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Humid summer reason is here again and let me post one more time about brand issues rather than posting to the years old thread. Crawlspaces are common in the Triangle and they are VERY humid and not managed properly by homeowners. Recently, I've even met townhouse owners who are finally looking into their crawlspace issues. My vents are spray-foamed shut, a good vapor barrier on the ground and all gutters are drained 20 ft away from the house, no drainage issues.
I bought a THIRD dehumidifier for the crawlspace and seems like this one has been working longer than any of my other ones without breaking down. I bought the Santa Fe Advance90 and all of the repair technicians said they almost never repair Santa Fe models.
previous machines: Horizon Titan XP90 - total waste of $1000 - repaired over 4 times (longest running time period was 2 months), compressor fails, control panel fails, coil leaked and I don't even know what happened the 4th time because I didn't care
Sierra Global Watchdog 900 - another waste of $1000, 1.5 months in, all the refrigerant leaked out completely and then the compressor failed as a result, beyond frustrated with this stupid unit - technician at Sunbelt offered to buy the unit from me and I agreed so I guess not a total waste of $1k. Total disappointment after the Titan XP90.
Santa Fe Advance90 - been running for several months now and no issues at all. Spoke with numerous dehumidifier technicians who said they never have to service Santa Fe units. Should have just started with this particular brand. https://www.sylvane.com/santa-fe-adv...umidifier.html
I am extremely disappointed with Horizon/Titan and Sierra Global. Just wanted to post because many local Triangle crawlspace companies use these brands so I would be careful with agreeing to installing these brands. I would definitely request the Santa Fe brand because who knows what "agreement" companies have with certain brands. These 2 stupid brands above have caused me tons of headaches including moving 80 lb units through crawlspaces and taking them to the repair places, with most of them not being in the Triangle and you have either ship the unit or drive over 1 hour to Surf City or Sanford.
I'll stick with my cheapie Friedrich DP70. Been keeping the crawlspace at the 50% setting without issue for many years.
Just check it regularly. I often see similar types of humidifiers during home inspections that are dead. The seller didn’t even know and had know idea how long it was out. Of course the falling insulation, the 28 percent moisture content in the floor joists and fungal growth says probably a while.
in order to evaluate our dehumidifiers....
what is your ideal humidity % number?
not a range---a number.
Most websites say you should keep the crawlspace humidity below 65%.
I like to keep mine at 50%. The Horizon and Sierra Global easily kept it at 50%, but what's the point if they break down every month? And who cares if they have warranties if I still have to lug a 80 lb machine out of a crawlspace, take it to repair facility that's not even in town, wait 2 months for them to fix it and then lug an 80lb machine back to the crawlspace?
In between all those repairs, I did have a Friedrich like C_Lan as a temp solution and it never broke down. It's just that it ran ALL THE TIME because it didn't have the capacity of a crawlspace machine and ran up my electricity bill.
Dehumidifiers must be properly maintained regardless of brand or they will have issues. Check and clean or replace the filter, check the coil drip pan and drain line for slime buildup which can cause condensate to back up inside the unit, and clean the coil occasionally so the unit will operate more efficiently.
I have a portable Frigidaire 70-pint dehumidifier in the crawlspace that works well if I keep it maintained. I also have an Ultra-Aire 98H for the house and have had no problems. Ultra-Aire and Sante Fe are both manufactured by Therma-Stor.
I also use a temperature/humidity monitoring system with several wireless sensors all over the house including both floors, the crawlspace, attic, garage, and outside ambient. With this system I can tell immediately if the crawlspace dehumidifier isn't working correctly and needs attention. It is also a built-in data logger function although I'm not using it for that at the moment.
My Friedrich does not run too often. I have a good vapor barrier properly taped at the seams and run up the one wall where water is the most likely to come from. I also did some minor work to divert water from the foundation, as well as rerouting of downspouts. The Frierdich used to run a bit more when I used the internal pump but now we drain to a large bucket which has yet to see more than a few pints of accumulation over several months.
Dehumidifiers must be properly maintained regardless of brand or they will have issues. Check and clean or replace the filter, check the coil drip pan and drain line for slime buildup which can cause condensate to back up inside the unit, and clean the coil occasionally so the unit will operate more efficiently.
I have a portable Frigidaire 70-pint dehumidifier in the crawlspace that works well if I keep it maintained. I also have an Ultra-Aire 98H for the house and have had no problems. Ultra-Aire and Sante Fe are both manufactured by Therma-Stor.
I also use a temperature/humidity monitoring system with several wireless sensors all over the house including both floors, the crawlspace, attic, garage, and outside ambient. With this system I can tell immediately if the crawlspace dehumidifier isn't working correctly and needs attention. It is also a built-in data logger function although I'm not using it for that at the moment.
All good advice. Just a point here though, those expensive Horizon and Sierra Global dehumidifiers were running for just over a month before they failed - no time for maintenance. I've always had a Bluetooth SensorPush to monitor humidity/temp and a Wemo Insight smart plug to see how long the machine runs - I was able to see immediately when the dehumidifier failed and it kept running forever and the humidity kept going up and up so I serviced it immediately.
For those of you who are happy with Horizon dehumidifiers - well, when I have to travel to Sanford (from North Raleigh) 4 TIMES to repair something, they take 2 months to fix it, and it fails again in 1 month, then I'm NOT going to have a favorable attitude about that brand. Then I happen to buy a Sierra Global 900 which looks just like the Horizon XP90 (and I should have known better) and all the refrigerant leaks out and I've just had it with dehumidifiers at this point. I only bought these brands because a local company told me to - otherwise, internet reviews told me that Santa Fe was the best brand you can buy. On top of that, all of the repair technicians say that they never service Santa Fe units.
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