Humidifier

[Dave Fritz]

We have a Lenox HCWP3-18A humidifier on our furnace. This is the first year for us to move it to summer mode. Directions say to turn the unit off, turn off the water supply and move the damper to summer. I can't for the life of me find the damper and we'd like to try the air conditioner before it gets too hot. I'm waiting to a call from the HVAC folks but thought someone here might have a thought about not worrying about the damper and turning the central air on.

[Scott Clausen]

I would think the damper would block air from entering the humidifier compartment. Never had one so its my best guess.

[John M Wilson]

In "winter mode" the humidifier taps off the main plenum as a source for heated air to humidify, creating a little bit of bypass. In the summer, the humidifier isn't active, and doesn't need the source of conditioned air, so you can close it off and gain a little efficiency.

I have two units, and my upstairs unit has a damper that I can open and close. The lower unit didn't, so I fabricated a damper door out of a spring loaded door available from Home Depot:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Flow-6-in-Damper-D-6/100396929 I didn't use the handle, I just drilled two appropriately sized holes in the entry port of the humidifier, and use the spring loaded feature to hold it in place in the summer.

But for a few days, you're not really hurting anything to run it with the bypass open.

[Dave Fritz]

Thank you John and Scott. The company finally called and told me there is no damper on that model. Evidently the cover which has the fan closes off the opening when the unit is not in operation. Thanks again, too expensive to ruin.

[Tom Bender]

In general humidifiers are troublesome. They crud up with lime or iron or whatever is in your water. They leak and wreck the sheet metal. Unless you really need it, just cut off the water and any power it needs and forget it.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Here is a link for the manual. I work for folks who have Pianos, they take these very seriously.


(no title) (https://tech.lennoxintl.com/C03e7o14l/VIu12Ch2uV/ehb_hcwp3_1109.pdf)

[Bill Dufour]

In California they work the other way. You turn on the swamp cooler for summer and shut it down for winter.
Bill D