Nate Nagel wrote:
Hi guys,
I'd like to set up a dehumidifier in my basement so it doesn't have to
be emptied all the time. Due to space considerations I don't think
tying it into my existing condensate pump is practical; that is jammed
between the furnace and the hot water heater, near the clothes dryer. So
the obvious solution would be to just add another condensate pump to get
the water over to the deep sink.
Question is, are there any semi-affordable ones that work well? I've
seen comments here before to the effect of "just get a $30 condensate
pump and hook it up" and I am having a hard time finding one. They're
about $80 at the big boxes nearby, and looking online the cheapest seems
to be about $40 plus shipping. Obviously I'm leaning towards ordering
online but don't have any experience with selecting one, so what's a
good brand? I'd need one that could lift the water about 8 feet, maybe
15 feet horizontally, then drop about 4 feet into the sink. Is that an
unusual application that would require a heavier duty unit than the
cheapest models?
nate
Damn this is an expensive week for me. I just went to empty the bucket
in the old dehumidifier, which I moved out to the garage. Apparently
after I took it out there yesterday it sucked out about 1 pint of water
and then the compressor locked up - this was maybe 30 hours ago. The
whole purpose of buying a new dehumidifier was so that I could put one
in my garage. SUCK!
As an aside, the old dehumidifier just had the little rotating knob
humidistat on it and I'd set it for slightly higher than "normal"
humidity. It cycled on and off, more off than on. The new one has a
digital humidistat so I set it for 55% RH because I've heard that to
minimize all of the bad things that can happen to your basement due to
incorrect humidity you should be in the 45-55% range. Apparently the
old dehumidifier was actually set for about 60 to 65% RH. New unit
showed 65% when I turned it on, quickly dropped to 60, now is showing
55% but have not heard it shut off yet (granted, I haven't been in my
basement for the whole time period.) So I assume that it just displays
in 5% increments and showing 55% means it's probably in the range of
52.5-57.5%. This is a 45 pint unit and based on the amount of water
it's pulled out, I don't know that I suspect that there's a problem with
the unit; more that my house is very open and it would seem that due to
the climate (this AM: almost 90 degrees and 57% RH outside; now, 77
degrees and raining) the humidity in the whole house is higher than 55%
and trying to suck it down to that is taxing the unit. Any real problem
just leaving it at 60% and letting it go, even if that isn't "ideal?"
nate
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