Does anyone have a dehumidifier?

[ame]

what brand? how long have you had it? would you buy the one you bought again?

I have been reading on consumer reports and around the net for one for our mold incubating basement and the ones that CR recommends have horrible reviews on their site and on others for dying within a year. So I am hoping for some other recs.

 

[perry]

I have a dehumidifier; but, sadly can not make any recommendation on brands.

My original dehumidifier was a White/Westinghouse model I purchased in 1990. It ran 9 months of the year for about 18 years.

Since then I have gone through 3 dehumidifiers - all of which "die" after 2-3 summers. As far as I can tell the modern electronic controls die - and you can buy a new dehumidifier cheaper than you can get the old one fixed (if parts are even available for someone to fix it). Sadly, it seems that no one is willing to market a "high end" machine with controls that last. I have the same problems with modern humidifiers that I use in the winter. They only last 3-4 years as well (and in the latest ones I am finding that the fan bearings are failing first - with less than 1 year of actual use).

On the other hand - I have some whole room HEPA / Charcoal air filters that range between 10 and 15 years old that just keep on working (but they cost several hundred dollars more than many of their competitors and if you look at the electronic control boards you can see a lot of "extra" components - which I know are really there to protect the rest of the circuits from voltage surges, spikes, add robustness, etc.). The Manufacturers do know how to make control circuits and fans bearings that last - but that cost more money; and low cost products tend to sell better than higher cost products.

Its a sad state of affairs when we no longer even have a choice on buying long life dehumidifiers and humidifiers any more (not to mention many other things). Build them cheap with short design lives and they sell. People can replace them every few years. Its our "through away" society.

Have a great day,

Perry

 

[iLander]

We have a Whirlpool Accudry. It works very well.

To give you an idea of our humidity; during the summer, it sucks 2 full gallons of water out of the air per day. Inside our air-conditioned house. I'm glad it has auto-shutoff or there would be water all over the floor. It also has a hose that you can use to continuously drain.

I've often wondered why they don't use them in Africa to make clean drinking water right out of thin air.

I'm not sure if they still make it, but we've had it about 5 years and run it a lot. It makes a hum, like a portable AC but not as loud. I think we paid $160.

We also use one in DH's car cozy garage. It's hooked to a timer, works about 2 hours a day (to save electricity-these things use a lot of power) and keeps the humidity down to about 40%. Outside it can be 80-95% humidity.

It's a fairly simple appliance. If you can't find the Whirlpool, buy one from the Costco website and you can return it to one of their stores if there's any issue.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[JewelFreak]

We just put one in our crawl space last month. I'll have to look up the brand. Our crawl space was damp constantly & starting to grow ickies, so we had it done professionally -- cleaned out, re-insulated, a moisture barrier laid, & a dehumidifer installed. There's a remote thingy upstairs for keeping an eye on its effectiveness & it has maintained around 35% humidity down there so far. The whole project was not cheap. I think the dehumidifier cost $1100, iirc. It drains itself outside & has some sort of magic element (I'm a real engineer, you can tell) that will keep it operating in a power failure.

I moaned to myself through the process about how much beautiful bling was going into the freaking basement!

Will check the brand & get back to you.

Perry's right -- nothing is made to last anymore.

--- Laurie

 

[ame]

That's essentially what we're going to have to do. We're only in the beginning stages of that. The previous owners ignored the ickiness growing and just covered it up, along with everything else, just to sell the house. A LOT of really serious stuff. Every year we plan to do the windows and every year we uncover a new exciting disgusting find they had concealed that our inspector missed. They had FILLED the crawl space with so much crap it was insane. It was like mary poppins bag in there.

The reviews I've read...no they do not make em to last. And the main brand out there is apparently Frigidaire and they not only don't make em to last, they also don't honor the warranty, and you have to file a BBB to get them to 'buy it back'

 

[kenny]

There are industrial models which I'd assume would be longer-lasting and more reliable but unfortunately they run in the thousands, not the hundreds.
Some are wall-mounted so the water can just drain outside.

http://www.compactappliance.com/Industrial-Dehumidifiers/Air_Quality-Dehumidifiers-Industrial_Dehumidifiers,default,sc.html

 

[JewelFreak]

Ame, the dehumidifier we have is Sani Dry. I don't' think it's a do-it-yourself type; our crawl space guys put it in & installed its own private circuit on the electrical board. It is a gigantic critter, sitting in the middle of the cellar like the Starship Enterprise, and it does look like it landed there from alien galaxies. Works ok so far, though! I tried to read the warranty but got hopelessly lost in the "Thou Shalt Nots" releasing them from almost anything that goes wrong. The co. that put it in guarantees it too, however.

Your house troubles sound like a headache! Especially maddening when the inspector missed some of them. If you decide to go the moisture barrier, etc., route -- I really recommend interviewing at least 3 companies. DO NOT use an exterminator co. They often offer this service, but in my research I found they do it as a moneymaker purely -- with fewer houses being built, the extermination biz has slowed -- & they do not have the expertise needed. Our exterminator quoted 1/2 the price of the co. we eventually used -- but told fairy tales such as that the 10 mill plastic sheeting could replace insulation under the floors (crawl space ceiling). Everything would have frozen solid, including us!

Helps to do internet research on the subject to help evaluate what salespeople tell you. You may not need total encapsulation - maybe only a moisture barrier on the ground & dehumidifier, which cuts the cost a ton. Anyway, good luck!

