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Question about Dehumidifiers

Icegoddess — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 01:14:38 GMT

Wondering if anybody here has a room dehumidifier. We have a stand-alone room dehumidifier we got to see if it helped with our cat's asthma, which it seems to do. I live in the South, so we have high humidity during the summer. We try to keep the room below 60% and my husband has been amazed by how much water we get out of the air. We had a good bit of rain this week and I was emptying it about 3x/24 hour period.

Now, my question: Right now the humidity is in the 40's and the thing still runs on occasion. Is this normal?

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

Desertdi — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 02:32:01 GMT

There should be a "humidity control" setting on the unit

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

Icegoddess — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 02:35:37 GMT

@Desertdi wrote:
There should be a "humidity control" setting on the unit

@Desertdi there is, it's set on 55%.

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

Foxxee — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 02:41:24 GMT

I have two room dehumidifiers. Both work the same way.

Both of mine sometimes run constantly when it's raining outside and a day or two afterwards until the house reaches the preset humidity on the dehumidifier.

Emptying pans three times during high humidity outside is not unusual. Just means it is working.

Eventually, when it dries out outside they stop running when they reach the percent humidity set on the dehumidifier. Then turn off and on to maintain that percent. They work like central AC's. The compressor turns on and off to maintain the temperature set on the thermostat, except dehumidifiers don't blow cold air. Same as furnaces...off and on to maintain the temperature in the house.

You say it still runs on occasion even though the humidity is 40% outside. This is normal and the way they are supposed to work.

You are cooking (steam), running water, water in the toilets, doing laundry, humidity, etc that normally accumulates inside the house.

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

Icegoddess — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 02:48:26 GMT

@Foxxee , no, the dehumidifier shows what the humidity is INSIDE the house and I have a separate sensor that also shows me both inside and outside humidities. Even though I have it set at 55%, and the inside humidity is around 46% right now, it's still runs on occasion for about two or three minutes. The rest of what you said I agree with and is how I would expect it to run.

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

Shanus — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 03:45:12 GMT

My humidifier sits on a table near my bed. I keep it filled w/ water and it runs 24/7. In winter, when heat's on, the house becomes dry and so does my skin. In summer, with a/c, the humidity is removed from the air so my humidifier adds it back to my skin during the night.

The systems in the house also handle the humidity in the house.

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

Carmie — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 03:59:50 GMT

I have a large dehumidifier in my finished basement. It is on 24/7/365. We never turn it off. It automatically empties water into a drain. I am always amazed how much water It pulls out of the air.

Some homes and some areas of the country are humid all year around. I think it is normal for dehumidifiers to " go on" whenever the humidity gets over the % you set up. Outside humidity can be different than inside humidity.

Crazy us..we have a humidifier upstairs where it is too dry when the heat is on.

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

Icegoddess — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 03:58:40 GMT

@Shanus , I'm talking about a DEhumidifier.

I know AC is supposed to take some of the moisture out of the air, but around here apparently not that much since my husband was so surprised at how much water the dehumidifier was taking out.

Pretty soon I'll start running a Humidifier for my plants (in a different room) and probably the one next to my bed at night. I know it's good for the skin and my sinuses.

I'm only running a DEhumidifier because it seems to help my asthmatic cat. Before I got it I was having to give him nebulizer treatments almost every day and the vet had even added another drug to the mix. But since we started running the dehumidifier he only needs strictly albuterol treatments every 2 or 3 or 4 days.

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

Annabellethecat66 — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 04:04:19 GMT

Ditto same as @Foxxee . Mine are at both ends of the house.

Those things fill up constantly. The minute they fill up and cut off, I can feel it.

I can’t stand high humidity.

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

Foxxee — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 15:06:55 GMT

@Icegoddess

OK, you're saying your dehumidifier goes on when it shouldn't?

Did you try placing your hygrometer (sensor) next to the dehumidifier to see if they match or are close? 9% points is a lot. Wouldn't worry about a few percentage points or even 5. If you move your portable sensor around the room, you may have noticed there is variance of percentage points. Normal.

