Dehumidifers

[woollypigs]

We just had a man in to look at our damp spot: the gable end of our 2/3 bedroom Victorian house which gets its fair share of the rain as the wind tends to come from that direction.

He is pretty sure that it is not just rising damp but water coming from the outside as the pointing is not really up to scratch, not very well done and only good up to two metres.

The "through" stones are also dragging water in to the inner walls and he found a rather wet spot in our hallway/stairway that we didn't notice.

He told us that a 20L dehumidifier with humidistat would work wonders. Let it run full pelt for a few weeks and after that have it on a lower setting (30%). He said they are clocking in at 180 of our earth pounds.

The company that he sent us to for a dehumidifier is selling the Igenix ones, which I haven't found any rave reviews about. The Meaco has better review and should do the same job, though are they the same spec wise ?

Questions, which models are you using and how do you run it and how noisy etc etc.

[Notsototalnewbie]

I will watch this thread with interest.

I am now on my second Ebac after the first one died; I think this one may also be on its way out (it was given to me secondhand by someone who had moved away from their damp problem).

To be fair we do use it pretty heavily (a one-room flat with two people, a dog, washing and cooking creates a lot of moisture) but it would be nice to have something that lasted a bit longer as Ebac is not a cheap option. I think I heard somewhere that Ebac are not as good as they used to be.

[Jaded]

You've got the choice of chemical desiccant or condenser. They both use quite a lot of electricity. I had a condenser one from a long time ago that froze up and got thrown out.

We bought one this year, as we don't have a tumble drier and we dry clothes inside, plus with listed building single glazed windows we were getting condensation that created puddles and was beginning to rot the windows.

I went for an Ecoair DD322 Classic like this http://www.mitsubishidehumidifiers.co.uk/ecoair-dd322fw-classic-x-dry-desiccant-dehumidifier-dd322

It works well, but shows up on my electricity usage stats and is noisy. Like a v. noisy fan. I run it at night on cheaper electricity, but am glad that it is not outside our bedroom.

[Mrs Pingu]

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=53618.0

[nikki]

I'm running a Delonghi Dem 10 to keep my attic flat in check.

There's no central heating and it gets a bit parky. In the lounge, where laundry is left to dry, paper gets noticeably damp to the touch over winter when windows are left shut. The bedroom door tends to be kept shut over winter too to keep the heat in and breathing and towels etc tend to cause a build-up of humidity there - lots of condensation on the window and you can just feel the cool of the dampness when you walk into the room.

I got the dehumidifier about 2 years ago and it's made a massive difference, even just running it for a day or so in each room every so often. It's quiet enough that I can leave it running in the same room as where I'm working, but I don't use it overnight, mostly because I don't want to piss off the neighbours. To try and dampen out the vibrations going through to the flats below I usually stand it on a cushion or chair and standing the handle up helps make it a bit quieter too.

I guess it can extract about 2 litres in a day.

Reading that other thread, I should probably clean the filter...

[barakta]

I am increasingly tempted by a dehumidifier for our bathroom instead of pouring precious heat out of the window to keep it from being damporama in the winter... Will point Kim at this thread...

[Mrs Pingu]

Well they cost money to run but it's gotta be cheaper than throwing fivers out the window!

I reckon I need the heating less high now we have the dehumidifier because it feels warmer being less damp.

[Kim]

Problem with using a dehumidifier to dry a bathroom is that they need electricity, and it's not my house so there isn't a cunning IP rated power socket in the corner or anything, which means it would preclude closing the bathroom door.  Closing the bathroom door is what keeps the upstairs of the house warm and not smelling too much of poo.

[Mrs Pingu]

(Extension cable?)
Q - why is the bathroom cold, just because it's damp or because it's not heated?

[Charlotte]

As far as I'm concerned, a dehumidifier is Essential Equipment if you're hanging laundry to dry inside the house - at any time of year.  Ours is an old Ebac with a five litre drain tank and a humistat.  I have it plugged into a timer switch that turns it off when we want to be sleeping, but otherwise it decides when to go on and off.

[Kim]

(Extension cable?)

Won't fit under the door, hence it has to be open.

Q - why is the bathroom cold, just because it's damp or because it's not heated?

It's an old rented house, which means it's draughty as fuck.  Fireplaces (which I've blocked off, but still leak a bit) in the bedrooms mean that the prevailing airflow is in through the bathroom window (and up from downstairs, where there are more draughty windows and air bricks to comply with gas regs and so on).  Closing the doors makes a huge difference to how warm the bedrooms (where we spend the majoirty of our time) are.

There's a pretty effective radiator in the bathroom, so it warms up reasonably quickly, and dries towels etc.  We tend to open the window after using the bath/shower and sacrifice some heat in the interests of getting the bulk of the moisture out quickly.  The damp is mostly superficial damage to landlord-quality magnolia coated woodchip, and stains from the ice thaw of two winters ago and some roof leak that was repaired before we moved in.  If there were actual mould involved, I'd take more desperate measures.  If it were my own house, I'd strip it all out and start with an extractor fan and some double glazed windows.  But we're generation rent.

