Dehumidifier: Is the Sears man telling me the truth?

Factual Questions
1

I recently purchased a Sears 40-pint dehumidifier for my basement. My son last week said that the dehumidifier seemed to be running 24 hours a day. I later paid attention to it and he is quite right. The thing never stops running.

I later called Sears and another sales clerk said that if the dehumidifier is running constantly, it will shorten the life of the compressor. He recommends a larger unit, something in the 60-pint range. My basement is quite large and humid without a dehumidifier.

Does his advice make sense, from a technical angle? The dehumidifier’s bucket (at least 5 gallons) fills up every single day.

2

It does, but there’s an alternative. Just keep running the one that you’ve got until it dies, and then replace it with a larger unit.

3

There is fresh air getting int the basement isn’t there? And this air has humidity in it?

Shouldn’t it run all the time?

4

He is quite correct. Compressors were not meant to run non-stop. You need a larger unit to handle what seems to be a larger basement than you realized.

Although, it could depend on the kind of weather you’re having right now. Here in the Philly area, we’ve had nothing but rain for the past 3 months, resulting in a lot of moisture in the basement, and constantly running dehumidifier. Once the AC starts running, though, things should settle down.

Reeder, basements don’t get as much ventilation as the rest of the house, which should allow a dehumidifier to maintain the room at a desired level of humidity without running all the time. Remember too that you’re trying to achieve a 50 to 60% level, not 0%.

5

Why not get a second 40-pint unit and run both of them? Surely that would be cheaper than throwing out a 40-pint unit and replacing it with a 60-pint unit. Plus, you get 20 extra pints!

6

Are you sure the compressor is running? Some dehumidifier models have the fan running almost all the time and the compressor kicks in and out as needed. You might not be at risk of burning anything out.

7

Also there is a dial on most (if not all) that will allow you to ajust the point where the compressor turns on and off, if it’s pined at the max setting the compressor will most likely run continously, try backign that knob back a bit.

As for other ways to reduce humitidy, you could use fans to exchange air with the level above or better yet a vent system to either pull air from the top most floor (near the ceiling) to the basement or the reverse - I never did find out which one is better.