Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased this humidifier for a newly-constructed house in January, 2015. My wife and I wanted to avoid the large shifts in relative humidity that occur indoors during the winter months in our area. I wired it to use a 240v dedicated circuit because of its higher output capacity. The installation was a piece of cake, since it required only a simple water supply connection and the addition of a 240v circuit. Since I did all the electrical for the house (and had it inspected), this was well within my skill set. I don’t necessarily recommend a DIY install, however. More about that later… The system is paired with a Honeywell thermostat and interface unit that allows control from anywhere in the world. I chose this arrangement because it can be programmed to automatically alert us to a variety of HVAC issues. We’re VERY happy with the performance of the humidifier. We set the humidity to 40% for the winter. During the summer months, we switch the system off, since normal activities like cooking, showering, etc. keep the humidity at around 35-40%. (Prior to installation, the humidity in the house had been hovering around 19% in January.) The system worked flawlessly for what remained of the 2014/2015 heating season and for the entire 2015/2016 heating season. However, when I powered it up again in October of 2016, it had what is called a “fill fault,” meaning that the solenoid that controls the water level in the tank wasn’t shutting off when the tank was full. By doing a bit of research online, I determined the cause to be a faulty circuit board. Since the humidifier was still under warranty, I contacted Aprilaire to arrange for a replacement. A friendly tech rep confirmed my suspicions about the probable cause of the fill fault. However, I learned that Aprilaire has a policy that all warranty work must be accomplished through the original seller. In my case, that was Amazon—I purchased it directly from Amazon, not from a third party. I contacted Amazon, only to be told that they don’t do warranty replacements. I explained what Aprilaire told me, but got nowhere. The rep told me that since I was beyond the return period, there was nothing they could do. He repeated the same words about the return period so often that I believe it must be a company mantra. I sent an email to Aprilaire about the trouble I was having, and offered to send the circuit board directly to them for testing. Because of what I think is poor wording in the warranty language about DIY installations, I told them I thought the part should be replaced no matter who had installed the humidifier. The fact that the system worked well for 1½ heating seasons indicated to me that I hadn’t done anything to cause the failure. After some back and forth, Aprilaire came thorough to my satisfaction, even though I initially purchased a replacement board from an HVAC contractor. Lessons learned: • Amazon isn’t set up to do warranty repairs or replacements—at least for this product. As of the day of this review, there is still a link to a file containing the back page of the owners manual that explains what is covered by the warranty. The language is still unclear when it comes to DIY installations. This implies that one will have a warranty to fall back on if something breaks down in the first 5 years. • Aprilaire has a FAQ section on its website that expressly states that all installations must be performed by a licensed contractor. Its warranty says that defects resulting from failure to use a contractor are not covered—not quite the same thing. • If you’re willing to take the risk of a failure occurring during the first 5 years, it doesn’t matter where you purchase this product, or who installs it. Depending on what you would have to pay for a licensed contractor to do the installation, you might come out ahead even if a part fails. • Aprilaire sells its products through HVAC contractors to ensure trouble-free use. I don’t fault them for that, or for requiring warranty service to be performed by the contractors. Unfortunately, they can’t prevent Amazon and other companies from purchasing and reselling their products. The friendly folks in Customer Service have spoken with Amazon about their policies concerning warranty work, etc., but to no avail. I don’t like it when reviewers say, “Don’t buy this!” or “Buy this from someone else!” Amazon does a great job in most cases. However, in this situation, I was not impressed. I received a follow-up email after my call, and it did nothing to help with my problem. At the bottom was a line that read as follows: “Your feedback is helping us build the Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company.” There’s quite a bit of room for improvement on that one.