I just bought an "LG" dehumidifier from The Home Depot (yeah, yeah, I
know, buying from HD is always a mistake). The box claimed that it had
a threaded hose connection, but when I opened it up, I discovered that
what it has instead is a disconnected plastic pipe, about nine inches
long, with threads at one end and narrower at the other end.

To use a hose, you're supposed to (a) punch out the cut-out in the back
of the dehumidifier about a foot from the bottom, (b) screw the plastic
pipe into a hose, (c) insert the pipe into the cut-out hole in the back
far enough for the other end to enclose the plastic pipe that the water
drips out of, and (d) "lock" the pipe into place with a couple of
plastic tabs sticking out of it.

Of course, it doesn't work, for many reasons, including:

* The plastic tabs are just barely enough to hold the pipe in place
when a hose is attached to it and putting weight on it. You have to
get everything Exactly Right to get it to stay, and even the slightest
jostle can dislodge it. Furthermore, it's obvious that over time, the
plastic tabs will mold to the position they're wedged into and thus
stop applying pressure, at which point they'll completely stop holding
the pipe in place.

* The pipe is horizontal, which means that you need to tilt the
humidifier slightly backwards to have any chance at all of water
running into the hose, as opposed to running into the pipe and
immediately running back out into the bucket beneath the water outlet.

* The pipe attaches right where the water drips out, not at the bottom
of the bucket, which means that there's no water pressure to force the
water into the hose. As a result, it doesn't actually go into the
hose; it instead drips back out into the bucket or (worse) finds some
other avenue of escape and runs all over the floor.

* The instructions claim that the hose should be kept completely flat
but do not explain how exactly you're supposed to do that when the
pipe is inserted into the back of the dehumidifier about a foot off of
the ground.

I don't think the dehumidifier has a manufacturing defect; I just think
it's yet another example of a shoddy manufacturer attempting to graft a
"feature" onto a product without caring that the design they've come up
with won't actually work. If I had to guess, I'd guess that the hose
connection method was poorly grafted onto an already finished
dehumidifier design in the cheapest possible way.

I've seen Usenet postings suggesting that I install a bulkhead hose
fitting near the bottom of the bucket and run a hose from there. I'm
sure I could do that, but I'd rather just buy a dehumidifier which has
a proper hose draining design. Can anybody recommend one?

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