I have a dehumidifier kindly donated to me by a fellow STWer some years back. It’s provided solid use ever since and is now in its new home in my cellar.

The cellar didn’t have any power points so I ran it off an extension until I could get a man in (I could have done it myself but, eh, long irrelevant story). Since his visit it’s not worked, the fan spins but it’s not drawing any water. When the compressor(?) does fire it runs at a death rattle for a few seconds and then cuts out.

Questions:

1) Does this sound readily fixable? I assumed at first that it’d ingested a load of brick dust with the drilling but this doesn’t immediately seem to be the case. Is it feasible that they’ve rolled it around without switching it off first and that’s knacked it maybe?

2) Am I likely to have any liability claim against the tradesman if it’s buggered? It was working, now it ain’t, but I have no proof of anything. Question for him I suppose.

3) Assuming it’s bust beyond economical repair, what should I be looking for in a new one? These things aren’t cheap!

4) The cellar is humid rather than cold damp. When it was working at full chat (could that be what killed it?) I was pulling out like a tankful a day and I think it’s a 5L tank. Is this something that’s likely to diminish over time or am I just trying to dry out the Earth’s core?

Cheers.

As soon as the word ‘cold’ is mentioned you really want to be looking at a desiccant one, standard ones don’t work very efficiently below much below normal room temp. I have one in my cellar. It has a humidity sensor so I just set it to desired level, and with it draining direct in to a drain I can just forget about it. Mine is a Pro Breeze 10L, think it was around £150

Does it have an air filter? Worth a try cleaning it.

I have a delonghi that had similar symptoms. Found a YouTube video of some electronics repair guy who pointed to a known issue with a capacitor that fails. I ordered a spare off eBay for a couple of quid and swapped it over. Works perfectly now.

Cheers guys.

Any more for any more?

This might give you some more info.
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyone-upgraded-their-dehumidifier-experiences-please/#post-11626365

for a cellar you might want to look at desiccant ones. I’ve just in the last few days got a Meaco Zambezi for an old coal hole room and first impression is it’s very good. I’ve yet to see how it impacts the leccy bill (compared to the previous condenser ones Ebac and a Meaco low energy condenser)

We have a Meaco 8l Junior desiccant dehumidifier, it is excellent. We use it in our ground floor flat to dry washing in the winter. I am always amazed how quick and effective it is every time we use it. Its a nice small size, very unobtrusive in our tiny flat. Sucks up moisture quicker than a peaceful protester’s summer footwear.

It did a similar thing to yours and stopped working, most probably after using it in a dusty environment. Meaco serviced it and returned to us for free, excellent service although it was within the 12 month guarantee period.

It was recommended to us and I would also recommend it. It is a very versatile bit of kit.

Technically i think you may be correct in that left long enough in that environment, you will desiccate the world.

I’ve got a desiccant one (Meaco I think). Essential if the room is a colder room. To be honest if it’s pulling out a lot of moisture is it actually pulling it in through the walls? If there are vents in the room it will probably be doing that.
The cellar mine is in has a couple of small vents to the space under the lounge which in turn has vents to the outside. So even though I set mine up with an outside drain it runs ALL THE TIME.
I’m now not using it so it’ll be up for sale soon, the electricity bill was a bit much too to be honest.
I’m exploring different venting options to keep the moisture down now.

Thanks again.

To clarify:

It’s a cellar, there is no ventilation and no immediate means of providing such unless I leave the door open.

It is not particularly cold, it’s humid if anything.

Are these what you’re recommending?

https://www.meaco.com/products/meaco-dd8l-junior-dehumidifier
https://www.meaco.com/products/meaco-dd8l-dehumidifier
https://www.meaco.com/products/meaco-dd8l-zambezi-dehumidifier

Looks like the only difference between the first two is an ionising filter (cellar, care more) and on the Zamboni you’re just paying for timers and assorted gadgetry. Is that about right?

