On Thursday, December 17, 2015 at 5:28:55 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 09:06:17 -0500, Frank "frank wrote:

I had put one of these dehumidifiers in my first house and it was a mess
and a mess to clean. There was no water over flow and after a month or
so, I'd have to remove the pad to clean out the calcium deposit with
vinegar.

Unless they have designed something new, which I dont know about, NONE
of the built in (to furnace) humidifiers last very long. And if your
water is high in minerals, it's even worse. Not only are they a pain to
keep working and clean, but they can damage the furnace by causing rust
to the heat exchanger, and/or damage the electronics within the furnace.


I've had an Aprilaire for 10+ years with no problems. There isn't
anything in there that is inherently a high failure issue. It's
essentially a media element that water trickles over. The pads are a
maintenance item and need to be replaced when enough minerals have
accumulated, about every 2 years on mine. Mine is a powered one, with
a small fan motor, other bypass models have no motor. So, there really
isn't anything there to fail. Honeywell uses a similar design and
the same media element. IDK what design other companies use today.
Many decades ago there were types that used a rotating drum that went
through a container of water, kept filled by a float, etc. The
Aprilaire design is much better than that.


I quit using them years ago. I just use a portable humidifier which
needs to be filled with a pail, and also needs maintenance and cleaning,
but cant cause flooding or damage your furnace. And if they go bad, you
just replace the whole unit and dont have to find something that fits
into the plenum.