How to Shop for a Dehumidifier?

flamdrags420

flamdrags420

Well-Known Member
I have my tanks testing and with all of the water in the room now my room has jumped for a steady reliable 16% humidity to around 30-40. Although this is ideal for the crop, I want to go ahead and plan ahead and buy a unit.
I'm not sure how to shop for one though. I have a 170 CFM fan for my exhaust. So am I looking to get something with this kind of fan on it? Or does CFM on a dehumdifier equate to how much water it can take out per hour or what not.

Also I know ACs act as a dehumidifier. Portable ones seems to be popular in indoor growing. But the ones I've found online have exhausts systems on them. So I'm curious also if anyone is using AC to cool or to dehumidify can you please share some tips on setup and what to look for
thanks
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zem

zem

Well-Known Member
the a/c is not as effective in dehumidifying, you need to get the one that's good for your room size, and with 170cfm exhaust, then i guess your room is small, so get the smallest one, i guess it's around 2amps 220v like mine, i got a wood's unit, canadian made, works like a charm for 800watts in high humidity, and very dense vegetation, it gets dry as hell, i bet i can run a bigger room with it too. shrink your cubic feet as much as you can to get a better effect. and finally DON'T use the dehumidifier water!!! it's the nastiest shit, killed my entire cloner once, it's not really distilled, it's infected with metal residues from coils and from dust accumulated on them.
 
zem

zem

Well-Known Member
thats an a/c with dry mode, it should work enough to prevent mold i guess. the biggest + is that it has cooling and heating modes so you got complete climate control. the negative side is that it has a big compressor that should be placed out.
 
zem

zem

Well-Known Member
i mean that the split unit a/c has a separate compressor that must be placed outside the room attached by a copper hose to the A/C, it complicates things a bit, thats what i meant by negative.
 
xivex

xivex

Active Member
Get the biggest dehumidifier you can afford. Go with a 70 pint per day if possible. Thats the amount of water it can pull out of the air in a 24 hr period while running continuously. Thats how they rate dehmidifiers. If you believe consumer reports, danby is the top brand. Ive got 2 - 70 pint per day danbys. They work great. im pleased with em. They arent cheaptho. Google around some.

Hope this helps..

X

Ps i run a mini split ac and while all ac's do dehumidify to some extent due to the nature of cool air and ventilation, air movement, etc. ...they dont dehumidify enough by themselves, get a seperate dehumidifier for this purpose. If. Left my room to just "dry mode" on my mini split ac and turned off my dehumidifier, id have budrot and mold in a few days... Its not enough.
 
flamdrags420

flamdrags420

Well-Known Member
xivex said:
Get the biggest dehumidifier you can afford. Go with a 70 pint per day if possible. Thats the amount of water it can pull out of the air in a 24 hr period while running continuously. Thats how they rate dehmidifiers. If you believe consumer reports, danby is the top brand. Ive got 2 - 70 pint per day danbys. They work great. im pleased with em. They arent cheaptho. Google around some.

Hope this helps..

X

Ps i run a mini split ac and while all ac's do dehumidify to some extent due to the nature of cool air and ventilation, air movement, etc. ...they dont dehumidify enough by themselves, get a seperate dehumidifier for this purpose. If. Left my room to just "dry mode" on my mini split ac and turned off my dehumidifier, id have budrot and mold in a few days... Its not enough.
Click to expand...
thanks for the reply. I too think having a seperate DH would be better than relying on the AC to pull double duty. What was your RH when you were getting Bud Rot and what was it after adding the danby?
 
zem

zem

Well-Known Member
i have seen bud rot at various RH levels when i didn't use dehumidifier. it always hit the big thick buds which are hard to air from inside. it hit them even when i had huge fans blowing a storm in there. it never hit my plants when i was using dehumidifier even when RH was high. the DH blows dry air in and prevents any mold. try and place it outside the chamber in which you grow and let it blow inside through an opening because the motor of the unit adds heat to your room. in winter it would help warming it up though.
 
xivex

xivex

Active Member
flamdrags420 said:
thanks for the reply. I too think having a seperate DH would be better than relying on the AC to pull double duty. What was your RH when you were getting Bud Rot and what was it after adding the danby?
Click to expand...
I NEVER have gotten budrot or mold ... YET! :) Fingers crossed! :) Without the dehumidifier I certainly would have ruined my crop. With the Danby Dehumidifier, I have been able to really control the rH% almost exactly to whatever desire I have....

in week 8 of flower I have noticed the night time rH% levels have now climbed into a high of 50% even, with a daytime high of 30%. However, thats in week 8 of flowering, with my entire room stuffed to the gills with massive flowering LSD ladies!! :)

Up until the last week, I'd say my humidity never topped 45% rH even at night.. +REP?

