How to choose a dehumidifier? It is often a difficult decision when it comes to dehumidifiers evaluation. Here is a few tips that will help you decide which dehumidifier best fit your house.
1) Find the right sales:
Professionals and technical sales people on Homedepot should be able to guide you in finding a good dehumidifier. Sometimes an improperly sized dehumidifier can fail in preventing mold simply because of the improper way of using it.
You are here in this web site looking for a good dehumidifier that can help you to prevent mold, but you may not know how important of having a proper size dehumidifier is.
The difference between a technical sales and and regular sales is that regular sales will usually concern on which dehumidifiers can save you more. They can do the math, but they have no idea what they are actually selling.
Some units are for single rooms, while others are designed for the entire house. It is important to understand the difference so that you won’t be paying far more than you need and buying too little that won’t be able to get you a desired humidity level.
2) Humidity level:
Mold cannot grow when the humidity level is below 50%, so it is impoartant to make sure to control that number to go below 50%. However, any number goes below 40% will become ineffecient and result in a waste. It would be wise to target a range from 42%-50%.
3) 30-pint, 40-pint or 50-pint?
30-pint, 40-pint, 50-pint represent the number of pints of water a dehumidifier can remove within a 24 hour period of time. However, one thing should be kept in mind that the number of pint are given under certain condition (80 degrees and humidity level of 60%). The amount of water a dehumidifier can actually remove varies depending on your location (refer to additional information).
In addition to pint, the number of “Area dehumidified” provided by manufacturers are also using the similar ideal conditions that may not accurately predict whether one dehumidifier is suitable for your house.
When choosing a dehumidifier, make sure you compare your own condition to the ideal condition (80 degrees and humidity level of 60%) and make necessary changes to predict which dehumidifier can provide you the best result.
As mentioned before, a professional sales is definitely going to help a lot in this scenario.
4) Temperature factor:
Some dehumidifiers only works when the temperatures is above 60 degrees. If you are looking for a dehumidifier for your basement, it is better to find “low temperature” dehumidifiers (For more info, please refer to the tag basement dehumidifier).
If you are looking for “low temperature” dehumidifiers, please make sure the machine has the “frost guards” or “freeze guards” designed to let the fan blowing warm air to the coil when low temperature is detected.
If you are looking for a dehumidifier that will operate under 33 degrees, you may have to consider a dehumidifier that uses a process called “hot gas” to heat the coil.
You can of course buy a machine with “frost guards” to save more money than buying a separate dehumidifier, but please notice that low temperature dehumidifiers are generally noisier than the regular machine that are designed to work above 65 degrees.
Additional information:
A table that help you determine the pint you need:
| ROOM SIZE | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small (up to 8′ x 10′) |
Medium (up to 15′ x 15′) |
Large (up to 20′ x 20′) |
Extra Large (up to 20′ x 30′) |
||
| H U M I D I T Y |
Low (40% to 55%) |
30 pint* | 40 pint | 50 pint | 65 pint |
| Medium (55% to 65%) |
30 pint | 40 pint | 50 pint | 65 pint | |
| High (65% to 80%) |
40 pint | 50 pint | 65 pint | 65 pint | |
| Very High (80% to 95%) |
50 pint | 65 pint | 65 pint | 65 pint | |
Dehumidifier capacity is evaluated by pints per day (24 hour). Some other factors that may effect the amount of de-humidification required includes:
1) Climate – sticky and hot conditions will require extra capacity.
2) Surrounding equipment – Machines such as washers and dryers will add moisture into the air. The more machine around the dehumidifier, the more capacity you need.
3) Size of household – You will need extra capacity when you have a lot of people in your house.
4) Openings – The number of openings, such as windows and doors, will increase the moisture in your house. You will need more capacity if your house has lots of openings.
One thing should keep in mind when choosing dehumidifier:
If you are not sure about what size to buy, always get the larger one. Remember – the capacity of a dehumidifier is fixed and can only remove a fixed amount of moisture.
As a result, different from choosing an Air Conditioning, it is always better to choose a over-sizing one for de-humidification.