Apparently everyone and their mom already has a humidifier, but no one told me they were so critical to east coast winter apartment life. For the past few nights I was completely unable to sleep and woke up with a bloody nose because of the unbelievable dryness that comes with the forced air heat that is installed in our apartment.

The little (actually, big) guy on the left is my new humidifier. Before I share my experiences with it so far, here's what I was looking for in my unit:

• About 8 hours of life. I really only need this while sleeping at night.
• On my sister's recommendation I was looking for warm steam humidifiers instead of cool mist.
• I'm not a humidifier nerd: I don't need timers, filters, and humidity controls.

After some comparison-shopping at Economy Hardware, Walgreens, and CVS, I picked this one for $18. I later found out this is the same one my sister uses in her bedroom, and she really likes it. Here are my thoughts:

Good

• This thing is stupidly simple to operate: fill with water, add a little salt, and plug it in.
• Warm steam is very pleasant in the winter time. Every breath you take just makes you want to breathe more.
• The unit will turn itself off if the water runs out, so no worries about the motor burning out.
• $17 is a great price for humidifier.

Cons

• You can't turn the little nightlight off, not at least as far as I can see.
• It should run the whole night, but if you ever have to refill it around when it was running, be mindful of the heating chamber which can get very hot.
• The unit has no on-off switch. To turn it off it either has to run out of water or be unplugged.
• It's ugly. You shouldn't care about it too much, but it's worth mentioning.

So, there you have it. If you have a Walgreen near you and need a cheap humidifier, my opinion is that you really can't go wrong. Best of luck, everyone!