GeneralAire humidifier won’t rise above 29

[Shoeman]

Hello
It is my first post. Sorry if someone already asked this before.

I live in ottawa Canada. I have a 2600 sqft home pulse a finished basement about 1000sqft.
I have GeneralAire humidifier attached to my furnace duct.
I have changed the solenoid and the pad. I have stream of water coming in.
It turns on when the furnace turns on.
But for some reason the humidity in the house doesn't rise above 29%RH.

Last winter everything was fine. I replaced the pad in the summer part of yearly maintenance.
But when we turned the furnace on in the fall. I noticed the humidity is not rising.
I checked to see if water was going to the pad. It wasn't so I checked the solenoid. It was stuck. I replaced it too.
There is 24V going to the solenoid from the humidistat.
My humidistat has the following setting. Low. Comfort zone  and high.
I hear a click when turned from off to low only.

If I open the slot to check the pad I can see the pad has water.

I was told remove the humidistat and connect the wires together. I did about five days ago
Any thing else I should check. Or is unit beyond repair.

Thank you in advance.

[Sergroum]

Hello.

If the humidifier pad is moist, then the humidifier is working as much as it ever did before, or will ever work again.

Make sure that the damper is open (set to winter angle).

It's a brand new solenoid, so I'd assume it's working correctly and is not cutting out few minutes after opening.

I'll assume the valve is fully open, so the water pressure is as high as it can be without causing flooding.

I'd look into other reasons why your house began dropping humidity faster then gaining it.

Perhaps the access to your attic is not sealed properly? Are you using a lot of exhaust fans/washroom fans that gets rid of moist air too much? Have your windows began leaking a little? Have you done renovation at some point and installed a lot more wood then the house had before? Wooden floors, wooden stairs, etc. Wood absorbs humidity big time.

How are you feeling personally? Dry lips? Are you gaining static charge for odd reasons while in the house? Dry nose and lips? It may be that whatever you're using to check RH % is off a little bit.


There are things that can be done to improve the effectiveness of the humidifier. Changing it to a bigger one is always a method, of course.  But generally, if the humidifier pad is moist, then the humidifier is working as it should be. So whatever variables that changed, it's not the humidifier.

[Shoeman]

Thank you for the reply.
I did renovations in the basement. I installed laminate flooring. Does that effect. What is the solution. Should I get a bigger humidifier.