Suggestions Wanted for Dehumidifier - Fiberglass RV
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Old 04-10-2019, 10:55 PM   #1
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Suggestions Wanted for Dehumidifier

Hi, I’m Donna. I’ve lurked on this forum and subscribe to the newsletter. This is my first post.

I’m looking for specific suggestions on dehumidifiers to use in my Casita when I’m not using it. I’d like a small one that I can run a drain hose to my shower or sink.

Normally I keep my trailer covered during the winter and out in lots of damp rid. This winter it was uncovered and we had LOTS of rain. As a result, I have excessive moisture inside. I did not vent it, and shades were up to let in sunshine. Condensation is a problem.

Anyone have suggestions for a specific brand of dehumidifier? Suggestions for whether I should keep it covered or uncovered? Any other ideas for keeping moisture out?

All suggestions are appreciated!! Thanks.
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Old 04-12-2019, 09:39 AM   #2
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We just leave it heated to about 55-60 degrees. That does the job for us.
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Old 04-12-2019, 09:53 AM   #3
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Trailer: Casita
Tennessee
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Exclamation Condensation Problem

Condensation is a potentially serious problem because of the rot and mold damage it can cause. It occurs when the internal temperature falls below the dewpoint of internal air. This often occurs when internal air is stagnant. Window condensation is particularly common because of the poor insulation quality of stock windows. By improving ventilation you can flush out moisture-laden stagnant air for fresh air with less moisture, This seems counterintuitive. So many owners close up their campers in the hopes of precluding water getting in which stagnates the warm moist internal air causing condensation. Improving ventilation will reduce condensation.

Another approach is to keep the internal temperature at normal room temperature. Then the internal air temperature does not go down to the dew point and condensation does not form.

By supplying AC power to your trailer you might run the heat strip in the air conditioner and the vent fan on low as a two-prong approach to reducing condensation.
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Old 04-12-2019, 10:27 AM   #4
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I use one of these and there seem to be numerous companies selling this same model so you can search for the best bargain. https://www.amazon.com/hOmeLabs-Smal...gateway&sr=8-4
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Old 04-12-2019, 10:31 AM   #5
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I use Dri-Z-Air and a small heater to keep the temps up a bit. 13 years of doing this has resulted on no mold or internal condensation that I have been able to detect.
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Old 04-12-2019, 10:40 AM   #6
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One of these will tell you what your humidity level is. https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-Humidity-Thermometer-Hygrometer-Indicator/dp/B0013BKDO8/ref=asc_df_B0013BKDO8/?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid={creative}&hvpos={adpositio n}&hvnetw=o&hvrand={random}&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt= e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl={devicemodel}&hvlocint=&hvlocph y=&hvtargid=pla-4583795260471590&psc=1
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Old 04-13-2019, 06:52 AM   #7
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I bought a small RV dehumidifier on Amazon. They sell several of them.
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Old 04-14-2019, 06:12 PM   #8
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Name: Elliott
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Usually for storage I'd suggest buckets of damp-rid, but it sounds like that wasn't sufficient. To me that means you need some pretty hefty dehumidification. If buckets of dessicant weren't enough, those little peltier-based dehumidifiers probably won't be enough either. You'll want a compressor-based one with a humidistat. All of those are bulky and expensive, unfortunately, but this one doesn't look too bad: https://www.amazon.com/Ivation-Pint-...dp/B079V7WV1N/

As others have mentioned some variety of heater may also be helpful in avoiding condensation. Since it just needs to keep interior temperatures up a little, something much lower-wattage than a space heater is probably the way to go. There might be better options, but this is the first one I found: https://www.amazon.com/Caframo-Limit...dp/B0009L675W/
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Old 04-15-2019, 01:38 PM   #9
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Hi Donna
We bought a Dehumidifier from Sears and put it on the table run the drain out the electrical line entrance. It works great
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Old 04-15-2019, 02:51 PM   #10
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I got one like this for the basement. https://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Applia...fier/189957689 It works well and has a variety of settings. You shouldn't need to run one very often. This one will suck the Casita below 50% in a couple of hours. I think there is a temp limit, below which they don't do much.
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Old 04-15-2019, 03:21 PM   #11
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Name: Mac
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We live on the west side of the Oregon Cascades (the wet side). We use a Davis Air-Dryr 1000, leaving the trailer plugged in to A/C.
Currently, the outside temp is 44, and the humidity is 76%.
Inside the Casita, the temp is 50, and the humidity is 62%; often it's much lower.

