Posted: 4/13/2014 9:44:24 PM EDT
| What are your opinions on whole-whose humidifier / climate systems? This past winter was particularly bad at my house. The dry air led to a lot of issues with my guitars and basses. There is a also the associated dust. Are they a PITA, or cost ineffective compared to just getting a couple of single-room units where I keep my music gear? Is there anything I should look out for if choosing one? |
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It's a bit of both. They are a pain in the ass with yearly maintenance and an additonal system monitoring house humidity and kicking in (or not) the humidifier when the fan or furnace is running. But they also do a better, more hands-free, and more consistent job if you keep them up and running and have them integrated into your furnace properly.
Guess it depends on how much you hate filling/setting per-room humidifiers, and how bad the dry air problem really is, on a house-wide basis. FWIW I have a whole house humidifier, currently on the fritz for years and I haven't bothered fixing it, but I liked it when it was in and working, and it took a lot of time to get it up and running and keep it up and running when I had it working. I single-room humidify these days, as necessary. |
I have a whole house unit added on to my furnace... not sure if it even does anything 
in my bedroom I have an air filter / humidifier unit that might be okay.. I sleep better when the thing is going all night. so, consider this a "tag" for any info that might come your way.. I could use something more betta. |
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My sister claims that the Aprilaire unit helps in her house. According to her, she used to get nosebleeds in the morning (partly because she keeps the heat to damned high). Those have ceased since she started using the Aprilaire humidifier. I don't really feel anything when I go there, but I don't really pay attention, or stay that long. She is clueless about the maintenance, and her husband always tinkers with stuff, so you can't really get an accurate assessment of the effort involved from those two.
I should have mentioned that one of the other reasons I was leaning toward whole-house is that my first floor is pretty open, and I usually don't keep my doors shut in my upstairs hallway. I might have to start, I guess. |
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When they need maintenance they can run hot water into your ductwork, on the floor, crawl space. Wherever. I have mine turned off. Seeing warm water running out of my air handler in the winter made me wonder what would happen if I was out of town. So off it went
Plus my house rarely gets under 25% rh on its own |
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Have one installed in my hot air furnace. Usually at some point during the heating season it screws up.
Male fitting in float valve assembly gets a little corrosion on the tip and she leaks. Need to drill out and solder in a stainless piece. The minerals in the water build up over the course of the season That stuff adheres to the plastic tank like spray on bed liner. |
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Our house came with one built into the furnace as well, an Aprilaire. I don't really notice it doing anything either.
The instructions seem backwards to me. It says to turn the humidity level down in the winter and up in the summer. Isn't the winter when it gets dry? I just turned it down and left it that way since we bought the place. We have electric heat/heat pump, so in the winter it does get dry in the house, maybe I should read up on these a bit more as well, it just never seemed to be something important enough to me to remember checking up on, although if I could get it set right it might be nice. 
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The house we just moved into came with one installed.
I swapped out the water heater, and disconnected it. We were in the home for about two months, and the static was terrible! Skin was dry.... I had never thought much of it. So I finally got this humidifier back up and running ( I just had to tap a line from new water pipe) and I must say, it's very nice. No more static, skin feels better, its nice! It has Zero chances of flooding the house, It's a fan unit that blows the water off of a trickle grid inside the garage. Worst case is it springs a leak, and water runs out onto the garage floor. |
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Quoted: Our house came with one built into the furnace as well, an Aprilaire. I don't really notice it doing anything either. The instructions seem backwards to me. It says to turn the humidity level down in the winter and up in the summer. Isn't the winter when it gets dry? I just turned it down and left it that way since we bought the place. We have electric heat/heat pump, so in the winter it does get dry in the house, maybe I should read up on these a bit more as well, it just never seemed to be something important enough to me to remember checking up on, although if I could get it set right it might be nice. Mine say's that too  |
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I installed an Aprilaire unit in my home a couple years ago. It does make a difference in the winter. I used to get static shocks all winter long and the final straw is when I thought I'd nuked my home stereo.
I picked up a new unit on eBay and with a quick run to Home Depot to pick up the bypass duct and a couple other items, it was pretty easy to install. I used to descale the water panel with CLR every season but I found they are pretty cheap when bought in bulk, so I just keep a couple around for next season's startup. |
| I get a lot of ESD issues in my house from the dry air. My mother's house is the same way. The poor dog constantly gets zapped on the nose. My biggest issue, though, is keeping my guitars and basses in playable condition. Ebony, in particular, has a hard time with drying out. |