On Tue, 9 Feb 2010 18:17:21 -0800, "james" wrote:

I'm shopping for a crawlspace dehumidifier and come across units that claim
to work under low temperature, as well as units that do not mention anything
about low temperature.

Are low-temperature dehumidifiers constructed differently than non
low-temperature dehumidifier, or is it just hype?

I believe the true low temp units sense when the evaporator coils ice
up and enter a defrost cycle. You can do an active defrost (more
expensive but faster) or passive (just shut off the compressor while
keeping the fan running to melt the ice; cheap but slow) It's likely
the design is also tuned to reduce the tendency to ice up, probably at
the expense of dehumidification capacity.

Paul F.