Honeywell Power Flow-through Bypass Humidifier, HE360A

"Bought the HE360A model in winter of 2009, worked fine for one winter, then it stopped working. After much troubleshooting, discovered the circuit board (P/N 32001676-001) was bad. Honeywell wouldn't replace it, so I bought a new unit, swapped out the circuit board and it worked fine for a while. This happened two more times, repeated the same process. I would NOT recommend this product to anyone."

"I installed this HE360a model type 11 years ago. It ran without any issues until this winter. Provides great amount of humidity during the winter. The fan motor bearings are failing. It was $110 for a new OEM fan motor vs $180 for a whole new kit. So I bought the whole kit, Just a hot swap of the housing system that contains the motor & fan with the new one. 1 minute to swap out old for new. You will have spare parts. The first system i bought was bad. The new system when switched off by the humidistat and sail switch made a LOUD humming noise. Even louder when activated by the sail switch & humidistat. It was like a bad relay or transfomer. I have extensive experience in electronics. Honeywell support like is horrible. It sounds liken they are reading off a script. So I took that new system back to the store. Home Depot was great with the return. It was a day after I purchased the new system. They even tested the unit and saw the issue. They gave me a second new unit that I swapped out with the old and it works ok. There must be a cheaper motor or gaskets in the production line for the HE360A's. Could even haveb a bad fan blade balance. The old unit had a nice and thick cork gasket between the motor and housing that it is mounted against and you never knew it was running until the bearings started fail. The new system, when activated does make a slight vibration that is amplified into the duct work. Thank goodness it is over shadowed by the AC/heatting system blower & air flow noise from the system intake vents on each floor. If it was not a big deal in cutting a new mounting hole of a diffierent size I would have bought a different vendors more expensive product. Yes if you know what you are doing you can buy piece of sheet metal and cut it to the template of a different vendor model using a rotozip or dremel. Then mount it over the older & bigger hole. I actually did that for the origial install 11 years ago in my new house. But just be careful when you screw that into place on the system., You do not want to hit the A frame coils or drain pan or lines. Then foil duct tape all seems.

So in all the newer HE360 is cheaper and makes noise when the fan and water pump are on. It does humidify the house. Maybe if you have more to spend then buy the electronic humidistat that has a wireless outdoor sensor. Or just make sure you adjust the humidistat for the expected weather conditions. It will run up your water bill during the winter.

Giving it two stars only because it was an easy replacement for a 11 year old failed model."

"Just finished installing this product and am very happy with the performance. I looked at two types of humidifiers, flow-thru and steam. While steam had better performance, the electricity required to boil the water was insane. I chose the HE360A flow-thru for performance,efficiency and ease of installation cutting only one hole in the supply plenum. On with the installation...The template IS the installation instructions..you will see "template" printed on the three sides of the paper. Make sure you orient the template correctly before cutting the hole in the plenum. I just held the template to the back side of the humidifier housing and it will be obvious. Which side of the supply plenum to mount? look for ease of access and locate it on the side of the > A-coil as my arrow shows pointing at the A. The front of the A-coil is usually where the copper line goes in. Next tip will save you a lot of frustration. Cutting the hole straight and without bucking is very important for a proper fit and good seal. "Power Shears" purchased at any home improvement store(my home depot didn't have them) for around $40 is the absolute best tool I have ever used for cutting sheet metal. pardon the expression but it applies.."like cutting warm butter"....You connect the power shears to any cordless or power drill. Drill a pilot hole in four corners of the area to be cut and I promise you will not be disappointed in how smooth and square the cut will be. After cutting the hole, put in a paper towel by the A-coil to catch screws that may drop, will save you frustration. (don't forget to remove) The rest of the installation instructions are self explanatory and a non event. I tapped off the hot water line for better performance and used a Honeywell Visionpro IAQ thermostat and interface module which I can't speak more highly of since it controls your heating system and humidifier right at the thermostat. The Visionpro wiring is done at a module connected to the furnace. It eliminated me having to purchase the humidifier installation kit. Very easy installation and future-proof. My humidity was @ 20 percent with temps in the 20's and within an hour my humidity went right at 30-35%. The nice thing about the Visionpro is with the outdoor temp sensor, it controls how much humidity depending on the inside/outside temp. So no frosted windows when temps drop in the night. Very happy with the 360A humidifier's efficiency and performance. Made my home "Much" more comfortable and protects my investment."

