Humidifier recommendation

Well then....now that there is a special forum for it, I guess I'll ask this question here.

We have a condo of about 1100 to 1200 sq. feet. 3 floors including the basement. This winter has been very cold, and the air in our condo is exceptionally dry. We get constant shocks from everything we touch, including eachother.

My question is, which is the best option for us in a humidifier? Should we get one that goes in the furnace, or will a stand-alone humidifier work fine in our little home? Either way, any recommendations anyone may have as to which brand is good would also be appreciated. Thanks guys.

 

I would get any that are the bypass kind and put on the furnace so it will go through the home. there is LAU ,General ,Aprilair. Make sure its wired so it can come on with the blower. Thats so if you want you could turn the fan on and that would put humidity in the home with out the furnace on. this way it will get all 3 floors for you ED

 

How much $ does a job like that generally run?

 

You can do it. humidifier cost around $125 $175 ED

 

So you think it's a do-it-yourself job, huh? Any good places online to get one of these units, or are local dealers the only place to get them?

 

They are on line and ask around where you are. Look at all on line it will give you a idea of what you will have to do. You dont one that just has a nozzle and sprays the water in thats a no no .one with a pad or drum as they call them ED

 

They are not really that hard to put in.. Just as long you got the space for this unit to be placed on the duct work.. (both supply and return)

You can buy these on-line, or at any home centers like Home Depot, or from a local HVAC dealers. Make sure you get the kit for it.

 

Hi Ed,

Why don't I want one of the atomizing injection style humidifiers? Just curious.

 

if you are referring to the spray type, they will rust a furnace out quicker than you can believe. often calcium builds up on the nozzle and the spray becomes a stream or drip that is not picked up by the air

 

That's actually what I was hoping the reason would be, as I've considered this. I've bought one of these units, though I haven't installed it yet. My plan is to supply water to it through a reverse osmosis filter system, so that the water feeding the unit is nearly pure. This should prevent minerals from building up on the nozzle too much, and should also prevent the problem of precipitating minerals appearing throughout the home as white dust. Other than the above, are there reasons to stay away from this design?

 

I'd still stay away from them.. No matter how pure you get the water, you still have water dropplets. If that dropplet collect on a spot in the duct work, then you will still have rusting or what not in the ductwork, or in the furance.

Just go with the basic by-pass style system where they use the pad.

 

As I said before if you use a spray humidifier on your furnace. Count on buying a new furnace in a year or two .
If you did want a water filter there for the humidifier dont go with a reverse osmosis kind they cost to much get a Hako water conditioner for it and be done ED

 

Having just replaced a 12 year old Carrier gas furnace that had rusted through the heat exchanger, I can vouch for this. The former owner of my house had installed a spray type humidifier and he used a good filter (we also don't have hard water here), and he seems to have experimented with different sizes of spray nozzles. Didn't matter....you should have seen the rust on the furnace itself. Plenum had to be replaced, and ductwork was beginning to rust out in several spots all because of that stupid spray humidifier. What a mess....cost over $3,000 to get fixed. We had a filter style humidifier installed in which the runoff is pumped directly out to a drain pipe...no standing water to gather bacteria, and the filter itself gets changed periodically.
To my way of thinking, this is the kind of job that's worth paying someone who has experience with them. In our instance a couple of hundred "saved" by previous homeowner cost us plenty....not to mention the danger from a rusted out heat exchanger pumping CO into the ductwork. We were lucky to have found the problem.