Aprilaire 600 humidity output

[Hongyi Kang]

I'm extremely new here so please let me know if I'm posting things at the w rong place. I recently (3 months ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM fu rnace and along with it an Aprilaire 600 whole house Humidifier. It's upst ate New York here, I've been setting the the thermostat to 73 degree, so fu rnace officially started working since late September.

The furnace and humidifier were installed by a local contractor. I set the manual humidistat to 45% since the very beginning. And I have an other small humidistat clipped right on one of the second floor registers w here the hot air comes out. The humidity reading had been between 45% and

50% until about 2 weeks ago.

Two weeks ago the weather here really started to drop(ranging between 29 de gree and 50 degree). And shortly after I started to feel air being dry at night. The humidity reading in the bedroom was somewhere around 33%. And when I put the humidistat right by the register(when the furnace is on and outputting hot air), it read 16%, that's what I was concerned about.

Here's the current information about the humidifier:

I hear the water flowing when the furnace is on, when I open it I see water in the distribution chamber and flowing through the four holes. I also see water flowing down the drain and feel hot air supply coming from the open damper.

I called the contractor company a few days ago, a service guy came in and s aid everything was fine, then he said my 4 inch air filter was plugged, the refore humidity couldn't go through. He charged me for a new air filter an d a partial service call, because no faulty equipment was found, even thoug h they told me the filter would last a year when they sold it to me. I was fine with everything if the problem was resolved, but the thing is, for th e two days after the filter was replaced, the humidity reading by the regis ter was still 16%. I actually personally went into a hardware store and bo ught a brand new water panel for the humidifier, still no improvement on hu midity.

Me and my wife just had a baby 3 weeks ago and my wife had had this coughin g problem for a long time, she feels much better when the air is not dry, s o I was trying to give them the most comfort I can by getting the new furna ce and humidifier. I'm not sure what kind of humidity level others feel go od about, but we really hope we can get to around 45% here. Hope someone c an help and sorry about the long post.

[Stormin Mormon]

posting things at the wrong place. I recently (3 months ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM furnace and along with it an Aprilaire 600 whole house Humidifier. It's upstate New York here, I've been setting the the thermostat to 73 degree, so furnace officially started working since late September.

contractor.

beginning. And I have another small humidistat clipped right on one of the second floor registers where the hot air comes out. The humidity reading had been between 45% and 50% until about 2 weeks ago.

drop(ranging between 29 degree and 50 degree). And shortly after I started to feel air being dry at night. The humidity reading in the bedroom was somewhere around 33%. And when I put the humidistat right by the register(when the furnace is on and outputting hot air), it read 16%, that's what I was concerned about.

open it I see water in the distribution chamber and flowing through the four holes. I also see water flowing down the drain and feel hot air supply coming from the open damper.

guy came in and said everything was fine, then he said my 4 inch air filter was plugged, therefore humidity couldn't go through. He charged me for a new air filter and a partial service call, because no faulty equipment was found, even though they told me the filter would last a year when they sold it to me. I was fine with everything if the problem was resolved, but the thing is, for the two days after the filter was replaced, the humidity reading by the register was still 16%. I actually personally went into a hardware store and bought a brand new water panel for the humidifier, still no improvement on humidity.

had this coughing problem for a long time, she feels much better when the air is not dry, so I was trying to give them the most comfort I can by getting the new furnace and humidifier. I'm not sure what kind of humidity level others feel good about, but we really hope we can get to around

45% here. Hope someone can help and sorry about the long post.

Some Aprilaire have what's known as a bypass damper, or valve. On some, there is a round disk that opens or closes the round tube that comes from the other duct. This needs to be open (handle points horizontal) for the unit to work.

If you have AC, this needs to be closed (handle up and down) for summer.

Please let us know how this works for you.

[Hongyi Kang]

Thanks for the reply, the damper has been open the whole time. I could feel hot air coming from it when I open the humidifier.

[Stormin Mormon]

the whole time. I could feel hot air coming from it when I open the humidifier.

That was the only answer I could find. Please call your service tech back to your house.

[Hongyi Kang]

Thanks Stormin for the effort! Really appreciate it!

[Stormin Mormon]

Quite all right. I worked in heating for years, and installed a lot of Aprilaire humidifiers.

I also live in western NY. My humidifier is portable, I have to fill it with a bucket.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, I have exactly same humidifier in my house(2600 sq ft 2 story with finished basement) This humidifier is bypass type, so is the flap controlling the air passing thru the water panel open? Or partially open or closed? Also check if you can open the water c*ck more for more water flow. Hot air has to pass thru the panel to moisten the room air. Also humidity has to be set in relation to outside temperature. During winter I leave it at 30 to 35% and no higher to prevent condensation on window panes. Panel can be reused after cleaning with CLR. Are you Chinese or Korean? ?? ??????. Hope this helps.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Forgot one thing. Make sure you have power att humidistat(24V AC).

[Stormin Mormon]

He said the bypass damper is open.

