Aprilaire - 800 Whole-House Steam Humidifier

I have a 5500 sq ft home and have been struggling with plug-in, fan based humidifiers that just don’t keep he humidity high enough. Hardwood floors are all cracking and filling up 20+ gallons across 3 humidifiers is a major hassle. The wife has cracking skin, the paint is coming apart. I just self-installed an Aprilaire 800 steam unit. It takes a little effort to arrange the power, water & drainage, but definitely worth it. After losing around 1% per hour down to 10-15% with gas furnaces running, I can now have the whole house around 35-40% with the Aprilaire 800 on a 5 ton unit for the largest area of the house. Floor boards closed up on first day. Power use is TBD. The install guide from Aprilaire is not great, but you can figure out with enough reading. I ordered a lot of extra parts for my horizontally mounted plenum and I wired it to a Nest 3rd Gen learning thermostat rather than the included humidistat with the Aprilaire. Extras 1. 240V isolation switch 2. Drain pan (used one for instant hot water) 3. 90-290Q fan relay for Google Nest as humidistat 4. Aprilaire drain trap assembly for plenum lower than steam unit (# 4028) 5. 1/4” anti-hammer valve for water line 6. 1/4” isolation valve to cut off water 7. 1/2” knockout clamps for electrical 8. LOTS of PVC for dedicated drains to outside 9. 20A main panel breaker 10. 18/8 copper cable to add humidifier (*) wire to Nest 11. 18 gauge wire to hook up relay 12. AWG 16 push-on crimp connectors for relay hookups 13. 4x2x8ft, 1/2x12x36 plywood, screws, 4x2 hangers for standalone solid mount separate to plenum Total cost of accessories was around $300. Plumber to install drainage was $663, 120ft electrical circuit professionally installed $450, Aprilaire 800 unit new $969 from Amazon. All in cost just over $2k and a few hours of effort. Well worth it! Good luck on your install.

Probably steam but I wouldn’t do steam unless it was a general or aprilaire steam humidifier that’s the canister style otherwise I’d do a standard aprilaire 400 humidifier that doesn’t require a drain, I would still hook a drain onto it regardless, and cost significantly less. They are still rated for 4000 square foot homes btw and do not require the same amount of maintenance as steam or the humidifiers that require a constant flow of water going thru them. Hope this is helpful and keep going.

Aprilair 800 is the best on the market

It’s definitely possible. I’d recommend a aprilare 800. It’d have to be mounted on the supply side of the furnace with the hydrometer on the return.

If you're on a budget, aprilaire's AA720A model humidifier offers the best price/performance. Only down side is you need lots of room to install it on the supply plenum as it's a big boi. Water panel replacement is like $38 and done once a year. Alternatively, steam humidification will absolutely blow anything out of the water. It's just much, much better and completely water efficent. It's like $800 (plus tax/shipping) my cost for an AA800 series steam humidifer. Maintenance consists of a replacement canister once a year, like $100. However, it's pretty much maintenance-free otherwise. I'm a fan of ecobee's offerings for thermostats. However, you'd need to pull a new thermostat wire to accommodate the new humidifer. Something like an 18/10. Alternatively, both honeywell and Trane/AmStd make thermostats that have equipment interface modules. The thermostat uses 3 wires to "talk" to the module and the module controls everything from that. This eliminates the need to pull a new thermostat wire, however will have added cost to perform the job.

My home has two separate air handlers and each one has it's own humidifier (the humidifiers are 30+ years old). I'm wondering if I can just replace the humidifier attached to the 1st floor - I do not use much heat in the bedrooms upstairs so wondering if just 1 AprilAire 800 will be enough for the whole house (\~4000 sq ft). I would disconnect the 2nd floor one as it is old and can not be serviced. #

Aprilaire 800 works great

60 percent humidity in the dead of winter is insanely high. You would need a large whole-home steam unit to get to that point and you would have condensation dripping down your windows and, eventually, mold growth issues. In the dead of winter, 30-35/40% is a reasonable target and a whole-home bypass unit can get you there. I have an Aprilaire 600M and it works great. If your water is exceptionally hard, you have to change out the filter a bit more often, but it's a good unit overall. Our water is exceptionally hard and I am changing out the filter every 2-3 months and descaling the water tray once a year--much less work than standalone units and it's easy to do yourself. We put ours on the near max setting and it can sustain around 37-39% humidity even on the driest of days, and our home is a new build with a high-efficiency gas furnace, so it is *extremely* dry without it. (On the max setting, we start to get condensation on the windows, which you do not want.) If you had one before and it leaked, it was not installed properly. Installed correctly, they are reliable, low-upkeep, efficient, and effective. But, again, a reasonable target in the dead of winter is 30-40%. If you want higher than that, you would need something like an Aprilaire 800, but I do not recommend this.

If you want ultimate humidity control, look into the Aprilaire 800 or the Aprilaire 800 with fan pack. One injects the steam into ductwork. The latter puts steam into the living space directly and let's it naturally disperse.

If you want ultimate humidity control, look into the Aprilaire 800 or the Aprilaire 800 with fan pack. One injects the steam into ductwork. The latter puts steam into the living space directly and let's it naturally disperse.

if you really want humidity control, you want the 800 series. evaporative humidifiers are basically limited to when your heat is running. otherwise, it's just a huge waste of water.

70 F degree ambient temperature air will pick up very little water from the pad. so you're spending electricity to run the fan and pouring water down the drain. heated air holds significant amounts of moisture.

Yeah you should get a quote for an aprilaire 800. Those humidifiers are barely gonna do anything for a house that size. Aprilaire 800 is a steam humidifier and if wired properly will run your blower when the house needs humidity. Drawbacks of the 800 is its expensive to install, expensive to maintain and expensive to run (electric bill). However it will get a house to 30-40% RH

This was our experience. We had to take out our old whole house humidifier and put in an 800 to be able to get our house well above 30% through the winter.

It will not keep up Install an Aprilaire steam humidifier and breathe again.

With the size of SQF to cover and plenty of moisture sucking wood, I'd advise to go with Steam Humidifier. Your late night bloody nose and Piano will thank you. BTW, I have the Aprilaire 800.

No, they are not. How do I know? I own one.

Hell yeah! Really appreciate all the insight! We’re likely going with the aa800. If there are any major contenders to performance and reliability, definitely interested. Doesn’t sound like anything being suggested is really out of the budget.

How big's the house? Aprilaire 800 whole house steam humidifiers are the shit and will solve this problem -- they attach to your furnace.

I have an aprilaire 800 on similar sq ft and its working perfect .. the cannister maintenance light hasn’t come on yet in 2 yrs.

See if you can open the duct to the upstairs bedroom. Ductless would be a potential solution, but personally I prefer ducted. You may need to add some ductwork to accommodate a ducted heat pump. If the unit is properly sized, it should dehumidify in the summer ok (although in the shoulder season, running a dedicated dehumidifier may be necessary). A central humidifier during the winter is recommended. The heat pump shouldn't take as much humidity out of the air as the oil furnace does, but will likely still need help. I used the Aprilaire 720 and it raises the humidity enough to be comfortable. But you may need a steam based humidifier like the Aprilaire 800 if the 720 isn't enough. Steam is more expensive to install and run, so I hesitate to recommend it.

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

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.

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.