Dehumidifiers: Pros/Cons

Hi,

If it makes 3 gallons a day and you want to leave it for a week or longer how will you get rid of the 20 odd gallons it makes a week when unattended?

Hi,

I was curious as I have thought about doing the same for a house that I have that is often left empty for months and months on end.

I have thought about drilling a hole in the floor bigger than the pipe and running a pipe outside for the drain. If the thing overflowed hopefully the excess water would drain through the hole in the floor around the pipe anyway.

I put my Florida boat on the hard for summer, shrink wrap and leave a dehumidifier running 24/7 with drain into the galley sink, keeps the boat fresh along with charcoal and open bleach bottles to kill bugs etc..boat smells just like I left it the day before...

In the old day my parents left one on a chair with the hose draining into the toilet when their house was vacant. No sense making a permanent solution for a temporary problem.
More to the point of this thread though, what year is the boat? Most systems installed during the past 10 plus years have a dehumidifier setting. The newer units make it very clear with a drop indication. On older units press heat, cool and fan together (upside-down triangle).

Entirely possible on an '87 although the controls prior to the current generation don't have an indicator for dehumidify cycle. This link shows the control I'm referring to: Cruisair Marine Air Conditioning. On this, when you press the upside-down triangle (Heat, Cool, Fan) "HU" will appear where you normally see the temp. If your control is older than these you might be best off just changing over to a modern control that can be set for dehumidifier. That way your unit turns on when humidity reaches a certain point rather than temp (which will probably have your unit running constantly until it clogs in the Gulf).
I'd also leave a few Damp Rids strategically place throughout the boat down there.

No, if in the slip, and away, everything goes off except about 4 fans , works ok for short term..

Leave the dehumidifiers in the bathtubs and if there isn't a separate overflow hose just cut a hole in the pan and aim it towards the tub drain. Left one in each bathroom on a 24 hour timer so that they'd run during low rate power times. Just visited the place for the first time in 8 months and all good.

We do the same here. A dehumidifyer is an absolute must have, especially this time of year with 80-98% relative humidity. When I first started using it I got a little carried away and set the machine to dehumidify to a 40% humidity. The plaster came falling of the ceilings after a few days.

We use one Phillips, 20 Gall per 24/H unit to keep 3 floors dry.

Boats with bathtubs that drain overboard by gravity ?? most are pumped which means pump failure leads to bathtub filling up and possible electrical short ?

Hi, Houses and apartments are also being discussed in the thread.

Apologies. I should have been specific. I was responding to K1W1's post regarding a house left empty for extended periods.

In a boat I'd be inclined to find the highest point possible to mount the dehumidifier and pipe the water outside.

Usually is something I try not to trust too often...but, I see your point. hopefully the boat does also..lol..

Several of the vessels I work on have dehumidifiers (steel hulls+cold weather=condensation). They work great. Depending on conditions, the 1.5 gallon drip pan needs to be emptied every 4 to 12 hours. It would be easy to plumb a drain line to the pan. It's noisy and generates a fair amount of heat, though. Dayton brand. Most of the time they are off. I've also used a low wattage heater for dehumidification in unoccupied boats, and that worked well too (a unit designed specifically for that purpose).