A whole house humidifier can provide comfort to your home during the winter season. Bringing more moisture into a dry home can ward off illness, help your furniture and wood flooring have a longer, shinier life and help you save up to 4 percent on energy costs by making your air feel more comfortable, allowing you to turn down your thermostat.
Our lengthy winters can mean that your whole house humidifier is working overtime. Performing regular and proper maintenance will help your humidifier live a longer life. Steps to follow when performing maintenance on your whole house humidifier:
- Read through your humidifier's manual before performing any maintenance.
- Check your humidifier's water panel once a month during the heating season and replace or clean the pieces (water pad/evaporator pad/filter) at least once a year. Constant exposure to hot air will dry your elements out, reducing their capacity to absorb and hold water.
- Clean out the body of your humidifier at least once a heating season to ensure your system is running efficiently and not being overworked. You can do this by taking a wet rag dipped in diluted vinegar and cleaning all the components to ensure that any mineral build-up is taken care of.
- Soak any components that have stubborn build-up in a 50/50 vinegar water solution for 15-30 minutes.
- Clean the orifice. If an orifice (see your manual) becomes blocked, gently insert a small skinny needle through the small hole. This should unblock any scale build-up.
- If your humidifier has not been maintained regularly, you may need to replace some of the parts that are worn out. A maintenance kit can be purchased and should come with new water panels, feed tubes, water distribution trays and drain spuds.
For more expert advice on keeping your whole house humidifier maintained or any other home comfort needs, please contact the experts at Hartman Brothers Heating and Air Conditioning. We have been serving the Fort Wayne area since 1963.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in New Haven, Indiana and surrounding Fort Wayne area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about whole house humidifers and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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