Different Dehumidifier Types: Which One is Right For You?

This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

Keeping your home surroundings comfortable is of extreme importance, and we go to great lengths to guarantee we can unwind ourselves at home.

That involves ensuring we have the perfect furniture, the electronic equipment we need for amusement, as well as the appliances that offer all of the creature comforts we need.

But if you live in a humid place, even all this may fail to make you comfortable in your region, and a dehumidifier could change that for you. Read more on the dehumidifier buyers guide.

What is a Dehumidifier?

A dehumidifier is an automated device that works to eliminate excess dampness from your surroundings. Like there may be problems with the air being too dry at a house based on air conditioning and heat.

Other houses, particularly those in very humid areas may require help balancing the air inside by eliminating some extra moisture.

 In case you’ve got a musty or wet odor in your house, or if you realize that mold and mildew grow easily in your kitchen and bathroom; you may benefit from using a dehumidifier.

Why Use a Dehumidifier?

There are many reasons a dehumidifier may be required for your space. In an environment that’s always too humid, you run higher risks of this buildup of hazardous toxins.

Mold and mildew grow rapidly in dampness, and both of them produce spores that may be harmful or harmful to breathe in. This is especially important for those who have asthma, allergies, COPD, and other respiratory difficulties.

In addition to creating mold and mildew, moist environments are uncomfortable for a living. Excessive moisture makes space feel warmer than it is, and air conditioners work more difficult to cool your space. Lowering the amount of moisture in the air can make a space more pleasant for living.

In addition to heart issues and joint issues such as arthritis, people with breathing issues also suffer in moist environments. Many such people seem to move to drier climates.

 Though occasionally, simpler solutions involve merely adding a dehumidifier to a distance where they live.

The outdoor region is not as much of a problem in a number of these instances as indoors can be, and it is a much more affordable; an easier solution than attempting to move across a nation.

Different Kinds of Dehumidifiers

types of dehumidifiers

When it is about the performance of a dehumidifier, there are two primary kinds of machines, both of which are excellent in their technology. It simply depends upon the user about which will work better for your purposes.

The first thing you have to consider is the climate where you live – or work if you are trying to dehumidify a workspace or an office.

If the ambient temperature of the space you will need to eliminate moisture is warmer – above 65 degrees – it is easy to use the most well-known sort of dehumidifier; the style refrigeration unit.

However, suppose we are talking about a cold environment where this kind of temperature control can not be ensured. In that case, these more traditional units can not be used without significant decline and cause for alarm.

Rather, a desiccant dehumidifier is a better choice, as this does not require any particular temperature regulation to operate.

Refrigerator Style Dehumidifiers

Having a refrigerator-style dehumidifier, condensation is removed by eliminating cooling the air. Air is drawn into the system via an intake and flows through a filter to eliminate particles of dirt, dust, and allergens, damaging to health and bothersome to underlying disorders.

A fan pushes the air above a set of coils which cool the air, making the moisture inside condenses and gather into a water tank. Then, the dry air which was cooled, is blown into the nearby space by a fan.

These style refrigeration units operate extremely well in spaces that are not cold. They need attention in that you will need to regularly drain the water tank, clean and replace the filter on a program, and make sure that the grilles over the intake and exhaust are clean.

You might require to inspect the humidistat – the controller that sets the level of humidity you want in the space – from time to time to assure it has not been bumped or moved.

Overall, however, with routine maintenance and cleaning, a fridge-style dehumidifier is quite simple to keep working and they’re relatively flexible, considering they come in several sizes.

In a well-suited environment, where you have it placed far enough from a wall, you possibly won’t have any malfunctions, and the system should last several years.

Desiccant Dehumidifiers

In environments that are already colder, a cooling-style dehumidifier won’t work. This will lead to the coils which cool the air to freeze and not function correctly.

 With a desiccant dehumidifier, the refrigeration part of the procedure is removed. Rather than cooling the air to eliminate moisture, a chemical drying agent is used.

This broker, or desiccant, is placed on a heat exchange wheel and used to absorb dampness from the air before that air is then moved out through vents to the surroundings.

Desiccant dehumidifiers are not common in residential areas as most houses are kept at temperatures conducive to the refrigeration-style dehumidifier. But, there are always exceptions.

A few people who live in colder environments do not heat their houses to a level that makes them work together with the more common residential type of dehumidifier.

Spray Dehumidifiers

A spray dehumidifier is a system that uses a special “spray method” to activate the condensation procedure.

To do so, a spray dehumidifier takes chilled air and water and sprays that material onto the humid air that’s flowing to the spray dehumidifier.

Using this method helps the humid atmosphere to condense very fast and out of that, the water could be disposed of.

One of the nicest things about spray dehumidifiers is they don’t just dehumidify a room. Rather, they also eliminate pollutants and contaminants like dust and pollen particles.

Ionic Membrane Dehumidifiers

The average person probably will not be interested in an ionic membrane dehumidifier because they’re often very expensive and are mostly produced for industrial use. However because of those design plans, ionic membrane dehumidifiers are powerful and extremely helpful.

Within an ionic membrane unit, there is an ionic membrane and a sealed enclosure. The ionic membrane gathers the humid air into the sealed enclosure. And then, once the moist air is inside that enclosure, the practice of electrolysis is used to circulate that air, and it does so quietly and quickly.

Sizes of Dehumidifiers

dehumidifier with built in pump

Determining how big a dehumidifier you need is among the main parts of finding the ideal unit for you. For example, the kind you would use in an RV or mobile home will be different from that of the commercially used model.

Many dehumidifiers are portable, meaning you can transfer them quickly from one area to another. These are typically intended for medium-sized rooms, such as smaller living rooms and bedrooms that are larger.

 Machines devoted to this dimension are the most popular residential systems, though some homes use whole-house dehumidifiers.

Portable Dehumidifiers

Most of the dehumidifiers you find in home improvement stores are movable dehumidifiers. These are usually inexpensive to get and lightweight, making them easy to transport from one room to another or even to a new site.

They are usually framed in plastic. Thus, they don’t have excessive weight or something, and while they could endure for quite a long time with good maintenance; they are not as sturdy as an entire home or an industrial system.

Another type of portable dehumidifier is the kind used for restoration, like when there has been a water spill or flooding that resulted in harm to a home or office area.

They work on drying a distance and decreasing the amount of water damage, sometimes even heavy-duty sufficient to fully restore the intense hurt of something such as a hurricane or other catastrophe.

Whole House Dehumidifiers

A whole-house dehumidifier is a centralized unit that operates like an air conditioner, draining the whole house space of excess humidity.

These fixed systems are more expensive and require installation by an expert, with requirements that they’re on the ductwork. And that has already been installed for central heating and air functions.

Usually, this is managed where the furnace or air handler cabinet is placed. There are a few of these whole house elements however, that stands alone.

Heat Pump Humidifiers

With whole-house units, among the most frequent kinds of dehumidifiers is a heat pump system. These use a fan to pull the moist air into the device and across a cold coil, precisely like the refrigeration style versions. The condensed water drops to a water tank or bucket and is then drained through a hose.

The most notable difference here is that the air is then warmed again before being pushed back through the vent and in the ambient space, much drier than when it was taken into the unit.

Dehumidifiers With Pumps

Often larger systems will include a pump. The added advantage is that you no longer have to train the tank, and the dehumidifier can keep doing its job.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.