I guess it depends on your goals. I had a whole house humidifier, and it leaked just enough to cause long term damage. And that's as good as it gets for humidifying your entire house.

Now, I don't care. I just want to sleep well, and my bedroom is the only room that actually really matters for my skin not to be dry and sleep comfortable.

I don't need to add any treatments, chemicals to my bucket system, so I would say it's far and above safer and more effective than all the other systems I've tried.