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Dehumidifier recommendation?

Murdoc

Murdoc

Member
Last summer, my basement was very humid and musty smelling, so I want to start looking for a dehumidifier to put down there this summer. The basement is 500 sq ft. The house is old (1920) so there is no sump, but there is a floor drain that I can run a hose to to drain the dehumidifier.

Can anyone recommendation a good dehumidifier for my situation?
 
We opted for the SPT 30 Pint and wish I had gone with the 70 Pint.

We have a 1,900 single story in Washington (moist by default). Neither of our bathrooms currently have exhaust vents. We went with the 30 Pint for noise and power considerations (70 Pint is only $50 more). It works ok and can keep the house in the 45% range with continuous running (sometimes even drops down to 40%). The windows stay dry now, no humid smells, power bill didn't go up much, etc.

So why go with a larger unit? One reason is the plan is, after exhaust vents are installed, to move it out of the bathrooms (we wheel it back and forth) and put it in the laundry room with the hose for continuous use. As it will be stationary at one end of the house something with more "sucking" power would help cycle air better. The other reason is noise. The 30 Pint is a lot quitter BUT it is still loud. In retrospect I would have preferred a model that runs half as often (e.g. all night and during the day when I am gone). So if I turn it off for 7 or 8 hours the humidity creeps back up and while the 30 Pint will widdle away a bigger unit would have worked better IMO. And down the road moving it to the laundry it would have the air cycling capacity needed.
 
The Goldstar that I have has a hose hookup to the tank that allows it to either store or direct drain.

What is the average humidity in your area?
 
I was told that if you're going to install one, the key is to get the right size. I was told that you really need a 65-70 pint/day unit for a basement...

If I were going to buy one, I'd probably look at Overstock.com or eBay. You can buy a refurb sometimes at those places and not get burned on shipping or tax. ....or check Sears scratch & dent to see what they have. I've bought from Overstock @ $140 for a 50 pint/day LG. I bought a 60 pint/day Kenmore from Sears for $45. (yeah...I know...open box deal on the searsoutlet website)

Just make sure you go EnergyStar if you're running it 24/7.
 
Use it with an oscillating fan; it helps move the air around better.
Put it on the other side of the room, blowing moist air towards the dehumidifier.

I don't think brand matters much.
 
My research into dehumidifiers revealed that the current models don't have a stellar reputation for reliability. But...they are cheap. I went with a Frigidaire unit and it's done fine for about a year. Best Buy often has deals like 20% off small appliances, and Staples coupons can sometimes work for these too.

I automated mine a bit to keep it from cycling on and off too much. I used a Vera z-wave controller, an aeon smart switch to read wattage pulled, and used the PLEG plugin to keep the unit shut down for X hours between cycles. This way, it runs every X hours (currently 3 hours), turns off when humidity gets low enough, then stays quiet for the next X hours. It works great.
 
Binky said:
My research into dehumidifiers revealed that the current models don't have a stellar reputation for reliability. But...they are cheap.
Click to expand...

I noticed that too from reading Amazon reviews. All brands seem to suffer from poor longevity. They must be using the cheapest possible materials to build these.
 
Murdoc said:
Thanks for the responses. I ordered the Frigidaire. I'll see how it works out.
Click to expand...
The nice thing about the fridgidaire units, from reviews at least, is that if it fails they just give you a refund. I went with the 50 pint and it's done well but I've only had it for a year. Be careful with the water bucket if you plan to use it (I do). It feels flimsy, but mine hasn't broken yet.

How do you have a floor drain in a basement without a pump? Isn't that below ground?
 
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I got the Frigidaire 70 Pint from ABT for my crawl space last year. Same price, free shipping, but no sales tax. Still running. Built a small platform for it out of spare lumber attached to the joists to raise it up so it drains outside, drilled a hole thru the block wall for a piece of PVC pipe, and ran a cheap garden hose from it thru the PVC pipe outside. Plug it off in the winter with a threaded PVC plug.
http://www.abt.com/product/67073/Frigidaire-FAD704DWD.html
 
Murdoc said:
Thanks for the responses. I ordered the Frigidaire. I'll see how it works out.
Click to expand...

I bought the 70-pint Frigidaire a few years ago based on reviews (4 stars out of 500+ reviews), it's the older model now:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0034G4OB8/

iirc it has a hose hookup (we just dump the bucket because we don't have a drain in every room). It's been working great for everything from humidity to leaks. One summer was particularly humid & it would fill up nearly completely full every night. Plus we could move it around from room to room, which was nice.

We actually just had some bad ice dam damage & had to tear up the carpet & have been using it to dry out the rooms now that it's getting warmer. So it's been working well for a few years now without issues.
 
I've been following this since the dehumidifier that came with my house I bought in November has a burned out fan motor (it is really old too). I don't know what capacity it is, but it sounds like the general recommendation is the 70 pint models. When would the 50 pint be fine? Just looking at it from a cost to purchase and cost to operate POV.
 
FWIW I installed a 65 pint whole house dehumidifier for ~1400 sqft in FLA. If I did it again I'd probably do a 90 pint unit.

Sent from my Moto G Play using Tapatalk
 
ISAslot said:
FWIW I installed a 65 pint whole house dehumidifier for ~1400 sqft in FLA. If I did it again I'd probably do a 90 pint unit.
Click to expand...

I installed a standing unit for my crawlspace as it was getting to 70-80% humidity down there. I didn't see the point in spending 5x as much on one of those in-line units, which would be overkill for the crawlspace. Unfortunately, now I'm just having issue after issue. I bought a GE unit that had a pump built in, and it was great... until the pump died after a few months. I ended up replacing it with a separate pump that relies on the garden hose attachment, which seems to work... until the bucket fills up after a few days anyway. It seems like this piece of junk needs to be at this very specific angle, or else water will get into the bucket regardless. It isn't 100% level, but it's very, very close (I took a reading on all four sides).

I'm tempted to just modify the piece of junk to remove the bucket and send the bucket's port into the Little Giant pump that I have. All I have to do is figure out where the sensor is that recognizes that the bucket is installed, and keep it locked down.

Ultimately, I wouldn't have these issues if I would have just gone with a normal in-line unit. I could also do a fancy setup to have it service the house and the crawlspace as my house does sometimes get a bit too humid -- especially if the temperatures are low enough for the AC to not come on, but it's muggy outside.
 
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