I am considering buying an Aprilaire or a Desert Spring furnace humidifier and would like your opinions about them. The Desert Spring costs $259.95 plus 14.95 S&H and covers up to 4200sq ft. I think the Aprilaire 700 covers about the same. It costs about 229.95 plus S&H. One thing that interests me about the Desert Spring is that there is nothing to periodically replace in it, just clean out a lower pan on it or install an automatic flush device on it. They say you don't need one if you have soft water. I would appreciate your opinions. Thanks
I don't know about Desert Spring, or how it works. However I can say all water comes with dissolved minerals, some more than others (including softened water). If the water evaporates, those minerals have to go somewhere.
The Aprilaire flushes most of them down the drain. I don't see how any system is going to get all of them down the drain.
I've owned an AprilAire 558 for several years, and I've been very happy with it. The design prevents any water from stagnating in the humidifier; all I do is replace the water panel every year or so. I also like the automatic humidistat - where I'm at, the temperature can swing from 32F to 0F in one day. I don't have to fiddle with a manual humidistat; it keeps the house at the proper humidity based on outside temperature.
That pan is a problem! I had a wheel type humidifeir on my furnace before I knew better, the pan is a breeding ground for all kinds of mold and bacteria! You would not believe the scum that will acumulate there. As far as water usage, my water bill was no larger with the Aprilaire, in fact I can not tell the differance in water use with or without the humidifier. Go with the any of the Aprilaire Units. Nothing to clean, replace the media every year or two. Greg
I installed a Honeywell HE260 last weekend on our geothermal heat pump. It is a bypass model similar to the Aprilaire. Very happy with it so far. I've done more research since I installed it than I did before, and I am glad I went with the pad type unit. It seems that this design is mechanically the simplest, and probably avoids many problems such as bacteria growth and deposit build up. It does require a drain which wasn't a problem for my installation. The unit was about $122 at a local HVAC supply house through my business. Included humidistat, but I had to buy 6" duct pipe, elbows, damper, drain and supply lines. Installation wasn't bad. I installed the humidistat next to the thermostat. I simplified the wiring some by tapping into the
24vac blower control line at the thermostat and running that through the humidistat and then back to the solenoid on the humidifier by means of an unused wire in the thermostat cable. That eliminmated the need for the 24vac transformer that came with the unit. In time I may opt to replace the humidistat with an outdoor sensing type, but so far I've left it set on 40% and all has worked well. The air is sure more comfortable than when we relied on a portable unit and I love not messing with water jugs. Here is a link to more info on the Honeywell
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BTW, I read somewhere that the Honeywell uses like 3.5 gph as opposed to 6 gph for some other units. Since I am using hot water as recommended for heat pump installations, that sounded like a plus. Most of that is used for flushing and about .7 gph goes into the air. The .7 gph seems common to other units of this size and type. Regards, Ken
If you had used another model, available to HVAC pros(not to be confused with certain Morons, uh, Mormons), it would have been easier. And the damper would have been included.....
HeatMan and CBHVAC, My brother-in-law is considering a similar installation. Can you guys elaborate on 'easier' and 'cheaper' and offer the brand and model we should check out. I suppose my installation cost about $150 and took me a Saturday afternoon. Thanks, Ken
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