Solar with DH

[Den Socling]

I just read that 2.2 million dehumidifiers have been recalled because they can catch on fire. If you have one in your solar kiln, you may want to look at the list of brand names. Seems like about everybody! Made in China, of course. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/09/more-than-2-million-dehumidifiers-recalled-over-smoke-fire-danger/

[submarinesailor]

Den,

This may be good news for me.  My DH unit just died for the house down in the country.  Hopefully I can get it replaced until this recall.

THANKS

Bruce

[Den Socling]

2,200,000! I can't even imagine the number. And I was wondering last night how they could catch on fire. It seems like you would need a can of kerosene to get one to burn.

[MikeON]

Darn - my Soleus dehumidifier is on the recall list.  It has been a good one.  Before that, I had 2 of a different brand that both failed shortly after the warranty expired.  Wish I knew what the issue is - maybe it is something easy to fix.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

I believe that the issue is that the compressor motor overheats, especially when there is little or no refrigerate gas.  This gets so hot that paper or other burnable material around the unit can catch fire.  The cure is to put in a high temperature shut off switch or control.

[pineywoods]

My experience has been that you need a high temp cutoff anyway. Small room dh units hardly work at all if the room temp is much over 100 degrees. At that temp about all they do is create more heat which just makes the situation worse. Mine has an adjustable hi-temp cutoff, if it didn't I would install a timer to shut it off during daylight hours.