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Use a Dehumidifier Drain Hose
Save Time - Save Money
A Dehumidifier Drain Hose can save you time by doing away with the need to empty the water collection bucket. It can also save you money by making your appliance more energy efficient. How can that be? Let me explain.
Overview
A typical stand-alone dehumidifier is most commonly used in the basement. A basement, even a smaller one, is often the largest room in the house. Naturally enough most folks choose a large unit for a large room, such as the Frigidaire FAD704DUD 70 Pint model.
The FAD704DUD has a water collection bucket with room for 16 pints. Even when the appliance is collecting only 30 pints per day that bucket will need to be emptied twice every 24 hours.
Emptying the bucket is a chore and if you forget to empty it the machine switches off, automatically, when the bucket is full. When the appliance stops working the humidity tends to rise, especially in a basement.
Continuous Drainage
Almost all dehumidifiers are set up for continuous drainage. In the casing you will find an opening, a port, to which a hose can be attached. The water collected now flows out through the hose, instead of collecting in the bucket. If you look in the user's manual you will find instructions on how to fit the hose.
Obviously the water coming through the hose needs to flow into a drain or sump. The feed through the pump is by gravity alone so that drain needs to be below the outlet port in the casing. If the flow is unobstructed, and all "down-hill" the appliance drains continuously and you never have to worry about emptying the bucket again.
Because this is a gravity fed drain it is helpful to raise the unit off the floor by mounting it on wood or concrete blocks. If it can be mounted on a shelf a few feet above the floor so much the better.
Condensate Pumps
If your dehumidifier is not close to a floor level drain and the nearest outlet is some distance from the dehumidifier, or on the floor above, you will need a condensate pump. Most of you will know what "condensate" means but for anyone who doesn't the "condensate" is the liquid water condensed on the evaporator coil and collected in the bucket or discharged through the dehumidifier drain hose.
A suitable condensate pump will cost around $60 to $80 and should be capable of a "vertical lift" of at least 12, and preferably 15 feet. Check the spec. before you buy. The pump looks like a small box and the dehumidifier drain hose is attached to an input port on one side while a second hose, emerging from the other side, takes the water from the pump to the drain. The initial flow from the appliance to the pump is still by means of gravity so the pump must be lower than the outlet port.
If you want to avoid the hassle there are portable models with a built-in condensate pump but they are not common. The one we recommend is the Winix WDH851 70 pint model. If you click on the link it will take you to our review of this unit. The price of the Winix reflects the additional cost of including the pump.
Saves Time - Saves Money?
Once you have set it up and your dehumidifier drains continuously you no longer have to empty the bucket. That is a saving of your valuable time. Kinda obvious I know.
The second part is less obvious. If you forget to empty the bucket, or are unable to do so for any reason, the appliance stops working. As I said earlier, once it stops the humidity will start to rise. The longer it is idle the higher the moisture level gets. When it is finally restarted it will have to work harder and longer to restore humidity to whatever level you have set with the humidistat. That means more energy dollars spent than if the appliance had simply been able to cycle on and off as needed to keep the level at 45%, or whatever your chosen level was.
So, if your dehumidifier drains continuously, whether using a simple, gravity fed dehumidifier drain hose or the more sophisticated condensate pump, your appliance will be more energy efficient overall and you will save both time and money.
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