Question submitted to Aprilaire:

Last season, the humidifier worked great, no problems.  This season, the water just runs through the water panel without distributing out and wicking throughout the whole panel.  I've replaced the panel, replaced the distribution tray and still the same thing.  Is there something else that can be done?  Please advise.


Aprilaires' Response:

The way the humidifier works is; when the furnace comes on, the humidistat calls for humidity and the humidifier turns on. The water solenoid valve opens, water comes up the plastic feed tube and falls into the water distribution tray.  Then if the humidifier is level the water will fill up in the distribution tray and will go down the six holes in the tray equally. Then water goes down through the center of the water panel and any water that wasn't evaporated goes down the drain.

The water panels are made out of multiple sheets of slit and expand aluminum. The slits in the aluminum are angled to funnel the water to the center of the water panel. So the water panel should be wet in the center and almost dry on the outside layers.

If you have lack of humidity you may need to increase the humidifiers runtime. The most common reason for lack of humidity is lack of run time. If the humidifier runs every time the furnace comes on, runs whole time the furnace is on, and gets forced to turn off when the furnace goes off, it is added as much humidity as the furnace is allowing it to. If the humidifier could run longer it would. So if the humidifier is wired to run with the furnace fan, and if the humidifier is connected to hot water (140 Max) it can add up to 18 gallons of water to the air per day. You can turn your furnace fan on at the thermostat, let run your furnace fan continually and let the humidifier run as many hours a day as it needs to.

I hope this helps, please let us know if you or your HVAC contractor need any other assistance.