Humidifier is drying

The Humidifier is drying condition passes when a humidifier entityAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more] is actively removing moisture from the air. This typically applies to dehumidifiers and devices set to a dehumidification mode. Like a humidifier that idles once it reaches its target, a dehumidifier pauses once the air is dry enough and resumes when humidity rises again. Use Humidifier is drying to confirm the device is in an active drying cycle, not just powered on.

When you target more than one humidifier, the condition’s Condition passes if option controls how the check combines results. You can require any targeted device to be actively drying, or demand that all of them are.

Using this condition from the user interface

If you prefer building automations visually, Home Assistant walks you through this condition step by step. You pick what to check, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To use Humidifier is drying in an automation:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. In the And if section, select Add condition.
4. Select what you want to check. Under By target (see Targets), pick the area your dehumidifier is in (like your basement or bathroom). You can also select a device, a specific entity, or a label.
5. From the conditions shown for that target, select Humidifier is drying.
6. Under Condition passes if (see Behavior), pick Any or All to control how the check behaves when multiple devices are targeted.
7. Under For at least, set how long the humidifier must have been actively drying before the condition passes. Leave it at zero to pass immediately.
8. Select Save.

Options in the UI

Using this condition in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required.

In YAML, Humidifier is drying is referred to as humidifier.is_drying. A basic example looks like this:

condition: humidifier.is_drying
target:
  entity_id: humidifier.basement

This passes when the basement dehumidifier is actively removing moisture from the air.

Options in YAML

Targets of the condition

This condition requires a target. The target is the object that Home Assistant will check. You can point the condition at a single entityAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more], a device, an area, a floor, or a label, and Home Assistant will evaluate every matching humidifier entity behind that target.

• Entity: one specific humidifier entity, such as humidifier.living_room.
• Device: every humidifier entity that belongs to a device.
• Area: every humidifier entity in a room or area.
• Floor: every humidifier entity on a floor.
• Label: every humidifier entity that shares a label.

You can also select different target types in one condition. For example, you can add a specific entity and an area as targets in the same condition to check both of them at once.

Behavior with multiple targets

When you target more than one entity (or select an area, floor, or label that contains several), the Condition passes if option controls how the results combine:

• Any (default): the condition passes if at least one of the targeted entities matches. For example, if you check three smoke sensors and only one of them detects smoke, the condition still passes. This is useful for questions like “is there smoke anywhere in the house?”
• All: the condition passes only when every targeted entity matches. For example, if you check the same three smoke sensors, the condition passes only once all three report cleared. This is useful for “is the entire house safe now?” checks, so your automation does not send an all-clear while one room still has a reading.

Good to know

• A dehumidifier can be on but not drying if it has already reached its target humidity and is idling. Use Humidifier is on if you only care about whether the device is powered.
• Humidifiers that are unavailable (unavailable) or have an unknown state (unknown) do not count as actively drying. With Any behavior, they are skipped. With All behavior, the condition fails if every targeted device is unavailable.
• This condition applies to devices in a drying cycle. For humidifiers that are actively adding moisture, use Humidifier is humidifying instead.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Go to Settings > Automations & scenes, open an automation, and add this condition. Trigger the automation with and without the condition met, and watch whether it continues or stops.

More examples

Real scenarios where this condition gates an automation. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Automation: open a window vent only while the dehumidifier is running

When the basement dehumidifier is actively removing moisture, open the basement vent to help air circulation. This keeps the vent open during active drying cycles and avoids unnecessary operation when the dehumidifier is idling.

• Trigger: Time pattern: Every 5 minutes
• Condition: Humidifier is drying
• Target: Basement dehumidifier
• Condition passes if: Any
• Action: Cover: Open cover

alias: "Open vent while dehumidifier is active"
triggers:
  - trigger: time_pattern
    minutes: "/5"
conditions:
  - condition: humidifier.is_drying
    target:
      entity_id: humidifier.basement
    options:
      behavior: any
actions:
  - action: cover.open_cover
    target:
      entity_id: cover.basement_vent

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the condition you’re using and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Related conditions

These conditions work well alongside this one:

• Humidifier is on: Tests if one or more humidifiers are on.

• Humidifier is humidifying: Tests if one or more humidifiers are humidifying.

• Humidifier is in mode: Tests if one or more humidifiers are set to a specific mode.