After some careful research and testing, I have learned that Persil is my new go to detergent. It cleans as well as Tide but without the skin irritation that Tide gives me.
I don't need to add ammonia to the wash to "boost" the cleaning power. It does just fine all by itself. Only carp is the Intense Fresh scent is a little too intense for my liking so today at my local grocer, I secured a bottle of the regular scent. Much less intrusive than the Intense Fresh.
While A&H did well, I found it was not effective on most stains like grass, chocolate, tomato sauce etc. Persil on the other hand, removes them all. I was most surprised and pleased with the results.
Secondly, I replaced the Aprilaire 8444 series stat with an 8463 that is programmable. I picked this one up from an Ebay seller. Installation was a piece of cake as the wiring is identical for both. Setup and programming were intuitive as well. Been running it today on stage rate setting of "3" and the cycle times are fine and I don't notice a major change in temp before it kicks on.
Also it has what is called progressive recovery. In english that means if I want the temp to be 70 at 6:30, it will fire up the Goodman furnace beforehand so when I rise at 6:30 it will be 70 degrees. Haven't tried that just yet, I will find out tomorrow AM.
I wired it so it gets power from the 24V transformer and put in 2 AA batts for backup. One thing I can say is the relay clicks on this model are much less intrusive than the one that came with the house. Almost silent in comparison.
Keeping the old unit as a spare, it works fine but often times when I leave for work I would forget to turn down the stat and thus the house would be a toasty 69 or so all day long. And on days I did turn it down, when I'd come home to a dark and empty abode, it was also quite chilly. Neither of which improves my mood!
I don't need to add ammonia to the wash to "boost" the cleaning power. It does just fine all by itself. Only carp is the Intense Fresh scent is a little too intense for my liking so today at my local grocer, I secured a bottle of the regular scent. Much less intrusive than the Intense Fresh.
While A&H did well, I found it was not effective on most stains like grass, chocolate, tomato sauce etc. Persil on the other hand, removes them all. I was most surprised and pleased with the results.
Secondly, I replaced the Aprilaire 8444 series stat with an 8463 that is programmable. I picked this one up from an Ebay seller. Installation was a piece of cake as the wiring is identical for both. Setup and programming were intuitive as well. Been running it today on stage rate setting of "3" and the cycle times are fine and I don't notice a major change in temp before it kicks on.
Also it has what is called progressive recovery. In english that means if I want the temp to be 70 at 6:30, it will fire up the Goodman furnace beforehand so when I rise at 6:30 it will be 70 degrees. Haven't tried that just yet, I will find out tomorrow AM.
I wired it so it gets power from the 24V transformer and put in 2 AA batts for backup. One thing I can say is the relay clicks on this model are much less intrusive than the one that came with the house. Almost silent in comparison.
Keeping the old unit as a spare, it works fine but often times when I leave for work I would forget to turn down the stat and thus the house would be a toasty 69 or so all day long. And on days I did turn it down, when I'd come home to a dark and empty abode, it was also quite chilly. Neither of which improves my mood!
