z33tec

I just moved into my house in July. This is my first home so this is my first time dealing with a furnace/humidifier. I'm not 100% sure on how everything works, but I'm 110% sure that there is water involved in the humidifying process .

With that said... I set my humidifier to 35% or so. My heat has been on so the humidifier should be on as well. I've never had a humidifier before, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to tell the difference or not. I didn't really notice any difference in the humidity of the air as I was trying to figure out which % to set it at so I thought I'd open the humidifier and take a look. It was dry as a bone. No water seemed to be coming out of the little white tube.

The only things I have done are:
1) Open the heating duct that lets air flow into the humidifier
2) Turned the humidifier on by setting it to 35%

Am I missing something. There looks like some sort of valve where it attaches to the hot water heater. Do I need to open that valve? I don't know if it is closed or open right now.

Here are some pics to help explain:

Here is where the water line attaches to the hot water tank


This is the valve that I am not sure whether it is open or not..


Here is the inside of the humidifier


It looks like I should probably replace the pad inside as it has lots of white build up (calcium I guess?) on it. Figured I would worry about that after I could figure out how I can get the thing to actually work.

There are some cards on the side that says it was serviced in 2003-2004. One says something about pinhole done in humidifier? No clue what that means.

Any ideas on how to go about getting this thing to work?

yuri

Does the humidistat control click when you turn it higher? It may click at say 35% or you may need to turn it higher if it is 40% RH in the house. If it clicks then it should energize the water valve to the humidifier if the furnace is on heat and running. The water supply valve on the pipe you turn counterclockwise to the full open position. You may be able to clean the pad with CLR and water but it is a good idea to replace it. If no water flows you may have to dismantle the spray thingy at the top and soak it in CLR or clear the pinhole/orifice in it or get a Pro to do it.

z33tec

Wow, Yuri. Thanks! We always look at the more complicated things before the simple ones I guess. The humidistat control was not "clicking" on. I had to actually turn it all the way to 45% (the max) for it to actually "click" on.

Is this normal? I doubt my house is at 44% humidity already but who knows. It's late November and my skin is dry as a bone. Sure doesn't feel humid at all.

I can actually see water draining down the clear hose beneath the humidifier now. How much should I be seeing? There is a steady stream draining through it now. I'm wondering if it's because I have the humidistat on 45% (max)? Then again, I've never used a humidifier so I don't know how much should normally be draining.

yuri

Can't see it from here. LOL. There should be a steady stream as it is a bypass type and that extra washes the wick. You need a new wick or clean it. New is better. Go to HDepot and buy a Bionaire table top temp gauge with hygrometer(RH scale) on it so you know whats what. Those humidistats can be inaccurate so you need to find a happy point and leave it there.

Marty S.

New pads come with the white stuff on them. It's to help hold the water on a bit longer so it doesn't run right through. Replace them every year they're like $9.

z33tec

Thanks for the feedback

Just went to Home Depot and grabbed a new filter for it. I did a quick check on Home Depot and Lowe's website and the Lowe's ones were around $24 where as the Home Depot ones were only $8-$12. Not sure what the difference is in quality but I went with the Honeywell filters from Home Depot just because it was closer. These filters say to change them twice a heating season so maybe the Lowe's ones were more because they last longer? Who knows.

I just checked the Aprilaire manual online and according to the temp outside (48F) the humidistat should be set to max so maybe it's working as it should. Hopefully when the temp outside goes down it will kick in at the lower levels as well.