Desert Spring furnace humidifier - Opinions????
Looking for opinions on the Desert Spring humidifiers. Recommend or not? Otherwise I'm thinking about Aprilaire 600. Thoughts? btw....great website. Glad I joined. :) I just bought one to replace an old General flow-through, because the General doesn't seem to be able to add enough water to get RH above about 35%. Would be nice to have less wasted water, too. Haven't installed the Desert Spring unit yet. Great. Be sure to let me know as soon as you know how it is working for you. I've seen more positive comments than negative. Do you know anybody that already has one? I have never been around one, so I couldn't say... I question how the vaper comes off the disk vs a pad that hold water. Just got the unit in tonight. Starting RH is 25%. Went in fine. The only time-consuming part was modifying the plenum, since the hole from the old General 1040 was much larger than that needed for the Desert Spring. I am hopeful that the new unit will work well. The plastic discs that sit in the shallow water and rotate into the air stream are very close together, so it looks like they could keep water between them via capillary action. Also, the design seems like a good one since the intake air is routed inside the disks and has to blow between them to get into the plenum. I'll let you know how the RH level rises over the next few days. Steve in Omaha Thanks for the reply. Please let us know how it works. Arnie in Frozen Tundra Well, the Desert Spring unit has been active for 5 days now, and RH is 35%. Will see how the next week goes, but so far it seems at least as effective as the old General 1040 -- with no wasted water! Well, it's 10 days out now. RH running 35-40% consistently (though outside temp and RH has gone up too over last week or so). No visible buildup of scale in the basin. I continue to be impressed with the engineering of this unit -- I like looking at it silently rotating the discs when I go by -- and it is still an adjustment to not hear water going down the floor drain. So far, I am very glad I bought this unit! I put one in a few weeks ago. We've owned two different whole house humidifiers in the past. I was never impressed with them as they wasted gallons of water and the process and expense of changing pads was a problem, IMO. I really liked the design of the Desert Spring. It was easy to install and I had it running in a couple of hours. According the specs, it's too small for our house, but we've been around 35% or 40% since it went in. Overall I'm very happy with the unit about three weeks into it. I do plan on getting the autoflush unit; they didn't have this at Lowes, so I'll mailorder that. -Chris- Originally Posted by cestes I put one in a few weeks ago. We've owned two different whole house humidifiers in the past. I was never impressed with them as they wasted gallons of water and the process and expense of changing pads was a problem, IMO. I really liked the design of the Desert Spring. It was easy to install and I had it running in a couple of hours. According the specs, it's too small for our house, but we've been around 35% or 40% since it went in. Overall I'm very happy with the unit about three weeks into it. I do plan on getting the autoflush unit; they didn't have this at Lowes, so I'll mailorder that. -Chris- Agree on all counts. I'd like to get the autoflush unit as well (after paying off the holiday bills...) Steve in Omaha just put one in this pass sunday! easier to install than expected. i hope the thing works. the spring like outside temp is making the evaluation much harder. a few lingering questions: *can some on please recommend an accurate hygrometer? *how did you do the wiring? i did mine so that it is on when the fan kicks in. it seems a waste to have the drum turn constantly with no air pass through? *did you guys install the over fill drain valve? i am thinking about it just to be on the safe side. thanks Originally Posted by hash just put one in this pass sunday! easier to install than expected. i hope the thing works. the spring like outside temp is making the evaluation much harder. a few lingering questions: *can some on please recommend an accurate hygrometer? *how did you do the wiring? i did mine so that it is on when the fan kicks in. it seems a waste to have the drum turn constantly with no air pass through? *did you guys install the over fill drain valve? i am thinking about it just to be on the safe side. thanks RE: the wiring -- I just used the existing wiring from my old humidifier -- it just comes on with the fan. I agree -- seems to be pointless to have the drum rotate if no air is flowing through it. I didn't put in the overflow fitting -- probably not a bad idea, just to keep water from going into the furnace plenum if the float were to stick open. I believe Desert Springs sells a digital hygrometer -- but there are other sources as well. I also have an Oregon Scientific weather station which has a digital hygrometer.
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