What Size Humidifier Do I Need for a Large Room?
Size a large-room humidifier by the square footage it's rated to cover, and for one large room we'd get the Levoit portable humidifier. Once it runs, hold the room between 30 and 50 percent humidity. If you want a pick for the whole home, see the best home humidifier.
Whether it's better to have an air purifier or a humidifier comes down to what's in your air: dry air calls for a humidifier, and dust and pollen calls for a purifier. A HEPA filter removes at least 99.97 percent of particles 0.3 microns in size, which covers dust, pollen, mold and bacteria. A humidifier puts moisture into the room, and a purifier doesn't.
A humidifier also helps with a cough: humidified air relieves a stuffy nose and helps break up mucus so it can be coughed up, and it eases the discomfort of colds and flu. That relief is what you're sizing a unit for.
2 Gallon Humidifier
A 2-gallon humidifier adds 2 US gallons, or 7.6 liters, of water to the air a day, and the Honeywell humidifier is the unit rated at that output.
How big your humidifier needs to be comes down to square feet, not gallons. The Dreo humidifier is rated for 300 square feet and the Carepod One for up to 500, so a room past those numbers needs a bigger unit.
If you're humidifying a whole house, see the best humidifier for whole house. The AprilAire whole-house humidifier is rated at 21 gallons a day for homes up to 6,250 square feet. AprilAire sizes a whole-house unit by the building's treated volume in cubic feet and how tight it is, not by floor area. That spread runs from 3.3 gallons a day for a tight 8,000 cubic foot building up to 70.2 for a loose 56,000 cubic foot one.
Volume is the number for a building, and square feet is the number for one room.
Ultrasonic Humidifier
An ultrasonic humidifier makes a cool mist with ultrasonic sound vibrations, one of the three kinds of portable humidifier alongside evaporative and impeller.
If you're shopping for the best large room humidifier, get the Levoit humidifier, which covers 430 to 753 square feet. If you want to compare other Levoit models, see the best levoit humidifier.
The unit switches between warm and cool mist and turns the warm mist off in auto mode to keep noise down, so leave it in auto mode. On the low mist setting it runs up to 50 hours, so the tank lasts more than one night.
The best humidifier for bedroom is the quiet one, so keep this unit on low cool mist.
If you're weighing whether to run one overnight, see is it healthy to sleep with a humidifier. Place the unit several feet from the bed, roughly 2 meters. Fill it with distilled water so you're not putting minerals into the air.
That covers a big room and a bedroom, and a whole building is the next size up.
Industrial Humidifier
If you're humidifying one large room, see the best humidifier for large room, or use the portable pick above. If you're sizing a whole building, use the whole-house guidance in the 2 Gallon Humidifier section.
Questions
How big does my humidifier need to be?
Your humidifier needs to be sized by the square footage it is rated to cover, not by tank gallons. The Dreo humidifier is rated for 300 square feet and the Carepod One for up to 500, so a room larger than those numbers needs a bigger unit. The Levoit LV600S covers 430 to 753 square feet. Once it runs, hold the room between 30 and 50 percent humidity.
Is it better to have an air purifier or a humidifier?
It depends on what is in your air. Dry air calls for a humidifier, while dust and pollen call for a purifier. A HEPA filter removes at least 99.97 percent of particles 0.3 microns in size, which covers dust, pollen, mold and bacteria. A humidifier puts moisture into the room, and a purifier does not, so the two solve different problems.
What is the best humidifier for a big room?
For one large room, the Levoit LV600S is the pick this page recommends, and it covers 430 to 753 square feet. It switches between warm and cool mist and turns the warm mist off in auto mode to keep noise down. On the low mist setting it runs up to 50 hours, so the tank lasts more than one night.
What water should I put in a humidifier?
Fill your humidifier with distilled water so you are not putting minerals into the air. This applies to the ultrasonic type, which makes a cool mist with ultrasonic sound vibrations. If you run a unit overnight, place it several feet from the bed, roughly 2 meters, and keep it on low cool mist for the quietest operation.