Dehumidfier suggestions needed

[MrBond]

I'm living in a very humid basement this summer. I can't sleep in the humidity, and with the course/workload I'm going to have, I'm going to need my sleep. The house has no A/C, so it's usually miserable to live there in the summer (its not uncommon for us to not use the hot water at all in the shower).

I've got some cash now, so I'm going to pick up another dehumidifer to keep me comfortable in the basement. I'm looking at two Kenmore models, a 50 and a 70pint/day model. If I buy from sears, I'm going to spend about $170 on the 50 pint model, but if I get it on ebay, I can get the 70 pint model for the same price after shipping (It's $200 at sears).

I'm a little leary of buying something from ebay in the event it goes bad and I need to get warranty work done at Sears, but I might be willing to take the risk.

Can anyone comment on the performance of a 70pint vs a 50pint?

 

[Kelemvor]

Difference is only in how fast they remove the water from the air. Bigger ones remove more water from the air faster but they will also be louder, larger, take more electricity, etc. The main thing is that normally what you would need to do is buy it, set it on high so it runs constantly for a while to get the humidity under control, and then set it to where you want it to remain.

Unless you have tons of water, it shoudln't be able to re-humidify faster than the dehumidifier can pull the water back out.

Anyway, I'd always go with the new one just because with an appliance like that, who knows how it's been used.

Also, depending on the size of the space, you could get two smaller oens and space them in opposite sides of the area instead of trying to get one big one to do the whole thing...

 

[K1052]

Pipe the output to a drain so you don't have to empty it. Just set it at the desired level and it will take care of itself.

 

[woowoo]

Any windows in the basement?
Maybe a small AC unit........
Just a thought.

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: woowoo
Any windows in the basement?
Maybe a small AC unit........
Just a thought.

There's a couple windows, but there's only one in the area where my room will be. Plus it looks right out on our driveway, which is narrow enough as it is. Someone would most definatly drive on my air conditioner 🙂

I can pipe it to the drain really easily. I might pick one up at Sears today and install it this weekend. I'm moving in next weekend, so if I set it on high it should get it pretty dry by the time I move in.

There's quite a difference in power consumption too, and we've got 20 amp breakers, so a 50pint units ~5amps is much better than the ~8amps the 70 pint unit consumes.

Thanks for the suggestions guys 🙂

 

[Chunkee]

enjoy that electric bill!

 

[geckojohn]

Where are you living at that you have so much humidity?

 

[EagleKeeper]

Small ones should just sit on a floor.
Run the hose to the drain and plug it in.

Should be no installation required.

As an added benefit, you get distilled water; good for irons and drinking.

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: geckojohn
Where are you living at that you have so much humidity?

NW Ohio, believe it or not. We're living in an older house that's not vented correctly at all. Last summer, with only one dehumidifier (the old one) in the basement, it got so bad that black mold started to grow under the rug and there was mold growing on the side of my buddy's dresser. It was like a rainforest in the room I'll be staying in.

I'm not too worried about the electric bill - the last summer I was in the house I had three fans + a ceiling fan running on "High" the entire summer. I'll only have one window now and it's too small for a fan, so the dehumidfier will hopefully keep me cool

 

[geckojohn]

Wow, that's kinda neat that theres that much humidity there... it's way too dry in CA. I wish it was more humid sometimes.