Best Personal Humidifiers for Travel and Office

These light, portable units humidify the area directly around you

By Tobie Stanger

Updated January 18, 2022

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A personal or travel humidifier can be just the ticket when you’re in a hotel room or an office where the air is dry and you can’t control the heat or open a window. These portable units add moisture to the area directly around you, potentially delivering relief from itchy skin, cracking lips, and other dry-air symptoms.

The four tested personal models in Consumer Reports’ humidifier ratings weigh about 9 ounces to 1.3 pounds, so they really are portable (three even come with a travel bag). With one exception they use conventional plastic water bottles, which you supply. Prices range from $30 to $60.

All four personal humidifiers are cool-mist ultrasonic models. They use small, vibrating diaphragms called nebulizers to create a mist from the water you supply. Because these humidifiers don’t boil the water and make steam—like vaporizers do—they pose no scalding risk and are fine to use around children and pets. All four models in our ratings shut off automatically when empty.

Tobie Stanger

Tobie Stanger is a senior editor at Consumer Reports, where she has been helping readers shop wisely, save money, and avoid scams for more than 30 years. Most recently, her home- and shopping-related beats have included appliance and grocery stores, generators, homeowners and flood insurance, humidifiers, lawn mowers, and luggage—she also covers home improvement products like flooring, roofing, and siding. During off-hours, she works on her own fixer-upper and gets her hands dirty in the garden. Follow her on Twitter @TobieStanger.