Just in case you have one...

https://www.fox32chicago.com/n...led-due-to-fire-risk

So now we know who makes dehumidifiers with those brand names. It's quite a long list.

Whew, none of mine are on that list!

We actually have two free standing ones and we just had an AprilAire one installed in our crawlspace this summer.

Thread Drift:

I cannot believe what a huge difference it makes to have the crawlspace encapsulation plus dehumidifier!! We've had it for almost two months now. It has improved the whole house, the basement and esp. Mr. SK's basement studio room, the humidity levels in my piano room, the AC doesn't work as hard. And it seems to have had almost no impact on our electric bill.

Wow! I never expected such a positive impact.

Also, those free standing dehumidifiers really push up the electric bill if you run them frequently, so I'm super impressed that the AprilAire doesn't do that. And although the AprilAire isn't totally silent, it's in the crawlspace, so you hardly notice it when it's running, whereas those freestanding ones are like having a jet engine in the room, which I always hated.

/threaddrift

As a massive generalization, whenever I've had to replace an AC/heat pump type thingy the improvement has been dramatic. First, the old one was obviously not working well (otherwise why replace?) but I think that the new designs, engineering and energy savings on the new ones is dramatic.

We've also had more comfy houses and lower bills. I've never had a dehumidifier, though.

Have two LG portable A/C units. Got a notice of a recall. LG had them picked up and returned.
They are good.
The papers that came with the Honeywell unit were the most alienating ever. There were no warranty cards and the message
was that the buyer is on his/her own. It is larger and was more expensive than the LG units and is inferior to them. It is my last Honeywell product.
Had a Honeywell air cleaner that was as loud as an airliner taking off. Tossed it.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
As a massive generalization, whenever I've had to replace an AC/heat pump type thingy the improvement has been dramatic. First, the old one was obviously not working well (otherwise why replace?) but I think that the new designs, engineering and energy savings on the new ones is dramatic.

We've also had more comfy houses and lower bills. I've never had a dehumidifier, though.

That may also be due to the climate there??

Our HVAC is new (2019) and very efficient and inexpensive to run, and I believe it is the reason our electric bills have always been lower than they were in our rental house (even those this home is larger). But we had that damp crawlspace which was literally a pile of dirt directly under the room where the piano is, and the dirt was almost always damp (and sometimes actively wet!)

So the combination of encapsulating the crawlspace and adding the dehumidifier did something that the HVAC on its own couldn't do. Best investment ever, esp. for pianists!

We had a freestanding unit in the crawl in Door County. It made a huge difference, and we had a poured concrete floor down there.

The brand name was Santa Fe and it was pretty quiet for a freestanding unit. It was more expensive than the usual Costco/Home Depot kind of stuff; I do think you get what you pay for.

quote:

I do think you get what you pay for.

Indeed. Our two freestanding ones are smaller, really only meant for one room. But also so, so loud! I was dehumidifier-naive when we bought them, if I had known, I would have just gotten the whole house unit right away.