Basement dehumidifiers way ot

[Web1111a]

Anyone have an recommendations for a basement dehumidifier?

Just started research and am aware of some of the factors

Would like to know real world experiences

Thanks

[Peter P.]

I went the Consumer Reports route, and bought one of their top picks, a Frigidaire FAD504DWD. It's a 3 gallon model. I've had it almost 2 years without a complaint.

[NHAero]

Expensive, but most efficient are made by Thermastor Products. Look for the rating in terms of pints or liters per kWh.

[Web1111a]

I went the Consumer Reports route, and bought one of their top picks, a Frigidaire FAD504DWD. It's a 3 gallon model. I've had it almost 2 years without a complaint.



How big is your basement

Is it all finished

What was your humidity level before you got this and where are you now

[Veloo]

I picked up a Kenmore from Sears years ago. Probably more than 5 and wouldn't be surprised if it's closer to 10.
No issues. I did forget to clean the dust filter and it gave me a warning.

Get something that can connect a drain hose - if you have a drain. The novelty of emptying out the collection bin wears off fast.

[paredown]

We've been running a couple of big de Longhis that we got at Costco.

They have worked well for the past 5 or 6 summers. They can be set to drain automatically, but usually I just dump the water on the garden. Same deal with filters--and they can get a little gunked up so you do have to clean them.

(We have quite a problem--no A/C in the north-east, and a crawl space with no vapor barrier, so the stack effect draws a fair bit of moisture into the house).

[Climb01742]

Get something that can connect a drain hose - if you have a drain. The novelty of emptying out the collection bin wears off fast.

^^^^^^^^This!

Our previous house had a sump pump that the dehumidifier could drain into on its own. Very nice. Current house has no sump or drain. Emptying the water manually, particularly in the humidity of summer, is about as charming as root canal.

[Peter P.]

How big is your basement

Is it all finished

What was your humidity level before you got this and where are you now

Basement is 650 sq.ft. Prior to buying the dehumdifier, the level was 70 percent. I set the level for 50 percent and the humidifier holds that level with ease. It is a 50 pint unit. During the summer months I will have to empty it every 2-3 days.

There is wood paneling covering roughly half of the basement. The remainder is bare concrete. It is not a living space but storage, bike maintenance, clothes washing, slop sink.

Emptying the container is not a big deal for me; it serves for me to personally check the comfort level in the basement. I wish there was an easy way to prevent mold forming in the receptacle, however. It's not designed for easy access and I think pouring bleach in it would harm the plastic.

[swaterfall]

Get something that can connect a drain hose - if you have a drain. The novelty of emptying out the collection bin wears off fast.

It's a must.

[carpediemracing]

Whatever you get, use a drain. You stop thinking about it and you can get the basement pretty dry.

Also put a fan to move air around the basement. I have one on all the time anyway.

[Web1111a]

Basement is on a damper system

I'm winter gets nice and dry because of heat calls

Problem is it is rare that it gets warm enough to trip ac unless I keep it extremely cold

Will talk to contractor about maybe getting some kind of drain to outside

Or I can keep it in powder room which is in middle of basement and make sure all doors ar open

[carpediemracing]

Basement is on a damper system

I'm winter gets nice and dry because of heat calls

Problem is it is rare that it gets warm enough to trip ac unless I keep it extremely cold

Will talk to contractor about maybe getting some kind of drain to outside

Or I can keep it in powder room which is in middle of basement and make sure all doors are open

Put dehumidifier next to sink/toilet, drain into sink/toilet, fans to move air around. Circular patterns so push out on floor level and pull in higher up, etc.

I keep the basement door open. Rest of house is AC, cold air is heavier than warm, so the cool air does come down.

I'd love to have a second stairway or opening so I can vent the hot air out, this way there'd be a circular system. I'm thinking of having a duct along the top of the ceiling with a fan at the end to push hot air out of the basement. In the winter I'd reverse the fan direction to pull down warm air.

[yngpunk]

I wish there was an easy way to prevent mold forming in the receptacle, however. It's not designed for easy access and I think pouring bleach in it would harm the plastic.

Might try adding a/c drain pan tablets to the receptacle. Such as this:

https://www.amazon.com/Rectorseal-68115-Hydrex-Tabs-200-Tablet/dp/B008A3UCYS/

[shovelhd]

About ten years ago I replaced a well worn Kenmore with an LG. Been working fine ever since. I have the drain piped into the A/C condensate pump.

[oliver1850]

You might consider a window AC if you have windows. No point in pumping warm air into the basement in the summer.

[Web1111a]

You might consider a window AC if you have windows. No point in pumping warm air into the basement in the summer.

Space is already on the central air system damper

Problem is all the air settles down in basement

And basement doesn't get warm enough to get ac calls

[Tandem Rider]

Space is already on the central air system damper

Problem is all the air settles down in basement

And basement doesn't get warm enough to get ac calls

Any way to make the ac/furnace fan run on low speed continuously? That should circulate the air, evening out both the temperatures and the humidity, allowing the ac unit to do most of the heavy lifting. This might also require an override to the dampers, depending on duct design.

