Whole-Home Humidifier Installation in Elgin & the Fox Valley

Signs Your Home Needs a Whole-Home Humidifier

Dry winter air is not just uncomfortable. It is hard on the house and on the people in it.

• Static shocks every time you touch a doorknob. Static builds when relative humidity falls below about 30%, which is normal in a Fox Valley home from December through February without a humidifier.
• Dry skin, chapped lips, nosebleeds and scratchy throats all winter. Dry air pulls moisture from you as fast as it pulls it from the furniture.
• Hardwood floors gapping and trim pulling away. Wood shrinks as it dries. Floors that open up in January and close in July are living the humidity swing.
• A piano, guitar or antique furniture that goes out of tune or cracks. Instrument makers ask for 40 to 50% RH for a reason.
• A hygrometer reading under 30%. An inexpensive digital hygrometer tells you in a day whether the house is too dry.
• Portable humidifiers in every bedroom. Filling them, cleaning them and wiping the puddle under them gets old. One whole-home unit replaces all of them.
• The house feels colder than the setpoint. Dry air pulls heat from skin faster, so people turn the thermostat up. Proper humidity lets you feel comfortable at a lower setting.
• Family members with asthma or allergies who are worse in winter. Dry airways are irritated airways. Humidity in the 40 to 60% range helps.

What We Install

AprilAire humidifiers, sized to the house and matched to how your furnace runs.

Replacing an Old Unit?

A lot of Fox Valley furnaces have a humidifier that has not worked in years. Here is what changes when we replace it.

Old bypass humidifiers fail quietly. The water panel scales over and stops absorbing, the solenoid sticks, the saddle valve clogs, or somebody shut the bypass damper one summer and never opened it again. Many homeowners do not realize the humidifier is dead until the static and the nosebleeds come back.

When we replace a unit, we start by checking whether the location, the water line and the drain are worth reusing. Often they are not. Old saddle valves leak and clog; we prefer a proper shutoff. A bypass duct that was cut too small or runs the wrong direction gets corrected or eliminated by moving to the fan-powered 720. The old unit comes off, the plenum opening is sealed or reused, and the new humidifier is mounted, plumbed, wired and set up as a new install. If the old one just needs a water panel or a valve, we will say so. See humidifier repair.

If the furnace itself is due, do the humidifier with the furnace replacement so the new plenum is cut once.

How the Installation Day Goes

Most humidifier installs take two to four hours, and the furnace is only off for part of that.

1. Sizing and placement. We confirm the square footage, how tight the house is, whether you have a furnace or a heat pump air handler, and where the supply and return plenums allow a mount. That decides the model and whether a bypass or fan-powered unit makes sense.

2. Water supply. We tap a nearby cold water line with a proper shutoff and run the supply tubing to the humidifier. Water quality matters; very hard water scales the panel faster, and we will tell you if that is your situation.

3. Mounting. The humidifier is mounted on the supply or return plenum per the model’s instructions, with the opening cut cleanly and sealed. Bypass models get a bypass duct with a damper you can close for summer.

4. Drain. Evaporative humidifiers pass more water than they evaporate. The drain runs to a floor drain or the furnace condensate pump so nothing ends up on the basement floor.

5. Wiring and control. The unit is wired to run only when the blower runs, and the control is mounted where it reads the house, not the duct. If your smart thermostat can control the humidifier, we set that up.

6. Start-up and walk-through. We run it, confirm water flow and drain, set the target humidity and show you how to adjust it on cold days, when to change the water panel, and how to shut it down for summer.

What a Humidifier Installation Costs

A flat, written price for the unit, the installation and the first water panel.

Whole-home humidifier installs are quoted as a flat price by model. The quote includes the humidifier, the water and drain connections, mounting, wiring, the control and start-up. Steam models cost more than evaporative models because of the electrical work and the unit itself. We will tell you which one your house actually needs; a 720 covers most homes.

The only ongoing cost is the water panel, which is replaced once per heating season. On the $240 semi-annual maintenance plan we replace it at the fall furnace tune-up so you never think about it. Off the plan, it is a small flat-rate item on any service visit.

If a humidifier is part of a bigger project, such as a new furnace or a full AprilAire Healthy Air package, it goes on the same written quote and can be financed. You can prequalify in about 2 minutes with no impact to your credit score.

Why Whole-Home Humidity Matters in Northern Illinois

Our winters are long, cold and dry. The house pays for it.

The AprilAire whole-home humidifier we install on furnaces and air handlers across the Fox Valley.

• Design temperatures near 0°F mean furnaces run from November through March, and every cycle dries the air further
• Outdoor air at 0°F holds almost no moisture; heated to 70°F it lands near 10 to 15% RH indoors
• Basement furnaces in 1960s to 2000s split-levels and ranches carry that dry air to every room
• Static, cracked trim, nosebleeds and a house that feels colder than the setpoint are the results
• The target is 40 to 60% RH, adjusted lower on the coldest days
• Summers run humid, so the humidifier is shut off and the air conditioner or a dehumidifier takes over

We are an AprilAire Preferred Partner and install the 720, the 500, 600 and 700 bypass series and the 800 and 865 steam series on any brand of furnace or air handler. See AprilAire for the lineup.

• Damp basement in summer, dry house in winter? A whole-home dehumidifier handles the other half of the year.
• Dust and allergies too? See whole-home air purifier installation and our indoor air quality hub.
• Heat pump home? Long, cool heat pump cycles change the humidifier choice. See heat pumps and air handler installation.
• Want the AprilAire details? See AprilAire and the full humidifier lineup.

Humidifier Installation Across the Fox Valley

Based in Elgin, we serve homes throughout Kane, McHenry, DuPage and DeKalb counties.

• Elgin
• South Elgin
• St. Charles
• Aurora
• Bartlett
• Streamwood
• Huntley
• Plato Center
• Sycamore
• Carpentersville
• West Dundee
• East Dundee
• Algonquin
• Gilberts
• Hampshire
• Pingree Grove
• Campton Hills
• Geneva
• Batavia
• Barrington
• Hoffman Estates
• Schaumburg
• Burlington
• Marengo
• Wayne
• Sleepy Hollow

Don’t see your town? Call (847) 224-2420. View all service areas.