PSA: Almost ruined my basement with a cheap dehumidifier

Woke up to water pooling near my furnace in Minneapolis last Tuesday. Unit was running fine but the drain line got clogged with algae in under 3 months. Anyone else have a humidistat fail on them mid-summer?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamie9402d ago

Honestly I used to think any dehumidifier would do the job, but your post made me reconsider. I had a cheap one from Amazon that ran fine for like 4 months then the humidistat just stopped reading right. It would run constantly even when my basement was at like 30% humidity and I was dumping the bucket twice a day. The drain line thing is real too, I had to snake mine out with a wire hanger because it got clogged with slime in like 2 months. Kinda makes you wonder if the extra money for a better brand actually gets you something that lasts.

parkerbrown1d ago

Yeah that line about "kinda makes you wonder if the extra money for a better brand actually gets you something that lasts" really hit me. I'll be honest, I used to be the guy who bought the cheapest option and figured hey, they all do the same thing basically. But after hearing your story plus the original post about the drain line clogging, I'm starting to think maybe it's more like buying shoes where cheap ones just fall apart after a couple months. Even if you spend a little more, at least the humidistat might actually work right and not leave you waking up to water on your basement floor. I think I'm officially in the "pay a bit more for reliability" camp now.