[BlueBSH]

My XC95M furnace has a Trane THUMD500 powered humidifier on it. When it runs the water line makes SO much noise. It has a 1/4" copper line from a turn shutoff valve (soldered in, not a compression type)

Is this common? the water flow noise is so loud I can hear it across the basement (about 50 ft away) throug walls! it's just a medium pitched water rushing through a small hole type of noise)

the valve is clean, the line is brand new, the solenoid is new... if I turn the valve to about 1/4th open the noise gets a lot more quiet (and is bareable!) and still get a steady flow of water at the humidifier pad.

Is this bad to do? I know you souldn't control the rate of flow from the valve, but it seems to be the only thing that helps..

and strangely, the house's humidity goes up faster with the lower flow.

Anything bad about doing this? or anyway to correct the noise?

 

[BlueBSH]

no ideas?

 

[hvactech126]

nothing wrong with what you are doing...........You won't hurt anything by doing so.

 

[BlueBSH]

yeah, I was thinking it shouldn't hurt it, I was watching the end of the condensate drain line, which the extra water from the humidifier runs into also, turning it off the line just drips every so often, turning it on full its a steady flow, turning it all most off where its running but not noisy, the flow seems the same so figured in the end the 1/4th inch line was getting the same amount of water flow or close to it?

anyways, this use to be a saddle valve, which never made this much noise, when it was redone, it was switched to a soldered on supply valve and that's when the noise started... I wanted it to be soldered with the new equipment instead of a saddle valve (been trying to eliminate saddle valve usage in this house) figured that the supply valve was letting water flow faster thus making the noise

it sounded like a hose running at full pressure with a stream nozel on it just amplified a few times through the copper pipes in the house....

 

[HVACTECH96]

Very common problem when trying to force 60psi water pressure thru a pinehole.The newer 1/4 turn style ballvalves work better than older style valves, but either way ,I do it all the time.Sometimes the orfice can get enlarged do to high water pressure and age.