Three things to easily check: (1) is the bypass in winter position (open), and (2) with a call for heat, turn the humdistat to a higher setting. You should hear the solenoid valve click open. Depending on your stat, you might also hear a click from it. Is the (water) saddle valve opened?

Depending on your answers to 1 & 2, there are some electrical tests you can do.

V

Hi V,
Thanks for replying.
Regarding your comments.
1) I'm assuming that the by-pass is the door that opens and closes the large flexible hose to the furnace. If so..... it's open. I never close it.
2) I can hear the selonoid open and close at about midway on the humidity dial, much lower than where I have it presently set. I can pull the water feel line out of the top of the unit and see it going into the trough that feeds the evaporator lattice, and see it exit from the hose at the bottom. All this means that the saddle is open...... I think.
I'm stumped.
...... john

Hi,
I described my problem to one of the guys at the home depot, and he said that my problem is that my furnace fan is not working well, maybe the bearings. I looked at it, and it seems alright. How can I check to see if it's working to it's capabilities?
...... john

your fan would not cut you back on the output of your humidifier If you get water running down the windows then
you are setting it way too low. If you live in a cold area
then the most you can hope for is around 35% in the cold weather. If you run your blower steady then you could get a little more out of it. Later Paulbm

Hi Paul,
Thanks for replying.
I thought it made sense that a poorly running fan would mean less circlualtion..... and less humidity?? I'm not getting water running down the windows.......... I used to, the first year after the humidifier was installed. I assumed that water running down the windows indicated that the humity guage was set too high, and that there was actually too much humidity in the room atmosphere?? So...... does the outside temperature determine how much humidity can be obtained in the inside of the house?
........ john

Your INDOOR temperature determines how much moisture the inside air can 'hold'; the higher, more moisture (humidity).

If your blower wasn't working properly, you wouldn't be getting adequate (same) heat distribution as you once had.

V

The colder it is out side the more heating you have to do and when you do more heating you dry the air out more, so it hard to keep the humidity up where you want it. When you bought your humidifier there should have been a chart to tell you indoor setting for outdoor temps. paulbm

Perhaps nebulizer bad, you can replace it

Hi astirl,
Where is the nebulizer?
.... john

John,
Went to the addy you had in your first post.
Have you changed the evaporator panel? It is designed to dispense water over the entire media. And up in the pan beneath the cover where the feed line goes into the top of the unit there are several outlets or holes to let collected water out. Often there will be granules that look like sand in that pan but they are glued to the surface. They are there to interrupt water flowing into the pan and spread it evenly to all of the outlets , or holes. I have known people to mistake it for dirt and scrape the surface clean. In that event water can find the path of least resistance and flow to only one or two outlets, not dispensing water over the entire face of the media. Worth a check.

Hi,
Thanks for the help.
Yes... I have changed the absorption pad. That didn't make any difference. In my distribution pan there's a small plateau that the water hits and then runs into about 8 channels that feed onto the absorption pad through holes. That seems to be working alright. I even made sure it was dead level so that the channels would get equal amounts of water.
Thanks again for your help. I'm at a dead loss to explain why it doesn't perform as it did new. When it was new I could turn the humidity guage to high and water would stream down the windows of the house. Now I'm lucky if I get 50%. Beats me.
..... john

John...
Not sure where you're located. But possibly, if your house was new construction when your system was installed with the humidifier, the house is drying out and achieving that same humidity level isn't possible with that unit. And you DON'T want water running down your windows. Over time you'll stain and damage trim and sills. Most humidifier manufacturers will recommend not much more than 35% and down from that as the weather gets colder just for that reason. Do you have an outdoor sensor installed? Possibly that is preventing your manual override.

Hi,
I'm in Markham, Ontario, and my house is an old brick bungalow, built in 1976. I don't think there's an outdoor sensor, but I don't know . The installation guy didn't mention it when he gave me the primer on how to run this thing. Yes...... I know that I don't want water running down the windows. I used that to illustrate how effecient this unit was when it was first installed. If 35% is optimal, then I'm OK, because I'm getting 45+% in cold weather..... so maybe there's no problem. What do you think? The reason I suspect that the humidity is low, is that my nose is all stuffed up when I get up in the morning, in cold weather with the windows closed. I just assumed that the air is too dry.
..... john