List Price: $303.80
Sale Price: $171.94
Today's Bonus: 43% Off
Installation was easy. Unit is working as advertised. I really like the ability of the unit to power itself and the blower on and humidify the house even when the furnace is not running and the ability of the humidistat to automatically adjust the humidity as the outside temperature changes. No wasted water is a bonus.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Recently bought and installed on a heat pump. Installation was easy, but time-consuming (took 6 hours for an experienced DIYer). So far, the product is working as advertised in a 2000 sf house built in 1994. The instructions were well written, the packaging good, and initial build quality seems durable. The automatic mode truly is 'set and forget', as we've had a range of temps over the last few days from 25-70F. I did hook it up to the hot water, as strongly recommended. I have extremely hard well water and a water softener, so if maintenance becomes an issue, I will update this review.Update 1: 2/2/2013. Been using the unit for about 3 months. It definitely works... initially had humidistat set too high and condensate was forming on the lower portion of some windows on cold mornings. This lead to the beginnings of some mold on the window frame. I quickly took care of the mold, reduced the humidistat level, and voila, all's good. Replaced my first water panel about a month ago. Originally tried taking it out, cleaning it, turning it upside down, and re-installing it. That bought me all of 2 more weeks before the "replace water panel" light illuminated again. As I said, I have extremely hard water, so it was not unexpected. It seems 2 months is about all I'll get out of the panels (at $20 for 2, not a prob). Still extremely pleased.
Best Deals for Aprilaire Humidifier, 24V Drainless Whole House Humidifier w/ Auto
I am what I like of as to think an advanced DIYer. Aprilaire seems to want these units to be installed by a contractor, but I took it on myself. We have a 30 y.o. house with a 20 y.o. heat pump.I had previously installed a Honeywell unit, but I was alarmed by the amount of water wasted by the thing so I returned it and ordered the Aprilaire 400.
The manual recommends using hot water for the supply, so I decided to eliminate the saddle valve (they seem to have poor reputations)and just take off of the hot water outlet. The rest of the installation was fairly trouble free, but slow going. Since the instructions are written for contractors, they leave out a lot of details that you might get in a more consumer based product. Things like which wire you should buy to connect the humidistat to the air handler. (I used 5 strand thermostat wire. I had a bit of trouble figuring out which wires to use with which terminal. They say to connect the W terminal of the humidistat to the W terminal of the thermostat. Only problem is my Honeywell thermostat doesn't have a W terminal. I wound up doing a Google for the thermostat codes and decided to use the Y terminal.
The whole job took the full day, much of it spent running back and forth to the hardware store.
As of right now, it has been running about 12 hours and I can already tell it's doing the job. Hot water is running through the copper supply line and it all seems to be working fine.
EDIT, a few months later: It is now the end of winter and I thought I'd report back. This humidifier performed just great. The green LED on the controller tells you when it's calling for more water, so I know it's working. My wife and I can really tell the difference in the house, she says it feels warmer to her, and I don't have to fret about dry air messing up the oak flooring I just installed. I also really like not having the thing dump excess water like some other models do.
The owner's manual says you should change the element every three months, in the season. We are in southern Illinois, so I am sure I can get away with just one element per season. I also think using the hot water supply was a good move. I used copper tube and wrapped it with insulation.
I am very pleased with the unit.
No comments:
Post a Comment