Dehumidifiers

Compressor dehumidifiers, pump models and wardrobe units:

the compressor machine does nearly all the real drying. It works like a small refrigerator, condensing water on a cold coil, and in a warm Panamanian room it lifts more water for the power it draws than any other type. A model with a built-in pump pushes that water up a thin hose to a sink or out of a window, the answer for an apartment with no floor drain low enough for a gravity hose. Desiccant units are lighter and quieter but use more electricity, and only pull ahead in a cool room. Thermoelectric boxes and disposable absorber tubs belong in a wardrobe or a car, not a bedroom. A split dries the air only while it is cooling, so a dehumidifier earns its place in rooms that are shut, empty or never cooled. A room that is hot as well as damp needs one of the air conditioning units; dust or smoke rather than damp is a job for air purifiers.

A dehumidifier for an apartment left closed:

needs two things a wardrobe unit can do without. The first is continuous drainage, by gravity hose or pump, so a full bucket does not switch it off a few days after you leave. The second is auto-restart, so it comes back on with its last setting after a storm cuts the power; some cheaper machines wake up in standby and sit there until you get home to a flat that smells shut in. When nobody is around to empty a bucket or press a button, those two features matter more than extra capacity.

Pint labels and the price of a new dehumidifier:

new, a compressor unit costs around $160 for a small 30-pint and about $180 to $300 for a 50-pint, depending on the brand. Units sold in Panama follow the US rating, and that test was moved to a cooler room, so the same machine now earns a smaller number: an older 70-pint does roughly the work of a newer 50, and some boxes on sale here still quote the warmer, older test, which flatters the figure. With budget 50-pint units priced like that, a used dehumidifier has little headroom: nobody can see how many hours its compressor has run, and to a buyer with a closed apartment, one without a pump or auto-restart is worth less however clean it looks.

The bucket, the filter and the label on a used dehumidifier:

start with the bucket. A float inside it tells the machine when to stop; if the float sticks or the plastic is cracked, the unit either refuses to run or leaks across the floor. Pull the filter: thick grey felt or a musty smell from the coil means nobody cleaned it. Unplug it while it runs and plug it back in to see whether it resumes by itself. Then read the label on the back for brand, model and manufacture date. Gree built dehumidifiers sold under Frigidaire, Kenmore, GE, De’Longhi, SoleusAir and other names that were recalled in the US and Canada because they could overheat and catch fire, and an older machine that came down from the US could be one of them. If its model is on the recall list, leave it.

Listing a dehumidifier someone will leave running alone:

give the brand, model, pint rating and the manufacture date from the label, which tells a buyer which test the rating came from. Say whether it has a pump, a drain-hose outlet and auto-restart, since anyone with an apartment to leave shut will ask about all three. Photograph the rating label, the inside of the bucket and the filter. Most come up when an owner moves somewhere with air conditioning in every room, or leaves the country. Empty the bucket and the hose before the buyer arrives: they will want to hear the compressor kick in and feel dry air at the grille before carrying it to the car.