Dehumidifying an apartment!

VanityPants

Hey guys,

I've been suffering from some bad allergies in my apartment lately and it's come to my attention that getting a decent dehumidifier might really help out. That said, I'm absolutely clueless when it comes to picking these things out and after searching Amazon and other sites for around an hour, I'm just as clueless.

My apartment is around 700 square feet, but I'm looking for something I can just stick in the living room. Barring that, I'd be willing to just get a smaller one for the bedroom and seeing how that goes. I'm thinking I'd spend up to $100 for a smaller bedroom sized unit and have no idea how much I'd be looking to spend for anything else but am willing to look at anything. I'm hoping some people here might have some suggestions or experience with units they've used before and had good experiences with.

iRevert

Do you have winter (dry) months?

If so your going to want to cycle it for a hour or so a week so it doesn't seize up. I have a elcheapo Soleus Air 45 pint that I picked up to replace a 20 odd year old warhorse that was on its last leg. Its going on its third year now and I've cycled it for 2 hours a week during the winter (actually humidifying the basement prior to it running so it had something to pull out of the air.) and it hasn't had any hiccups yet.

I'm not sure I'd recommend the brand (Soleus Air) for long term, I use mine weekly if not daily during the summer to keep the moisture down in the basement and so far its been good but many other people have had issues with the brand so its a YMMV.

grouch993

We spent a little more and picked up units with humidistat and hose drainage, think the units were around $200. Ran them nearly non-stop for seven years. Had to shut them down occasionally for cleaning.

Ours were some unknown brand that the local Ace hardware carried.

Forbe!

The capacity of the dehumidifer will depend on what size apartment you have (sq ft) and roughly how humid it is. There are a bunch of guides out there.

I bought mine due to an allergy problem, as well, and it's been working out great for the winter months. My window unit AC has a built in dehumidifier which takes care of the problem nicely during the summer months. I purchased a 35 Pint Kenmore , I can hook it up to a drain or use the included bucket with it, wheel it around the apartment/into a closet. I bought it for about $150 from Sears back in December, but I am not sure how much it costs now.