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Do you know anything about trouble with dehumidifier

11 years ago

I bought a Soleus dehumidifier last August for my basement. I have it set up with a hose, for continuous usage. It's been working great and making my unfinished basement usable for my treadmill, which is great.

In the last month, though, I've had a problem. After it's on for an hour or two, it starts making a loud knocking sort of noise, and I have to turn it off. The next day, it will be good for another couple of hours.

Before I contact the company, does anyone know if this could be because it's running when it's not really humid in the basement? There's some humidity, but nothing like summer and fall.

Thanks for any help.

Comments (2)

lazypup
11 years ago
A dehumidifier is actually a small refrigeration unit that has an evaporator coil (cooling coil) mounted over a bucket or tank receiver, and it has a small fan to pull in the room air and pass it through the unit.

When the unit is running correctly the evaporator coil is maintained at about 40degF so when the room air passes through the coil it is cooled to below its present "Dew Point" and the humidity (moisture) in the air condensates on the coil, then drips into the bucket or receiving tank, which in your case it also has a hose connected to the tank to drain it automatically instead of you having to empty a bucket once a day.

The whole system is comprised of a compressor, which is sealed inside a welded steel canister, a small fan motor that is usually rather difficult to access, and here again, other than a serious failure of the motor, the is very little an untrained individual could do to repair it. It also has a condensing coil (cool coil) and an evaporator coil (when the heat absorbed in the cooling process is released, and both of those coils are primarily just a small loop of copper tubing that is welded together, and nothing that can be serviced by the owner.

Your unit may have a filter on the air intake. If it does, it will most likely just be a simple foam filter like they use on a window AC, which can be taken out and rinsed with cold water to clean.

The unit also has a "Humidistat" control that functions quite similar to a thermostat, but instead of having a bi-metal thermal sensor it has a sensor that is actually made out of human hair. When hair is wet it lengths and it shortens as it dries, so the control has a small lock of hair permanently attached on one end and the other end is attached to a movible contact arm so it can pull the switch contacts open as the hair dries and shrinks or turn the system on when the hair absorbs moisture, lengthens and allows the switch contacts to close.

You want to check the air intake grille to make sure that nothing has fallen down and is blocking the air flow, and check to see if it has a filter that may need cleaning. Other than that, there is no other user repairs that you could do. Contact the MFG and see if it is still under warranty or where they recommend you have it repaired in your area.

NOTE- although it is a basic refrigeration unit most HVAC & Refrig. companies will not work on them.
joann23456
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, I'll do that. It's definitely still under warranty, but I wanted to see if there was something I could do about it first.
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