2L tank though, I think I might need a bigger unit.

Google your model… Mine had just started to stop intermittently after about 10 minutes, but other days it will run fine.

The likely culprit on my model is apparently a sensor and adjacent thermal fuse inside the casing, if you separate them the unit will run and you have proved the fault to the thermal fuse.

If it doesn’t fix itself, I plan to pull it apart 🙂

Do you have any way of plumbing it in? Sink? Any waste pipes?

Are these what you’re recommending?

Yes – the Junior 8l.

It has a continuous drain feature which you use with a hose direct to a drain. We only use the tank though. We got a hose with ours but it says not included on the specification

We just turn on, select appropriate setting and run. When its full it beeps and then stops until you empty it.

when we run it we shut all the doors around it so it only dries the washing not the whole flat. We also have a tiny cupboard room that is below floor level and subsequently prone to damp. We run it in there from time to time and it makes a massive difference. Over time – and particularly in winter – the damp does return but it is a typical victorian hovel built on marsh so meh. The meaco does improve things considerably though.

This is the one I have in my cellar. I have it set up to continuous drain. I like the fact you just set it to a target % humidity and it looks after itself then.

https://probreeze.com/products/dehumidifiers/10l-desiccant-dehumidifier/

Do you have any way of plumbing it in? Sink? Any waste pipes?

Nope. Cellar.

I could get a big bucket I suppose.

Got the same one as Vader to use in the mancave, it runs on the lowest setting for a couple of days before the tank needs emptying.

If you are drawing out that much water a day and you can’t (or won’t) find or make a continuous drain for it to flow to then you either need to find the source of the damp and stop it coming in or provide more ventilation and heat to move it out more naturally.

Problem with dehumidifying cellars is that you often draw in more moisture through the walls as you suck it out, so you could be in a position where you will never get it dry. The running costs over a couple of years of running a dehumidifier won’t be cheap, better to find a more permanent solution.

Unfortunately I’ve found in my job people are insistent that they use their cellars (and convert them) and that they must be dry and like any other room in their house but they were never designed for it.

Maybe look into providing some sort of sump with a pump to move the water to your drainage system when needed. There will probably be a drain somewhere in the cellar but they often get covered up or sealed when conversion work is done. Plenty of my lads at work have dug out cellar drains which have been blocked up after they have had drainage issues.

Cheers.

Open to better suggestions. My 8L Junior arrived a couple of hours ago, it’s currently chunnering away down there. I don’t think it’ll take long to fill that tank.

Thanks all.

I’ve been umming and aaahing over a dehumidifier for ages, I like the look of the Maecco Junior though and its good to have ‘real’ reviews.

We have an immediate need for the next few weeks for drying clothes in our small, increasily damp semi, then when we move shortly I want a a dehumidifier initiall to help dry out our new build house and then to go into my new garage – which will be drylined, at at least somewhat sealed/insulated – to keep the car and tools etc dry.

Reckon its suitable?

It’s got a clothes drying setting but I’ve never used it.

Reckon its suitable?

Not so important for the clothes drying, but for the rest I’d only consider one that you can set to a particularly humidity level and it will then look after itself switching on/off as required. For a garage I’d be looking at desiccant one.

Recommending the one I have again in true STW style;
https://probreeze.com/products/dehumidifiers/10l-desiccant-dehumidifier/

I have a Meaco Junior 8L which I had for 18months or so and worked very well but then it started leaking all over the shop. So looked at service which seemed to be about half the machine value . Did a bit of a strip down to see if I could find the fault and it was dust inside . It seems that the filter is not good enough to clean all the dust from the air intake so it builds up inside and blocks things up so a full strip down and clean is needed to sort the problem. Bit of an arse of a job to do, getting all bits back together.
Not sure warranty will cover dust ingress or not.
Otherwise a really good dehumidifier better filter and it would be top notch. Later ones might of been upgraded, mine is about 3 years old now .