Whole house humidifiers?

Thread from 2016:

In the winter especially, doubly so in the basement where both our furnace and our master bedroom are, the air gets quite dry. I had the same problem in the old house, which I solved (at least overnight) by running a small humidifier in the bedroom. This worked well, but also ended up not doing the hardwood floor under where I had the humidifier any good. The new house is bigger, and we spend more time in a variety of rooms- so I got to wondering if putting in a humidifier on the HVAC system might not be a smarter way of dealing with the problem and solving it for the whole house and not just a room at a time. Have any of you had experience with them before, and even better, bought and installed one yourself (as I'd likely be trying to do)? So far this one looks like it would be a fairly cost-effective candidate.

I had one installed upstairs into that furnace (two separate ones in my house). It was $900 installed and worth it. I didn't want to run water line and such. They were in and out in a few hours over two days.

We have three furnaces (see my "overdoing it" thread if you wonder why) and all of them have the older version of that humidifier on them. I did not install them but it would be relatively simple. They have a panel in them you want to replace periodically so they are not maintenance free.

The outdoor sensor on the one you linked to would be nice; ours are totally manual so you have to adjust them to make sure you don't end up with too much moisture in the house compared to the outside temp. (you can end up with condensation inside the walls!)

They definitely make the house more comfortable. I much prefer them to the portable style.

I have installed 3 of them across two houses (one was a BIG house required two running simultaneously) I think one of the ones I installed was the exact model you are looking at. Yearly cleanout of the filter media, and IIRC it wastes only a little water. The other unit was from the same company, but a different model (one installed to intake, one to output)

The standalone I installed at a smaller house was this http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Spring-DS3200-Furnace-Humidifier/dp/B000C13YK0 I liked it, but it does require maintenance (mostly flushing the fluid and maybe soaking the discs in CLR once a year). It seemed more straightforward than the Aprilaire, but the electronics were a bit less substantial.

Hardest part of the install is figuring out the tie-in to your furnace to control it so that it only runs when the furnace runs. Other than that, its simple sheet metal cutting and hanging. You also have a water line, but they are super easy (you find a water line and its a clamp-on self piercer that you screw in, at least thats how it went on copper)

Best solution with least headache. Too dry of a place is flat uncomfortable to me.

I have some kind of Aprilaire but I wouldn't install one, and this one will be removed when the furnace is replaced at some point in the future. I think they are more trouble than they are worth, and if you don't maintain them constantly mold will grow inside and then get sent around your house through the vents. Plus I'm not a fan of the little water hose that runs to it... it looks like an aquarium air hose and seems like it could break easily. But that may be a crappy install at my house.

I installed one and it was simple. Of course I took the old broken one out and installed the new one, but other than the water line I installed everything else. I bought one with a fan in it because that's what was there previously. The one you linked to used the pressure differential from the return to the supply to push air through the panel. The a fan powered model only connects to one duct. A little less of an install. I think ours is a Honeywell, purchased at a home store.

I installed on a few years ago in my big house. Installation wasn't too bad and it did make a difference in overall comfort. Unfortunately our water around here is REALLY hard and the gridlike media that the water trickles over gets caked over in literally weeks. Eventually I had several sets and would soak a couple while one was in the unit. Until I'd forget and it became pointless again.

Upshot for me, too much effort and I haven't been tempted to install another one.

We have had one on our oil-fired hot air system since we bought the house in 1976.

It uses a motorized brush to lift water up so the hot air stream can evaporate it. Any hard water residue falls to the bottom and can be removed easily. In the summer I just slide it out of its bracket and replace it with a piece of plexiglass.

The control system consists of a switch with a flapper (on the left) that only turns on when the furnace fan is running. That feeds power to the humidistat(right) which I can set for whatever level of humidity I want. The flapper switch also controls the electrostatic air cleaner we have.

I have had to replace it once after 20 years when the motor wore out but we have been very pleased with it so far.

I have an older Aprilaire. It works. It does take some annual work to keep it working. My only complaint is that it wastes some water, but I don't know how you'd get around that with its design. I replace the media every year after my HVAC guy showed me how much scale they get and how much less efficient they are when scaled.

Well, for the time being we're going with a basic cold-mist single-room humidifier as SWMBO isn't convinced that the whole-house one would be worth the cost and effort since the main problem is overnight in the bedroom. The humidifier should show up from Amazon tomorrow (possibly today, since it's obvious it's coming from the distro center just down the road), so we'll see how it works soon enough.

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Sorry!