Moisture trap / dehumidifier

twiglet98

My shower room gets terribly wet as there are five adults showering at least once a day. It's tiled on three sides, the remaining one is rough painted concrete on the window wall. It has a large window, and heated towel rail (no radiator) that isn't on yet as it is part of the CH system. It has wooden floorboards with hardboard on top, and fitted vinyl floor covering, with towelling bath and pedestal mats.

I can't have an extractor fan fitted in the window because it is a sealed DG unit, the wall because it is two layers of concrete with asbestos infill, nor the ceiling because that too is asbestos, with some kind of foam-padded embossed paper covering.

I try to leave the window open as much as possible but the family insist on shutting it when it's cold, and unless the heating is on all the time the condensation is awful. The ceiling gets black mould spots and needs repainting at least twice a year, the sealant around the sink and shower blacken and the outside concrete wall runs with condensation, and gets mould around the cistern and on the window frame and voile curtain.

I'm nervous of the cost of running an electric dehumidifier (which would plug in the adjacent bedroom) and wonder if the crystal-type moisture traps would work in there? I looked at one for £12.99 in Homebase today, which had a picture of a bathroom and read, "ideal for larger rooms", whereas most of the smaller ones say "not suitable for bathrooms". Anyone tried them? Do they cost a fortune in replacement crystals?

ariba10

I think an extractor fan is the only answer.

They can be fitted in a double glazed unit but I have no idea of the cost.

Have a read of this. http://www.harfordsonline.com/downloads/condensation%20info.pdf

pennystretcher

I got one of the Delonghi dehumidifiers and use it in winter just outside my bathroom...and it works wonders. It really doesn't use that much electricity - 200W per an hour and you only need it on for few hours per day. So you get roughly 5 hours for your kWh charge. (Mine is approx 20p in daytime and a very cheap 7p at night time...so I leave it on during the night.)

If you are really interested in checking how humid things get, try getting a cheap hygrometer e.g. from eBay...you might be surprised to see that the humidity inside on a rainy day is 96% without anyone taking showers!!! :eek:

No wonder my laundry took days to dry in winter... :rolleyes:

foxgloves

I have an electric dehumidifyer as I came to the conclusion that the eventual cost of having to deal with the effects of all that damp condensation in winter (showers, cooking, drying clothes indoors, etc) might work out more than sometimes having to put dehumidifyer on. The machine I have has got 5 settings. No 5 is the highest so if things get really steamy, you can crank it up to 4 or 5 and you can visibly see the condensation reducing on windows, tiles, etc. Settings are kind of linked to how much moisture you want removing, sort of like a thermostat would work. Hope this is making sense, being technical is not my strong point. What I mean is that if you have the dial turned to 1, it will remove moisture to this level then turn itself off. 2 would mean taking out more moisture, etc, etc, so it isn't on permanently once it has sucked the moisture out of the air. I have it on at a very low level and only crank it up to deal with lots of steam. As soon as that's dealt with, I turn it right down again. In summer when you can have windows open and dry clothes on the line, you probably won't need it on at all. Hope this helps.

Jo4

pennystretcher wrote: »

I got one of the Delonghi dehumidifiers and use it in winter just outside my bathroom...and it works wonders. It really doesn't use that much electricity - 200W per an hour and you only need it on for few hours per day. So you get roughly 5 hours for your kWh charge. (Mine is approx 20p in daytime and a very cheap 7p at night time...so I leave it on during the night.)

If you are really interested in checking how humid things get, try getting a cheap hygrometer e.g. from eBay...you might be surprised to see that the humidity inside on a rainy day is 96% without anyone taking showers!!! :eek:

No wonder my laundry took days to dry in winter... :rolleyes:

Can I ask which hygrometer you would recommend as there seems to be a few to choose from on Ebay? Also, if you don't mind me asking, what model is your dehumidifier as I really need one?

pennystretcher

Hi there,

My dehumidifier is Delonghi DEM10 - you can get one for under £100 i nthe internet. (Try google shopping and pricerunner)

Either Delonghi or eBac are good makes for dehumidifiers. You will have to consider the size of the water container though - I have to empty mine couple of times a day if it is really damp and I have done laundry etc. You can also connect some of the dehumidifiers to your drainage system so that you don't have to use the container at all.

For the hygrometer - any cheap analogue one will do - they all use pretty much the same "technology" that hasn't changed for decades. I think the ones meant for reptile cages are most accurate. (Check your nearest pet store too)

Hope this helps.

Jo4

pennystretcher wrote: »

Hi there,

My dehumidifier is Delonghi DEM10 - you can get one for under £100 i nthe internet. (Try google shopping and pricerunner)

Either Delonghi or eBac are good makes for dehumidifiers. You will have to consider the size of the water container though - I have to empty mine couple of times a day if it is really damp and I have done laundry etc. You can also connect some of the dehumidifiers to your drainage system so that you don't have to use the container at all.

For the hygrometer - any cheap analogue one will do - they all use pretty much the same "technology" that hasn't changed for decades. I think the ones meant for reptile cages are most accurate. (Check your nearest pet store too)

Hope this helps.

Thanks, I have just ordered mine from Kaleidoscope it was £110 and as I am a new customer I got 10% discount. Postage & packaging was supposed to be £3.95 but when I got to the check out it disappeared and I didn't get charged anything for postage and packaging. They will probably email and say it costs a lot more to post to Northern Ireland.

Swipe

I have an Amcor dehumidfier and is one of the best things I invested in. It cost me around £100. I used to get damp walls in the back room in my old house and leaving the dehumidifier completely solved the problem. They switch on and off like a fridge and don't use much electricity at all really. Mine draws 100W when it's running (about 15min on average every hour) and I just use it in the day time

Bongedone

OP, are you living in rented accomodation? If so then your landlord has to fit an extractor. If they won't then you should get in touch with your environmental health's housing section. They can enforce it.

ktpie

We had condensation problems in our old house and tried the crystal-type moisture traps, they never seemed to make much difference, we borrowed an electric dehumidifier and it was brilliant, when you see how quickly it fills up with litres and litres of water it is no surprise the crystal traps don't have much chance. I'd recommend the ones that can be set for a particular humidity (like a thermostat, in fact probably a hydrostat!) then they will just come on when required. They are expensive but I think if you are suffering from damp it will be worth it in the long term.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

We use the crystal traps all year round in every room (very old solid walled house) and they can fill up within a month but that strangely enough is in the summer when it's warm and there's a lot of condensation builds up inside the house.
In the winter I can change them once every two months and they'd still only be half full
I use a dehumidifyer in the winter usually at night when the doors and windows are closed and the condensation starts to build up.I was realy stunned to see just how much water they actually collect.
I bought myself a second one for this winter so I can have one in the front and back of the house.
They realy do make a difference and are worth the outlay.
If anyone doubts this try totting up redecoration coats not to mention the bother of having to do it against purchasing and running a dehumidifier.
They do cost very little to run as well,so well worth it in my opinion.