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Like others, I was tired of constantly filling and cleaning my console humidifier. The Aprilaire 360/350 is the only whole-house unit I could find that works independently of a forced air heating system, so it was the only choice for my home with radiant floors. Buyers should be aware that Aprilaire requires installation to be performed by an HVAC professional, or else the warranty is void. I chose to install it myself, and the money saved on professional installation would easily pay for a replacement unit if ever needed.
The first thing I noticed after unpacking the unit was a manufacture date nearly 3 years prior. They must not sell many of these. The second thing I noticed was a screw in the bottom of the box. It was one of the motor mounting screws which had fallen out, and the nut was missing. This screw also connects a ground wire to the case, so the wire was hanging loose inside the unit. I located a replacement nut and reinstalled the screw. Every other screw holding the unit together was also loose.
I had no problems with installation. I discarded the self piercing saddle valve that comes with the unit and instead used a tee fitting to tap off a supply line from a nearby sink. The drain tube must not have a "trap" where it exits the unit or it will overflow. The outlet grille is almond or ivory color, I painted mine white but that's just my personal preference. They should offer them in different colors, the plastic grille is somewhat difficult to paint properly.
Upon powering up the humidifier for the first time I was surprised to find that the fan is a lot quieter than my Holmes console humidifier, but I also noticed that it doesn't move much air. More on that later. There is a fairly loud hissing noise from the water supply line, similar to the sound of a dishwasher filling. The water flow rate is controlled by an orifice in the outlet of the solenoid valve. The orifice causes a hissing noise as the water is forced through it. I thought I'd get used to it, but after one day I couldn't stand it any more. I removed the orifice and installed a pressure regulator on the supply line. This completely eliminated the noise, and by adjusting the pressure I am able to limit the amount of water that gets wasted by going down the drain. Some excess water flow is required in order to get a decent amount of humidity out of the unit. 5 psi puts it right about where it was with the orifice and full pressure, but without the hissing noise. I removed the "Filter Check" gauge from my old console humidifier and stuck it on the outlet grille of the 360 so I can monitor the effects of my changes. It's a direct indicator of the moisture level of the air coming out of the humidifier.
So on to the lack of airflow. I can tolerate a bit more fan noise and my warranty was already void, so I began looking into a faster fan motor. Upon inspecting the motor to find the specs, I noticed the fan blade was not aligned with the shroud. It was set back too far to be effective. This may be done intentionally at the factory to limit fan noise. I moved the fan forward and noticed an immediate improvement in airflow and as a result it also makes slightly more noise as the air exits the grille. It now moves enough air to pull the closet door closed, which it didn't do before. I need to leave the door cracked open until I can install an inlet grille in the door.
Aprilaire says this unit requires hot water. They recommend installing a small dedicated water heater if the main hot water source is too far away to supply consistent 120 degree water temp. I hooked into a hot water line with 9 feet of 1/4" copper tubing, but the total distance to the heat source is much further. The small amount of flow that this unit uses is not enough to sustain hot water in the pipes unless a sink or shower is running, so 99% of the time it is getting cold water. It still works fine. I'm sure it would work better with hot water, but it does work with cold water. When it is getting hot water, the excess water going down the drain is cold so there is not much energy wasted on heating the water, most of the heat is put into the air.
The manual humidistat that's supplied with the unit is just adequate. It seems to have about a 5-7% RH differential. Maybe this is normal for humidifiers or maybe it's done to prevent short cycles. I have two separate hygrometers in different parts of the room about 15 feet away from the humidifier. With a setpoint of 35% the humidity will drop as low as 28% and then the unit will run until it reaches 33-35%. I think a 1 or 2% differential would be more comfortable. My console humidifier did a much better job of maintaining a constant humidity as long as I remembered to fill it. I will be upgrading to a combo thermostat/humidistat with automatic outdoor temp reset.
Overall I am pretty pleased with the Aprilaire 360. I think build quality should be improved (loose screws, poorly positioned fan blade). It's a very simple device and I believe it's greatly overpriced, but there is no alternative that I'm aware of. For the price I think they should include a high quality humidistat that displays current humidity level, and different colored grilles. I love what the unit does, but I rated it three stars because of high price and lack of quality control.
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I've been dealing with humidity in the teens in the Eastern Sierra at 8,000 feet for over a year. I couldn't sleep, my nose always hurt, my skin cracked and itched, everyone agreed something needed to be done.My place is about 2,300 sq. ft and the humidity shot to more than 50% in the first 12 hours of operation. This unit is basically perfect regarding the size, cost and ease of installation. A professional should be able to install this unit in less than three hours. I would recommend this unit to my grandmother and probably will.
Since I gave this unit 4 stars instead of 5 my ONLY complaint is that the unit is a little loud. The fan is strong but not silent. I will contact the manufacturer and update this review based on their suggestion. However depending on the location where you install this unit it might not matter. Additionally this fan noise might be consistent with the noise of most other units so take my comments with a grain of salt.
I installed the unit near our main intake vent for our heating system to spread the humidity throughout the house when using the fan or the heating system.
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I am glad I bought this unit. I was so tired of daily filling, draining and cleaning my console humidifier, and the crusty white stuff that accumulated on it (not to mention the slime mold that grew in the tank if I didn't clean it with bleach.) This unit connects to your hot water line and to a drain, so it supplies its own water and continuously cleans itself. There's no crusty white stuff, you just set the humistat and forget about it. It's fairly quiet, too.Though the unit is fairly small (about 13 inches square) and not heavy (15 lbs.) it's more than adequate to completely humidify our 1600 sq. ft. home.
I don't know about energy usage or reliability because I just started using it, but so far the performance has been wonderful.
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