Take a look at the Aprilaire 800 Steam system. It is a whole house humidifier and de-humidifier....keeping the humidity stable at the level you set.

Has anyone looked closely at the motor to see if a generic replacement can be had?

The service guy was very knowledgable. The whole thing is an integrated unit and he was also flabbergasted at the price. He was thinking $600 range. The motor is manufactured in Germany. Perhaps that is why. The 1720 model is listed on the Aprilaire site as "obsolete". Any pros out there done a retrofit? rcbl: there has never been any problem with too little humidity in the basement so the steam would be a waste in this instance.

Well, you folks can disregard this thread. As it turns out the warranty is 5 years on anything later than 2006. The paperwork said 2 years. Mine was installed in July 2007. It expires in about 3 weeks!! Talk about cutting it close! Goes to show you sometime have to rely on yourself and your own records to keep from getting..well you know.
Until the next problem!!

Germany is sending all of its money to Greece and Spain, they have to get more somewhere.

I am glad that you can get it done under warranty. Scratch me off the Aprilaire potential customer list. If I needed a new kilobuck motor, I would be taking a close look at cobbling something in there or taking the motor to a rebuild shop. Usually the latter only work on large motors so maybe that would not work. One might be able to fit something using your own sweat, but it would not pay to have a pro service guy doing it.

When I first read your problem, It brought to mind this kind of central dehumidifier. I've considered doing this once or twice. See page 20:

http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/reports/rr-0214-conditioning-air-in-the-humid-south-creating-comfort-and-controlling-cost