[NHAero]

As long as the basement is running cooler than the house, mixing the air with the central air handler isn't going to do a lot for the basement relative humidity, because the same absolute humidity (actual water vapor content of the air) on both levels will be similar. The same moisture content at a lower air temperature means higher relative humidity, which means higher water absorption and moisture content in organic materials in the basement (paper, paper-faced drywall, Brooks saddles, etc). Higher moisture content increases likelihood of mold.
So, a separate dehumidifier for the basement makes sense. In new homes or major renovations I put a dehumidifier into the mechanical system if the basement is occupied space.
Two other thoughts:
- I insulate basements from the interior with foil-faced polyisocyanurate foam and Hilti IDP fasteners. The foil-facer is an excellent vapor retarder and if a major source of moisture is from the fundation wall this cuts it way down. In some houses that solves the basement RH issue.
- Using a heat pump water heater helps dehumidify a space, not as well as a dedicated dehumidifier, which puts the heat back into the air, but definitely lowers the RH in a basement. My house on Martha's Vineyard, a very humid location, has foil-faced foam on the wall and a Stiebel Eltron heat pump water heater and summer RH rarely exceeds 60%.

Search my blog for more info on this stuff - http://thrivingonlowcarbon.typepad.com/

[smontanaro]

I went the Consumer Reports route, and bought one of their top picks, a Frigidaire FAD504DWD. It's a 3 gallon model. I've had it almost 2 years without a complaint.
I will second this. Over the years, no dehumidifier ever seemed to work for more than one season. We have a Frigidaire now (don't know the model) which has been good for three years or so now.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Plum Hill]

Picked up a Danby to replace a very old (as in Made in America) dehumidifier. I got four years out of it before it developed problems. Turned out a relay on the control board got so hot it melted the solder joint. Found replacement board on eBay for $10 and am back in business.
While searching, I found there were many recalls on dehumidifiers. From what I saw, most are made by two Chinese manufacturers. Reliability does not seem to be in the forefront.
Next one I buy will be an Aprilaire. Five year warranty and reputed life of at least 15 years. I'm sure someone will squawk about cost, but look at the price of your playtoys.

[Web1111a]

NHAero

Interesting reading on your blog

Are you in construction or was this an offshoot of your own efforts

[benb]

Just got an LG 70 pint unit that I set up to drain into our sump. These things seem to be a crapshoot, someone seems to have trouble with just about every unit on the market and they all have mixed reviews. We got ours with a nice coupon/sale from a local appliance store. I couldn't really tell what to do with regards to the sump, I basically have it "loosely" covered right now to try and prevent the moisture from evaporating out of the sump right back into the air, but I didn't want it too sealed up in case the pump actually turned on. (Which has never actually happened since we put it in.)

Seems to be doing a great job so far, it's got a hygrometer readout on the top. Only thing that is a little weird is it runs the fan continuously even when the actual dehumidifier isn't running, apparently to mix the air to get a better humidity reading.

Our basement is finished and has heat/AC. Most of the time the humidity stays relatively sane. We need to humidify in the winter, and the basement is on the same HVAC circuit as the first floor. In the summer the AC seems to help keep humidity in check. But there are these seasonal times like right now where it is neither cold enough or hot enough for the HVAC to actually run much and then the humidity goes up.

I have gotten sensitive to it as I have my guitar stuff setup in the finished basement. Guitars don't like humidity changes, even ones that would probably be fine otherwise. We got a little water in the sump last month and it raised the humidity in the basement since the heat/AC wasn't running and it made my acoustic guitar really really unhappy (unplayable). The LG seems to be working as my guitars are staying super stable since I put it in.

[fuzzalow]

We've been running a couple of big de Longhis that we got at Costco.

They have worked well for the past 5 or 6 summers. They can be set to drain automatically, but usually I just dump the water on the garden. Same deal with filters--and they can get a little gunked up so you do have to clean them.

Same here on the DeLonghis from Costco - the 3-foot high white plastic model that reminds me of an R2-D2 droid. I only needed one and got to running it with the drain pump feature after finding out how quick the water holding tank fills up. Ran the plastic aquarium-type drain tubing to dump into the slop sink drain.

It is not cheap to run these units as far as electricity usage but a) you don't have much choice and b) I used to get ripped-off by the very high electric rates from LIPA on Long Island. The units are noisy (the thing has gotta move air) so when you're downstairs in your man cave, you get to hear it kick on every so often.

Some of the joys of home ownership. But when you own it, you're gonna take care of it.

[Fatty]

Have a 20+ year old Kenmore in my basement. Run like a top after dozens of power blips and brownouts. Noisy. Newer stuff is a lot quieter.

[NHAero]

I'm a mechanical engineer who has focused on very high performance buildings. I worked as a consultant for 30 years then moved to Martha's Vineyard where I work 1/3 time in a reduced consulting practice, and 2/3 time for an integrated architecture/engineering/construction/cabinetry/solar company, South Mountain, that has been a long time client. Almost all of our projects are designed to produce as much energy as they consume.

My wife says I'm only interested in buildings and bikes, and that may be pretty close!

NHAero

Interesting reading on your blog

Are you in construction or was this an offshoot of your own efforts

[josephr]

^^^^^^^^This!

Our previous house had a sump pump that the dehumidifier could drain into on its own. Very nice. Current house has no sump or drain. Emptying the water manually, particularly in the humidity of summer, is about as charming as root canal.

i had a dehumidifier with a humidity sensor on it and just let it run all year long in our basement connected that drained to our a/c condensation sump pump. once a year I had to clean out the sump with some bleach, but otherwise it was about as low-maintenance as could get.:D

[unterhausen]

We had a frigidare that worked really well except for the stupid drain design that always leaked into the tank (there was a recall for that, but I missed it). Then it got recalled. After that it failed, so I finally got around to sending in for the recall. Turns out that almost every common brand of dehumidifier is made in the same factory in China, so it's just another example of Consumer Reports not actually doing a useful test. If anyone has a low-end dehumidifier they bought at a big-box store in the last 5-10 years, it would be wise to check to see if it was recalled. These units will catch on fire and burn down your house. The check came really quickly