Nate Nagel wrote:
Nate Nagel wrote:
Dave Martindale wrote:
N8N writes:
is there *anything* that doesn't suck? Anything at all? All I see
are comments like "I had this for two weeks and it died" "loud, rattly
POS" "doesn't really have a deice feature, just shuts off until the
ice melts" yadda yadda yadda.
Do you really need a heated deice mode?
We have a Chinese-made Whirlpool brand bought from Home Depot a few
years ago. It runs the fan only when it needs to, which is mostly when
the compressor is running (but see below).
It has electronic controls that do not restart the unit after a power
failure. That's actually an advantage in some circumstances, because it
means a momentary power failure while the unit is running will not try
to restart the compressor under running head pressure. What you
*really* want is electronic controls that, when power comes back on,
remembers that the unit was last turned on, waits a few minutes, and
then restarts automatically. But I haven't seen such a unit.
This dehumidifier will operate in low temperatures. The controller is
aware that the evaporator will freeze up, and periodically shuts down
the compressor while running the fan in "high" to defrost it. That
seems to work well enough, and doesn't require a solenoid valve or extra
plumbing like hot gas defrost. It doesn't just wait for the ice to
melt.
Dave
Hmm... maybe I should check 'em out. I've seen some reviews of poor
reliability of Whirlpools too, but not much more than the others.
What I want is something that I can "set and forget" in my garage,
which I may only go into once a week or so. It does get below
freezing here occasionally, but not for long periods of time, and my
garage gets damp enough that I feel I want a dehumidifier, but no
condensation, weeping, anything like that - just a vague feeling of
dampness and a slight musty odor.
I was actually out in there this afternoon and it felt less musty than
I remembered, maybe my grading is slowly but surely working. I
wouldn't mind a quieter unit in the basement though, so I guess I'm
looking for something suitable that I can try out in the garage and if
I like it I'll probably buy another one for the basement (similar
conditiona; no apparent water problems other than one leaky window
that only shows up in very heavy rain, but it isn't quite as dry as
I'd like without the dehumidifier running.)
I guess that's why I don't like the idea of a fan running 24/7 - I
don't need serious dehumidification or constant airflow, I just want
something to take the edge off.
nate
I've been doing some more searching, it looks like what I'm looking for
simply isn't available. So... are there any that correctly restart
after a power outage? Brands available to me locally are only
Frigidaire and LG/Zenith. I know the Frigidaire doesn't. How about
LG/Zenith? I'm thinking of getting a used one off Craigslist and
putting it on a cheap Intermatic timer so it only runs a couple hours a
day. I figure that's about the only way to keep the power consumption
low. That way I can force it to run in the middle of the night as well,
when it won't bother anyone.
nate
Ha- I finally got a one line response from Frigidaire customer
service... two days after I gave up waiting and returned their ****ty
dehumidifier. Just referred me to local appliance repair guy without
mentioning anything about my question about the fan running all the time.
Not that I really expect better customer service from anyone, really...
it's all disposable chinese crap and call centers in pakistan or
something these days. Kinda sad but maybe the dollar going through the
floor will actually give companies the ability to move customer service
back stateside...
nate
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