Simple Ways to Maintain a Whole-House Humidifier

Simple Ways to Maintain a Whole-House HumidifierYour whole-house humidifier plays an important role in keeping your home comfortable. It’s especially useful in winter when indoor air gets drier.

But if you want your whole-house humidifier to do its job, you need to take care of it. In this article, we’ll cover the easiest strategies for humidifier maintenance so you can do exactly that.

Let’s get started.

Why Humidifier Maintenance Matters

Humidifiers work with moisture to either evaporate or vaporize water release it into your home’s air supply. Mineral buildup is a byproduct of this process.

When you have too much mineral build-up in your humidifier, it becomes less effective. At a certain point, this can cause it to deviate from keeping your home at the ideal humidity level of 30-50%.

When your home’s air falls below 30% humidity, it can get quite uncomfortable. When it goes above 50%, you risk creating mold.

Variables to Consider About Your Whole-House Humidifier

As you think about the best way to maintain your humidifier, it’s important to keep a few variables in mind. The most important of these is the type of whole-house humidifier that you have.

You might have a bypass humidifier that connects to your HVAC system’s return ducts.

Or you could have a fan-powered humidifier, which relies on its own fans to move air throughout your ductwork.

You may also have a:

  • Drum humidifier
  • Flow-through humidifier
  • Steam humidifier

Understanding the type of humidifier that you have will help you make sure that you take the proper maintenance steps. So make sure to verify the type of your whole-house humidifier before moving on to the next step.

General Cleaning and Maintenance Checklist

The best strategy for maintaining your humidifier is to do what it says to do in your owner’s manual. But as a general rule of thumb, here are some of the best strategies for cleaning and maintenance:

  • For daily humidifiers, clean the water reservoir out once every few weeks to prevent mineral build-up. You can use a few drops of chlorine bleach to really clean your water reservoir out nicely.
  • You should also clean the water panel when you’re cleaning out the reservoir. This has a filter, a water pad, and an evaporator pad. You can soak the pads in cold water and wipe them down to remove any debris.
  • You should also check for leaks each time you clean your humidifier. This is as easy as looking to see if any water is on the floor near your system.
  • It’s also a smart idea to check your humidistat every so often to make sure that it’s functioning properly.

Northern Climate Control Can Help You Optimize Your House-Whole Humidifier

Maintaining your whole-house humidifier is a really important part of taking care of your HVAC system. If you need some help with that, Northern Climate Control has you covered.

We provide whole-house humidifier maintenance and repair services for residents of Littleton and the entire Denver Metro Area.

Get in touch with us to make an appointment the next time your humidifier needs some attention.