Aprilaire 700M Whole-House Humidifier with Manual Control

Works fast for bringing up humidity in a 2100 square ft home. Used hot water at 110 F . Installed on return air plenum because no room on supply side. Was a lot of work to get it all done properly. Took my time. Use an Ecobee 5 to control it. Very happy with the final install.

Product arrived. Installed it in 4 hrs next day. It brought the humidity up in our 2200 sq ft home in approximately 4hrs. I would recommend this product.

OK, this is exact same as the automatic except it has the manual humidistat. I was a bit nervous about installing this because of how little room to install this. There is literally 1/2" between the wall and this now. But works amazing! Straight forward installation. Installed on the supply plenum. One thing, don't use the saddlevalve they give you. Go buy a sharkbite valve. Super easy to install with no soldering required. List of supplies used. 1. Metal tape (duct tape for the plenum but made of metal) 2. Tin snipe. (To cut the plenum) 3. 3/4" sheet metal drill bit (titanium or better) 4. Sharkbite valve (connect to water line. Just push pipe in both sides((1/2" osd)) 5. Sharkbite 1/2" to 1/4" on/off valve 6. 1/4" osd foggy plastic hose (connects to the water inlet on humidifier) 7. 1/2" clear tube (for the drainage tube on humidifier to drai ) 8. 18x2 thermostat wire, wire nuts, and plastic tube to hide wires. 9. 1/2" copper tube. Maybe need only 3"-5" (extends the sharkbite valve) 10. 20' outdoor extension drop cord (only if you don't have plug near supply plenum) 11. Level 12. Electric drill 13. Yellow handle tin snips (yellow means cuts strait lines or curved) 14. #8 self tapping sheet metal screws. 1", and only 4-6 is needed. 15. Pipe cutter 16. 13mm open socket wrench Shut off breaker to furnace. Do not install before you do this. So, the toughest part on the install was cutting the plenum. I didn't have enough room for the drill to drill hole, but was creative and got one made. The instructions are the template for the humidifier base. Used a level and made sure it was on level. I chose to use the supply plenum to install so I wouldn't need to use hot water. Save a few gallons of water daily. After the square hole was cut, I used a hammer and pliers to make sure the edges were even. Then mounted the base, and screwed it in. Next, used the metal duct tape (do not use regular tape, must be the metal kind) to tape around the base. Take your time and make it look good. Next, wiring. The bottom of the base has two brown wires. Using the 18x2 thermostat wires, connect one brown wire to the common circuit on the furnace circuit. Should be labeled C. Next, connect the other wire to the W (24v aux). Connect that wire to one terminal on the humidistat. First mount the humidistat where you want it. After the the power wire is connected to the humidistat, add another wire to the other post in the humidistat. Doesn't matter which one you use. Take that wire and connect it to the other brown wire on the base of the humidifier. Next is the water. If you have a water softener, you will be using the copper line going from there to the water heater. Shut off the main valve and grab a small bucket (water will drain from the line) and place under where you want to install the sharkbite adaptor. Use a black marker and mark the pipe. Then measure 1" both left and right. This is where you want to make your cut. Cut the pipe in both spots so you have a 2" space between ends. Slide the sharkbite adaptor in between and press the adaptor hard in each side. It will lock in to place. Cut a 3"-5" piece of spare copper pipe and push in the middle of the adaptor. Then attach the 1/2" to 1/4" sharkbite valve. Push it hard and it snaps in. Take off the 1/4" but and the copper coupling inside. Slide the foggy 1/4" tube through the but and then the coupling and in to the valve. Using a #13 wrench, tighten the but down as much as you can without breaking it. Connect the other side of the tube to the bottom of the humidifier base. Using the same method of through the but and coupling, then tighten down a lot. Otherwise this will leak. Next connect the 1/2" drain line. Run it from the bottom of the humidifier base to your drain near the water heater or softener. If there isn't one, you will need to buy a pump and attach it to there and pump it out of the house or to a drain. Last, use the extension cord, connect from outlet to plug on the humidifier. Use the black tube to conseal the wires if you want. Turn on the water to make sure no leaks. If there are some at the valve and base of humidifier, tighten those nuts down. It will stop leaking. May seem like you will break the sylanoid on the base, but it won't. Turn on the furnace breaker, set the heat to high to you can monitor the humidifier. It should be working fine. Alternative install. Use the transformer and connect to the HUM spot on the circuit board and the other to Neutral, the the humidistat to one of the back side and other goes direct to the brown wire on the base of humidifier. I am not a HVAC tech. So if you have questions I can't really help. But installing yourself will take 3-5 hours depending on trips to the hardware store. It will also save you between $350-$500. The total cost of the parts were right around $100. But because I didn't have the drill bit, the pipe cutter, yellow tin snips, metal tape, extension cord, or tubing. If you have those, the sharkbite adaptors will be around $25. So far we have felt an immediate impact on the air quality. Well worth the price.

