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Humidity and dehumidifiers

stevewatr

Stainless
Joined
Aug 9, 2013
Location
Worcester County, Massachusetts
Anybody use one of those low temperature dehumidifiers in the work...assu.ing your not using central AC to control humidity levels.

I'm usually able to keep humidity at 70% with a couple off the shelf units, but was curious about the more pricey units. Wonder if they're worth the added cost.

The ones made by Santa Fe are the ones I'm most curious about. Anybody run one of them?

Steve.

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I run residential grade Frigidaires all year round, 70pint units. While the building doesn't get below 55F in the winter, the collection does slow down (big surprise). I don't let the place get cold enough to have them stop working entirely.

What's your typical low temp? I would caution you that I've bought some so-called commercial units that work worse than the residentials, at a price premium too.
 
What kk said.

Our de-hums are run only during the high rain-for-days-on-end cooler season periods when we have serious mold/mildew risk and need warmth, but not fog. (Hong Kong residence. Several.)

Or to speed-up drying of carpet after accidental flooding (Virginia residence, only one small one needed, and but once in five or more years at that.

Otherwise, drop the A/C blower to low, worry more about dryness than damp.
 
Get one, two, etc. of these pioneer or mitsubishi mini split A/C's. That's what I want, really low energy cost from what I hear. Kind of costly, but the energy savings our huge. My issue is un-insulated walls, I don't know how well they will work without insullation on a cinder block building. I'm renting so insullating is not a option. I still think they would be fairly efficient. It only gets up to 130 degrees F. here.
 
I run residential grade Frigidaires all year round, 70pint units. While the building doesn't get below 55F in the winter, the collection does slow down (big surprise). I don't let the place get cold enough to have them stop working entirely.

What's your typical low temp? I would caution you that I've bought some so-called commercial units that work worse than the residentials, at a price premium too.
Reason why I'm exploring alternatives is I just found out my current Frigidaire 70 pint, that has been doing a pretty good job most of the year, has a recall on it for catching fire!

So I checked the other one I run, a Soleus, and turns out it's made by the same company, and also has a recall.

I picked up a lightly used GE 70 pint at a moving sale for peanuts, and just pulled it out of storage to go o line, luckily it's not on the naughty list.

So if anyone is running a unit made prior to 2013 or so, you might want to check if there's a recall. There have been confirmed fires.

As for AC, ductwork is not a practical option.

Steve.

Sent from my SM-J737P using Tapatalk
 
Get one, two, etc. of these pioneer or mitsubishi mini split A/C's. That's what I want, really low energy cost from what I hear. Kind of costly, but the energy savings our huge. My issue is un-insulated walls, I don't know how well they will work without insullation on a cinder block building. I'm renting so insullating is not a option. I still think they would be fairly efficient. It only gets up to 130 degrees F. here.

Similar to our reinforced-conn'ed crete, NO insulation Hong Kong residence with four of those for 1024 Sq FT, 3 various sizes, one per B/R, one 22,000 BTU for Living/Dining area, hallways, some help with the adjacent kitchen.

No panacea, and half or less the service lives of the previous window-only units. Far higher acquisition, installation, and service cost as well.

Having decent insulation would make for a different experience, and does do.

A/C cost is a fraction for the Virginia residence, where we cover 3 or 4 times the space on just about half the BTU rating of HKG and far fewer operating hours to the day.

YMMV, but do your own due diligence. Trying to A/C a chunk of the whole COUNTY isn't ever "cheap".
 
I've had one of the Santa Fe "Compact" dehumidifiers running for maybe eight years. Had an initial problem with a leak at the hose outlet (it is plastic and was likely cracked in shipping or my over-torquing it), but its under-warranty replacement has run fine ever since. This model fits in a fairly small space - and I run the hose to a drain.

My experience is that the old US-made dehumidifiers would last a couple decades before the compressor died. Whirlpool was once a client -- and I saw first-hand what they had to go through to forestall refrigerant leaks. After the last of my US-made dehumidifiers gave up after 30 or so years, I tried a succession of supposedly high rated (Consumers Reports) imports. Three of 'em. All of which all lost refrigerant within two to three years. They obviously hadn't yet learned those lessons about absolutely positively sealing up each brazed connection -- or didn't much care.

Compressors also underwent redesign with the new refrigerants -- and there were frequent failures for a while. Most are now made to a (low) price - so not sure if any are now being made to last for decades.

So, the Santa Fe has been pretty good but at around 4x the price of the cheaper imports. It does have the low temperature capability and high efficiency if you need it.

Could be the South Koreans and maybe even the Chinese have learned to make better dehumidifiers absent the low temperature operation - but that wasn't the case some several years ago. A more recent consumer grade unit has been working OK for the past three or so years in my library - where low temperature operation is not needed.
 








 
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