Home and Commercial Dehumidifier Buying Tips

Dehumidifiers are used to control the humidity within the atmosphere of a room. They remove the moisture from the air to lower the humidity. The recommended levels of humidity are between 40 to 50%. These machines can be extremely helpful in humid places to keep your home or office free from atmospheric moisture.

Humidity can cause a variety of problems such as:

• Increasing dust mites which can lead to allergies.
• Causing condensation on water pipes and windows which can lead to pipes rusting and wallpaper peeling or even wall paint blistering.

• Rusting of metal and warping of wood.
• Condensation on electrical items which can cause a lot of damage and can be extremely dangerous.
• Smelly, musty areas which lead to the development of mold and fungus which can damage health.

Dehumidifiers work on the principle of condensation of water on a cold surface. A fan is used to blow warm air onto the coils of cold metal. As result, the humidity condenses onto these coils and the water drips down into a bucket. Then this cold air is passed over the warm coils, and this brings air back to the room temperature.

There are a variety of dehumidifiers in the market. Each of them has a variety of features and performance levels, and hence, they are broadly classified into two categories: Home and Commercial. Home dehumidifiers are used to reduce the humidity in the house. Commercial ones are used in commercial environment such as factories and offices.

There are a variety of brand names in the market which make and sell these machines. These include: Kenmore, LG, and Whirlpool, to name a few. It is very important to shop the right type which suits your needs.

The box in which it is packed, often contains pertinent information such as the size of the room, the amount of moisture that can be removed, etc. Knowing this information can help you decide if you want to buy a single unit for your whole house or whether to buy smaller ones for each room.

Also for this information to be useful, you need to know how much humidity exists in your house in the first place. If you have a leaking roof or a bad plumbing, then you need to buy the one which will remove more amount of moisture from the air.

Other features to look for while making a purchase:

• An auto shut-off facility when the water storage tray gets full. Some of them have a feature wherein the water gets drained off via a floor level drainage system. This can prove to be beneficial. Alternatively, it may have some sort of a visual indicator which will tell you when the water tray is full.

• A good feature is the presence of a built-in humidistat which is a hygrometer (humidity meter) which controls the amount of humidity in the room. This prevents the room from getting too dry.

• On the other hand, a frost sensor is also useful because it can shut down the unit automatically when it gets too cold.
• Often it can be useful to have an on / off switch on the front panel for added convenience.

• Having wheels on the unit can be useful for mobility purposes.
• Low noise is one of the most preferred features in the entire setup.
• Also, most units have variable speed settings for the fan.

Places such as basements and bathrooms have a lot of moisture. There are special dehumidifiers, which can remove a large amount of moisture from such areas. Some people also prefer having them in their closets, so that their clothes do not get the musty smell.

These can vary from panels filled with silica gels to electrical dehumidifiers specially designed to be installed in closets. If you are going for silica gel panels, which can be mounted in the closet wall, look for those which have some kind of an indicator, which tells you when the silica crystals need to be refreshed.

The process of refreshing them is simple: Either you can place them in the sunlight or you can put them in the oven on low heat. This ensures that the moisture within the crystals evaporate, making them ready for use.