Whole-Home Humidifier Installation in Milan, Michigan

The hard water across Milan is the reason humidifiers here need attention every year. Scale from Washtenaw County municipal water or a well builds on the evaporator pad until it is a solid block, the solenoid sticks, and the drain line clogs and sends water down the furnace cabinet toward the control board. Temprasure installs humidifiers in Milan with that in mind, with the unit mounted so a leak drains away from the furnace, and we change the pad on every fall tune-up. For 1890s–1930s railroad-town homes and 1960s–2000s ranches and colonials houses near Milan High School where the existing unit has been neglected, we clean, repad and rewire it, or replace it when that is the better value.

Milan houses and what that means for humidifiers

Downtown Milan and the streets around Wilson Park and Hurd Street are 1880s–1930s frame houses on stone or block basements with the original furnace location in a tight corner and a gas line that has been extended a few times. Several still have gravity-furnace duct trunks that were reused when forced air went in. The 1950s–70s ranches along Dexter Street, County Street and the Carpenter Road side of town often sit on crawlspaces or slabs, and electric baseboard or wall furnaces show up in a few that never got ductwork. Newer subdivisions off Platt Road and Arkona Road are 1990s–2000s colonials and ranches on full basements with 80 percent furnaces and R-22 condensers that are now getting replaced in bulk. On the Monroe County side and out Redman Road, we see older farmhouses with additions, mobile homes with package units, and acreage homes on well and septic.

Water quality in Milan shapes how we install and maintain humidifiers. The municipal water in town and the well water in the rural parts of Washtenaw County both carry enough hardness that a pad is finished after one winter, and the iron in some wells around Arkona Road south side stains the distribution tray and plugs the solenoid screen. We install units with easily accessible pads, show the homeowner how to swap one, and change it on every fall tune-up. For Milan homes on a softener we tee the humidifier into the hard side when the manufacturer calls for it, because softened water leaves a different residue on the pad. Small details, but they are the difference between a humidifier that works for fifteen years and one that quits in three.

Winter air in Milan gets as dry as any in Washtenaw County, and the 1890s–1930s railroad-town homes and 1960s–2000s ranches and colonials around Uptown Milan and County Street area were built loose enough that the furnace spends all winter heating cold, dry outside air that leaks in. The result is static shocks, cracked trim, bloody noses and a house that feels colder than the thermostat says. A whole-home humidifier mounted on the furnace fixes all of that for a modest cost, and we install and service them across Milan, from the blocks near Wilson Park to the streets out by Arkona Road south side, about 23 minutes from our shop.

Local details we plan around in Milan

• The Saline River floodplain around Wilson Park has put basements under water in wet springs, and we check for high-water marks on furnace cabinets in that area.
• Rural addresses outside the city, especially toward Redman Road and the Monroe County side, are often on propane and private wells rather than DTE gas.
• The county line runs through town, so permits for a Milan address may go through the City of Milan, Washtenaw County or Monroe County depending on which side of the line the house sits.
• Milan is low, flat and open, in the Saline River bottomland, and summer humidity lingers in the older neighborhoods close to the river. The town is far enough south that it occasionally picks up weather coming off Lake Erie that misses Ypsilanti, including heavier late-winter snow and ice. With little high ground and few windbreaks between the subdivisions and the fields to the south, winter wind drives infiltration on the exposed sides of newer homes.