The Best Humidifier for a Baby

Top pick

The Levoit is one of the top performers in our tests and it’s a strong choice for a baby’s room—it’s easier to clean and maintain than competitors, and it’s less likely to require an adjustment or refill in the middle of the night.

We’d recommend the Levoit LV600S Smart Hybrid Ultrasonic Humidifier in a baby’s room for the same reasons we’d choose it for any other room: It’s easier to live with than almost any other humidifier, and it performs better than most of them, too, with built-in smart features that help prevent from over-humidifying a room like other ultrasonic models. But perhaps most important, its wider tank opening is far easier to fill and clean than competitors’. While we admit it doesn’t look nearly as cute as many of its competitors, this is an instance when health and performance are the priority, even when the alternative is as adorable as this little penguin model.

The LV600S performs among the best of any humidifiers we tested. We’ve been recommending a version of the LV600 since 2018, and year after year, it’s proven itself capable of quickly and effectively humidifying spaces up to 400 square feet. Although it’s not the only machine that can accomplish that, we feel it is a better choice than other similar top performers (as well as a large field of average humidifiers) for a few key reasons.

The main reason the LV600S is the best choice for a baby’s (or anyone’s) bedroom is that it’s easier to clean than most other humidifiers. (Though you do still have to clean it pretty often.) Its fill hole is larger than most other humidifiers, and there are no hard-to-reach corners on the inside, making it easier to scrub clean. There are some annoying crevices of the lower basin reservoirs, but even those are much less frustrating than the basins of other ultrasonic models we’ve tested). Plus, that ultrasonic mechanism means there are no filters to worry about or replace over time either.

The ability to keep a humidifier clean is a big deal if you’re using one at all, and in the room of a baby, with a developing immune system, it’s even more important. We’ve reported the risks of a dirty humidifier in detail; the short version is that the growth that can build up inside a poorly maintained humidifier poses a valid health risk that anyone should take seriously. If you’re going to invest in a humidifier, you also need to be ready to invest in cleaning it—from simple daily rinses to deeper disinfecting cleans every 3-7 days, depending on your water quality. It’s a big commitment. If it helps, you can also use the Levoit app, VeSync, to send you regular reminders—another reason we like this humidifier.

The LV600S is one of the only ultrasonic humidifiers we’ve tested that won’t over-humidify a room, thanks to its built-in smart home features. Normally, we’d think a wifi-connected humidifier might sound a little ridiculous, but in this case, it pays off. We think most parents, given the option, would prefer not to worry about whether they’re over- or under-humidifying a child’s room. We believe they would also prefer not to have to go into the baby’s room to check the humidity levels or adjust the machine in the middle of the night. The fact that you can also monitor or adjust the humidity level remotely through the app is another helpful bonus, especially when you’re dealing with a child who’s sleeping in the other room.

The water tank is also large enough to run all night. The same reasoning as above applies: You probably don’t want to have to go in there and refill it. And, baby or not, we believe people would want to refill the tank as infrequently as possible, which led us toward humidifiers (in our main guide) with tanks sized at one gallon or larger. We found the six liter (about one and half gallons) tank on our Levoit could run for about 12 to 16 hours on a high or medium setting or before needing a refill, easily covering a full night’s sleep for most babies and children.

The LV600S is also quiet enough that it won’t disturb your sleeping baby. Most humidifiers are not especially noisy or distracting, so it was not a surprise that the Levoit met this requirement. But it also has a “sleep” mode that shuts off all the LED indicators and LCD display screen, so there’s no distracting glow to keep your baby awake (or to tempt them to play with the buttons when they’re awake). Some folks—parents, or not!—prefer the white noise that comes from evaporative humidifiers, rather than the near-silence of an ultrasonic model like the Levoit. If you’re concerned about disruptive noise within the home (whether or not they’re using a humidifier), we suggest adding our pick for white noise machine to the baby’s room as well.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Have we mentioned how much you have to clean this thing? Parents face an endless list of obligations to protect, feed, clothe, and supervise children, and throwing a humidifier into the mix might just be the thing that tilts your whole life over the edge into complete chaos. Kidding. But seriously: You’ve got to clean this thing a lot.

You’ll also need to use distilled water. Any minerals or other additives in your tap water will get instantly aerosolized and tossed up into air alongside the droplets of water that humidify the room. In the best scenarios, this can leave the room dappled with a chalky white residue; in the worst case, it turns into fine particulate matter and negatively impacts your indoor air quality. Even if the change is only temporary, you still don’t want to run that risk around your kid. Get your water purified before you add it into the air.

It’s also worth reiterating that the idea of buying a smart humidifier with wifi-capabilities may sound a little absurd and unnecessary. In this particular case, it’s worth it for the smart-enabled “auto” setting that prevents the LV600S from over-humidifying the room like ultrasonic models. The app itself is easy to set up, though it is confusingly named after Levoit’s parent company, VeSync, which makes it a little confusing to find on your phone. It also requires you to register your email and create a new account with the company. While this is a fairly standard practice in the world of smart technology, it’s still a little annoying.

One last “flaw” is that the sleek, simple design might not complement the aesthetic some parents may choose for a child’s nursery. Many of the competitors are admittedly cuter than the LV600S as well. But the problems in owning and maintaining these models far outweigh their looks.