Dehumidifier Features: What to Look for When Buying a Dehumidifier

Dehumidifiers are wonderful pieces of technology that assist in effectively controlling the climate in your home. Stand-alone dehumidifier systems come in a variety of system types that cater dehumidifying any possible hostile humid environment that may present threats to you and your family’s health and quality of life. A dehumidifier features technology that you need to take back the humidity of any room in your home. If you’re stuck choosing a dehumidifier you can read our or check out our instruction manual.

Humid conditions in the home can arise from a variety of circumstances. Blocked or leaking pipes, seeping ground water or storm damage may enter a room and go to work in raising the relative humidity, providing the ideal conditions for the growth of mold and mildew, as well as create a breeding ground for parasites such as dust mites.

Having a humid room can increase the risk of respiratory illness and cause attacks in people that suffer from respiratory conditions such as asthma. Entering a humid room doesn’t feel great and you can define the humidity in the room in one of four states;

• Extremely wet – conditions exceeding 90% humidity
• Very wet – conditions of 80-90% humidity
• Very damp – conditions of 70-80% humidity
• Moderately damp – conditions of 60-70%

Purchasing a dehumidifier is the ideal solution to your humidity problems. Here are some tips to look for when selecting the model that is right for your home.

Portable vs. Fixed units vs. full-home solutions

There’s a dehumidifier for any room and any climate control condition. You need to select the solution that will suit your application. If you have a room that is small, such as a crawl space, laundry or basement, then a small portable unit would probably be a great unit that will allow you to move it between rooms in the house, wherever you need it – on demand.

If you only have one problem room, or a larger space such as a garage that needs dehumidifying, then you might want to look at a fixed solution that either mounts into your window frame, or the exterior wall and then connects to the room via ducting.

If you live in a very humid area, such as near the coastline or in close proximity to large bodies of water like lakes and dams, then you probably experience humidity issues in most rooms. This would suit a full-home dehumidifying solution to get your homes air under control. These systems are quiet in operation and create a wonderful air-flow throughout the entire home.

Depending on your situation, select the solution that best suits your needs and your budget. Portable and fixed units are easy to install, however, a full-home system requires work on the ducting to be completed and needs professionals to do the job right and give you a guarantee in their installation of the unit and the ducting.

Features

Your dehumidifier works by drawing in the warm, moist air from the room into the housing by means of a fan. The air passes over a set of coils that rapidly cool the air and evaporate the moisture from it, expelling cool, clean, drier air back into the room. On occasion, especially in conditions that cause the unit to strain, you may find that the coils freeze over as the unit struggles to keep pace with maintaining the conditions. In such a case, the unit will need to be shut down and the coils allowed to defrost before further operation can continue.

In most modern dehumidifiers, there is now an auto-defrost function that detects when the coils are beginning to ice over and them shuts down until they are ready to operate again. This function takes away the need for you to keep a constant eye on the unit and allows for hassle-free operation.

Memory, fan and humidity settings should be available for your unit and they should be clearly visible in an LCD display that is user-friendly and features large buttons for easy operation. Sleep modes and timers should also be included and some models may even come with remote controls to make adjusting the settings a breeze, even if you are lying on the couch or in bed.

Reliability

Chose a reputable brand that has good reviews for their equipment from satisfied clients that use their systems. Make sure that the dealer or agent that you are intending to make your purchase with, offers a full manufacturers warranty on all of their dehumidifiers. This will come in handy if the unit is faulty and you need to return it, or if there are breakdowns in the future that require the components to be replaced prematurely.

Sizing

Choosing the right size dehumidifier for your application is a crucial part of deciding on the right humidifier for your home and your family. It’s quite common to make an error in sizing the room and finding the right capacity unit to do the job effectively. If you are unsure of what size you need, then give your agent or dealer a call and speak to their expert consultants about the right sized unit for your home application.

The final word

Dehumidifiers are devices that can greatly improve humid living conditions in your home, however, they need to fit the application and your needs exactly. Take the time to compare not only the pricing of the prospect unit, but the features it offers as well, often the convenience features such as auto-defrost and timers are worth paying a little extra for so that you can kick back and enjoy your home without the hassle of checking the settings on your dehumidifier too often. Make sure you speak to a consultant about the right dehumidifier to suit your lifestyle and your budget. If you have any questions please feel free to contact the GMC Air conditioning team today.