Why Using Just Any Dehumidifier Won't Work

When “dry” means – feels dry, smells dry, and looks dry.

Just because you have a waterproofing system, doesn’t mean you have a dry basement. It’s confusing, but bear with me, because this is important.

There are 4 ways basements become wet or damp:

1. Groundwater leakage.

2. Capillary action. It means wicking. For example, a block wall may not leak, but it feels damp because it’s wicking the water inside it to the surface like a sponge.

3. Water vapor coming through your walls and floor.

4. The last way is from an exterior air leaking into your basement. This is not a problem as long as the outside air is cooler than the basement. It’s the warmer, summertime air that moves lots of water into our basement.

                - So whenever the outside air is warmer than the inside air, and especially when it’s humid outside air, we are likely to have a condensation problem in our subterranean levels. This is because the Relative Humidity of air goes up 2.2% for each one-degree you cool it. Our basements are always cool because they are below ground. And we know that a house is like a chimney – air flows upwards, allowing air to escape the upper levels, with new air being sucked in at the lower levels.

Why Household Dehumidifiers Just Don’t Do the Job

1. They are too small.

2. The cold air coil (the actual thing that takes the water out of the air) is too small.

3. The fan is too small (it has to be so it doesn’t blow the air past the dinky coil too fast, otherwise it wouldn’t take any water out)

4. The fan doesn’t circulate the dry air around your basement – because it’s too small.

5. The usually aren’t drained automatically, so the bucket fills up and they shut off.

6. They are rated (25 pints, 30 pints, 40 pints, etc.) per day at 80 degrees air temperature. Warm air holds a lot more moisture than cold air. Put them in a 68 degree basement and their effectiveness goes way down below this number.

Why Using Just Any Dehumidifier Wont Work - Image 1

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