Wet Basement? Dehumidifiers Help, but Read Me Before Considering the Kenmore 54701
Written: Sep 13 '04 (Updated Jun 27 '07)
Product Rating:
Durability:
Ease of Use:
Effectiveness:
Pros: High capacity and low-temp capability, multiple control modes, Energy-Star compliant
Cons: Somewhat noisy, extremely unreliable
The Bottom Line: The 54701's a good bet for a damp basement, and its low-temperature capability means it can be used year-round. It's a shame it only lasts six months.
Updated Sept. 21, 2005: The unit has gone belly-up for the second time. This model only lasts six months. I do NOT recommend it any more.
Updated April, 2007: The second unit lasted only a single season; at the end of summer, 2006, it stopped working. The fan still runs, but the compressor does not. Sears tells me this model is made by LG - "Lucky Goldstar" - so the LG and Goldstar brands are also off my prospective replacement brand lists. A waste of $200, if you ask me. It's been replaced by a Whirlpool AD70USS 70-pint low-temperature model.
Having recently returned to that part of the country where many houses have basements, there are a few things I had to relearn (for you Gulf Coast-dwellers, my American Heritage Dictionary defines a basement as "the lowest habitable story of a building, usually below ground level"). One of them - especially out here on the edge of the prairie - is that basements are damp, sometimes damp enough to grow icky microscopic critters like mold and mildew, none of which will ever be asked to the senior prom! So when we noticed the telltale musty odor of mildew and caught sight of a few unhealthy-looking damp spots on the basement walls, the Ms and I immediately started our research on dehumidifiers. It was a sure bet that our basement wasn't going to dry out on its own, eh?
So what does one look for in a dehumidifier? The biggest variable in dehumidifiers is capacity, a measure of the volume of water that the unit will suck out of the air in a twenty-four hour period. Small-capacity units claim to remove 25-35 pints per day; mid-sized units are good for 40-50 pints, and the biggest have a capacity of 55-70 pints. How large you're going to need depends both on large an area you need to dry out and how wet the room is. Almost all brands I saw had a chart printed on the carton to help determine your needs. When shopping for a dehumidifier, prepare yourself by knowing the room size in square feet and assessing whether the room is moderately damp (just ambient humidity), extremely damp, moderately wet (the walls and/or floor are sweating) or very wet (water standing on the floor or seeping from the walls.)
A second variable is the unit's temperature sensitivity. A dehumidifier works by chilling room air to make water vapor condense on the coils, and then passing the dried air over warming coils. Water drips into the reservoir as the warmed, dry air recirculates into the room. If the ambient temperature is too low, the chiller coils will grow frost coatings and the unit will stop functioning (the better models automatically shut down). The temperature at which icing begins varies from model to model, but is usually in the 60-degree (F) range. Low temperature models are designed to resist icing at lower temperatures, usually down to about 45 degrees (F). These latter are considered more useful for unheated spaces like basements.
What's on the market? We visited the local big-box lumberyard/hardware stores, appliance stores, and our usual standby, Sears. The available dehumidifiers ranged in capacity from 30-pint to 70-pint, and in price from $128 to $219. Brands included Whirlpool, Haier, Roper, and Kenmore, though stickers inside the Whirlpool and Roper models advised consumers to call the manufacturer at the same toll-free number in case of malfunction. Apparently Whirlpool makes many of the dehumidifiers on the market, including those two and some Kenmore models.
All the units I saw, regardless of brand or size, were just white or off-white plastic-faced metal boxes with a grille on the front and a few knobs and push-button controls mounted at the top front of the cabinet. All were mounted on casters for easy movement, and all had a slide-out tank accessible from the front.
Most, if not all, dehumidifiers are designed to allow you to empty a hand-carried tank or to hook the unit to a hose that can be run to a floor drain (it can't be run "uphill"). All are electrically powered.
What did we buy? And why? We picked a Kenmore #54701 70-pint Low-Temperature unit because it was the highest-capacity dehumidifier available - we needed it to deal with about 2000 square feet of basement that, in some places, had damp spots showing on the walls. Depending on how we read the chart, we needed either a 50- or 70-pint unit. Since the basement is unheated, we figured a low-temperature unit would be a good idea; that and the next smaller capacity unit (50 pints) was only about ten dollars less that Sears's sale price.
What are the 54701's selling points?
Humidistat-controlled: A pair of push-buttons and digital readout let you set a target humidity that ranges from 35% to 70%
Timer-controlled: You can optionally set the unit to run for one of two time periods (three or six hours). After the time is up, the unit shuts off for the chosen period, then starts the cycle again. This overrides the humidistat setting.
Auto-off: When a drain hose is not installed, the unit automatically shuts off when the tank is full and restarts after the emptied reservoir has been reinstalled. An indicator light on the instrument panel comes on to warn that the bucket is full.
Two fan speeds Energy-Star compliant Frost control: sensors shut off the dehumidifier when the chiller controls ice up, and a defrost cycle commences. When the ice is gone, the unit re-starts.
Compact size: The 54701 is approximately 24 inches tall, 10 inches deep, and fifteen inches wide, and it weights around 50 pounds empty.
The 54701 has a metal cabinet and nylon front grille and is mounted on casters to allow easy movement, though it must stay within some six feet of its power supply. A hose "bib" can be permanently installed if you plan to keep it near a drain. Otherwise, you must periodically empty the reservoir by hand. When full, the tank holds about eighteen pints of water so it weighs slightly more than eighteen pounds. It has a sturdy folding handle for carrying, and a removable top so that the tank can be cleaned (just dump in a an ounce or two of bleach).
How well does it work? Two things you'll notice: first, a dehumidifier not only takes out moisture, it also warms the air. Our basement is several degrees warmer after this baby runs for twenty-four hours or so. Second, it's not the quietest appliance in the world, although it's not near as noisy as an inexpensive window air-conditioning unit. It does, however, work - for the first two or three days it ran almost continuously on "high," and we found ourselves dumping the bucket every eight hours or so. Since then, it runs about half the time on "low" when set at 60% humidity.
Recommendations: it's better to get a dehumidifier that's a tad too large than "save" money on one that's too small, especially if the bigger one is energy-star compliant - that efficiency will save energy in the long run. Look for one that has versatile controls and an easy-to-carry tank. Be prepared to have it sitting in the middle of the room, too - they all need at least a foot of space on all sides to guarantee proper air circulation.
This unit is well-suited for use in a large unheated space such as a basement or a garage in a temperate climate. A moderate noise level and heat output may make it unsuitable for use in living areas.
70 pint per day dehumidifier 3 water removal options (1. gather water in bucket, 2. gravity drain ravity drain, 3. built-in pump) Multi-function remot...More at Sears
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