This does the trick for us. I put some Dri-z-Air crystals in there once, and spilled the liquid that resulted. Nasty, corrosive stuff!
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Old 04-15-2019, 07:35 PM   #12
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Name: Jan
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We have one of the dehumidifiers that Lee mentioned above and it work great (you do have to empty out the tank). What we use is this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1. Keep the cupboard doors open, bench covers, etc. and everything should stay dry and warm.
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Old 04-20-2019, 10:41 AM   #13
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We've been using this unit for years.....works great...no hoses or emptying water. We live in very wet country....80 to 100 inches of rain per year. Our Casita is outside....I plug in this unit....set it on the floor....open all the cabinet doors and we have no moisture issues. They have been using these units on boats for years. Good luck and safe travels.

https://www.amazon.com/AMRD-1458-Dav.../dp/B00NZJ7Z4C
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Old 04-20-2019, 10:52 AM   #14
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Originally Posted by jerrybob View Post
We've been using this unit for years.....works great...no hoses or emptying water.

So where does the moisture go?
You could just plug in a lamp with a 60 watt bulb to warm the air.
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Old 04-20-2019, 12:29 PM   #15
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Name: Kip
Trailer: 2003 Casita 17' SD Deluxe, Towed by '09 Honda Ridgeline.
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A problem with the small units with small holding tanks is the need to go inside and check if the tank needs dumping. That may involve opening the door twice which could introduce new moist air to the interior. And you might need to check it daily.

If I was using a dehumidifier, I would get one with a drain and run that drain outside. Draining into the shower, or sink drain would set you up for possibly a pea trap freezing.

We use a good quality space heater set at about 40 degrees and never had a problem with condensation.

But if you are in an area that never freezes, the dehumidifier would likely be the way to go. . Just Google "Dehumidifier"s and go from there.

k
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Old 04-20-2019, 02:35 PM   #16
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Name: Alan
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dehumidifying to stop mold

You need a cheap digital hygrostat for monitoring your indoor relative humidity (RH) and to compare to the one that may integral on the dehumidifier you need. This website allows you to get a working sense of the relationship between air temperature, RH, and mold risk.
Dew Point Calculator

Play with the slide bars and watch the mold risk indicator change. Ideally you want to maintain any trailer to less than 60% RH most of the time. Having a higher indoor RH can cause problems if it happens too many hours of the day or too many days of the week. Lots of rain, tracking water indoors on your feet and clothes, leaks, etc. will increase your indoor RH to higher levels, but typically they will drop down again in a few hours. You never want to allow your stuff to get moldy or mildewed; the health risks are very consequential and there is no way to decontaminate moldy objects that have any porosity to them, like clothing or wood.


Ventilating to stop mold in a trailer is very risky. It has to stay warm enough inside to warm up and dry out the outside air that is coming in, and then that warm wet air has to leave the trailer without condensing on any trailer parts on its way out. You might get away with this in east San Diego or Phoenix...


A any compressor dehumidifier is also a 2 COP heater. (2 COP means half as much electricity for the same amount of heat production as any electric resistance heater or light bulb (COP 1 or less)). It is cheaper and safer to run a dehumidifier than a heater. Note that most portable AC units can also be used to dehumidify, and these days you can also buy portable heat pump units that can cool in the summer, heat in the winter, and dehumidify whenever needed. A dehumidifier also very efficiently heats the space as it removes water from the air. I have been heating my house in western Oregon partly with dehumidifiers for 20 years. A dehumidifier or a portable heat pump would be the cheapest way to heat a place with electricity with a portable appliance. You have to carefully read the installation and use instructions for portable AC/Heat Pump units to be sure they are doing what you need them to. A 8,000 BTU portable AC unit is about the right size for plugging into the wall, or a 20-30 pint dehumidifier.


