Humidifier

[sgruver78]

wondering if anybody has any knowledge of humidifiers that would be installed to my airhandler to get moisture throughout my whole house. since having triplets this year we had to crank the heat up from our normal 64 degrees and i notice that with all that hot air blowing around it is really drying out my house. i have heard of bypass humidifiers but was wondering if there are any other types out there and if anybody knows of a quality brand and model.

 

[LLigetfa]

Those humidifiers come in two basic styles. One style uses a float valve like what's in your toilet tank. They evaporate 100% of the water and leave behind a lot of scum. Most often they have a rotating drum that has an absorbent material that the moisture evaporates off of. They can be cleaned with vinegar or CLR.

The other style is a flow-through that drains off the excess water. This style is less prone to buildup of mold and scum. They have no moving parts except for a solenoid valve. The cartridge that is the evaporator can be de-scaled with vinegar or CLR but eventually they need to be changed.

 

[savageactor7]

Congrats on your triplets...yes absolutely you have to condition the air for the well being and comfort value of your babies. Until you figure it out start running a vaporizer so the babies can breath and swallow easier. Start now even if you have to borrow one from a neighbor...then go from there and improve the situation.

 

[fossil]

We had one on our central system in Virginia. I believe is was an "AprilAir", or something similar. It was installed on the outlet air plenum above the gas furnace, and in the wintertime, it ran when the heater ran. It was a flow-through system similar to what LL mentioned, except ours also had its own little fan to blow air across the water dispersal grid and into the main air plenum. It had a manual on/off/humidity adjustment dial. Water supply was a simple little tap off the water heater inlet...just like a refrigerator ice maker might have. Excess water (a trickle when in operation) was piped to the A/C condensate drain. Can't say what it cost, we had it installed when we replaced our entire central system some years back. Seemed to work fine. Rick

EDIT: HVAC folks who do installations/service/repairs will be more than happy to sell you one and install it for you.

 

[LLigetfa]

My humidifier is cut into the cold return and has a feed from the hot side. It is the feed-through style with no moving parts.
(broken image removed)

It uses the following cartridge.

 

[fossil]

I like it. Rick

 

[jeff6443]

I had an April Air in my other house same as the Honeywell worked great noticed a difference in the frst day JM

 

[Redox]

I have always recommended the Aprilaire as it is simple and works well. The Honeywell is a knock off, but should work pretty much the same. Some people can't tolerate the thought of a constant trickle of a flow through humidifier, but they really cut down on maintenance. The bypass style uses the pressure difference between the supply and return duct to move air through the pad instead of the fan in a "power" type humidifier. They are basically "stealing" some of your hot air for the humidifier; not a big deal if you have gas or oil heat, but it can be noticeable if you have a heat pump. The bypass can also be a little harder to install if space is a concern.

Chris

 

[sgruver78]

thanks for the great info guys!