Aprilaire 400M

“Im going to say that the levoit 6000s is good, it's what I have now. Evaporative style humidifiers are the best for your application. If the $250 of the levoit is a splurge for smart controlled humidifiers, the Airecare Space Saver is about half the cost and no smart controls. The biggest difference is the evaporative surface device. Levoit pumps water to the top of the pads. It is possible to soak the pads in citric acid solution to disolve the calcium build up in the pads. Otherwise they are a $20-25 replacement in 3 to 6 months. The space saver is an easier way to fill, and the pad is more of a paper wicks. You can't clean it with acid, it destroys the paper. But a neat trick of the 1043 wick is that you can turn them upside down to get double the life. The cost is about the same. I've had a similar Aircare product but switched because of the smart controls that I use to closely monitor whole house humidity. I will tell you now that humidifiers that have internal humidistats will inherently have the same issue. The humidity right around the device tends to be higher in humidity than, say, 10 feet away. The Levoit also had a smart mode that would think it reaches the desired humidity... then shuts off for too long, and the humidity 10 feet away drops lower than desired. It the reason I use another device for the humidity reading. I went and read the manual for the Aircare, 836000HB. It has the sensor on the power cord, similar to the previous Aircare that I owned. I would suggest a second humidity measurement device... if only for a sanity check. The 400 sq ft is small for either device, but you will only have to refill after about 3 days.”