The 6 Best Humidifiers of 2026

We liked the digital display and small footprint of the Honeywell HEV620B. But the tall, narrow design makes it too easy to knock over — and when that happens, the plastic tank can easily crack open. We had the unfortunate privilege of learning this firsthand.

The Everlasting Comfort EC-H4 is surprisingly popular on the Humidifiers subreddit. It did fine in our tests, but was mostly unremarkable, with the same perks and flaws as any ultrasonic model.

The Carepod One is simple and sleek, and it’s absolutely the easiest humidifier to clean of those we’ve tested. Some manufacturing issues with the oscillation wand prevented us from making this model a pick in the past—but even if that weren’t a problem, this model would still be far too expensive. The company also sells a warm-mist model, the Carepod Cube X50, which suffered from similar manufacturing problems—namely, that it didn’t actually heat the water, but wasted our energy all the same. We haven’t tested the newer Carepod One Plus yet, but beyond the addition of an ambient light, we’re not seeing any additional features that could justify the cost (or potential manufacturing flaws).

Similarly, the Canopy Bedside Humidifier and Canopy Large Room Humidifier are both attractive models with a lot of thoughtful design choices, all the way down to the packaging. These models work well overall, but not enough to justify the extravagant price tags.

The Clorox Ultra Clean comes with a built-in UV light to help reduce any microbial growth that might pop up in the water, along with a three-year warranty. Unfortunately, in our tests it was only mediocre at the humidifying part of the job.

The 6-liter Dreo HM713S is remarkably similar to our top pick, all the way down to the tank design and warm-mist capabilities. It performed decently in our tests, too, but it just didn’t feel as nice as the Levoit models. The same goes for the slightly smaller Dreo HM512S, as well as the Dreo HM524S, which more closely resembles our budget pick.

We tested both the Dyson Purifier PH03 Humidify+Cool and the Dyson Purifier Humidify+Cool Formaldehyde PH04, which performed decently as both a humidifier and an air purifier but not well enough to outshine our other picks. You’ll save money (and space) if you just buy one of our picks and pair it with a separate air purifier.

Although the Honeywell HUL430X is a streamlined and stylish-looking ultrasonic humidifier, it’s frustratingly difficult to regulate or clean. It also has a tank that’s sort of like a USB plug, in that no matter what you do, you always end up putting it in the wrong way the first time you try.

The Levoit Sprout is the first evaporative model that we’ve tested from that company, and we appreciated that nearly every part is dishwasher-safe (with the exception of the fan enclosure, which has electrical components). Unfortunately, it costs $190, and it left a roughly 10% difference in the relative humidity level across the room—a result made more frustrating by the fact that it comes with a surprisingly accurate remote hygrometer. We were similarly disappointed by the towering 10-liter Levoit OasisMist 1000S, an ultrasonic model that was barely able to move the humidity more than 3 feet, leaving it to sit there in a puddle of its own making.

The top-filling Midea SCK-3Q60B has one of the worst on-board humidistats of all the models we’ve tested. For some indiscernible reason, it also took a full minute to start up after we hit the power button.

The SPT SU-9210 Digital Evaporative Humidifier was our runner-up pick for many years, thanks to its reliably quiet evaporative performance. We still think it’s a decent choice—if you can find it in stock somewhere.

The Stadler Form OSKAR Humidifier is an energy-efficient evaporative model with an attractively simple design that looks easy enough to clean. But it’s hard to figure out which way to put the top on, and even harder to figure out the controls once you’ve put it all together.

The SwitchBot Smart Humidifier is one of the wilder humidifiers we’ve ever tested—an evaporative model that pairs with the company’s robot vacuum-mop, which automatically refills the humidifier tank when the water gets low. It’s a neat idea, but the setup process is hardly convenient (let alone affordable), and it still doesn’t solve the cleaning problem.

A former budget pick, the Vicks V750 simply feels cheap in every sense of the word. On the plus side, it will continue working even after you accidentally snap a good number of the pieces in half during the cleaning process. We also tested the Vicks V3900, which had a fill hole that was so small that my hand got stuck and I had to smash the tank against the support beams in my kitchen in order to escape. The tank on the Vicks VUL600 was only slightly less frustrating; otherwise, this model performed decently, even if it was impossible to clean.

The top-filling Vornado MISTIC 4 is good at circulation and easy to clean, which is nice, but the plastic feels cheap and flimsy, and the lack of handles makes it difficult to carry without fear of smashing said cheap plastic on the ground. We also tested the Vornado EVDC300, UH100, and UH200, each of which was decent overall, but not quite as good as our current Vornado pick.

This article was edited by Harry Sawyers.