Anyone know how to fix a dehumidifier?

hans747

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2007
Location
Asheville, NC
Hey guys,

i have a dehumidifier in my basement that started acting weird the other day. If you unplug it for a while it starts up fine, runs for a while and then shuts off like normal. A little while later it will try to cycle on again, but it shuts down after about 2-3 seconds (kinda like the humistat turned it off). 30 seconds later, it will repeat. It will do that about 5 times and then give up.

This is with an empty tank, the "full" light is not on, and the humistat is turned all the way over to 'dry'.

Any ideas where I should stat looking? If worse comes to worse, can I bypass the humistat and just plug it into a timer?
 
Think of it like it's an air conditioning unit - the parts and general cycling are the same.
Sounds like it is overheating, could be either that the fan isn't working, or check if teh coils are frosted over.
 
I know how to fix it. By buying a new one. :D That is all I have ever done.
 
Most older units had a humidistat,full bucket switch,low temp thermostat,and a compressor overload switch. Compresser overload is like a circuit breaker. It senses high temperature or exceessive current and will reset after a cooling off period. It usually just turns off compressor not the fan motor. It is located in terminal box on side of compressor with relay. Low temp thermostat is located on return or suction line to sense low ambient temp or freeze up of coil . It will reset when temp rises. Some humidstats can be over sensitive. As the unit starts running, heat builds up making the air look drier to the humidistat causing short cycling. If you can jump terminals on controls to find culprit
 
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