Dehumidifiers

[DonS]

I'm guessing this is the right place to post this. Moderators if not please feel free to move me.

I'm about to take a job that will take me away from the family during the weeks. Plan is to live in a fifth wheel that we've recently bought. Since it's in South GA humidity is going to be an issue all year round. I've read up on different types and the small canned pellets seem to be fine for storage but I need something that's going to do the job year round. My son will be coming down some and he deals with allergies so air quality will be an issue as well. Anyone got any suggestions as to what to look for and if there are models that are better than others? I'd like to find something that's on the quiet side.

Thanks.

[geo]

Don -

We got an Eva-Dry EDV-2200 electronic dehumidifier and are quite please with it.

Ron

[hankaye]

DonS, Howdy;

I just keep thinkin' about how often you might have to empty the water out of the thing. They remove the water (humidity), so it (the water) has to end-up somewhere.....

Airconditioners do the same job and have a handy outdoor disposal systen already built into the system...

hank

[geo]

Now, Hank, you are correct about that! But right now in north Texas - it's only about once a month or so! But even the passive units containing calcium carbonate have to be emptied and more chemical purchased. The Eva-Dry does have an automatic shutoff that works against my laziness! ;)

Ron

[ktmracer]

we go to the oregon coast in the winter, and it rains, so humidity is a problem. We carry along a Heier small compressor based dehumidifier. It will remove about 3 gallons of water/day if needed. Cost was about $120, has wheels to roll around. Usually I empty it twice the first day, then once/day. It is designed so you can run a dump tube directly to an drain if you want. Reasonably quite and does a good job. The smaller non compressor driven units (thermoelectric modules) are quieter, but do not remove near as much water. We use it at the coast since in the winter there is no reason to run the A/C. If your in a place where you run the A/C, it will do a pretty good job of dehumidifing by itself. All the portable compressor driven dehumidifers are is a self contained small heat pump that runs air across a chilled coil to lower the air temp below the dew point and extract moisture then blow it back across the heated side of the heat pump back into the air.

[DonS]

Thanks for all of the input. Believe it or not we actually get some cold weather in Georgia (it was 22 this morning) and early Spring and late Fall can be pretty mild so the A/C won't run year round. I've looked at the Eva-Dry systems and it's good to know they are quiet. Draining the thing will be an issue but I guess I can handle a canister once a day or so. KTM does the Heier have an option for a pump or is it gravity fed to a drain only? Anyone have any luck with systems that have a humidistat so the humidity can be kept constant? Air that is too dry can be just as bad as too much. Nothing like waking up with a bloody nose. :(

[smiller]

On the subject of dehumidifiers... I've never owned one, but I wonder if they are useful in marginal situations where it isn't all that hot but high humidity makes you want to turn on the A/C. Does a humidifier increase comfort enough to avoid A/C in these cases?

[ktmracer]

Thanks for all of the input. Believe it or not we actually get some cold weather in Georgia (it was 22 this morning) and early Spring and late Fall can be pretty mild so the A/C won't run year round. I've looked at the Eva-Dry systems and it's good to know they are quiet. Draining the thing will be an issue but I guess I can handle a canister once a day or so. KTM does the Heier have an option for a pump or is it gravity fed to a drain only? Anyone have any luck with systems that have a humidistat so the humidity can be kept constant? Air that is too dry can be just as bad as too much. Nothing like waking up with a bloody nose. :(

The heier does have an option to gravity drain the water, but no pump and it does have a humistat so you can adjust the humidity level. The humistat doesn't have a "relative humidity" number, just a continously variable range from "very dry" through normal and "high". I've found the "normal" range gets the humidity into the 30-35% range, which is pretty comfortable for us. It also has a "high" and "low" fan speed

[DonS]

Thanks for the follow up.

[BoosTT]

On the subject of dehumidifiers... I've never owned one, but I wonder if they are useful in marginal situations where it isn't all that hot but high humidity makes you want to turn on the A/C. Does a humidifier increase comfort enough to avoid A/C in these cases?

You really don't use a dehumidifer for comfort. Modern ones are noisy and create heat.