Sunday Review: Dehumidifers

To follow up Thursday's post about mold, I thought I'd get a little more in-depth with the dehumidifiers.

If you are exclusively in Canada, you will probably need to deal with humidity. It just isn't optional. Even if you have a small air exchanger (if such things exist in RVs), the coasts are just too humid in the winter for that to be good enough. I saw some people just running ceramic heaters through the winter with the window cracked, but their electrical bills were immense; some hit almost $300 per month. Our highest bill was barely over $100. Just get the dehumidifier.


Addendum: After writing this but before publishing, I saw plenty of people on Reddit saying that you just need to crack windows or vents and run heaters to deal with moisture and humidity in the winter. Do not - I repeat: DO NOT - follow that advice. First, I cannot stress enough just how much money you will be spending heating your RV. It is a gigantic waste of money. Second, most RVs have cold spots around storage units and near corners; even with your windows cracked and the heat going, you WILL be getting moisture in those cold spots and growing mold. Third, we are in a RAINFOREST in the WET SEASON; humidity is almost perpetually around 80% to 90%. Before getting the 11-pint dehumidifier, so much as drying your hands on a towel meant that the towel would never be dry again unless placed in a dryer. Everyone in the region has a dehumidifier in their house and RVs should be treated no differently.

So what kind of dehumidifier should you get? The little Eva-dry? The mini dehumidifier? A small, all-in-one unit? Or the 30-pint unit?

The Eva-dry is a relatively inexpensive option on its own. But it only has a capacity of 6 to 8 ounces. Eight ounces is under 240ml, and you'll probably be plugging it in at 6, or 177ml. That's not removing much before needing a 15 hour recharge. Sure, it needs no power to dehumidify, but it uses 22 watts while recharging. That's 330 watt hours per charge. If you stay in drier climates, you need at least three. That's about 1 kilowatt hour per charge, and the units will not be dehumidifying while charging. So you're looking at over $113 (at the time of writing this), plus intermittent dehumidifying, and you still have some electrical need even if it isn't much. This will only work if you are in dry climates, however. This will not under any circumstance provide enough dehumidifying for wet climates like the BC coast or the Maritimes. If you aren't going to the American South for the winter, I can't recommend Eva-dry. No matter how many you have, it won't be enough.

So what about the miniature dehumidifier? Now we're up to 500ml per day. Well, that's only 30ml under what the three Eva-dry can do, but you're paying about $85 instead of $113 (at the time of writing). It isn't a traditional compressor dehumidifier, but rather uses thermoelectric cooling to create the temperature differential. This means it produces no sound beyond the fan. However, this model didn't come with an air filter, and I didn't see any that do (though I might have missed something). This meant that it got clogged with dust rather easily. At 72 watts, that's barely more electrical usage than the 66 of 3 Eva-drys. That being said, the 72 is perpetual while the 66 will be every two to three days. So you're looking at about 2,970 watt hours on the high end for the Eva-drys each week, versus 12,096 watt hours per week for the mini dehumidifier. At quadruple the electrical usage (at minimum), even with the higher up front cost I'd be more inclined to go with the Eva-dry if that is the option available.

But as said, those options only work if you are staying in dry climates. Neither of those provide remotely enough dehumidifying to get you by in humid climates when you can't have the windows open and a fan running to circulate air. If you're in too hot of a climate, you'll have to close up and run the A/C to remain comfortable and will still need to dehumidify. So Canadians that like to stay in Canada or don't have a passport, you're limited to a compressor dehumidifier.

This is what we went with. Eleven pints is 5.2 litres per day. That's more than ten times more powerful than the mini dehumidifier at about two and a half times the price, plus an ionizer, air filter and UV light to kill bacteria and mold spores. While louder than the mini dehumidifier, you barely notice it and get used to it quickly. It just isn't that loud. Compressors are also more energy efficient than thermoelectric coolers. For more than ten times the moisture removal, you will be using 230 to 270 watts. Even at the high end, that's less than four times the power. And unlike the mini dehumidifier, you won't be using the Ivation 24/7. You can set it to turn off at 40% humidity and power back on when the humidity rises. So even if you are in drier climates, it is an imminently practical option. One of the major recommendations from the Glitz and Glammers was to only ever cook outside. With our 11-pint dehumidifier, we never go above 60% humidity even in wet weather on the Island while cooking inside. It drops back below 50% soon enough. The one down side is that the reservoir is only 2 litres, so I end up emptying it every morning when I wake up and every night before going to bed. It can occasionally make a funny noise, but it keeps running; I have had zero problems. At some point I'll have to figure out a setup for the continuous drain. I can't recommend this dehumidifier enough.

Just for the heck of it, how many Eva-drys would you need to compete with the Ivation? Forty-five.

And a 30-pint? Overkill, plain and simple. The cheaper models that compare in price to the Ivation can't be programmed to shut off automatically. Another full timer elsewhere on the Island ended up getting nose bleeds from their air being too dry. So you would be shelling out more money for a larger unit to get similar performance. Why bother? It isn't worth it and it would take up too much space.

This is not a sponsored post. I received no money for it. That's part of why I'm broke. So for the love of God, please buy from Amazon through our associate link! Thank you!