Softened water and HVAC - Any problems?

[crabjoe]

I'm getting ready to install water softener and wondering if there's any issue with feeding softened water to my humidifier.

Has anyone seen any issues with softened on furnaces, evap coils and ducts? Am I asking for trouble or will it be fine?

Thanks!

 

[brewchief]

No problems, 99% of the humidifiers we install are connected to soft hot water.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[77thor]

No problems, 99% of the humidifiers we install are connected to soft hot water.

Really!!! I thought that they were plumbed into the COLD water line.

 

[Brian_WK]

Evaporative ones that are not bypass style work better with hot water hooked up to them. Steam style is a different story and are almost always trouble no matter what the supply water is.

Brian

 

[pseudorealityx]

There are multiple styles. The style that uses the ions in the water can have issues. We've had issues with commercial installations in GA, because even the tap water is very soft in certain regions.

 

[thammel]

I had a bad experience with this. If you are talking a humidifier connected to your furnace where there might be an A frame A/C evaporator coil inside....then do NOT use softened water. The chlorides in the softened water will eventually turn the aluminum fins to dust. This happened to me. That I've done is connected an un-softened line to my humidifier. Also, I have all my outside spigots connected to the unsoftened line. I love the softened water for drinking, washing, etc.

Tom

 

[crabjoe]

I had a bad experience with this. If you are talking a humidifier connected to your furnace where there might be an A frame A/C evaporator coil inside....then do NOT use softened water. The chlorides in the softened water will eventually turn the aluminum fins to dust. This happened to me. That I've done is connected an un-softened line to my humidifier. Also, I have all my outside spigots connected to the unsoftened line. I love the softened water for drinking, washing, etc.

Tom

This is what I was afraid of... Even though you're the 1st to say this. Even though the humidifier manual says softened water is fine, I was worried about what happens to the duct, furnace and evap coil.

Looks like I'm going to have to make sure that it gets plumbed to a non-softened line..

Thanks All!!