As far as the humidifying qualities of the Holmes HM630 I have to say I'm content. It has a small footprint and takes up a minimal amount of floorspace. The large tank it great, too.What overrides all of that is the loud squeaking. I can tune out hums and other white noise, but this is fingernails on the blackboard to-the-bone squeaking. It doesn't matter what setting, but it's less frequent the lower you keep the humidity and fan speed setting. Of course, that means it comes on less often because the room humidity stays lower, and when it does come on the fan sometimes stays on longer, so you get the squeaks, but it's not quite as loud and piercing, but still loud enough to pull you out of sleep and keep you up for a while.