dehumidifier?

[Greg Stanford]

I have a problem w/ moisture in my south Mississippi shop, would a dehumidifier be of help to me? What should I look for in one? Thanks.

[Andy Muckle]

A dehumidifier makes a big difference during the humid summer in my basement shop in NJ.

[Prashun Patel]

Don't go nuts. Get a middle of the road one from Lowes or HD. If you get a 5 yr life out of one, it will be well worth the $50-100 it'll cost to replace.

Don't forget to budget for the garden hose to pipe it to yr sump or plumbing. If you don't have one, I highly suggest you get a greywater pump and pump it outside somehow. Manually emptying the buckets every day gets very old in a day.

[Charles Wiggins]

What should I look for in one?

Consumer Reports covered dehumidifiers in the July 2010 issue and they answer that question quite well and recommend specific models. It's worth checking out. Your local library probably either subscribes or has electronic access to it.

We used a Kenmore in my wife's basement craft room for 5 years and it made all of the difference. Moisture is paper's worst enemy and we had hundreds invested in craft papers. However, emptying it can be a pain in the buttocks. If you can set it up to drain automatically it will save you a lot of aggravation, especially if you're not in the shop every day to do the emptying.

If you don't have good dust management in your shop I might be a bit concerned that that excess dust would shorten the life of the machine. Ours has a thin pre-filter that I vacuum out once a year or so, be we are only dealing with normal household dust.

[George Bokros]

Don't go nuts. Get a middle of the road one from Lowes or HD. If you get a 5 yr life out of one, it will be well worth the $50-100 it'll cost to replace.

Don't forget to budget for the garden hose to pipe it to yr sump or plumbing. If you don't have one, I highly suggest you get a greywater pump and pump it outside somehow. Manually emptying the buckets every day gets very old in a day.

I had one from Lowes, it died while under warranty (approx 1 yr old) and was replaced by the mfg, which one doesn't come to mind right now (GE or Whirlpool), the replacement died in about a year also. I have had several from Sears and one lasted at least 15 yrs. My parents had a Sears and it lasted over 25 yrs. I am currently using a Sears that was my inlaws and I have had it five years and it still runs great. Mother in law didn't want to run it because it used electricity and was wasteful. This being said it has been in use at least the equivalent of 8 yrs.

No more Lowes dehumidifiers for me.

[Jim Laumann]

Speaking from the basement perspective....

We've had a Sears unit running since 1977 - it still runs and is sucking water out the air. I have it connected to a timer - it runs for 45 minutes per 2hr cycle.

I used to have the collection tub hooked to a hose - which dumped in the sump pump pit, but when we radon proofed the basement, the sump pit got sealed - so now we use the tub and a 5 gal. pail. I dump it each day after supper.

Jim

[Derek Gilmer]

I had good luck picking up a dehumidifier from searsoutlet.com. I wanted to try building a D/H kiln and had read that using them in a kiln can be harsh so I wanted to get a cheap one to start with. I found a 35 pint model for $50 bucks near by and picked up an extended warranty for $15 or so more. Not bad for 3 years of guaranteed life

http://www.searsoutlet.com/d/product...t=dehumidifier

[paul dyar]

I have the Kenmore 46 pint. Been running for over a year. I thr summer I have to empty it every day. Right now mabe ever other day. The basement is 25 x56, but it seems to do ok. If it quits I will get another one. It is worth it to keep my tools from rusting,and the lumber in the basement getting to high on the moister.
Paul

[raul segura]

I ran a 1/4 inch rigid pipe through the wall and about eight feet out very small hole to cover up later works fine.

[Ernie Miller]

If you don't have good dust management in your shop I might be a bit concerned that that excess dust would shorten the life of the machine. Ours has a thin pre-filter that I vacuum out once a year or so, be we are only dealing with normal household dust.

+1 on what Charles said. Dehumidifiers will clog quickly in a shop atmosphere. My last one lasted one season before it clogged up to the point of leaking water all over the floor. Good dust control (which I don't have) is a must.

[Steven DeMars]

Stay away from the China made Whirlpool sold at LOWES. I am now on my second one.

The first "rusted" out & they replaced it under warranty after much fighting.

This one is already rusting out . . .

Steve

[Dan Duperron]

I use dehumidifiers in two places - one in my shop and one in the lower level of the house in the utility room. I'm on my fourth one in 10yr. in the utility room (one Kenmore, three LGs - both LG replacements covered under warranty). In the shop is a ~20yo Kenmore that just won't quit. I had a Kenmore in in the basement of my last house (~15y ago) that ran like a tank, never gave me trouble. One of the reasons I originally bought the LG was that it had a 3-year warranty. New ones are 1yr.

My take on quality is that the older ones seem to have been more durable, but were certainly less efficient and thus more expensive to run. I agree with Charles, take a look at the Consumer Reports article and place your bets.

For the shop make sure you get one that is rated for "low temperature" service.

I'm lucky in dealing with the condensate in that I have nearby floor drains in both locations. If you are not so lucky I suggest you look into getting a small condensate pump. These devices run on 120VAC and are designed to pump the condensate generated by a high-efficiency gas furnace into the nearest drain. They pump out through small (~1/2" dia) clear flexible pipe and will push water from floor level to ceiling, then quite a horizontal distance. There is a bowl with a float switch so the pump only runs when the bowl gets full.

Once you plumb the dehumidifier outlet to the condensate pump everything should work on autopilot, no buckets to empty.

Good luck.

[Randy Dutkiewicz]

I've run a Kenmore for the last 8 years without issue in my garage workshop. I am a firm believer they are a MUST to assist in keeping the tools rust free (along with general CI maintenance) - especially during the hot, humid summers we have here in GA. I'd be lost without mine!!

[Keith Avery]

I bought a New old Kenmore from a salvage/flea market type of store. He had about 40 new units and was selling them for 70 dollars. It is mostly metal on the outside so I don't think it is a current model but the tape holding the bucket and the label were still on it. It has done an excellent job of keeping the humdity below 50 percent in my barn(30 by 48 with 12 foot ceiling at the lowest point). I was surprised it was so effective on such a big area. I don't have a subpanel in the barn yet so it is powered with an extension cord. I bought a remote temp/humidity gauge at Costco which has been interesting. The breaker has trip a couple of times and you can see the humidity begin to rise in a couple of hours when it goes off(in the summer). When I had the floor poured I setup drains in several places which is definitely necessary as it would fill a bucket in a few hours during mid July. I am looking at a split ductless ac system and many of them have a dehumidify only setting which I think will be great.

[Harry Hagan]

My brother is still using the dehumidifier our dad bought from Sears in the early 60s. It’s at least 45 years old and still going strong. With that in mind, the ones I’ve purchase from Sears have lasted from 6 months to around 4 years.
A dehumidifier is one of the few purchases that I had considered adding an extended warranty. But that’s not much help when they keep it for three weeks, don’t call you when it’s shipped back, and then tell you they can’t repair it. After that, I bought two Kenmore units stored in their damaged freight room at the repair center for 50% off each unit. Not a scratch on either one of them and now I have a brand new backup for the price of one unit. Check out the Sears repair center for one in a damaged box.