On Monday, March 13, 2017 at 4:17:10 PM UTC-4, wrote:
...the pad was not getting wet because the water would only trickle in a few spots down the honeycomb before running down the drain.


if the honeycomb does not "wet" then of course it won't work.


are you saying the water just beaded up and ran down the honeycomb without soaking into the honeycomb?


that would be the problem but why? i don't know.

you would think that might happen when the material is new, but eventually the water should soak into it.

m


mark

It doesn't have to soak into the media and I don't think it does.
The coating on it is some kind of rough material that doesn't appear
designed to absorb water. The water
just has to run over as much of the surface area as possible on it's
way to the bottom. Like I said, I've had two Aprilaires and also
experience with a Honeywell that uses the same media with a very
similar design. Both worked fine to maintain humidity at up to 45%
in a large house while never running anywhere near the full on time
of the furnace.

Could some people have problems with maybe a defective distribution
tray at the top, where the water winds up only going down part of
the media? Sure. Or it could be installed where it's not level,
so the water flows to one side. If you look at Amazon, they have
300+ reviews with the vast majority of people agreeing that it works
and they like it. And of the few that don't like it, some are
complaining about things that make no sense, like it doesn't work
well with a tankless water heater (you can use it with cold water),
or complaints about water going down the drain (it's a small expense
to have it carry away the minerals, instead of have it gunk up)., etc.