Humidifier Basics - How They Work

Components
Your humidifier has these components:

1. Water - which comes from a small valve attached to the household water supply. It travels through a small tube to the medium inside the humidifier.
2. Medium - a pad, screen, mesh, or filter. If the medium is a pad, it's mounted to a cylinder and a small motor rotates it through a small reservoir of water. If it's a mesh or screen type, the water flows through a trough at the top of the screen to distribute the water evenly across it.
3. Fan (often the furnace blower fan) - blows across the damp medium, to cause evaporation.
4. Valve or Float - allows water to flow either into a reservoir or across the medium and then into a drain, when called for by the humidistat.
5. Humidistat - determines how much moisture to add to the air, and turns the humidifier on and off in conjunction with the furnace blower.

Principle
When the humidifier is running (usually when the furnace is running and the humidistat is calling for more humidity), here's what happens:

The water flows either into a reservoir (in which a pad mounted to a cylinder turns) or through a screen or wick, then straight into a drain.

The fan blows air across the damp medium, which evaporates some of the water into the air. The warmer the air, the more water evaporates--so the humidifier is often mounted close to the furnace in the warm-air ducting.

The water stops flowing and the humidifier shuts off when either the humidistat or the furnace shuts off.

Humidifier Buying Tips

There are very few "upgrades" that are available on Humidifiers but paying attention to some basic requirements can provide you with the knowledge to purchase a disposer that will last you for years.

• Power - look for a minimum of 1/2 HP, a 3/4 HP is even better. Enough power to grind the food is essential to keeping your drains running smoothly.
• Overload protection - this will turn the motor off if it begins to overheat
• Reset button - this button pops out and turns the disposer off if it is jammed
• Auto-reverse - helps prevent jamming
• Flywheel turning wrench hole - this allows you to manually turn the flywheel if there is a jam
• Insulation - the more insulation the quieter the disposer

Tricks to Keep Your Humidifier Maintained

Cleaning

• You need to clean your humidifier every year, because it builds up scale, rust, and hard water marks as it operates.
• When your humidifier's pad or filter gets covered with hard water scale, you probably won't be able to get it perfectly clean again. It's best to just replace it each year. Visit RepairClinic.com for replacement pads and filters.

Float assembly

• If you have a reservoir-type humidifier, the float assembly may get stuck while sitting unused all summer.
• To avoid this problem, remove the float assembly after each heating season and thoroughly clean and inspect it.
• For cleaning, try vinegar, or a specialized cleaner for humidifiers available at RepairClinic.com.

Water reservoir

• Over time, the water reservoir on reservoir-type humidifiers gets encrusted with calcium and other minerals. It may also begin to harbor bacteria.
• Use a humidifier cleaner and anti-bacterial solution to clean the reservoir completely at the start of the heating season and again at the end of the heating season.

Bacteria control

• Bacteria can grow in the standing water reservoir of your humidifier and become airborne whenever the furnace blower is on. You can kill this bacteria within the humidifier.
• Use a humidifier cleaner and anti-bacterial solution to clean the reservoir completely at the start of the heating season and again at the end of the heating season.