[Mrs Pingu]

Mmm, not much you can do with draughts I suppose. You could always plane a bit off the bottom of the bathroom door to let the cable under, but then I suppose you'd need a draught excluder

[Mrs Pingu]

I love my dehumidifier, we didn't have a particular problem with damp per se (centrally heated) but after a faux suede coat in the wardrobe went mouldy I invested - and then discovered why the bed always felt so cold when I got in it in winter.

[Polar Bear]

ebac 6300e?   We got one nearly two years back.  It has done sterling work and dealt with condensation allowing the dpc man to identify that only the front bay of our victorian terrace is damp.  We ran it full time for the first few months but have run it overnight on economy7 ever since.

Truly great bit of kit but needs filters washing/changing  regularly for best effect.

[Kim]

I must say, I'm somewhat tempted by one to encourage clothes to dry.  I don't think it'll solve the bathroom problem, but it would be nice if jeans could be dry in less than half a week.

[Mrs Pingu]

Defo good for that.

[Jaded]

Also it costs less to heat a dry house, so that balances the cost of running the dehumidifier.

[woollypigs]

We put a heavy curtain at the bottom of the stairs into the kitchen. Which has stopped a lot of the cold air coming down and now the kitchen is warmer and easier to heat.

[HTFB]

Ours is a Mitsubishi MJE16VX, it says. The Beloved Stoker read all the reviews before picking this one. It claims to be about 200W. The tank is probably about 5L.

It's important, when you think about its contribution to your energy bills, to remind yourself of the cost of repainting or replastering instead. And as others have said it reduces (though not to zero) the amount you have to spend on heating just to draw the moisture out or to dry clothes.

Another useful tool we have is a Kärcher handyvac-cum-squeegee which sops moisture off the windows very efficiently.

I don't think there is any way to build a home in England which is well insulated and draughtproofed to keep heat in but also able to discharge surplus moisture out. Victorian homes are designed for inefficient open fires which dry everything out very nicely. Modern buildings stay warm but just breed damp. The Swiss can build beautiful warm cosy chalets to keep the winter night out until you leap singing from your slumber into the crisp morning air, but it's the low-humidity crispness of the climate that makes it work.

We suffer from a poorly insulated¹ 1960s flat roof which creates the terrifying phenomenon of Cold Bridging---condensation forming on wall or ceiling surfaces rather than just windows. Even if the water outside isn't penetrating right through then it may be compromising the insulation of your wall and encouraging condensation; through stones might also be culprits. Free air movement to problem corners, running the dehumidifier and turning the thermostats right up are, between them, just about an adequate answer for us.

1. With chicken wire and shredded cardboard. I don't know what its design life was, but I doubt it was 50 years.

[Polar Bear]

ebac 6300e?   We got one nearly two years back.  It has done sterling work and dealt with condensation allowing the dpc man to identify that only the front bay of our victorian terrace is damp.  We ran it full time for the first few months but have run it overnight on economy7 ever since.

Truly great bit of kit but needs filters washing/changing  regularly for best effect.

Had a chance to look at the thing this morning.  Model is actually a 2650e.   My memory is awful.   

[Polar Bear]

ebadirect

[Vince]

Reading that other thread, I should probably clean the filter...

I also have a DEM10. I didn't know it has filter? No obviously marked compartment and the instructions are long gone.

[De Sisti]

The Ebac Amazon 10 (£139) is no longer available. I'll have to go for the Amazon 12  2650e Plus bundle (was £269.96, now £239.99).

[Wowbagger]

My experience, of three humidifiers over the past 15 years or so, is that the refrigerant type is superior. Ours has been chugging away for years but our daughter is on her second desiccant in a short period.

[nikki]

I also have a DEM10. I didn't know it has filter? No obviously marked compartment and the instructions are long gone.

There's a manual online at http://mypdfmanuals.com/ref_sien.php?ID=520680 (but with suspicious-looking .exe stuff flashing up beforehand which you can cancel and go on through to the pdf).

If you take the water tank out, the edge of the filter panel is nestled up in the top front edge (look for something labelled 'front'). Just pull it out.

Had a chance to look at the thing this morning.  Model is actually a 2650e.   My memory is awful.   

Me too: the water tank's smaller than I guessed, so I'm thinking it probably clears about a litre in 12 hours. I switched it on at about 8:30 this morning and have left it running whilst I've been out. I happen to have a weather station type gizmo on loan from a friend at the moment for temperature calibration purposes. If its humidity readings are to be believed, it's gone from 76% to 62% in 7 hours. Maybe half a litre of water in the tank.



Hope all this is helping, Woolly!