus environment because last year the humidity dropped into the teens in late winter. Because the heat runs infrequently due to the energy efficiency of the build, I hesitated to use an evaporative humidifier and went for steam which could run effectively even with the fan in circulate mode.

The install went quite well, but one of the pressure switches was defective. SupplyHouse sent me a replacement with no hassle and quick enough that I only lost one day on the install. Waiting for deep winter for a real test, but the house is now back at 40% humidity after having dropped to the low 30s prior to the install.

Humidity would drop down to as low as 35% in the winter. We grew tired of dealing with the constant hassle of maintaining a portable evaporative humidifier. In comes the HM750. Installation was a breeze (all utilities were nearby).

Installed in the supply ductwork of the downstairs unit on a Saturday afternoon. Chose to upgrade tstat to a Honeywell Prestige series, so I didn’t use the included humidistat. 2800 sqft house with high ceilings and 2 floors now easily holds 50% in all temps thus far.

Make sure to use 220V connection, or your fan will run constantly. After a thorough “soak-in” period, ours now runs with heat cycles only and has no issues maintaining RH. I don’t think this would be possible on 110V.

Remember to pickup a condensate pump if you don’t have a drain nearby. I went with the Diversitech CP-22, and it works well. Wife, kids, and dogs appreciate the improvement to their skin condition. No more static, and was able to crank the stat down a couple of degrees due to the generally warmer feel of the air also.

This humidifier is a great one for a forced air furnace system. I installed it for our 2600 sq ft house and have seen a big difference in RH. We were consistently around 37% humidity in our house and after installation, we’re able to get it around 45% (outside temp dependent).

The installation was straight forward, although somewhat time consuming with our particular setup, but the system functioned without major issue. I did connect to a hot water supply line as recommended (although I used a sweat-on stop valve in lieu of the vampire/self-piercing tap) to utilize the blower activation mode which will run the furnace fan and humidifier without a call for heat.

The only minor issue I ran into was that the factory installed water line connection from the solenoid valve to the humidifier panel had a small drip that was easily rectified by tightening the compression nut.

Overall very satisfied with the humidifier’s price, performance, quality and installation instructions.

New home is very tight and has dried out with the furnace running, we needed to add some moisture to the structure. Ordered the Aprilaire 500A from Alpine. Installed it about 4 hours after watching the supplied videos and a couple others on YouTube.

Didn’t use the included saddle valve because PEX pipe was used in construction. PRO’s Unit works as advertised, Instructions on templet were complete and accurate (study & understand the wiring diagram helps).

CON’S included parts (saddle valve) not correct for this installation.

I USE THIS HUMIDIFIER AS A SET IT AND FORGET IT PRODUCT. IT’S ALWAYS ON AND PRODUCING HUMIDITY AS NEEDED. SO FAR. IT IS WORKING PERFECTLY. I CAN FEEL THE APARTMENT IS MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE NOW AND GOES ON ONLY WHEN REQUIRED.

I WONDER HOW MUCH WATER IT’S GOING TO USE. WE’LL SEE.