Why modern dehumidifiers fail
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- Опубліковано 23 тра 2021
- A short cycling compressor and cheap, corroding copper likely caused my previous dehumidifier to fail by losing all it's charge after only 3 summers of use. I "recycled" the unit into a learning opportunity and took some steps to assure the replacement unit will hopefully live longer.
The previous unit's fate: • Not your average dehum...
Here’s a little story. I have a White Westinghouse dehumidifier from the early 1980s which was in the house when I purchased it that still runs flawlessly but was adding about $30 to my electric bill each month in summer. So back in 2020 I had the great idea of replacing it with an energy star Friedrich dehumidifier that was presented to me as “top of the line” for over $300. Loved it because it was quiet, looked sleek and had a continuous drain feature instead of a bucket and did in fact save some money each month on electricity. Well back in June 2022 I noticed the basement being humid in spite of the unit running and knew something was wrong. It did come with a 5 year warranty on the sealed refrigeration system so after bringing it back to the authorized service center (and paying a $50 “diagnostic” fee) I got a call the next day to be told it was non repairable and a new one would be sent from the manufacturer. Luckily I still kept the Westinghouse because it took 5 weeks to receive a replacement. Even more discouraging was when I went to pick it up at the service center and the repair guy said as I was leaving, “see you again in 2 years”. It’s absolutely disgusting that our country no longer makes a dehumidifier and all we have available is garbage from China.
Brilliant! Thanks so much for the video. I had the same issue on mine which cycled 50+ times a day, which eventually over several years welded the relay contacts closed thus the compressor does not turn off and overheats until it thermally trips. This is the cause of the fire hazard and why they recalled these units. Stupidly they did not design the circuit board to always run the fan when the compressor is running.
Thank you for the informative video! I was having the same problem with my Frigidaire dehumidifier
I currently have three DEAD Frigidaire dehumidifiers in my basement. Two are 70 pint units that lasted 1.5 years before giving the deadly F0 warning. The third Frigidaire died in 6 months. It's a much larger unit designed to run at lower temps). Also, have a 1 year old Ivation 70 pint unit that barely functions, but keeps the RH at 50%. I wouldn't mind having to replace the units every couple years, except it cost $50 to have them taken away.
I've given up totally on all dehumidifiers and will have my HVAC contractors install a heat pump to condition the air in summer and winter. GOOD RIDDANCE, WORTHLESS FRIGIDAIRES!
I FINALLY found where the Soleus dehumidifier was leaking from. For some reason, after it let all the 410A out originally, the leak must have corroded shut enough so multiple attempts to find it failed. It had been running perfectly all summer on R152A in my experimental setup but within the last month I started having to add some gas. I tried several times to find the leak and failed, finally getting disgusted enough to buy a Infincon Tek-Mate detector and it was going off 6" away! The evaporator coil is basically swiss cheese! Once I got some better leak detecting solution I found a big leak at the bottom and many little "foamer" leaks in several other places. The coil looks perfect and the copper is barely tarnished! It would take $5 more to build a coil that doesn't blow through in 2 or 3 years.
@@chrisbeck8182 Wow, this is extremely valuable and IMPORTANT information. It explains a lot about why the units are failing. I figured they were leaking somewhere and had read how they could be recharged by attaching an inlet. I was going to ask my HVAC professionals to take a look at doing this, but someone mentioned the refrigerant is very expensive, you need to evacuate the system before refilling it, etc, and it would probably cost at least half as much as a new unit. Well, if the copper lines are "Swiss cheese" there's really to point at all. It's my understanding that 90% of all dehumidifiers are manufactured in China by one company and simply rebranded. So, they're using inferior copper and all units are doomed.
I do have USA-made SantaFe Compact 70 in my crawl space that seems to be working well. I contacted the company to verify they are made in the USA and that they have fittings to easily be recharged by professionals. I like that. Of course, their 70-90 pint units cost $1400 or so, but I'm not adverse to paying that -- if they are robust and serviceable in the home. I'll ask my HVAC people about that when they come up with estimates for my split heat pump for the basement.
Thanks again for all the info I learned from your work.
@@jonboz7585 Even the USA HVAC manufacturers have gotten in on the leaky coils. To meet ever-increasing government SEER/EER standards the manufacturers use thinner and thinner copper as well as rifling the inside of the tube, which makes it even thinner . There was a HUGE issue with leaky A/C evaporator coils starting around 2009 and only within the past few years has it been mostly resolved. Many systems use aluminum coils now to combat the corrosion. Old school coils with high grade copper still corrode, but the thickness allows much more margin. Now they're using chinesium copper with questionable quality and it's very thin to start with.
Not to mention, old dehumidifiers use R-12 which runs at 30 PSI in the evaporator. Then they switched to R-22 which runs about 60 PSI. Finally they went to R-410A which runs 100 PSI, so 2-1/2 times the pressure and probably half the thickness of material. Also, most old USA dehumidifiers used aluminum evaporators, just a big coil of tubing. Not as efficient, but it lasts forever!
The SantaFe units are good and I believe I read about either a tin-coated copper coil or aluminum coil option they've been testing out on that model to address environmental causes of short life. Here's a good report from Carrier on why coils corrode and leak: aplusair.ca/wp-content/uploads/Carrier-Evaporator-Coil-Formicary-Corrosion-Report.pdf
That's my unit. It's borked. Had ice a few weeks ago. Figured it was toast but let it thaw. Plugged it in, seemed to work. Have an "EC" code now.
I’m not sure what the EC code means as these units do not have any sort of high or low pressure switches. They only have a temperature sensor that allegedly keeps them from freezing up if used in too cool of an area. However that sensor won’t help if it’s freezing up due to being low on charge.
Older dehumidifiers like my late 90s FrankenWhirlpool take off the shelf parts which makes repair like replacing a seized fan motor easy while my 2015 Whirlpool which has been a good worker takes proprietary parts that are NLA as expected, whirlpool looks like it's been through a war but runs better than the new Frigidaire
so true!
Interesting, I would have thought that short cycling the compressor would be what would kill it eventually, but that could do it to, my family had a mid 2000s whirlpool r-22 dehumidifier and it’s been going strong for a while, it has a continuous mode and that seems to help stop the short cycling, I can post the like to the vid I made on it
Honestly I think it is simply poor quality copper being used, which is also very thin for both cost and efficiency. Having the copper corrode under the insulation doesn't help, either. I know several cases where the R410A has leaked out and nobody could find the leak, including myself. I believe the copper just becomes porous and leaks it out in many tiny spots, too small to detect.
Time for a vintage dehumidifier. not worth keeping. it'll still fail no matter what you do
It would shorten its life. The sensor is placed inside the unit for a reason. Prolonging the fan may cause it to overheat.
that's what I was thinking as well, not all motors are made to run continuoesly forever
Don’t most dehumidifiers have a continuous mode anyway where both the fan and compressor run continuously? They also have timers letting them run for hours at a time. Do these modes contribute to short lifespan?
Well so the moral of the story is you get what you pay for but I’ve tried many different brands and they’re all the same they’re all junk. I would love to buy a good dehumidifier I would pay money for it.