Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Just wanted to share my review of this product after the install. INSTALL Like others have stated this is a fairly difficult install for your everyday DIYer. I my my self did not have any problems and it took me about 4-5 hours I would guess. I am not an HVAC professional, however I am an Industrial electromechanical technician, so I do similar work for a living The install of the unit itself is pretty straight forward, the instructions are pretty decent for mounting and running the bypass duct work, I think most DIYers could figure this out. The trickier part is the wiring. If you are NOT familiar with reading a wiring and have a basic understanding of electric wiring principals I DO NOT recommend installing this yourself.There are no instructions or explanations on how to wire the unit, only the simple wiring diagram. When I get some time I plan to make a YouTube video tutorial on how to complete the wiring. Side note: I wired mine for Automatic Mode with blower activation. OPERATION I have had the unit installed for about a week now and I love it. When I fired it up for the first time, I was a little nervous the first few hours. It ran pretty much non-stop. It did add about 12-15 %RH in the first hour or so but it would drop just as fast. What I didn't realize is that everything in the home is very dry and it takes quite awhile to absorb that moisture into the woodwork, furniture, carpet, etc. So as a forewarning it could take up to a week for the unit to settle down and run normally. Currently in Iowa it is about 25 degrees and I would say the unit only runs a couple times a day to keep a RH of about 42-45%.I have verified with another RH sensor that the controller is withing 1-3% RH, which I think is acceptable. Keep in mind that if you are running in automatic mode with the outdoor temp sensor the colder the outside temps the lower the indoor RH will be. This is explained in detail in the manual. OVERALL Overall I would absolutely recommend this product. The install is fairly simple and the price is right. I purchased this on amazon for $140 and spent just under $100 in extra materials to complete. (there is an install kit sold on amazon for $90) The unit seems to run efficiently and keeps the house comfortable. Aprilaire is much more complex than their Honeywell competitor, but for less upfront money and a more efficient operation, with much more constant control, this product wins. My only complaint is the warranty for the DIYer. There is none. Which i can understand based on some the hack job instructional YouTube videos I have seen. However, feel I did a cleaner, more quality job myself than I could have hired out for a few hundred bucks. Just a tip though for the person who is a little scared of installing this yourself, I have seen some ads in the back of the newspaper for HVAC company's that are Aprilaire dealers that sometimes run sales. You might be able to get a good deal and have a similar product installed for cheap and get the 5 year warranty. Hope this helps someone out, and keep an eye out for my tutorial on the wiring side!