Aprilaire - 620A

Depends on what brands your getting quoted aprilaire is the king here and most others I've seen tend to junk out after a few years that's a fair price for the work being done

I’m a fan of aprilaire. That’s what I installed in my home, and recommend to customers. You should look into the aprilaire 620. With either the standard humidistat, or electronic which can base your indoor humidity level off of outdoor air temp. Bypass humidifier’s don’t usually go too much larger. There is the fan powered one which will get another couple gallons per day. Otherwise you’re going into steam territory.

If you have central heating and air I HIGHLY recommend looking into a central humidifier especially if you are in a very dry area. Set and forget with auto water feeding and humidity setting with minimal (like 1x a year) maintenance. They are usually not super expensive to install either. I like the Aprilaire units.

As long as your return is 10” wide a 600 or 620 should work, good thing to know about the Automatic stat is it really needs a ODT to function the way it’s designed. Still nice to control the humi with the blower though if you can’t do get an ODT to work anywhere

Aprilaire whole home system is the way to go…

Mines worked flawless with basic maintenance for 5 years strong so🤷‍♂️

And no one cut any wires, it was an easy install along with a new blower and heating coil being installed at that same time.

Bypass humidifiers aren't junk. I'm not sure why anyone would say that other than a lack of understanding on how they work. If your house is relatively new or has tight construction and is around 2500 sqft. Put in a model 600Aor 620A. Use the digital humidistat that comes with it, use the blower activation. It's unfortunate that you have a tankless water heater because plumbing to hot water is better. Steam humidifiers have a lot more fault points and a much higher cost of operation and service. They do provide a lot of humidity quickly. I'm the case of humidifiers, if you install a bypass humidifier, start it running in fall as soon as you turn on your heat it will maintain your humidity properly throughout the winter.

You asked them to quote a humidifier they are trying to sell you a Cadillac. Did someone come out to take a look? The only real reason to put in a fan powered humidifier is because the installer can't get to both the supply and return ducts. You should install an Aprilaire model 600 (or 620) if possible. Also... One quote has a new power circuit and drain pump the other doesn't. Do you need those? Saddle valves are not to code but everyone uses them anyway.

The 720 is a brand new humidifier with unproven failure points. Same with the 620. Plus the water panel assembly is going to be a more expensive change. And my understanding is the 720 is louder than the old 700. I would stand by the 600. Aprilaie made the 620 and 720 save water but are you going to clean out the little orifice every time it plugs? The only way you know it's plugged is a loss of humidity. Then you have to go in with their little needle to hopefully clean it out?!? The OP lives outside Chicago where the mineral content in the water is definitely going to cause that to happen. Get a 600A if you don't use the Ecobee thermostat, a 600M if you do.

Yes. The difference between the M and A is the humidistat so you're getting started to the cheaper option because you're going to throw out the manual humidistat. The Ecobee is going to be your humidifier control. The humidifier will run without heat at times (I assume the Ecobee can do that). There is a slight drop in output for the model 600 (all evaporative humidifiers) when there isn't hot air so it's recommended to plumb to hot water.

Get a quote from Buric! They did our HVAC replacement a few years ago and we added an AprilAire humidifier at that time. They were great and other family have used them since and also had good things to say.

That system is a piece of shit. Just Google the reviews or look on YouTube. Not only is it a piece of shit but they designed it so if you have it installed they will cut out your wires and you will not be able to replace it with a normal thermostat without getting expensive wires repulled through your walls.

The system uses a proprietary control panel with a touch screen that is not connect with the standard set of wires. They most definitely did cut the wires to interface the control panel at your furnace/air handler. There is no other way to wire it. Google install Aprilaire. They have a YT showing you exactly that.

An AprilAire 600 would be the closest thing to what you have and fairly simple to install. You might have to cut the hole slightly bigger. You could also elect for the newer 620 model. I would recommend you pipe the humidifier to hot water if it isn't already, and install the digital control that enables blower activation. That will help you get more humidity when the furnace isn't running a lot. Unfortunately, upgrading to significantly higher humidification capacity would require either a second humidifier (if you have another furnace) or going to a steam humidifier which is more expensive, and also requires a new electrical circuit. I see a lot of minerals on the duct, it appears the old unit was leaking extensively. Just a reminder that you have to change the water pad every year (sometimes more often with extremely hard water), or it can crust up with minerals and leak out. Crusted pads do not humidify effectively because the airflow is blocked. Also make sure you have the water flow turned all the way up, the extra water helps flush the minerals and prevents the pad from crusting up so fast.