Far better than the standard water pad
This BestAir pad solved a problem that was making me an unhappy Aprilaire user.
My Aprilaire system could not keep up with my home's humidity needs, but it sure did run through the hot water. With this pad, there's much more moisture transfer to the air supply. Now instead of most of the hot water going down the drain, it goes into the air (where I want it to go).
I won't even buy the standard water pad anymore. This BestAir version is the only one I will buy. In fact, if somebody gave me a stack of standard pads I would throw those away and still buy this one. The savings in hot water cost alone would justify that. With the BestAir, I get the increased comfort I am really after.
I have verified the huge performance increase by using humidity meters. Of course, the numbers vary with the amount of heating required. But here's an example of a sort of side by side test I ran in 2010. The outside temperature was consistently around zero degrees for several...
Without a doubt work!
I have a larger house, but built in 2008 so I expected humidity to never be an issue. However, my house really struggled with the Michigan winters. After replacing my usual wire mesh drip filter with this paper pad style, I'm better able to maintain a 30% humidity level. Before I was having problems keeping it at 20%!
It does say to change them more often, so we'll see. But they are around the same price as the mesh so really it's not that bad.
If you need more humidity, try these before you spend more money on alternatives!
Short Lifespan
The BestAir box states, "For best performance, change at least twice per season, maybe more depending on water conditions and frequency of use." In my case, this pad failed badly, decomposing and gathering algae/mildew within 3 months of heavy mid-winter use in a heat pump system that runs frequently. I've placed two photos of failed pad in the user photos section here. I think that when it was working properly, the paper panel increased humidification over the all metal panel, but it has a very short lifespan compared to the 1 year recommended change interval for the metal panel (see Aprilaire website). I would not recommend this pad for heat pump systems, since they run much more frequently than a gas/oil system. This pad may be a good upgrade for a fossil fuel-based system, but make sure to check and change it frequently.
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