X

PS -- Read this simple guide for info on what to look for in dehumidifiers, etc etc:
http://www.air-n-water.com/Dehumidifier-Buying-Guide.htm
 
flamdrags420

flamdrags420

Well-Known Member
right on my man
thanks for the input
Imma check out your grow link
LSD is on my 10 seeds I want to try dream sheet
 
flamdrags420

flamdrags420

Well-Known Member
ya xiv after checking out your grow
I think I will get the same unit that you have
Im glad that it also has the built in auto defrost as my grow room in it's natural state right now in the winter time is 55-57degreesF
how much was yours
I found this one here
http://www.savinglots.com/lotprod.asp?item=DDR7009REE&gclid=CKXRj-q6i6cCFQTNKgodDzMqgA
thanks again everyone
wasn't a lot of good info on this subject. That disco dude homebrewer has a kick ass one too that I have talked to him about. It's super comercial power. That thing would rock too.

I don't want to go all out on a unit, but I want to be able to try to control each area (clone , mother, flower) more precisely. IE I want to try to keep the clone area higher RH but then have my flowering area lower RH. SO it's going to take some good equipment that can help achieve this in my small room without breaking the bank.
 
cazador

cazador

Active Member
xivex said:
Get the biggest dehumidifier you can afford. Go with a 70 pint per day if possible. Thats the amount of water it can pull out of the air in a 24 hr period while running continuously. Thats how they rate dehmidifiers. If you believe consumer reports, danby is the top brand. Ive got 2 - 70 pint per day danbys. They work great. im pleased with em. They arent cheaptho. Google around some.

Hope this helps..
Click to expand...
I'll add to this: Get one that will turn back on by itself (not neet to press the on button) after power failure. This help when connecting it to another room controller as well as if you get a brown out. Also get one with a big storage tank or drain hookup. The holding tanks are small and it stops when full and the room gets humid til you empty. If it has optional drain plug you can rais it and add bigger res.
 
homebrewer

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
flamdrags420 said:
I found this one here
http://www.savinglots.com/lotprod.asp?item=DDR7009REE&gclid=CKXRj-q6i6cCFQTNKgodDzMqgA
thanks again everyone
Click to expand...
Keep in mind that unless they specify, the pints-per-day rating is usually at saturation (100% RH) and at that level, it's capable of pulling out XX pints per day. My LG was rated at 65 pints per day but in a real world situation running 24/7, it couldn't pull out more than 40 pints per day while heating the shiz out of my rooms.

As someone else already stated, buy the biggest one that you can afford. Worst case, it never runs and easily maintains an ideal humidity level. Mine has probably paid for itself in that I no longer have a bud mold issue in one of my strains and don't have to throw away moldy product.
 
flamdrags420

flamdrags420

Well-Known Member
its one of those thigns like power tools you really get what you pay for. unless you ahve good experience with em, its hard to know how to get what you need. The best bang for your buck. I dont want to go low end, but I don't want to go ultra high end from the get go. Especially if I don't need to. My room is only 7 x 11 x 6. So It's really small.
BTW homebrewer who is your avatar.
I think its wild
 
flamdrags420

flamdrags420

Well-Known Member
I was thinking that movie but couldn't place that character
funny ass shit
especially if you know people in ffa
my pops was
 
xivex

xivex

Active Member
Yo guys.. In response ill say the danbys produce low heat. Im in a tiny room and it doesnt seem to heat up the area much, i have plants literally inches from it that look normal as the ones far away from it. Homebrewer is right, they dont pull exactly what they say, thus my advice of buying the biggest one...the only complaint i have with my 70 pint danby is that i cant use it with my sentinel chhc-4 cuz the danbys auto power on state is a factory locked 60% rH level. :(..so as the sentinel tries to power cycle it on/off repeatedly, you get stuck with 60% rH rather quickly. Which is too high for flowering. So the solution is just to run the danby 24/7 set to the rH% level you desire. Works great. Keep in mind these large dehumidifiers can pull 12-15 amps easy.

X
 
cazador

cazador

Active Member
I got a cheap 40pint one from wallmart.com, auto-restart in continus mode, works great with the CHHC-1. only 189.00? free shipping to the store. Keeping a 12'x6'x8' flower room dry. Drain hose attached to larger res. The one in veg room is draining down a sink no need to ever empty.
 
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