Lee B wrote:

Me again - mold lady, still deciding what to do about the mold
discovered in the finished basement of the house I'm selling.

No matter what I do I know I need to keep the basement from smelling
suspicious. With the house being vacant, the A/C and heater don't come
on as often, so it does develop a musty smell. One problem is the sump
pump which probably has water in it, but not enough to trigger it to
empty. I have an antique dehumidifier that I inherited (one remediator
said "oh I see you have your 1942 dehumidifier"). Apparently the newer
ones have better features.

I need one that I'm comfortable leaving on unattended in the vacant
house. And it needs a defroster or something, so that when it gets
cooler in the basement it doesn't frost over, or it at least needs to
function at lower temps, which apparently some of them do now. A timer
would be nice so that it would run a few hr a day, although I suppose I
could buy a timer to plug it into. I'll probably sit it in the shower
stall in the basement (how attractive is that!) and run an extension
cord to it. Or if I could find one that actually pumps water uphill, I
could have it empty into the washing machine's stand pipe, or the sink
in the wetbar.

If anyone has done any research on this, I'd appreciate hearing it. Oh
and I don't want to spend a fortune, since my current house doesn't even
have a basement, although I guess I could include it with the house as
an incentive (yeah, that would bed a good selling point). Seriously,
most people I know around here have dehumidifiers in their basements, so
I don't think people would think a whole lot of it. (I just wish I
hadn't let the realtor talk me into unplugging it and hiding it when I
was showing the house, even if it was ugly; I think that musty smell is
what prompted the people to ask for the mold test).

Thanks.

I had the same issue last year, I ended up buying a pair of LG
dehumidifiers. My only complaint is that the humidistat is wildly
inaccurate; I have them set at 70% RH to maintain a normal 50-55% RH.
They do power up after a power failure; I had reported before that there
was weirdness with that functionality but it only happened to me the
once, they've been fine since.

One of these days when I have disposable cash (heh) I do want to invest
in some condensate pumps, as in humid weather they fill up their
containers fairly quickly.

IF you are looking for something quiet, the LG is not it. It's about as
loud as my old, dead 70's vintage thing (when it still worked, that is)
that we inherited from the previous owners. The sound is less rattly
and more white noise/fan-like however, so as long as you are using it in
an unused or laundry room, hearing it from the next room is not overly
objectionable.

nate

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