Dehumidifers

[woollypigs]

I'm moving it around atm we as are on the first week of running it, but mainly it lives the kitchen. Most central place in the house and the stairs goes up from there too.

[ian]

Moved as I was by this thread I got myself a shiny dehumidifier (an Ebac 2580e), but as related elsewhere, staring at it and even resorting to reading the instructions didn't bring it to life. I think there's some kind of switch missing that reads the catch on the water container so the red light of fullness glimmers and nothing more will happen. Giggery and pokery have no effect. I'm either missing something obvious or it's a dud. Oh, I'm an angry man now.

I was looking forward to harvesting my own water. Now I'll have to drink it from the tap like normal people. And cats.

[De Sisti]

If you haven't already tried; you could turn it to auto, or you could turn it on and increase the fan speed manually. Just a thought.

[Polar Bear]

Sometimes I have to wiggle the tank to trigger the switch.   

I'm pretty sure ebac will sort you out pronto - we've found their customer service to be excellent.

[ian]

Tbh, I assume there's supposed to be some kind of lever that is flipped by the catch/float mechanism on the tank. All I have is the hole in the body of the machine, so unless it's using frikkin lasers, I think something important was forgotten or fell off. I'll jiggle it some more but I can't see anything to actuate, otherwise Mr Tesco can have it back. It won't actually do anything if the tank is registering as full, for fairly obvious reasons.

[Polar Bear]

There should be a protruding 'prong' on the tank housing which can be seen and felt when the tank is removed.   It is top right.   It works by being pushed inwards and is released by the float tilt mechanism to stop the thing continuing to fill the tank when nearly full.

Perhaps a replacement from Tesco?   

[Jon P]

If you want a professional one used by hire companies try Broughton Electro-air products in Redditch, my uncle just retired as Sales Director there - £250.

[De Sisti]

There should be a protruding 'prong' on the tank housing which can be seen and felt when the tank is removed.   It is top right.   It works by being pushed inwards and is released by the float tilt mechanism to stop the thing continuing to fill the tank when nearly full.

Perhaps a replacement from Tesco?

[Polar Bear]

Ah, excellent pics.   Thanks De Sisti 

[L CC]

We have mould producing damp in our bathroom, despite the constantly open window (it's the cat door). 3 people showering every day in a tiny room with the most feeble extractor fan I've ever seen can't help. I'm not sure I want to add to my £185/month gas & electricity bill though. And we rent. I don't really care if Greene King's cottage ends up crappier than when we moved in...
To say nothing of preferring to spend my Christmas bonus on a bed... But, we dry all our laundry indoors and have pools of condensation on windowsills.
Can you hire them for a month or two, to see if it's worth having one?

[woollypigs]

You can hire them from the same place that you can hire power tools and the like. They tend to be massive industrial noisy monsters. We had one for over a month as a insurance job after the tenant above decided to take the washing machine with them and forgot to turn the water off.

[Notsototalnewbie]

Is the water that comes out of it really ok for consumption?

Am wondering about the dog's water bowl but it'd probably need boiling first and that's too much faff for everyday life. Mind you, she does attempt to drink out of filthy puddles quite a bit anyway...

[peliroja]

I'd also considered giving the water to the dog. She much prefers non-tap water, especially puddles!

[Mrs Pingu]

It's just the water from the air, which you're breathing in anyway. Not sure I'd want to use it from fboab's mouldy bathroom though...

[Vince]

I wouldn't drink the water that comes out of our dehumidifier. It has matter suspended in it!

[Kim]

Is the water that comes out of it really ok for consumption?

It's a distilled water / accumulated fluff mixture that's been sitting around at room temperature (or slightly above room temperature) for hours in a container that doesn't usually get cleaned.  That's a breeding ground for legionella, but the water's probably safe enough to drink if you boil it.

Better off using it for steam irons / batteries / etc, or chucking it down the sink.

[Valiant]

Lest not forget that it is easier to heat dry air, so part of the cost of running a dehumidifier is offset by being able turn the heating down a few notches.

[HTFB]

For pools of water on windowsills, or the preceding condensation on the window, a Kärcher window vac is a most effective tool. It's a sort of vacuum-cleaner-cum-squeegee, and is ever so much quicker and more satisfying than running around with damp cloths. Admittedly a squeegee and a roll of J-cloths would be about a tenth of the price.

(My parents gave us one for Christmas, having discovered them independently, but we already had one. Now offloaded to a sister. Also good for cleaning windows or shower cubicles, as is the window vac.)

[L CC]

What is this 'cleaning windows' of which you speak?

[closetleftie]

Sometimes I have to wiggle the tank to trigger the switch.   

Fnar fnar.

[Kim]

What is this 'cleaning windows' of which you speak?

I'm fairly sure it's a euphemism for 'horizontal rain'.

[ian]

There should be a protruding 'prong' on the tank housing which can be seen and felt when the tank is removed.   It is top right.   It works by being pushed inwards and is released by the float tilt mechanism to stop the thing continuing to fill the tank when nearly full.

Perhaps a replacement from Tesco?

...

Yar, that be the bit that be missing.  No protruding lever. Replacement time.

Our cat is preferring the seven day old water in the Christmas tree base at the moment.

[ian]

Works now. I've harvested about 5 litres of water this week. Even the cat can't drink that much. According the weather station the ambient RH in the kitchen has dropped from the mid-fifties to the mid-forties. I've left it running a few days to dry the place out, the kitchen is effectively below ground and the house was empty for about four months before we moved in, complete with puddle of water from broken dishwasher and windows that hadn't been opened since the time of Christ.

I did switch it over to 'smart' control. I'm not really sure what that does, it just seems to sit there and run. I was sort of hoping it would switch on and off as needed. Probably it's not so smart and I'll just have to turn it on and off as needed. That said, according to the manual, it's learning about my lifestyle. Probably reporting back to the NSA too.

[Polar Bear]

Excellent.   

We have ours on smart but in the beginning it ran almost constantly for about six weeks.   After that it progressively reduced until now when we have it on a timer to run overnight on economy 7.   It doesn't run constantly during that 7 hour window and gathers about a litre each night.

[L CC]

I'm toying with this baby from Screwfix.

Any thoughts?

(Sub £100 means I may buy it. At £209 the place can, quite literally, rot)