
LEVOIT
Superior 6000S Smart Evaporative Humidifier
Smart, large capacity; cleaning and whole-home coverage polarized.

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i would never advise anyone to get a steam humidifier who does not have to. buy an aprialaire 600 bypass with the 65 controller that can run your furnace fan until humidity reaches setpoint. too much discharge water is because the orifice isnt right. they sell orifices. also, dont use piercing valves. they sell 1/4 turn valves. use that. you can control water excess with the 1/4 turn valve and the orifice. steam humidifiers are absolutely ridiculous.
I would say in general it is fine everywhere but certain members of the babys caregiving team insisted the baby needed sopping wet air 😓. Our central humidifier caps at 45% in its settings (Aprilaire 600 maybe? via Lennox thermostat) and in practice seems to max out around 40-42 simply bc our upstairs furnace doesnt run as much as it would need to to fully humidify. We do get small amounts of condensation on our (new very high performance) windows so we are practically maxed out on humidity, but some felt the baby needed more…
I had an Aprilaire 600 installed and seems to help. The trick is you need the installer to wire the 24v transformer correctly to the tstat so it is only activated when the fan is running.
We charge about $1200 for an Aprilaire Model 600. Includes water line, low voltage wiring, 120 connected to transformer, bypass duct, humidistat controller, everything. I thought everyone does Aprilaire. Is your house, huge? Is there some reason you're asking for these 2 specific models? Edit: oh I see that first one is an Aprilaire. It's just a different type of humidifier. Unfortunately I'm not as familiar with them. But again, I'd question why you want that one instead of an Aprilaire Model 600 (by FAR the most common in my experience).
All you need is an Aprilaire Model 600. Easiest most common. Find someone to do it in the 900-1400 range. Depending on pricing in your area. Easy peasy. If you're in MN we will do it for you haha. Just my 2 cents. Been with my company 7.5 years and in sales just over 2 years.
Some clarification on his comment, I also wouldn't recommend a saddle valve (I call it a piercing valve) but the first quote is saying, I believe, "replace the saddle valve with a turn-ball valve". Regardless, it sounds like do not go with that first quote. WAY too high. The condensate pump, don't you already have condensate, for sure for an A/C cooling coil above the furnace, and maybe also for the furnace if it is high efficiency with PVC vent pipes. Shouldn't need a new condensate pump, but I'm not 100% sure you're setup. More just assuming. Otherwise yeah the 2nd quote might be just a bit high. Either use them or get one more quote. Again, I would just do an Aprilaire Model 600. Or a basic similar bypass humidifier. Should be 900-1400 I don't know if you're rural or city.
I feel your pain. We moved to Colorado a few years ago and finally found a solution that works. At first I had a whole home unit (AprilAire 600) hooked up to my furnace but since I have a tankless water heater so it will only run when the heat is on which is not long enough to increase the humidity to a decent level. So here is the unit I found on Amazon and for the last 3 days it has put 18 gallons of water into the air in my home and increased the humidity from low 20's to 40%. Not just one room either, my whole home. Let me know if you have any questions. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGR1N9T6?ref=ppx\_yo2ov\_dt\_b\_fed\_asin\_title](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGR1N9T6?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title) EDIT: Oh yeah, it is an evaporative unit so no white dusk and it is very easy to clean.
We added a humidifier, we went with an April Aire bypass 600 model. The steam humidifiers need an expensive canister replaced yearly. It made a huge difference, for years we used portable humidifiers, the whole house addition was a nice upgrade. Get the automatic humidistat that measures outdoor temp and automatically adjusts.

LEVOIT
Superior 6000S Smart Evaporative Humidifier
Smart, large capacity; cleaning and whole-home coverage polarized.

Vornado
Evap40 Evaporative Humidifier
Durable, low mold risk; frequent wick replacement is a pain.

LEVOIT
LV600S Smart Hybrid Ultrasonic Humidifier
Smart, quiet; hard water causes white dust; cleaning polarized.

Aprilaire
800 Whole-House Steam Humidifier
Superior whole-house steam; high installation and running costs.

Aprilaire
Model 600
Whole-home furnace integration; output tied to furnace run-time.