Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - humidifier in basement for attic install?

When I inquired if a humidifier made sense since I will be doing an attic install, the Bryant dealer said it is a no brainer. He recommended installing an Aprilaire 350 humidifier in basement and having it go the wires through a closet on 1st floor to the attic.

The Trane dealer said a humidifier is not necessary. He did look in the basement and b/c the side of the house where the closets are located is on the opposite side of the basement sink he said a humidifer is not even possible. He said the humidifier would have no where to drain.

WHO Seems RIGHT??

Sounds like you should have the Bryant dealer install the humidifier. It might become a 'brainer' to him when he looks at the installation requirements like the Trane dealer did. Maybe he wanted to close the deal in a hurry and made it sound easy to keep you from learning that it was impossible until after he had the contract signed. Common sense dictates what is easy, hard, or a no-branier. Even if you aren't in the hvac business, I'm sure one of those explanations seems logical to you and one does not. I also agree that you can live without a humidifier. Some people are more sensitive to the dry air than others.

Maybe he wanted to close the deal in a hurry and made it sound easy to keep you from learning that it was impossible until after he had the contract signed.

I did call the Bryant dealer on this and he said he would need to look at it again to make sure it would work.

I assume he would only look at it after the deal is done.


I also agree that you can live without a humidifier.

- The Trane dealer recommended a console humidier. What do you think of this.

When I did have a humidifier it was a console model. Filled it with a bucket and set it in the first floor hall. It used water so it must have worked.

Some humidifiers require drains - the others don't. I installed a humidifier at my house a while back - it was quite an effort since the furnace is in the attic so I had to lay the water supply and drain pipes for the humidifer up to the attic. The other kind of humidifer does not require a drain but you need extra space in front of the furnace intake since the extra water is sent there. So you can use one of these kinds of humidifers but it depends on whether you have the space to install the outlet (I think they are called bypass humidifiers). I could not so I had to opt for laying the plumbing through the walls instead.

Plumbing in a NJ attic?? I wouldn't even think about it. Get a console humidifier or a simple vaporizer with output than can be regulated.

Doug M.

amazingly some contractors recommended this to me. Glad I did not spend $7K to this contractor and wind up with an even bigger headache.