--- Laurie

 

[ame]

Ame, the dehumidifier we have is Sani Dry. I don't' think it's a do-it-yourself type; our crawl space guys put it in & installed its own private circuit on the electrical board. It is a gigantic critter, sitting in the middle of the cellar like the Starship Enterprise, and it does look like it landed there from alien galaxies. Works ok so far, though! I tried to read the warranty but got hopelessly lost in the "Thou Shalt Nots" releasing them from almost anything that goes wrong. The co. that put it in guarantees it too, however.

Your house troubles sound like a headache! Especially maddening when the inspector missed some of them. If you decide to go the moisture barrier, etc., route -- I really recommend interviewing at least 3 companies. DO NOT use an exterminator co. They often offer this service, but in my research I found they do it as a moneymaker purely -- with fewer houses being built, the extermination biz has slowed -- & they do not have the expertise needed. Our exterminator quoted 1/2 the price of the co. we eventually used -- but told fairy tales such as that the 10 mill plastic sheeting could replace insulation under the floors (crawl space ceiling). Everything would have frozen solid, including us!

Helps to do internet research on the subject to help evaluate what salespeople tell you. You may not need total encapsulation - maybe only a moisture barrier on the ground & dehumidifier, which cuts the cost a ton. Anyway, good luck!

--- Laurie

That room in the winter is an ICEBOX, and is a sweatbox in the summer, which is a disaster for our heating and cooling. So we definitely want to get sprayed in insulation under the floor there, which if we do the moisture barrier we'll do it all.

Did you use a specific type of company? Insulator? Or a waterproofing company? We got a price from a waterproofer but they were doing that if we used them for draintiles etc, not as a standalone. I haven't done a lot of research just on that part yet, we will need that after the mold mitigation so I do need to start. I was thinking if we are going to buy one, I kinda wanna do it right.

This house...the previous owners...oh I want to drag them out of their new comfy house and make them live in our basement right now for a while. They did this to us and they know it. They made it impossible for an inspector to find this stuff.

 

[JewelFreak]

This house...the previous owners...oh I want to drag them out of their new comfy house and make them live in our basement right now for a while. They did this to us and they know it. They made it impossible for an inspector to find this stuff.

What crooks! I'd want to make 'em clean it out for inspection -- but these things often go pretty fast & you want to get it done & close. If they drag their feet for a week, you are stuck. What a headache for you. Hugs!

Ame, there are companies that specialize in basement/crawl space moisture stuff. I found ours through Angie's List, which has been a great resource the 10 yrs we've been in this house, which needs lots of, ahem, improvement, to put it nicely.

They did not do insulation, so I had that done by another firm before the moisture guys did their thing. They recommended the kind of insulation you put up, not sprayed, & did it in less than a day, including cleaning out the space first. Also found them on Angie's List. The house felt warmer immediately; what a nice change.

Our power bill comes quarterly, so I don't know how much the dehumidifier will add to it -- probably will make up & more for the saving from better insulating, sigh. Owning a house is like banging your head against a wall half the time!

--- Laurie

 

[ame]

No kidding. They did a lot to conceal a lot of problems. Built walls to hide things, etc. We had NO IDEA how bad this was. We've been here for a few years now so we're stuck but I think we're still in our rights to go after them.

I have been poking on Angie's List for insulation companies, crawl space companies, etc. Most of the other waterproofing was done already, we had that done, by someone who actually is a waterproofer, not by the previous owner who lied and covered it up instead of fixing it. The crawl space I don't know how we'll handle so Ill keep poking on that. First off the mold though.

 

[Octavia]

Ame, I have a dehumidifier in the basement and it's been fine. I can't remember the brand right now, but I got it at Lowe's and paid up for the three-year extended warranty precisely because I read so many bad reviews of all the brands out there. It was more than I really felt like spending, but WAY less than a whole new machine would be, so I sucked it up. One thing I highly recommend is to get the largest volume available (but be aware that the numbers refer to the amount of water it's capable of sucking out of the air, not the capacity of the bucket) because it won't have to work as hard as a lower model to do the job. And if you have a drain available, definitely get the hose attachment so you don't have to empty the bucket. When we need our dehumidifier (late spring to early fall), it fills the bucket within a few hours, and if we didn't let it continuously drain, our basement would still be really humid even with the dehumidifier. When it continuously drains, we can get the humidity down to 45% or so, which is okay here. If we use the bucket, it spikes to about 80% by the time we get home and empty it.

 

[JewelFreak]

No kidding. They did a lot to conceal a lot of problems. Built walls to hide things, etc. We had NO IDEA how bad this was. We've been here for a few years now so we're stuck but I think we're still in our rights to go after them.

My God! Would be worth a legal consultation. You'd have to balance how much you could get from them (I'll bet they aren't exactly rolling in money, right?) vs. cost to you & hassle. I hate it when people get away with rank fraud like that -- can imagine too well how steamed you are! I hope after all the improvements that you add $$$$$$,000,000,000 of value to your house!

--- Laurie

 

[TooPatient]

Ours is a Kenmore. It isn't anything fancy -- just a plastic box that you plug in and let run. We got it at Sears for about $150 around eight years ago and have used it pretty heavily since then. Some days we get just a cup or two of water and others we dump out the 2 gal bin more than once.

If I had to buy one again, I'd get the same thing (or current equivalent Kenmore). We move it up/down stairs, knock into it, shove it in the garage to dry the air for SO's projects, and lots more. With the cheap one, I don't worry about it being damaged and it isn't a big deal if we decide in a year or two that something better is available.