DeHumidifiers

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Any good input on dehumidifiers?
Looks are not important low maintainance efficiency and performance are.

[Dan Forman]

Try this. http://www.consumersearch.com/www/house_and_home/dehumidifier-reviews/index.html

I got a Whirlpool last year, can't find a model #, but it's probably the one in the middle, capacity wise. It's the one which will operate at the lower temperaturs, important if used in a basemnt. I have mine in the basement, and it seems to do a good job.

Dan

[Mark Pruitt]

Most importantly, buy one big enough to handle the room's capacity. The box should state what capacity the dehumidifier is rated for. Also, if possible you should place it where it can drain the water it collects. I've done this two different ways. One way was to run a short hose from the threaded outlet on the reservoir to an electric pump which, when filled, would pump the water into a drain. The other way was more crude, which was to simply run the hose underneath the garage door. (I used a hose that would not collapse when the door closed onto it.) Either way is a heck of a lot easier than constantly having to empty the reservoir by hand.

As to brands, I have an old Kenmore that has worked well. However, after Kenmore redesigned the thing I needed an extra unit and purchased another Kenmore. It had some kind of electronic defect--I forget exactly what the defect was, it's been 3-4 years. First time, I took it back and they exchanged it. The replacement was in use for less than a week and the very same problem happened to it. I then asked for a refund and bought a Whirlpool. The Whirlpool has worked fine.

Mark

[Wes Bischel]

Cliff,
I wish I could be more help, but my experience was the exact opposite of Mark's!!:eek: :D :D We had two Whirlpools from Lowes - high end units both went bust - bought a basic unit from Sears - still working. Either way, I hope you can get it right the first time.

Wes

If it wasn't so sad that both Mark and I had to go to the store three times for a stupid dehumidifier it would be funny - OK, it happened long enough ago - it's funny.:D

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Well I have a whole cellar and a garage to deal with. About 4800 sq feet of floor sapce. There are several rooms and a garage all of which suffer from wet air most the year unless the furnace is on a lot and driving the moisture away.

I have to cover everything or it rusts. Rot and mold are issues. It's a 250 year old building with a deep stone and cement cellar set on a wet site. There are springs galore.
Historically I have emptied the thing out every five or so years and taken a power wash to the entitre cellar with the feed tube in a 5 gallon bucket of 12% sodium-hyperclhoride (pool bleach). That leaves it sweet for a few years.
That is a real pain 'cause I have to carry a scott air pack - whicvh means I have to find one I can borrow. Filter respirators don't work.

I have also sprayed the surfaces with Cold-Spore a labatory sterilant soak solution that kills everything from molds to TB and HIV. But still it's a temporary fix that does nothing for the humidity.

I have looked at some insustrial units at better than a $$-grand-$$ some are two Grand.

I have heard about hight tech units that consume very little power and a vent system that simply turns on when the humidity hits some pre-set level.

So I'm shopping.

[Brad Schafer]

my experience matches Wes's. unit iced whenever the ambient temp fell below 65F. bought a GE at Sam's Club for $50 less than the WP. keeps a 40x40x9' unfinished basement bone dry with no issues whatsoever. no ice, no problems, even when ambient falls to 50s.

b

[Aaron Montgomery]

I solved my icing problems by putting my dehumidifier on a timer - it cycles every two hours. That proved long enough to prevent ice build up. Granted, that effectively halves the amount of moisture I can pull in a 24 hr period, but I have not needed to do that and it meets my needs.

[Roger Bell]

Eight years ago, I bought what I thought was a pretty cheesy unit from HD.......a Hampton Bay model. Had I know more about what was available I probably would have bought something higher end with more features.

This unit is nothing fancy, no electronics. My basement is heated in winter, so I don't use it then. In summer, the temp is generally around 60-68 and the runs a great deal during spring-summer-fall. It has worked terrific for eight years. I empty the (two gallon?) pan daily. Seems like I spent about $129 or $159 or thereabouts for it.

I rinse out the filter from time to time and I compressed-air-ed the coils once a couple years ago. My biggest complaint is that it is somewhat noisy, but not so much that I can hear it upstairs. It is probably also not the most energy efficient either.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Hmmm I am wondering if I'm going overboard looking at the heavy hitters like Santa Fe at about a grand and Hi-E-Dry#100 at about $1700.00 . They are rather pricy units. Both offer HEPA filtration ability, which isn't high on my priority list.

The cellar is sopping wet so much of the year.

I keep telling myself that they are just airconditioners with a humidstat.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Cliff,

I have had a Maytag from one of the box stores for about 2 years. It runs year around. Look for an "energy star" model and fit it to the size of the room as others have said. I have a piece of hose ran to the drain.

[Thomas Walker]

My wife and I both had a small whirlpool unit before we got married. Even though Conumer Reports liked the Whirlpools, within a couple of years both of our units started making a racket that could be heard throughout the house & then died.

Based on customer reviews (mostly on Amazon), we got a SoleusAir unit ordered off the Internet.

The machine is Awesome! It is incredibly quiet, quickly pulls as much moisture as we want out of the air, and is supposedly energy efficient.

We highly recommend it.

[Bob Johnson2]

Sounds like you need more then just a couple dehumidifiers. I've only got 1700 sf in the basement and it doesn't sound as wet as yours. I run 2 of the bigger standalone units (60 qt each I think), one on each side of the basement, they are piped (hoses) to a sump in the floor (which never runs). Work pretty good but I can still see the moisture on the concrete floor when it starts to warm up. So far the shops rust free. Runs about $20 a month to run the 2.