New dehumidifier.. i'm getting dead upset!

kippers

Can someone pls help as im getting really upset.

Yesterday we bought a dehumidifier from b&q for £99. It said it dried clothes too but were only bothered about clearing some of our bad condensation. We set it up and got it working but straight away we realised it was blowing out hot air. After reading the instructions it said it had an inbuilt heater which we hadn't realised and we decided to take it back to b&q as we realised this was going to cost us a fortune if we left it running to clear the condensation. However in just 15 minutes it had collected water in its tray.

B&q were very good and we exchanged it for the basic one that was £79.99
It needed to be left to stand for four hours b4 we used it so we left it over night. An hour and 15 mins ago i put it on (condensation all over the window) and i've just checked and there is no water coming out or collected in the water tray...is this faulty?

(I'm getting dead upset as we have little money to spare and i had to use my £40 b&Q vouchers which i had for my 40th birthday...and hubby will just be annoyed with me saying i've not given it a chance to work)

Years ago my ex-partner had a dehumidifier and i can remember emptying the water thing loads.

Can anybody advise me?

Bossyboots

I seem to remember this happening with the new dehumidifier we bought last year. It does take a bit of time before the water appears in the tray. It takes water from the air, it doesn't pull it from your windows so you won't see any benefit after just this length of time. Once it has been running for a while you will notice that your windows do not get so wet and your washing dries much faster. Then you will have troughs of water to remove.

alanobrien

The reason you have to let it stand for a while is so that the compressor fluid
can settle out.

As you have found out a dehumidifier works better at elevated temperatures hence the better ones include heaters but as you sayt that costs money.

So it will need more time to work effectively unheated.
It does take time for the windows to clear, especially if its raining outside.

You can check that it is working and that the RH (relative humidity) trend is moving down by using one of these.

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/BGHM.html

Note; "Normal" RH is in the range of 40 to 70%

Just remembered if you have a local Comet and they have any of the
IT works weather stations left they have an RH meter built in and were down to £1.99 recently (from £20 quid)

kippers

I just wanted to say thank you for your answers. I think ill go and have a look at the weather stations in Comet, i may be lucky.

It's so nice to know there are helpful people on this site. Happy new year to you both!