An Introduction to Dehumidifiers

Oct 18
17:55

2005

Josh Riverside

Josh Riverside

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Dehumidifiers reduce the moisture in the air while reducing or eliminating deterioration of equipment due to rust, rot, mold and mildew. Home dehumidifiers remove from five to 15 quarts of water from the air daily.

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Humid air is,An Introduction to Dehumidifiers Articles by definition, saturated with water. It hangs in the air in a sort of limbo, waiting to land on something. It condenses on your skin, upholstery, walls, the cat, everywhere. This can cause not only a lot of discomfort for you and your cat, but also extensive damage to your house. Paint, wallpaper, wood, and art suffer especially.

Worst of all, excess humidity makes for a wonderful Petrie dish for mold and other types of harmful bacteria, presenting a health threat you can’t afford to ignore. About the only thing that can benefit from a constantly humid environment are cigars.

Dehumidifiers reduce the moisture in the air while reducing or eliminating deterioration of equipment due to rust, rot, mold and mildew. Home dehumidifiers remove from five to 15 quarts of water from the air daily.

All dehumidifiers are noisy – about as noisy as a window-mounted air conditioner – due to the fan and compressor. The fan draws air from the room, moves it through the machine, and blows it back out to the room. The compressor circulates the refrigerant through the evaporator coils.

The evaporator coils cool the air. This causes all the water to condense on the evaporator coils. The water then drips into a condensation pan, which diverts the water to the reservoir bucket.

The condenser coils then warm the dried air back up to room temperature before it is blown back out to the room. These wear out quickly and must be replaced every season.

Note that some reservoir buckets are bigger than others, ranging in capacity from 10 to 65 pints. When the reservoir bucket gets full, the machine automatically stops, thus preventing overflow. The bucket can then be removed, dumped out, and returned.

Alternatively, most models can be fitted with a drain hose or regular garden hose, which continuously lets water out into any drain.