Humidifier Recommendations

[cyra1ax]

Anyone have any recommendations on what humidifier to get for my furnace? I have that POS box with the bowl of water that seems to come with every house. From what I've seen the desert spring got good reviews, was looking for any other ones that I can compare against.

[codetrap]

Desert spring. As per the last few humidifier threads.

[eblend]

The Desert spring one is on sale right now for $100 off at CanadianTire.

I looked into that myself before but heard issues with the motor. I ended up getting a flow through type myself exactly like this. No moving parts at all, but they aren't terribly efficient, but the water never sits, it just flows onto the pad and out the drain, so some benefit there. Mine is hooked up past a water softner so no scale build up.

http://www.fourseasonsfurnace.com/images/gen1042.jpg

[LLLimit]

I have a desert spring rotary humidifier. Only runs when the furnace is on -saving motor life.
Also connected to the water softener and the autoflush device.

Aside from winter start up & end of season clean up, I have near zero maintenance.
:burnout:

[jeffh]

Get the gf1042 by general aire that eblend displayed. Can easily be wired to turn on(water valve) when furnace turns on. Easy to maintain. Great price too

[jaylo]

I have the same one above and I can say that it is easy to maintain and worry free compared to the cheap ones with the spinning barrel.

Also, you do not have to buy the GeneralAire filter, a generic one from Home Depot will work as well

[cyra1ax]

Where do you find the GeneralAire? Can you DIY like the Desert Spring?

[ExtraSlow]

Bump, anyone have further comments on the Desert Spring vs the GeneralAire? I have the GeneralAire, and honestly, it's not keeping up that well.

As a second question, anyone have suggestions on how to increase the humidity in the house in warmer weather when the AC is running? I understand you don't want too much moisture on your heat exchanger with cool air due to rust issues. Thoughts?

[jeffh]

Generally, you are supposed to turn your humidifier off in the summer(close the damper, and turn down the humidistat). Your ac is basically dehumidifying your home as it cools.

At my previous home, my ac expelled more condensate water in the summer, than my humidifier expelled(didn't get evaporated) during the winter.

This may seem outlandish, but you may be better off to minimize your ac use to limit the lowering of the humidity in your home.

You could look into steam humidifiers.

[codetrap]

.

[LLLimit]

Originally posted by codetrap
I'm quite happy with my desert spring.

2x

[ExtraSlow]

So I decided that I needed to quantify how well my current humidifier was doing. I knew it was never getting to the set point on the humidistat, but there was no numerical readout. It's running 100% of the time while the heat is on.
Got a little digital hygrometer from Amazon, been monitoring it for a week. Humidity ranges from 32% to 37%, it is quite consistent . that's not terrible, but was wondering what others are achieving.

Given the allergies and asthma in our house,higher is better.

[Darell_n]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
So I decided that I needed to quantify how well my current humidifier was doing. I knew it was never getting to the set point on the humidistat, but there was no numerical readout. It's running 100% of the time while the heat is on.
Got a little digital hygrometer from Amazon, been monitoring it for a week. Humidity ranges from 32% to 37%, it is quite consistent . that's not terrible, but was wondering what others are achieving.

Given the allergies and asthma in our house,higher is better.

Mine will get up to 40%, then the windows in the house sweat like crazy. You will probably have to run the fan more to build up the humidity, but without the heat running most of the water goes down the drain. I find having showers with the door open and not using my range hood for boiling water, has as much benefit as the humidifier itself.

[cyra1ax]

Bump.

The new home that we moved into ended up coming with a Generalaire 81 installed.
It worked till around Christmas, where it quit working while we were away. I've cleaned the unit, however the drum does not rotate when the furnace is on. Strangely, when I turn the humidistat to "OFF" the drum will rotate. The same does not happen when the humidistat is turned to the "ON" position. There is water in the pan and the float works....something to do with the motor I think? Hoping someone has a suggestion on what to do.