I got the Aprilaire 700M (manual) version because with a smart thermostat, you don't need an outdoor sensor to tell the temperature. The idea is that the relative humidity (RH) inside your house should decrease as the outside temperature also decreases. Otherwise you'll get condensation on the windows and other parts of your home, leading to frost, freezing, dry-rot in your attic or window sills, etc. The Ecobee4 knows the temperature at your location (via Wi-Fi connection) and has a "Frost Control" setting that will automatically adjust the home's humidity level accordingly; no need to use the manual humidistat and constantly change the humidity setting as temperatures change. I've attached a diagram of the exact wiring I used -- even the colors are the same. It took combining about 4 different diagrams that only told part of the story, a call to customer service, an email to an HVAC guy, and bit of trial and error (e.g. I had to learn not to use the HUM connection on my furnace because it's only charged when blowing heat) but my Aprilaire 700M and Ecobee4 now work PERFECTLY together! When I need humidity in my house, my thermostat will turn on the furnace fan and the humidifier to add humidity without heat... as well as with heat, if needed. IMPORTANT Instructions: 1) You DO NOT need to use/wire the humidistat control (dial-a-humidity level) because the Ecobee4 perfectly takes it's place (actually, it does a much better job). 2) You have to know that when you set up your humidifier with Ecobee, you have to tell it that it's a "steam" humidifier, NOT an evaporative one. This is not true, but it will allow the Ecobee to call for humidity even without heat blowing. 3) You need to purchase an extra relay to make the call for humidity without heat to work. Aprilaire recommends the Aprilaire 4851 relay. I'm not convinced there isn't a less expensive relay that will make this work, but I know the 4851 will work. 4) Take note that the G (green) wire needs to be disconnected from your furnace control board. This is according to the 4851 relay instructions. There are a few other oddities with the wiring too, so pay close attention. 5) Be sure to use 18-guage wire for 24 volt purposes (which is all this diagram shows) 6) I used the 2-wire setup for my Ecobee; there is a 1-wire installation, but I couldn't get it to work. 7) I did not need to use the transformer the Aprilaire 700M came with (because I didn't need extra 24v power). 8) When using no-heat with your humidifier, please note that Aprilaire recommends installing the humidifier on the hot-air service side of your furnace plenum, and to use hot water to flow into your 700M. This will allow the water to evaporate better. I'm going to add insulation around my 1/4" OD (outside-diameter) copper tubing (sold seperately needed for installation, with compression fasteners) to keep the water a little hotter. I used a SharkBite valve (Model # 24983A; 1/2" push-to-connect, 1/2" push-to-connect, and 1/4" compression fitting) to tap into my hot water line. The SharkBite fittings made it super easy to install onto my PEX hot water pipe. You may want to use something similar if you don't want to use the saddle valve the 700M came with (which I couldn't, nor did I want to run the risk). I had virtually no plumbing or electrical experience before doing this install, so you can do it too! I've attached a few other photos and the diagram that came with the 4851 relay, and the Ecobee4. I hope this helps! And enjoy your new perfectly comfortable home! p.s. Be sure to go to your electric company's website and look for a rebate on smart thermostats; the two main ones here in Colorado Springs both offer a $50 rebate!!! Free money.

hole saw to start your hole and tin snips needed to cut into your duct work. Difficult to cut with tin snips but doable. hardest part is wiring the unit because the instructions are incredibly vague. The transformer gets mounted to a nearby electric outlet connecting the black and white wires to hot and neutral. However transformer is OPTIONAL if you have another way to source 24v. You can instead source your power from your furnace which is PREFERRED. This should be your FIRST option as this allows your humidifier to power off when your furnace is off saving you water. Connect one 18/2 gauge wire (not included) to your Furnace common the other end to your manual thermostat, any one of the two connector and the other thermostat connector to your humidifier yellow/brown line (doesnt matter which of the two). Then connect the second 18/2 guage wire to your furnace's HUM 24v connector to the second humidifier yellow/brown line. This allows your humidifier to only turn on when heat is activated. To TEST turn up your humidifier thermostat, make sure your humidifier is plugged into an outlet and turn on your furnace heat. Should hear the fan from the humidifier turn on when the furnace is activated. Essentially as long as the humidifier sees complete circuit to both yellow/brown lines it gets activated. if you want full control and want to be able to run the humidifier from a smart thermostat such as nest, you can technically connect directy to your smart thermostat without extra gear. Essentially you would remove your connection to HUM and connect directly to your thermostat such as the * connector on NEST. Remove the manual thermostat and connect the other yellow/brown line directly to common on furnace. This gives nest control instead of your manual thermostat. Do this on a weekend because it will take you all day. Prep your equipment ahead of time. Does not come with everything. You need 18/2 wire, drain hose, copper line from hardware store as stated in instructions