Are you sure your portable sensor is accurate? I have three. Right now, one reads 50, another 54, the third 58. All are in the same room. To make sure they were accurate, I put them all together when I got them making sure they matched each other. They consistently were different percentage points. Two are the same model. The other is not. All three are good quality. I have 4 more elsewhere, all from different manufacturers. All read a little differently, but not enough to cause me to stop using them.

My experience has been portable thermostats read more closely than hygrometers. Those I have are both in one unit. The thermostats read exactly or 1 degree from the others when they are side by side. The hygrometers do not. It appears it's the nature of hygrometers for homeowners even the more expensive ones.

I also noticed there is a variation on dehumidifiers and window/portable AC's because dehumidified or cold air blows out around the gauges/sensors.

You can try to set the dehumidifier to your external sensor, but I'd make sure it's accurate. If it is, I'd try setting the percent humidity at 65% to compensate for the dehumidifier running 9% points below the 55% you want. Watch what it does comparing the % with your external sensor. If that doesn't work, experiment with different percents until your external sensor settles at around 55%, but I'd keep it next to the dehumidifier while you're testing it.

In other words you might find setting your dehumidifier at around 65% might get your desired 55%. Your dehumidifier is set at 55%, but it appears it's thinking it's set at 46%.

But, don't expect these portable units to be perfect, they aren't. It might be consistently a little off or may vary a certain number of percentage points day to day. If during your testing, it's all over the place, your humidity gauge on the dehumidifier might be defective.

If I still didn't understand, let me know. I'll shake my thinking cap out and put it back on.

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

pigletsmom — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 13:53:05 GMT

@Icegoddess Does the dehumidifier help with your kitty? My cat has asthma too but much worse in the summer. I've been considering a dehumidifier.

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

Shanus — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 14:25:29 GMT

@Icegoddess Ah, sorry I misread the OP. So it's like taking your kitty to Arizona?

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

Icegoddess — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 14:26:35 GMT

@pigletsmom wrote:
@Icegoddess Does the dehumidifier help with your kitty? My cat has asthma too but much worse in the summer. I've been considering a dehumidifier.

@pigletsmom I feel like it does. He had a sudden downturn this summer where we went from needing a nebulizer treatment (albuterol) once every 3 or 4 months to once or sometimes even twice a day. The doctor even added another drug to his nebulizer treatments. That's on top of his prednisolone he gets daily. After we got the dehumidifier, he dropped to only needing just the albuterol nebulizer once every 2 to 4 days. However, we have finally gotten some fall weather here and the humidity is lower, yet he has needed a treatment 2 days in a row. Go figure.

Do you use Flovent (an inhaler) with your kitty? Prednisolone, which is what I give mine, has a possible side effect of diabetes. So, the Flovent is a safer soution. But, I haven't been successful in getting Sambo to accept the little mouthpiece. He's not food oriented, so using treats to train doesn't work for him.

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

Icegoddess — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 14:36:50 GMT

@Foxxee , yeah, I know hygrometers are not that accurate. I currently have my portable one sitting next to my dehumidifier. The variance changes. Right now it's 48 vs 42 on my dehumidifier. I have seen it be a spread of 10 at times though. But, you would think the on/off of the dehumidifier would work within just a few percentage point. It wouldn't bother me so much if it weren't so loud. I have difficulty hearing the TV when it runs so I'm often turning the TV volume up and down (assuming I'm actually paying attention to it).

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

pigletsmom — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 19:40:02 GMT

@Icegoddess Thanks for the info. I've been lucky with my cat and she's normally been pretty good in the fall and worse in summer. I think this is the first fall she's continued to cough a little. She isn't so bad that she needs a nebulizer thankfully. I do have the prednisolone for her. I used to give her that a couple times a week during summer and we could drop off in the winter. I was glad about that because she was diagnosed pretty young an I didn't want her on them constantly for life.

Re: Question about Dehumidifiers

LonestarBabs — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 18:23:31 GMT

I had a dehumidifier in our garage and used it primarily when household goods were stored there before I secured a climate-controlled storage unit. I was surprised at how often I had to empty it (I could have drilled a hole in the garage door for a hose to continuously empty into an outside drain but I didn't), but it did cycle on/off when the humidity level in the garage exceeded the setting. This is normal. It worked beautifully.