Our Favorite Humidifier

Winter in our house means a chorus of stuffy noses and that dry, scratchy cough that makes bedtime miserable for the little ones. The forced-air heat dries everything out until lips crack and the baby wakes up congested. We’d tried a couple of small humidifiers that ran out of water by midnight and needed refilling right when everyone was finally, blessedly asleep.

The one that solved it is the Levoit OasisMist 1000S. Its big 10-liter tank runs through the whole night without quitting, and Mom’s favorite part is that the app warns us before it’s empty instead of just silently going dry at 3 a.m. It’s easy to refill and easy to clean, which matters when a humidifier is running in the kids’ rooms for months on end and you don’t want it turning into a science project.

We looked at cheaper tabletop units and a whole-house option, but the Levoit hit the right balance for us. The tiny ones we’d owned before couldn’t last a full night in a big room, and a built-in system was overkill and expensive. This one covers a good-sized bedroom, the low-tank alert saves us from the guessing game, and the wide opening actually lets you reach in to scrub it. At around $127.49 it costs more than a drugstore model, but running all night and staying clean is exactly what a family this size needs.