Humidifier Repair & Replacement in Altadena, CA

The Risk Nobody Mentions When Selling You One

Humidifiers are sold on the problems of dry air, and those problems are real. What tends to go unmentioned is that the correct setting is a range rather than a direction, and that a home which is well sealed behaves very differently from a leaky one. In an older draughty house, excess moisture escapes. In a newly built or recently tightened home, it has nowhere to go.

This matters increasingly in Altadena, where a substantial amount of new construction is built to current standards — far more airtight than what stood before. Set a humidistat to a level that would have been reasonable in a 1940s bungalow, run it in a new tight home, and moisture accumulates. It condenses on the coldest surfaces available, which are window frames and exterior wall cavities, and that is where damage develops out of sight.

Measure Rather Than Guess

The whole problem is solved by knowing the actual number:

• Get a Hygrometer: An inexpensive meter removes all the guesswork from the setting.
• Target Thirty to Fifty Percent: Suits most homes, most occupants and most building materials.
• Adjust Seasonally: The correct setting moves with outdoor temperature and needs revisiting through the year.
• Lower It on Cold Nights: Colder glazing condenses at a lower indoor humidity than mild nights do.
• Check More Than One Room: Readings vary across a house, and the worst room is the one that matters.