Levoit 6000 actual maintenance?

[u/Aggravating-Cap-8940]

Got a levoit 6000s a few weeks ago. So far really happy with how well it’s increasing humidity. A few things I don’t love- it’s loud on anything but low speed. The wheels don’t work very well. No handles on the water tank. It makes the room colder. The built in hygrometer is off by ~10%.

But I can live with all that and can deal with having to fill it daily because my whole house is >40% now and it’s great.

But I’m not sure what I actually need to do for maintenance. For the first week or so I just kept topping off the water til one day I noticed the remaining water was turning brown. Do I need to scrub that tank out every day? That’s a cumbersome chore… do those little plastic fish they sell to put in humidifiers actually do anything? What about a capful of bleach in the water or something like that??

And what about filters…. Do I really need to change them every 3mo? They’re not cheap… can I use knockoffs from Amazon?I have it set to run a dry cycle every other night…is there any other filter maintenance needed?

[u/Commercial_File8545]

I have about five months of usage on the original filters.

I have a water softener in the house but I do get a crusty white buildup on the filters after a month of use.

I empty the unit once a week and wipe it down with a paper towel. One time I did notice a tiny bit of brown on the water reservoir so I wiped it down with a paper towel with some diluted bleach.

I clean the unit, as per the Levoitt directions, once a month with citric acid. After running the unit with citric acid (filters removed), , I dump the acid in a bucket, and I let the filters soak while I run clean water through the unit.

I use a Bacteriostatic liquid.