Portable Vs. Whole-House Dehumidifiers

“Can’t I just get a portable dehumidifier instead of a whole-house one?”

Instead of trying to convince you one way or the other, we’ve listed several qualities of dehumidifiers and compared how each model performs.

This refers to how much moisture your dehumidifier can collect. Factors affecting the necessary capacity include the amount of space required to be dehumidified, as well as the amount of humidity in each room.

There are different sized units for moderately damp, very damp, wet, and extremely wet rooms. Square footage ranges from 500 to 2,5000 square feet, so you’ll need to do the math to make sure that you’re getting the right unit for your room. Also, for every additional room that you want to dehumidify at the same time, you’ll need a separate unit.

Your HVAC technician will size one unit to accommodate all the rooms in your home.

The dehumidifier doesn’t simply “remove” the moisture from the air—it transplants it somewhere in the unit. Depending on the type of unit, there are several different means of disposal.

Portable dehumidifiers collect all the moisture in a bucket. The user must manually remove that bucket. If you don’t shut off the dehumidifier at this point, it could overflow, damaging the unit along with nearby furniture, floors, and pets. Some units turn off automatically before this happens. A hose configuration can drain the moisture automatically, but you have to make sure the hose is flowing downwards at all times.

The collected water goes down the drain automatically.

Whether or not your home has space for a dehumidifier can make or break your plans for a humid-free summer.

As mentioned above, units that don’t automatically stop when full could present a problem when considering placement.

If your unit’s air discharge is not located on the top, you won’t be able to put it against the walls or furniture. Portable dehumidifiers take moisture from its entire surroundings, not just one direction. You’ll need to place the unit in the middle of the room to it can absorb the maximum amount of moisture.

It’s located in the same place as your HVAC system, and it uses the same network of ducts to dehumidify your home. It will never take up space in the middle of a room.

Relative humidity is a measurement of the humidity in the air. Anything between 30% and 50% is comfortable. A humidistat measures the amount of humidity and adjusts the dehumidifier accordingly.

Most units have a humidistat installed. If not, you can buy a hygrometer separately and place it next to the dehumidifier (but not too close) to get an accurate reading. Unfortunately, this will not allow the portable unit to adjust itself, so you’ll have to do that part manually.

The humidistat is integrated into your thermostat, and you control it from there.

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Portable Vs. Whole-House Dehumidifiers

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