Why Household Dehumidifiers are a Bad Idea
The air in your basement flows upward into your entire home, so it’s important for that air to be clean and dry to prevent mold growth. Household dehumidifiers just don’t get the job done when it comes to keeping the air in your basement dry. Here’s why:
They are too small. Simple as that. They are not built to dehumidify a large space such as most typical basements that follow the full imprint of a home.
The cold coil is too small. The cold coil is the actual thing that takes the water out of the air. On household dehumidifiers, the coil is too small to handle the amount of moisture in the air in your basement.
The fan is too small. The fan has to be small so it doesn’t blow the air past the small coil too fast, otherwise it wouldn’t take any water out. Because the fan is so small, the dry air doesn’t get circulated around the basement space.
They don’t drain automatically. Most household dehumidifiers aren’t installed to drain automatically, which means once the bucket fills up, they shut off. Then they won’t turn back on until you manually empty the bucket every time it fills up. Talk about a nuisance!
They are not very effective. They are rated per day at 80 degrees air temperature. Warm air holds much more moisture than cold air, so if you put them in a 68-degree basement, their effectiveness drops significantly.
There is simply no comparison between a household dehumidifier and a SaniDry XP Basement Air System, offered by Woods Basement Systems. The SaniDry XP lives up to all of its promises and keeps your basement air completely dry. It can filter and dehumidify the air in your basement at the same time. And with it's ENERGY STAR® rating, it is three times more efficient than common hardware store dehumidifiers. It's powerful blower allows it to dehumidify up to 2,500 square feet, removing up to 110 pints of water per day, and with a MERV 11 air filter it can remove particles from the air as small as 2 microns, removing strong odors.
The SaniDry CSB is an ENERGY STAR® rated crawl space dehumidifier with a lower profile so it will fit inside of a small crawl space. Also equipped with an air filter, it can dehumidify a 6,000 square foot crawl space at 3' high.
Both of these dehumidifiers are the must-have for basement and crawl spaces. Throughout Illinois & Missouri, including the Greater St. Louis area, Woods Basement Systems, Inc. will offer a free no-obligation quote to come inspect your basement and determine if a SaniDry XP is right for your below-grade space.