"the HE360A was simple to install with the directions being very straight forward"

"Just received the unit yesterday and installed it this morning using the installation kit sold separately - couple hours work. The unit seems to be of acceptable quality and is operating well thus far (obviously very preliminary).



A couple of installation issues which I encountered -



1. Although the instructions refer to a supplied template for the cut out of the main unit, it was not included with my unit. After searching online, Honeywell apparently does not include a template anymore nor do they give dimensions. I found a post that described the dimensions as 14 1/16" x 13 1/2" which was accurate. This was somewhat odd to me considering that you are cutting a large hole in your furnace assembly.



2. The wiring is simple but IMO written poorly in the directions.



3. The directions indicate that you can use a hot or cold water supply, but does not give a preference. Perhaps it simply does not matter, but I wasted some time trying to find out since I had access to both."

"most of the work is installing a water line and an electrical plug. I purchased a malco turboshear TS1 to cut the sheet metal. Worked fine. Just be excat as you can when cutting to allow for the unit to set in to the opening. I would recommend the installation kit, if you decide to use a sail switch. You will save a few bucks. Installing an outside temperature moniter does not require a sail switch. I installed a sail switch, because i wanted the unit to run when the furnace blower was on. When installing the sail switch, drill the mounting screws first, because you will tear up the template when cutting the sheet metal. My home is 3600 square feet on two floors and have yet to reach over 45 RH after a couple of weeks. But the unit has raised the RH from 25 to above 40. The comfort is noticeable. Water waste is 3 to 4 gallons per running hour. cheaper than the steamer model because of the cost of electricty. Overall I recommend the unit."

"Put this unit in about two years ago and remain very pleased with it. Installation was easy enough for the average home handyperson with the installation kit. The sail switch and control panel handle home humidity with little interaction. As with any humidifier, you need to set the humidity level based on outside temperature or water will build up on the interior of windows. The humidifier pads do build up minerals which can lead to dripping outside of the unit due to overflow inside. Having a large size fan blowing through the water pad into the furance air flow is a nice touch with this unit compared to drum humidifiers. I recommend this unit."

"Very good product. Installation was easy but much longer as mentioned in the manual. It took me about 3 hours.

I would recommend the installation kid - although expensive - since it comes with the sail switch that turns the humidifier on as soon as the AC blower is running. This makes wiring easy and you do not have to figure out how to wire the humidifier with your AC blower. The unit does not waste water if humidity level is set correctly. I installed the humidifier next to the AC thermostat for easy access."

"This humidifier is awesome! I just purchased it Sunday and installed Monday, we bought it for our hardwood floors, they are starting to shrink. Installation took about 2 hours, pretty easy. Most of the reviews I've looked at said the template was not included in the install instructions, the template IS the instructions! Just tape to your furnace and trace around and voila! The wiring diagram for the sail switch and humidistat leaves a lot to be desired, but with a little time and foul language even I figured it out. Within an hour humidity level in our house went from 23% to 45%. Great product. I recommend the install kit as well, it contains the humidistat and all wiring, hardware and tape needed, with extras of everything in case you have a case of the drops like I do."

"Installed this on my furnace about 3 years ago. The air in the house was too dry and my wife and kids were getting up in the morning with headaches and bloody noses. It has really helped to add moisture in the air, no more complaints from the family and it also makes the house feel warmer without raising the thermostat. The installation takes some planning but it is not difficult for someone that has mechanical ability. Maintenance is minimal, only requires changing a filter pad and that takes about 5 minutes. Over 3 years of use with no problems to report."