Dehumidifier Problems and Dehumidifier Troubleshooting

If you have a dehumidifier that is not working correctly you have many things that could be causing it not to work. Here I will give some of the common reasons why it could be giving you problems.

1. The coils in the back are frosting up.

The dehumidifier works by drawing the room air over a very cold coil. The trick is to keep the coil as cold as possible to make it pull water out of the air by making it condensate on the cold coil. If this coil becomes too cold, then the water freezes on the coil. The freezing can happen if the air temperature in the room is too cool and does not keep the coil warm enough. Raising the humidifier up off of the floor onto a table can help. The air temperature is often a bit warm the higher up you get. Make sure that the filters are clean if your unit has one. Restricted air flow will make the problem worse. Providing more heat to the room will help also. Most units will not work in a room with temperatures below 68 degrees F.

1. There is no air moving over the coils.

This can happen if the fan motor becomes stuck or burns out. If it becomes stuck you can sometimes get it running by working a lubricant into the bearings. WD-40 first, and then a good motor oil. If the motor burns out it will need to be replaced.

1. The indicator light is on and the unit will not run.

This shows you that the bucket is full and needs to be dumped. If your unit is working correctly and the air is very damp you may only run a few hours before the bucket becomes full. This also can happen if the bucket is not seated in it’s spot correctly. There is a little switch that will not let the unit run if the bucket is not place exactly right.

1. There is no water being produced.

This can happen if the air is very dry and no water can condensate from the air. Check the coils to see if they are cold to the touch, actually they should be very cold, like almost freezing. If not then the refrigeration system of the dehumidifier has gone bad. To repair that you will need a person certified to work on refrigerant systems with specialized equipment. In many cases the costs to repair the refrigeration systems will more than the cost to replace the whole unit.


This should give you a brief overview of the problems that you can have with a dehumidifier and some of the things that you can do to help get things working.

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