The author mentions living in a New York apartment - I wonder if the lack of central heating and air means that their air is unfiltered, thus the only thing to collect the dust would be the humidifier?

I also have one of these and the only thing I really dislike about it is the 'glug glug' sound randomly throughout the night. But it is worth pointing out that I live in Texas and so I don't have extreme low humidity very often or persistently.

I wonder how a tote full of water with an aquarium pump, washable furnace filter, and fan would do.