I was wondering what style of humidifier to purchase which will attach to my furnace. I was worried about standing water with the drum type. I have read the reviews of the WATT brand at home depot and there have been complaints. Does anyone recommend a model for me. I have a two story 2500 square foot house.
Check this NG and I believe you will find numerous favorable comments about Aprilaire. HTH
Joe
An Aprilaire Model 550 was installed in our new house 5 years ago. It has worked well with no problems and little maintenance except for one evaporator media replacement (yes, I know that should be done annually). A trickle of water runs through it continuously while operating so it stays clean. Control is via the furnace blower and a humidistat. The installer connected the humidifier to a hot water pipe and I questioned that; but he said that the humidifier runs less if uses hot water.
Seems like it was a good choice; but I don't know how large a house it will handle. Ours is about 2000 sq.ft. The house is very tight and the humidifer seems to run less than half the time in cold weather.
TKM
My recommendation will be independent humidifiers not attached to the furnace. The sponge drum types are easy to clean but harbor bacterial and fungal growth in the water tray. Ultrasonic humidifiers tend to leave an apron of mineral dust around the humidifier. I don't have a humidifier (see below).
I took out my furnace humidifier and blanked off the opening. The old humidifier was always hung up on too much scale buildup on the sponge drum. It is tedious if not impossible to recondition the sponge and they are quite expensive to replace. The extra weight wore out the drum motor drive or the motor itself. The scale also formed on the water float valve shutoff, the water pan and the overflow drip lines. But what finally made me get rid of the furnace humidifier was the slimy build up of bacterial and fungal organisms. The warm furnace air creates an ideal environment for their growth. Fresh spores and nutrition (pollen, vegetation fragments) are always drawn in through the fresh air intake. They of course fruit their own spores that get circulated through the house. That results in respiratory problems.
Since removing the furnace humidifier the house humidity feels very comfortable with moisture from cooking, the bath and from my household plants. The plants thrive very well and I no longer have condensation on the glass windows.
I suspect you are going to get two kinds of comments. Many people how have humidifiers have bad experiences. Each system has its bad points. The second kind of comments will be from AprilAir owners, like me, who will likely give you the same recommendation I will, and that is to buy AprilAir. I have had mine for several years and the only issue I have had was a clogged supply line and that had nothing to do with the system.
I installed it myself and while it did cost more than most of the others, I have never questioned the wisdom of spending a little more. The design they use seems to eliminate most of not all the usual problems. The additional moisture in the air is also much appreciated.
I've had the Aprilaire 760 here for about 8-10 years. It's been trouble free. Only things I've replaced have been the media element and the small screen filter on the solenoid valve. It has the outside temp sensor, which backs off the humdidity as the temp drops. And it works. After the initial setting, I have not had to adjust it. It uses a small drain that takes away the excess water that doesn't evaporate, which eliminates the pooling of stagnant water.
The 760 is a direct fan powered model. The bypass models shunt blower capacity, which I guess, if you have plenty of capacity, isn't an issue. All the bypass models I've seen have a flap that has to be manually closed when you go to AC season to eliminate the bypass. I didn't want to have to remember to do that.
As usual Mr PingPong, You are talking about what you know nothing of. That piece of crap humidifier you were talking about was the worst thing ever made. That technology went out 20 yrs ago. Aprilaire is the way to go. General makes a nice one too but it doesnt have the nice easy open service that Aprilaire does. The pad gets replaced yearly.......no ifs ands or buts. You DONT clean them with CLR or any other silly crap. They were made to be replaced once a year so do it. Its very cheap. Other than that, you're still and idiot. Bubba
Not having a humidifier worked well enough for me. Had been so for
respiratory distress or 'winter flus', no condensation, very healthy house plants. Quite a few of my kin and friends have shut off their humidifiers too. We have pretty dry air in Alberta. My recommendation is to skip the whole house humidifier. By the way those old drum humidifiers are still sold at HD and other hardware stores. I agree they are crap.
I think if you look hard enough you can still find "Dippity-Doo" (that pink hair gel that women used in the 70's) too but I dont know of anyone that uses it. Bubba
...
I thought you used it.
Sorry I just could not pass up that one.
Bite me. I couldnt pass that up either. Bubba
Agree with others, you do need a floor drain for the excess water that flows over the pad to prevent salt build up. Usually can plumb into AC drain.
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