[Stormin Mormon]

Ideally, with the flow of water through, the panel "never needs cleaning". But nothing is perfect.

[Stormin Mormon]

power att humidistat(24V AC).

He said that there was water flowing.

- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

.

[trader_4]

The panels in those last a year to maybe 3 years, depending on how hard the water is. For the OP:

He said the water is running, so the unit is energized, but is that all the time or does it shut off part of the time? I prseume he tried putting the control to max to make sure it stays on more, but that had no effect? If it's running all the time, then it's not a control problem. That unit has an outside temp sensor so it will lower the humidity as the outside temp drops, which is what you want. But if it's running all the time, then that isn't an issue.

How is it installed? Usually the unit is on the return side, with a bypass duct going over to the hot side plenum. He says there is airflowing, but how much? A lot? Usually they have a damper that you close for the summer. Any chance it's mismarked, not fully open?

How large is the house? I've never been a fan of the bypass type humidifier. I have the Aprilaire 700 which has it's own fan and doesn't short circuit the blower air. I would think one possibility is that the humidifier just doesn't have enough capacity. The fact that the furnace is two stage, variable blower, might be a factor too. I would think he might be getting less airflow, air not quite as hot passing through it, etc.

If it's a capacity issue, changing the water feed to use hot water, which probably isn't hard to do, instead of cold water will increase the output.

Finally, those little humidity meters are typically very inaccurate. I've had 4 of them side by side, and they can read from 30 to 60. If he googles he can find a calibrating procedure, where you use a closed box with some moist salt in the bottom as reference. You can't adjust the thing, but you can mark it +15 to know that you need to add ~15 to what it shows to get closer to the correct reading.

[philoÂÂ]

I have a similar setup in my own house and when the unit is working properly, there should be some drainage from the over-flow hose at the bottom.

If there is nothing coming out, then not enough water is going in.

Check to be sure the water stop-c*ck is open far enough and also clean out calcium deposits at the water orifice inside the humidifier if it looks like only a small amount of water is flowing through the feeder holes.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, If your water is not hard. Digital ATD type humidity sensor hardly ever goes out of calibration.

[Hongyi Kang]

Thanks Tony for all the responses and thanks Stormin for helping again! Un fortunately I'm Chinese but I always wished I could understand Korean :D If the flap you were referring to was the damper that controls the air flow from supply to the humidifier(the one that I could control with the horizo ntal/vertical switch), then yes I did double check and make sure it was ful ly on. I've also tried different water flow from the hot water supply, fro m minimum to maximum, humidity output did not change. The humidity monitor I was using was AcuRite 00613A1 Indoor Humidity Monitor. Bought from Amaz on, not sure if it's okay to post links here so I'll just skip that for now . Anyways for the two years since I had it its performance had been satisf actory for me, it was able to sense humidity changes and never fluctuated w hen in a stable environment.

I just found out that the lowest reading this humidity monitor can have was 16%, therefore the hot air I was measuring probably was even lower than 16 %, this is the main thing I was concerned about, and also why I think I mig ht be experiencing something different from other people who has the same u nit.

[trader_4]

Unfortunately I'm Chinese but I always wished I could understand Korean :D

ow from supply to the humidifier(the one that I could control with the hori zontal/vertical switch), then yes I did double check and make sure it was f ully on. I've also tried different water flow from the hot water supply, f rom minimum to maximum, humidity output did not change. The humidity monit or I was using was AcuRite 00613A1 Indoor Humidity Monitor. Bought from Am azon, not sure if it's okay to post links here so I'll just skip that for n ow. Anyways for the two years since I had it its performance had been sati sfactory for me, it was able to sense humidity changes and never fluctuated when in a stable environment.

as 16%, therefore the hot air I was measuring probably was even lower than

16%, this is the main thing I was concerned about, and also why I think I m ight be >experiencing something different from other people who has the sam e unit.

You said you were measuring the 16% right at the heat register. Keep in mi nd that the air there is much hotter than room temperature. When that air coo ls down to room temp, the humidity will be much higher than 16%. You also sai d that the humidity in the room was 33% and the outside temps were as low as

29F. If you set that unit to 45%, as the outside temp drops, the unit will automatically lower the humidity below 45%, assuming it has the outside tem p sensor connected. When it's in the 20s you probably don't want it above 40 %.

Also, a furnace hunidifier can't humidify when it's not on. If it's not very cold out, then it may not run enough to be able to boost it as high as you want. Depending on how it's wired up, if it runs when the blower is on , you could run the blower constantly for a while to get more humidity out of it. You'll get humidity out, just not quite as much as you would if the furnace was firing. You apparently have hot water going into it, so that will help .

[Hongyi Kang]

Thanks Trader for the response! As far as I can see, the water is flowing w hen the heat is on and is not flowing when heat is off. The house is only 1

600 sq ft so I thought the humidifier should be plenty. The unit is locate d on the return duct and the air supply comes from the hot air supply duct. The unit is running on hot water line and I tried various water flow on i t, there was always water draining down the draining tube and the humidity output did not change. I'm getting another one of these humidistat in a co uple of days, I'll test and see if they give the same readings. I guess my question right now is whether the humidifier ever fails to output what it should be outputting, or it's already working fine but I'm asking too much from it? I'm really curious if there are other people with the same kinda humidifier and similar outdoor temperature, what humidity they are getting from the hot air registers. The way this thing works is almost purely phys ics so I really can't imagine where could've gone wrong.