If you get a dehumidifier with a hygrostat integrated into the control, it will turn itself off when the RH setting level is reached and come on again when RH goes up. This is great except the hygrostat in the dehumidifier is often not very accurate, so you need to compare your little digital hygrometer to see if the target RH levels are being maintained and tweak the settings as necessary. Also, hygrostats typically have a large hysteresis, so you may have to set the control to less than 60% RH to be sure the space never gets above 65%. I set mine to 55% to be safe. I took a Honeywell hygrostat designed to use in a house and put it in an outlet box with an extension cord for a more accurate control when the one on the dehumidifier got too far off.



Many dehumidifiers/portable AC come with a garden hose connection so you can drain the bucket continuously into the kitchen sink or bathtub (trailer drain valves locked open!), and you definitely want this feature so you can leave the trailer unattended for months as needed.



Note also that there are two different temperature ranges of dehumidifiers available. The ones you use in the summer in the midwest only function at indoor air temperatures above 64 degrees. The ones you use for trailers in the cold season need to operate all the way down to 42-45 degrees. The cold temperature ones are not hard to find, you just have to be sure they are rated for cold weather operation.


This Ebay seller beats the Amazon price for the previously-linked Davis heating appliance by almost $30, as usual. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Davis-Instr...oAAOSwcBRbvAsz The problem with a low capacity system like this is that if it gets overwhelmed by unplanned events your trailer can get moldy and there is no way to clean it up.



I don't know about you, but I never have any unplanned events in my life...
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Old 04-20-2019, 04:11 PM   #17
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Name: Alan
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Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo View Post
So where does the moisture go?
You could just plug in a lamp with a 60 watt bulb to warm the air.

Glenn has a great question. Looking at this Davis thingy more closely, all it does is heat the air slightly, like a 130 Watt incandescent light bulb.


Heating air lowers the RH of that air column off the top, but this doesn't change the amount of moisture entrained in the air. So as soon as the air temperature drops again, the RH and dewpoint will be the same as it was before it encountered the heater.


This thing also causes a convective air current looping through at least parts of the trailer. Moving air can evaporate condensation sitting on surfaces and also warm the surfaces up just enough so they are above dewpoint.


It is safer than a hot lightbulb sitting near the floor, and it won't burn out and leave you in the cold.



In some situations, a 130 Watt heater, or a 70 watt heater, is enough to warm a space enough to keep the RH low enough and the dewpoint high enough often enough to discourage mold growth. But change the RH and temperatures much, or introduce a water leak, and it won't be enough. It is a bit of a gamble.
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Old 04-20-2019, 04:54 PM   #18
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Friend of mine gave me the Davis from his tug boat. I kept it for a while and then dumped it in the trash.
I use Dri-Z-Air and run an electric heater from time to time.
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Old 04-20-2019, 06:08 PM   #19
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Name: M
Trailer: Bigfoot
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Love ours!

We have a noma 60 pt from Canadian tire and are glad we have it. We have no leaks but it pulls a liter or so per week in the rainy winter here in the Pacific Northwest. We just empty an external bucket every week during freezing season. When it’s more mild we route the hose into the shower drain. I find the heat and air circulation from the dehumidifier keeps everything from getting too cold (I add a small oil filled heater for external temps below -0 Celsius). The trailer never feels damp. I’m sensitive to mold/mildew so this was a must for us. I imagine if you have some excessive dampness I’d run one on high for a couple weeks then see how it goes. Lowe’s (and Walmart I think south of the border) sells a Frigidaire 70pt that has great reviews - was just out of stock when we were wanting one.
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Old 04-20-2019, 08:15 PM   #20
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Name: Mac
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Glenn - you could indeed. I don't want to accidentally start a fire with an incandescent bulb. The Air-Dryr has the same effect. The moisture goes into the air, and is held there. The air is a few degrees warmer inside the Casita than outside.

Possibly this chart may explain it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relati...e_Humidity.png
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