LARGE humidifiers Umm, 1,800 square foot area

[Kraniac]

guitar, yep, im thinking about that, good point.

Test..that's a brand I was trying to remember..i'll look into them.

[spearmint]

How dry is it and what do you want?

[Kraniac]

Mint, don't ask me personal questions, I like women and that's that.

[cbelt3]

YOur big problem isn't gonna be filling consumer stand-alone units, it's gonna be cleaning out the limestone. The whole house units are designed for that. Seriously, ask an HVAC guy.

[Kraniac]

cbelt...meaning, the bigger whole house units are made to be easier to maintain? cleaning filters etc?

[simonm]

My experience has only been with dehumidifiers. I have always lived in damp climates so this may be a silly comment: will simply leaving open containers of water around and letting them evaporate not do the job? Or instead of putting your washing in the dryer, just hang it up on an old fashioned line or laundry stand inside the apartment?

(What people here do when they are want to humidify (in the winter) is put a little bowl of water above the central heating radiators.)

[cbelt3]

Kraniac- The whole house units are designed to fit into your heating unit. They use a drip pad and a drain- the water and bits of limestone drain down that way. And then you replace the pad every couple of years because it's corroded into nothingness.

It basically depends on what your heating unit looks like, and how the air circulation functions.

simonm- yes, sure, that's an old trick if you have radiators. My dad heated with a wood stove, and there was always an beat up old aluminum tea kettle filled with water on top top of the stove to put a little humidity into the air. Essentially any way to put humidity into the air is a good way.

Leaving buckets of water around ? Nah, not really- not enough surface area to make a difference. When you take a bath, the bathroom gets a bit humid, but the rest of the house, not appreciably.

[Kraniac]

as explained, I don't have a forced air system. I looked into the Ventas, rave reviews, great idea, works..costs out the wazoo. I can't afford to spend that kind if cash right now.

difficult to find reliable reviews on these products...maybe that's what I should be looking for, good humdifier review sites

[Yoyodyne ArtWorks]

Just went throught this buying process myself. Ended up with two Bemis by EssickAir humidifiers, model H2-400 (on sale at $88 each). Each one is rated to humidify up to 2500 sq ft, but as others have pointed out it is the frequency of refilling you have to watch out for. Each unit has only one 2.5 gallon tank, so I'm refilling them daily. I have one on the first floor and one on the second floor, as in my experience (YMMV) a single unit no matter what capacity just doesn't humidify a two-story house adequately.

Very quiet (I run them on the lowest fan speed), and they don't make the immediate area feel drafty. I had previously recommended the Lasko 9 gallon (model 1150) units but the water reservoirs turned out to be leaky so I returned them. Also , they were noisy and definitely made the room feel drafty. BTW, make sure you get a unit with auto-shutoff when the water runs out-the Lasko didn't have that feature.

Bemis by EssickAir also makes similar models that feature two 2.5 gallon water tanks (models 696-400 and 4D7-300, for example), so that would certainly reduce the frequency of your refills. In a single-level home one of these units might do the trick. Good luck!

[Lee3]

Where did you buy them from?