[Hongyi Kang]

Unfortunately I'm Chinese but I always wished I could understand Korean : D

flow from supply to the humidifier(the one that I could control with the ho rizontal/vertical switch), then yes I did double check and make sure it was fully on. I've also tried different water flow from the hot water supply, from minimum to maximum, humidity output did not change. The humidity mon itor I was using was AcuRite 00613A1 Indoor Humidity Monitor. Bought from Amazon, not sure if it's okay to post links here so I'll just skip that for now. Anyways for the two years since I had it its performance had been sa tisfactory for me, it was able to sense humidity changes and never fluctuat ed when in a stable environment.

was 16%, therefore the hot air I was measuring probably was even lower tha n 16%, this is the main thing I was concerned about, and also why I think I might be >experiencing something different from other people who has the s ame unit.

Thanks Trader, your statement about hot air cooling down and then becoming much higher than 16% sounds reasonable, but I'm not sure if this hot/cold a ir difference will be able to account for the difference between the 45% an d 16%. The humidifier should not sense the outside temperature because whe n I had it installed I specifically asked for them to not put in the automa tic one, but the manual one instead. So the humidistat on the return duct is just a round knob pointing to different numbers, no digital display.

So I guess my question boils down to whether the 16% humidity right out of register is reasonable or not, if it is, I probably shouldn't even bother g etting the service guy back in again. But if it's not, I'm thinking whethe r there are other hardware configuration problems involved that they could make improvements on.

Thanks again.

[trader_4]

n! Unfortunately I'm Chinese but I always wished I could understand Korean :D

r flow from supply to the humidifier(the one that I could control with the horizontal/vertical switch), then yes I did double check and make sure it w as fully on. I've also tried different water flow from the hot water suppl y, from minimum to maximum, humidity output did not change. The humidity m onitor I was using was AcuRite 00613A1 Indoor Humidity Monitor. Bought fro m Amazon, not sure if it's okay to post links here so I'll just skip that f or now. Anyways for the two years since I had it its performance had been satisfactory for me, it was able to sense humidity changes and never fluctu ated when in a stable environment.

ve was 16%, therefore the hot air I was measuring probably was even lower t han 16%, this is the main thing I was concerned about, and also why I think I might be >experiencing something different from other people who has the same unit.

g much higher than 16% sounds reasonable, but I'm not sure if this hot/cold air difference will be able to account for the difference between the 45% and 16%. The humidifier should not sense the outside temperature because w hen I had it installed I specifically asked for them to not put in the auto matic one, but the manual one instead.

IDK why you would not want the automatic adjustment. I wouldn't buy a unit without it. Otherwise, you have two choices. Keep it set at a humidity appropriate for the coldest temp, which will be less than what you'd likely want most times, or else keep adjusting it as the temperature changes.

ferent numbers, no digital display.

The older models with outside temp compensation look just like that too.

f register is reasonable or not, if it is, I probably shouldn't even bother getting the service guy back in again. But if it's not, I'm thinking whet her there are other hardware configuration problems involved that they coul d make improvements on.

Is the humidifier always on when the furnace is running, ie it's always trying to raise the humidity?

What is the humidity in the house? Getting static shocks? Could be the humidity gauge you're using isn't accurate.

If it's running, you stop it and quickly check the panel, is it wet all over? I suppose if the unit is not level or similar, water could be flowing only over part of the panel. There should be about a pencil size stream of water flowing out the drain hose.

[Stormin Mormon]

see, the water is flowing when the heat is on and is not flowing when heat is off. The house is only

1600 sq ft so I thought the humidifier should be plenty. The unit is located on the return duct and the air supply comes from the hot air supply duct. The unit is running on hot water line and I tried various water flow on it, there was always water draining down the draining tube and the humidity output did not change. I'm getting another one of these humidistat in a couple of days, I'll test and see if they give the same readings. I guess my question right now is whether the humidifier ever fails to output what it should be outputting, or it's already working fine but I'm asking too much from it? I'm really curious if there are other people with the same kinda humidifier and similar outdoor temperature, what humidity they are getting from the hot air registers. The way this thing works is almost purely physics so I really can't imagine where could've gone wrong.

I had an idea, which might sounds strange. In order for the water to evaporate, it has to soak into the white fibers of the media pad. if there is a lot of mineral build up, the water might be sliding down the outside of the pad, instead of soaking into the fibers.

Someone else suggested to soak the pad in vinegar, or use some CLR to see if there is calcium carbonate build up. I'd also wonder if a tiny bit of soap would help water to soak in. Spray a little bit of some thing like Simple Green detergent on the white fiber pad.

Just thinking, here.