Humidifiers and Dehumidifiers - TrueSteam Feedback

First post... Great forum!

I'm looking for feedback regarding the TrueSteam humidifier. I've read most of the posts in the Forum, but can't seem to find any positive ones (yet). I understand all the issues/questions with wiring, but would really like to know if the unit is much better than a bypass humidifier, such as the Aprilaire 600A.

Thanks for your help! :)

It's been less than a week since I have TrueSteam up and running. I cannot compare to the bypass since my house is new and never had a bypass in this one. As for performance TrueSteam is able to maintain reasonable humidity levels but the real test will be when it's in the 10's & 20's. Plus it will be a while before I can determine price increase of electricity. I like the fact that minimum water is wasted.

Thanks for the feedback Mike! :)

Anyone else out there care to comment? Or do they all work great, once the wiring is figured out, so the owners never read this forum again?

I have mine working for a while now and it works great. No problems so far. Like I said before Honeywell makes a good product but I always had problems with their wiring schematics.

I've had my 9 gallon TrueSteam running for about 2 weeks and it has kept my humidity in the upper 30's no problem.

We'll see how it does when the colder weather sets in. In Georgia we've been in a drought for years with the last couple being really bad. One time I was curious with how much water my bypass humidifier was using. So I put the drain hose in a rubbermaid container and was amazed at how much water was "going down the drain". Plus I was never impressed with the moisture it put into the house.

As long as the TrueSteam can keep the humidity levels where I want, I'll be very happy with the near elimination of wasted water.

Looking back on it now, the wiring was pretty simple. The instructions just weren't as clear as my brain needed.

Truesteam has done nothing for me yet. I have be running it constantly for 1.5 weeks. 12 gal model. Very old leaky house though which I'm working on. I am very disappointed so far.

My Truesteam 12 gal worked great for 5 days and then water started leaking from the top of the tank in back where the rubber hose is connected. At first I thought the leak was coming from the hose connection but after clamping the connection I realized that it is leaking past the tank gasket.

Either I am not installing the tank correctly, the gasket is faulty, or there is too much water or pressure in the tank.

Has anyone else experienced this? It is really strange that it would run nonstop perfectly for 5 days and then start leaking.

Any ideas?

Your leaking problem sounds like an install problem of the tank gasket. The tank gasket is press fit to the bottom of the black bracket of the unit. Remove the tank and check the gasket underneath the bracket. It may have come loose when you remove the tank. You can just reinstall the gasket by pressing it into the groove around the bracket and make sure it stays fit inside the groove.

The gasket may not have installed/fit correctly in the beginning and after some run time, it started to come loose and have a gap between the bracket and the tank.

awong1, thanks for the suggestion. I have reinstalled the tank several times and there is nothing visibly wrong with the gasket.

I can not find any history of this happening to others which leads me to believe that there is nothing wrong with the gasket in general. I had 5 days with this thing running constantly and then it starts leaking. Is it possible the water level is coming up too high because the water level sensor is either corroded or failing? By the way, where is the water level sensor? Is it inside the black protrusion on the right side inside the tank?

Thanks for help.

If the water level is rising too high, it should have an overflow error. It is unlikely the sensor got corroded or failed in just only 5 days. The sensor is located inside the black tank/protrusion and you can check the sensor by opening the cover and remove a screw and a wire clamp.

I still believe the problem is the tank gasket. You may want to just remove the gasket and reinstall it inside the groove.

Thank you, I'll give it a try.

MBM, do you check the water level sensor and reinstall the tank gasket? Any luck fixing the problem?

Based on my personal experience of the past few months, here are my observations on the Honeywell TrueSteam unit:

Pros: Installation and wiring was relatively simply and required minimal modification to the furnace. Overall the unit is well constructed and is a great design (in theory), especially if the unit needs to be remotely located from the furnace. It uses significantly less water than pass-thru humidifiers, which saves on water and sewer costs.

Cons: Insufficient output and it requires use of the furnace fan to distribute the humidity. Depending on the size of the home, and more importantly how tight the home is (i.e. how often inside air is exchanged to the outdoors), the unit could run most of the day just to maintain the humidity. This would consume a lot of electricity for the combined humidifier heater and furnace fan. Alternatively, there are similar steam units that output 20-30 gals/day that would required significantly less furnace fan time than the Honeywell 9 or 12 gal/day units.

For point of reference, in Washington D.C. the cost of electricity is about $0.08/kWh. If the unit ran 12 hrs/day, the humidifier would cost $52. and the inefficient furnace fan (i.e. w/ no call for heat) would cost $20. per month.

I've had my 12 gallon truesteam for my 4000sq/ft tight house 3 hours now. I set my RH% to 60 just to see the humidifier in action and in 1 hour my RH% went from 31% to 35% and I started developing moisture on my windows. I keep my indoor temp between 68 and 70 degrees and the outdoor temp right now is ~10 degrees. I expect it to run less than 6 hrs a day. I chose the truesteam because I thought it would be more effective in providing humidity to my house over a bypass. My concern with the bypass is that my furnace wouldn't run enough, therefore I would need to hook the bypass humidifier up to hot water, and just run with the blower fan, which reduces a bypass humidifier's efficiency. With that said, I don't think the truesteam would cost that much more to run. I can calculate runtime of my Truesteam by keeping track of how many times it auto flushed. I have it set to flush every 10 hours. As far as maintenance goes, only time will tell, but based on the number of parts, the Truesteam will probably cost more.

I have been running the TrueSteam 9 gallon since the first cold snap last year and I have mixed feelings about it. I am sure that I have it wired right but it runs constantly on a 2500sqft 1.5yr old home that is tight.

Using my VisionPro IAQ, I ran it at 50% humidity at first but it could never catch up. Lately I have been setting it at 45% and it still cant catch up. Last week I set it at 40% and its running 37% humidity in the house and it runs all-day and all-night just trying to keep up with that.

What is this thing supposed to be doing?

Maybe I am crazy or have my expectations set way too high, but it shouldnt be this hard to get some humidity up in here.

What are your indoor and outdoor temps at?

Here some info from this webpage that might help you find the right setting. Home-Smart: Humidity (http://www.home-smart.org/how_your_house_works/section_index.aspx?cat_1=752&cat_2=795&SelectCatID=795&CatId=795&ref=795:HYHW_LN)
Another information link:Home Humidity Needs Balance (http://www.askthebuilder.com/B103_Home_Humidity_Needs_Balance.shtml)

"The University of Minnesota has developed guidelines for the minimum recommended humidity levels for houses. Based on a 70ºF interior room temperature, engineering studies established the following guidelines:

Outside Temperature Inside Humidity

20º to 40ºF Not over 40%

10º to 20ºF Not over 35%

0º to 10ºF Not over 30%

-10º to 0ºF Not over 25%

-20º to –10ºF Not over 20%

-20ºF or below Not over 15%

These guidelines do not guarantee that condensation will not appear on mirrors or windows. Factors such as closed blinds or drapes may require you to decrease the relative humidity in your house below these guidelines."

Right now its -22 and I've got my humidification setting at 20%. I haven't dialed in my frost setting yet, otherwise I could leave my humidity setting higher and allow the frost protection to prevent the humidifier from adding humidity. In order for this to work I have an outdoor temp sensor connected to my HVAC system. If you don't have an outdoor temp sensor then you will need to adjust your RH manually to suit the temperatures.

Does Honeywell have a table for what the frost protection uses for indoor, outdoor, and RH?