Farm Project #5 Dehumidifier

 Farm Project #5:  Basement Dehumidifier

We have a number of these portable dehumidifiers various places.  Some I let fill their tanks and empty them by hand; others I have connected tubes to that drain them into a floor drain.  They are supposed to have a built in humidistat but I am never sure that they work.  The particular one I have hooked up in the basement at the farm is located in the room where my safe, the pressure-tank, and the hot water heater are located.  That room tends to get quite humid and it is a good place to drop the humidity before it gets into the rest of the house.  It is connected to a tube that runs out the door and under the bed to a floor drain, and I have it set all the way up but connected to a timer so that it just runs a few hours a day.

Since we are seldom at the farm, I worry about the unit freezing up and not operating, so the off-time obviates that, giving the grids plenty of time to thaw in the event that they freeze.

This first visit was in mid-June and during a very hot and humid period.  The basement floor was cold and the humidity was condensing on it and beading up.  I bought a measuring device and the percentage was 88 in that downstairs bedroom!  I had already hooked up both portable air conditioners and they were venting some of it to the outside but obviously couldn't handle it all.

After a day of watching, I realized that this portable was not removing any water from the air.  I took a flashlight and could see that no water was dripping down the tube as in the past.  There was some water on the floor, just a bit, of the unit though.  I have never tried to figure what was wrong with these units, and I didn't have the time or energy to do it to this one, so I hopped in the van and drove to WalMart.  The only unit they had was pricey and looked weak.

Drove over to Theisen's, which is like a Farm & Fleet or Fleet Farm or Tractor Supply.  They had a good looking one and it was even on sale.  Unlike the WalMart model I would not have to buy the scaled-up version in order to attach a tube.

Bought it and zipped back to the farm where I simply plugged it in and lit it up.  For that afternoon and night I let it just fill the tank, which it did.  I emptied three tanks before getting around to hooking up the tube, which turned out to be threaded the same, so I just removed my old fitting adapter from the old humidifier and screwed it on to the new one.

I left it running, on the timer, and hopefully it is keeping the humidity down, because I turn off the air conditioners when I leave.  
We'll see next visit, which should be soon, because I have work to do.  I am going to open the old one, when I get a chance, and in the meantime I will scan You-Tube videos for ideas.