HomeKit Weekly: Airversa’s Humelle is the Thread humidifier my house needs this winter

I love natural gas heat for a few reasons, but one is avoiding AUX heat from a heat pump and watching the bill rise. The downside is when the gas heat kicks on, the air in mt house is bone dry. My nose ends up being super dry for months. A humidifier like the Airversa Humelle works with Apple Home over Thread, so it can run itself based on what the air actually needs, and with the temps in my area getting into the 40s in the next week, I am glad I have one. HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything to do with Apple’s smart home framework. The Airversa Humelle humidifier uses Thread, so it does join your existing Thread network via a HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV 4K and communicates with Apple Home locally. In my experience, Thread accessories always respond faster and drop connections less than Wi-Fi-only ones, and they don’t add to the pile of devices fighting for airtime on your router either. Especially since most smart home devices are 2.4 GHz only. Once the Airversa Humelle is paired with Apple Home, it appears in the Home app as a humidifier with a built-in temperature and humidity sensor. The latter sensor is the key for automations as well. You can set a target humidity level, and in Auto Mode, it ramps the mist up or down on its own to hold that number. For most people, that’s all the automation they’ll ever need. Set it to 45%, and it’ll run forever. By including that sensor in the device, you don’t need to pair it with a separate Apple Home-compatible humidity sensor for the automations. In fact, that is probably the only automation to run with this device. Airversa Humelle hardware The Humelle has a 3.2L tank that Airversa rates at up to 60 hours of runtime, and the mist reaches about 40 inches high, so it covers a bedroom or an average-sized living room pretty easily. It’s a top-fill design, which honestly is the only way these should be made at this point. Flipping them over always ends with some water on the floor. Sleep Mode runs at 28dB, which is good for a baby’s room, etc. There’s a multicolor LED on the base that you can set to whatever color you want from the Home app or the Sleekpoint app, or turn off completely. There’s also a tray for essential oils if you want it to double as a diffuser to improve a room’s smell. One thing to know about the Airversa Humelle going in: you’ll still want the Sleekpoint app for a few things, like setting a cleaning reminder that pings you when it’s time to rinse the tank. Day-to-day control lives in Apple Home, but the setup and maintenance features live in the manufacturer’s app. That’s just where Matter is as a protocol right now. Wrap up on Airversa Humelle Natural gas heat dries out your inside air, and the Airversa Humelle fixes it. It allows me to avoid regretting my heating choice when I built my house. A humidifier that knows when the air is dry and turns on is the secret sauce. The Humelle does that in Apple Home with Thread, giving you a humidity sensor you can build the rest of your winter automations around. If you need a Thread Border Router, one of the new HomePod mini 2 units is the best to get started. The Airversa Humelle is available on Amazon and directly from Airversa. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.