david wrote:

I've scheduled a furnace replacement for next month. It will be a 95%
high efficiency natural gas unit. The contractor wanted an additional
$600 to install an Aprilaire 600 whole house humidifier. The price on
Amazon if about $190, maybe cheaper elsewhere, so I can buy that one
and install it myself.

However, I've also looked at literature for other brands and they all
claim to do wonderful things. In the absence of objective data, I'd
like for the knowledgeable folks in this newsgroup to make a
humidifier brand /model recommendation. I live in the Kansas City
area and need to humidify about 2400 square feet of living space.
Thanks for the advice.

I'll be real surprised if you get many recommendations for anything
other than Aprilaire.

I paid $168 delivered from American Wholesale [ebay store] for the 600
last year. I see westsidewholesale.com has it for $165. [I bought my
first one from discountfurnacefilters in 2008-- It had 'an accident',
so when I put the new furnace in last year I replaced it.]

I look at mine twice a year & have enjoyed perfect 'humidification'
all winter. I kick myself every couple of weeks for not buying
one 20 years ago.

BTW- I'd do it myself, too-- but I don't think the $600 the contractor
wants is out of line if you know how well he'll stand behind his work.
Mine has been trouble free- but stuff happens. I probably took 6-8
hours to install mine, lots of that was 'headscratching' time.

Be sure to hook it to the hot water side. Aprilaire recommends it &
it makes sense from a 'make humidity' standpoint-- but also makes it
easy to see if the thing is working. While the furnace is running
I'll occasionally lay my hand on the tubing where it enters the
humidifier-- the warmth gives me a warm fuzzy feeling that all is
well with the world.

Jim