Newbie here. I moved into my house a few years ago, and there was a house humidifier installed. After 2 years of very dry winters, I decided to attempt to figure out if the humidifer was actually working. I think I have gotten it down to a wiring problem, but need someone smarter than me to hopefully help me out.

I have a Bryant furnace (if relevant). The wiring to the humidifier are hooked to the HUM and COM terminals. The wire is white (to HUM), red (to COM) and green (not attached). From the thermostat (model #883321B), the wire is hooked into the two (and only two) terminals, with the same type of brown wire, with white on one terminal, red on the other, and green not attached. These two wires (one from the furnace, and the other from the thermostat) meet at the solenoid. The white wires are capped together. The red from the furnace attaches to one connection of the solenoid, and the red from the thermostat connects to the other connection of the solenoid.

I have verified that the water tap is working, and that the inline filter is clean leading into the solenoid.

I have reviewed the installation guides I could find online, but cannot tell if the wiring is correct. I figure either I have a wiring issue or a solenoid issue.

In looking at http://www.alpinehomeair.com/ewebedi...er_Wiring2.gif it almost seems like the wiring might not be correct since the furnace does not directly connect to the termostat except via the white wire. But then all of those pictures depict thermostats with more than two terminal connections.

I checked with a Multimeter and it seemed that I wasn't getting any volts from between the HUM and COM terminals when the furnace and blower were running, so I tried moving the white to W and red to R (where W and R were terminals within the furnace), and am seeing current between those leads.

So my thoughts are one of two options:

Option 1 - Rewire:
Disconnect all existing wiring. Run new wire from furnace to thermostat (one terminal from thermostat to HUM, the second terminal from thermostat to COM - at least to start with, still given the apparent lack of voltage mentioned above), and then from thermostat to solenoid. That would mean however that I would have two connections going to each terminal of the thermostat, and don't know if that would be an issue.

Option 2 - Replace Solenoid:
Not even sure where I would get one but would like to avoid if it turns out to be a wiring issue.

Option 3 - ???

Sorry for the novel. I am trying to be as thorough as possible. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.
Jim

 

Model # on this?

This the wire that was wired to HUM? If so, REMOVE that wire right away!

White wire to W, and red wire to C.

 

Furnance is a Bryant 90 Plus.

And I had returned the humidifier to W to HUM and Red to COM. Is Red to R not good?

 

You can wire the one wire to W, Other wire needs to stay on common. If you had W and R wired up, you may fire off your furnace, and over heat it.

The number you gave me don't mean anything, the model is inside the furnace on a sticker with the model and serial #.

 

I believe I found it (at least a sticker with model and serial number on it). The model is CD5AXA048000AAAA.

 

That number is for your A/C coil that sits on top of the furnace. You'll have to take the cover off on the furnace and there should eb a sticker on the side.

 

Sorry about that.

Product = 350MAV048100 ADKA
Model = 350MAV048100
Series D

Thanks
Jim

 

Your furnace HUM is 24 volts.

The #883321B stat, is this humidistat or thermostat?

What brand is it?

 

The humidifier and humidistat are both made by Aprilaire.

 

The 883321B don't even come back as valid #.

Is it a digital screen with blue back ground.

or dial with 1 to 10 on it

or simple dial

 

It is dial (not digital) with 5% humidity increments up to 40%. Found this thread that sounds like exactly what I have (2 leads, etc). Aprilaire 760 humidistat wiring - http://www.hvacmechanic.com/ Forums

Very similar to this one (without the copyright BelAire bit).
http://electronicaircleaners.com/ima...016_photo1.jpg

or

http://static.squidoo.com/resize/squ...016-Humidistat[2].jpg

 

Ok, this how it should be wired up.
[IMG][/IMG]

When you tried to take a reading on HUM, was heat being called for?

 

Sorry for the delayed response. I was out of town unexpectedly.

Yes, heat was being called for when I tried to get a reading on HUM.

And just to make sure I understand your graphic, the red is the red wire, and thin black is the white one?

 

Correct, Kinda hard to draw a white wire on white paper! :-)

 

Here is the current wiring.

Does that look correct?
Thanks
Jim

 

From what I can tell, yes that is correct.

 

Thanks Jay. Do you know if there is a way to test the solenoid to make sure it isn't locked or frozen?

Jim

 

If the power is not present at the valve, and the water is flowing..... Why do you ask? Are you you getting water flow when there no call for humidity?

 

Ok. Breakthrough. I went to every wired connection, disconnected and reconnected as is. And checked an hour later, and the filter was wet. PROGRESS!

So it appears that the wiring was not connected completely at one of the six points. So, since then, it fires up, solenoid pops, and water starts to flow.

Last question. How loud should the solenoid be? I can hear it easily from upstairs.

In the home stretch here.

Thanks
Jim

 

Should be just a snap sound... I don't hear mine.. Maybe you got a lot of water preasure, or water line to the valve is boucing.

 

I am going to close this thread out. Jay, thanks for your help confirming/correcting the wiring. When the water shuts off, the noise is coming from the pipe, so the water pressure is causing the pipe to make noise. Solved it by turning down the amount of water going into the humidifer.

Thanks again!
Jim