Not Using Your Whole-House Humidifier, Close It Properly [Tips]

Many people use a whole-house humidifier during the winter months to achieve the best air quality. A whole-house humidifier offers a solution for your whole home to some of the most common side effects of over-dry air. However, during the summer and warmer months, when humidity is generally high, you may find the use of your humidifier to be unnecessary. To protect your humidification system, you should use the following tips to close it up or shut it down and clean it when you are not using it.

1. Change the main unit or humidistat to the “off” position. If your whole-house humidifier doesn’t have an off setting, you can change the humidistat setting to the lowest level of humidity.
2. Review the owner’s manual for your whole-house humidifier for instructions on how to shut the duct damper. If your humidifier has a duct damper, change it to the “summer” setting or simply close it.
3. The humidifier has either a copper or plastic waterline protruding from the unit. Follow this waterline away from the humidifier to the valve. Rotate the valve in the clockwise position until it stops. This will prevent water from being fed into the humidifier.

Shutting down your humidifier during the summer will extend the unit’s life. In addition, cleaning the unit will ensure your home’s air is moisturized without the addition of potentially harmful pollutants. Stack Heating & Cooling offers complete indoor air quality solutions for HVAC, comprehensive humidity control systems and all things involving indoor air quality.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Cleveland, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about whole-house humidifier and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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