Humidifier Blinking Yellow--Change Water Panel: How to fix the blinking yellow light on your Aprilaire Humidifier

Blinking Yellow Light

The phone rings. A concerned voice asks to talk to John, the owner and one of the expert mechanical minds of the company.

"There is something wrong with the humidifier," the client says. "It has a blinking yellow light and it says change water panel."

Working in the office, you typically aren't the one saving the day. I don't get someone's air conditioning cooling again in 90 degree weather or work hard to get a new steam boiler up and running in one day on the coldest day of the year.

But a blinking yellow light on your humidifier? I've got this one.

When there is a blinking light, it can cause panic. Especially because we oftentimes don't have a lot of experience working with the mechanical systems hiding in our basements. Luckily, this light is only a reminder to change the water panel (also called an evaporator pad or water filter). The humidistat itself doesn't know whether or not the water panel is dirty or not. It's on an automatic 6-month timed reminder.

In general, the lights on your humidistat are like a stoplight. Red means stop and call a service person, yellow is nothing to worry about but pay attention and change the water panel and green is good to go.

The water panel is a key component in humidifying the air when the furnace is running. The water panel should be changed at least once a year. It accumulates sediment and minerals from water being fed into the filter. For most households, going beyond a year isn't going to cause a major disaster. Though, left unchanged it can eventually impair the operation of your humidifier.

So, if you or your HVAC company has replaced your water panel, but you see this blinking yellow light--let's take care of that! Some people worry that they may unequivocally mess up their HVAC system if they touch anything. Don't worry, you won't mess anything up. You've got this!

Blinking Yellow Light on Humidifier-Change Water Panel

Aprilaire 600A Humidifier Control

1. Before you turn the knob, look at the number it is set at. Remember that number.

2. Turn the humidifier knob all the way to the right to "Test" (You don't have to force the knob, but it will click over to "Test/Reset")

3. Keep it on "Test" for a couple of seconds until you see the panel reset and the light turn off.

4. Turn the knob back to the number it was originally set at.

And that's it! Your humidifier is reset--day saved!

If you haven't changed your water panel, we'll have a blog post soon about how your water panel works and how to change it yourself. If you don't feel comfortable changing the water panel or if you don't have the time, call your preferred HVAC company.

Our heating and cooling systems are some of the hardest working mechanical systems in our home. Remember to give it regular TLC to keep it working optimally and increase the longevity of the system.