Our Essick Aire MA0800 stand alone unit crapped out for the 3rd time in 4 years. We have a large FSA surplus and they say you can use FSA money for humidifiers with a Dr. letter.
Well We happen to be sitting in post op after tube set number 7 and 3rd set of adenoids being removed.
So I asked the ENT and he said he’d gladly write a letter.

What is the best brand, style, for ease of maintenance should we be looking at?

I have had Aprilaire, as well as Honeywell humidifiers, both work equally well.

We have installed many of these and I personally have one in my own home..

https://www.aprilaire.com/whol...humidifier/model-800

It will probably require professional installation but once set up you can forget about it until the end of the season.
Please note that you will have to replace the steam canister each season but that is a DIY process. The canister runs about $80 and you can get it from Amazon.

Here’s the listing for the whole unit on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005...tag=viglink127482-20

I've had two Aprilaire units (two different houses) and both have been problem free (as long as we use the scale filter on the input line). The last one is on the output side of the furnace - model 700 (vs the input side like the non powered ones - that was a model 600) and seems to put more moisture in the air. We replace the wick when we replace the furnace filter.

Never had any luck with on-unit whole house humidifiers. They only seemed to humidify the ducts.

have bought This stand alone unit with excellent results.

Happy to discuss more offline, or show you how we've done it, as we control parts of the house differently with 2 units of this (large house/zoned)

We've had one like this: General Filters Model 1042LH Legacy Humidifier installed on the sides of our furnaces for about 25 years.

It was working so well we ended-up with water damage to the perimeters of the ceilings on the west and south exposures due to condensation. (We initially thought it water from ice dams on the roof.)

I solved that problem with a Honeywell HumidiPRO automatic humidistat.

Maintenance: Each fall I disassemble the unit, clear out the cruft (mainly mineral deposits due to our hard well water) and install a new evaporator pad. That's it.

quote:

Originally posted by ChuckFinley:
Never had any luck with on-unit whole house humidifiers. They only seemed to humidify the ducts.

Sounds like that's a return air/circulation issue and not the humidifier's fault.

I have an Aprilaire 600, hooked up to cold water and it seems to work well, keeps the house right at 50% where it's dialed into.

My FIL also has an Aprilaire but his is hooked up to hot water for some reason, I asked my HVAC guy about that and he said it wasn't necessary to use hot and just wastes your hot water.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
My FIL also has an Aprilaire but his is hooked up to hot water for some reason, I asked my HVAC guy about that and he said it wasn't necessary to use hot and just wastes your hot water.

Accelerates evaporation. I re-plumbed ours to hot water when we couldn't get our humidity up to where we wanted in very cold weather. Only later did I discover (see previous post) there's only so much humidity you can pump into the air before it simply gets sucked right back out of the air when it starts condensing on any sufficiently cold surface.

Even if you can't see the condensation, it can be happening in areas you can't see, causing damage--and even reducing the efficiency of insulation.

Here's a chart, from Honeywell, IIRC, that recommends maximum indoor humidity based on outside temperature:



A good rule of thumb is when you start seeing condensation around the edges of windows you're about at the max reasonable indoor humidity for the outside temperature.

Aprilaire 600 bypass installed on our Lennox. It functions like the automatic version as it uses the smart ipad like controller in our furnace. Max is 45% per our control pad. Working well. It's on the hot water and only runs when the heat is on and the humidity is low (it has fancy options about RH, outside temp, etc. too). The installers hated it. Very tight. Sure beats filling the reservoir on the in house version.

Aprilaire.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
A good rule of thumb is when you start seeing condensation around the edges of windows you're about at the max reasonable indoor humidity for the outside temperature.

That's exactly what I do.

quote:

Originally posted by Warhorse:

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
A good rule of thumb is when you start seeing condensation around the edges of windows you're about at the max reasonable indoor humidity for the outside temperature.

That's exactly what I do.

To the OP, spend the extra $35-50 for the automatic controller. It has an external temperature probe and it automatically adjusts to put the perfect amount in the house (the chart that ensigmatic posted) without condensation on the windows. Also, insist the technician hooks up the external thermometer (this is what makes the automatic controller function properly and my technician tried to get out of the 15 minutes work). This makes it automatic and it’s always at the perfect humidity without condensation on windows. Condensation on windows can cause toxic mold as well as rot out window sills.

I had the Aprilaire bypass filter installed on a 2800 sq ft 2-story home in Alaska and the automatic controller always kept it perfect humidity without condensation on windows. I had it serviced annually (more than just a pad swap) plus did a pad swap halfway through the 9 month long winter. If a properly sized and maintained Aprilaire bypass humidifier can keep up in Alaska then a properly sized and maintained Aprilaire bypass humidifier can keep up wherever y’all live.

Contrast this to the Generalaire bypass humidifier with manual humidity control in Calgary, AB. It was a similar sized 2-story home to Alaska, but the manual adjustment was on furnace in the basement. In other words, I wasn’t going down there often to adjust setting. Additionally, I was a renter and the landlord wouldn’t spend money on having HVAC serviced so it was pad swapped only.

Curious about this.
We have just under 4K sq feet, on 3 floors, with 2 units, one in the basement and 1 in the attic.
Will a unit on the downstairs until humidify the entire house.
A unit on the attic furnace does not seem feasible.
Am I stuck with a stand alone unit for upstairs?

Get an Aprilaire with the automatic humidistat.

Stay away from General, as they are a PITA to clean compared to the Aprilaire!

So would one on the downstairs unit alone help upstairs?

I was looking at the basement unit. Looks like there may have been one installed before.

I am not a HVAC professional, but one downstairs can only help. Running a water supply of that nature to the attic makes me cringe.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
I am not a HVAC professional, but one downstairs can only help. Running a water supply of that nature to the attic makes me cringe.

Same here.
I was watching a This Old House Episode where they were installing a steam humidifier unit on the furnace in the attic.
Their hot water tank was also up there

It will help.
How much depends on how open the upstairs is for circulation and house infiltration rate.

Yes it will help, but it will depend on floor plan and if you keep bedroom doors open or shut. In general everything in nature wants to get to equilibrium so the more of the downstairs air that meets with upstairs air the more effective it will be.

I have a Aprilaire 700m. I installed it myself in two hours (mechanically inclined). I could have done it slightly faster if not for something in the instructions that confused me (can't remember at the moment what though).

Made a huge difference for me. No more dry sinuses in the morning, no more static when I pet the kitties, and house feels warmer at lower temperatures.

Resurrecting this thread - looking to go this route because we are getting a grand piano. Large swings in humidity are no good. The recommendation is to keep the house at 40-50 year round. The post about moisture on the windows and humidity down in the 20s when it’s really cold have me second guessing myself. Any piano owners with experience?