I bought a Friedrich 40 pint dehumidifier. This has electronic controls,
and I very firmly believe is made in China by L.G. Electronics (which is the
same as Goldstar, and the even Kenwood Sears units are made by them now).

I have the humidity setting at 45%. I happen to have a separate digital
hygrometer in the basement too. This morning I noticed that my hygrometer
was reading 39%. What I find strange, is that, this morning the
dehumidifier would run with the compressor and fan on for, say, roughly 10
minutes, and then shut completely off for EXACTLY 2 minutes and turn
completely on again. Then after maybe, say, another 10 minutes if would
shut off for EXACTLY 2 minutes.

It seems to me that whomever designed this thing was trying to be a bit too
clever. Without having seen it in action much I'm assuming that, instead of
simply designing it to behave as if controlled by an ordinary humidistat,
they designed some complicated algorithm so that, if the humidity gets BELOW
the target level, will begin introducing "2 minute off" periods, and then
gradually increase the frequency of these "2 minute offs" until it
stabilizes near the target. (or alternatively maybe they'll gradually
increase the "2 minute off" to, say, a "3 minute off").

Hmmm.....call me paranoid, but....maybe they deliberately chose to always
use "2 minute off" intervals because maybe it's just long enough not to
*overtly* damage the compressor, but short enough a cycle that it will add
more wear and tear so that the unit DEFINITELY would not last any more than,
say, 6 years (the compressor portion of the unit is warranted for 5 years).
In other words, they to short cycle it so that it doesn't last, say, 10 or
15 years. Am I crazy for thinking this?

J.