Dehumidifier acting strange

[mswlogo]

This is one of the newer ones designed to run in winter with cool temps. I assume this means it has defrost cycle.

Anyway I have heard it, in the past run for few minutes with no fan. I assume it was doing the defrost cycle. That was summer, it was pretty rare I'd hear it do that.

Now in November (it's running in cellar year round). It went into this compressor running with no fan. And the compressor was much louder than normal. It stopped on it's own. Seemed like lots of heat coming from the unit.

I turned the humiditstat down to fire it up and it started up normal. I put setting back to normal and in the middle of that same night it was doing it again (loud compressor, no fan). I finally just shut the unit off.

It's not that cold 55-60 F The humidity is not that high either I have it set for 50% (outside it's probably drier).

Do these units have temperature sensors to make it defrost more often.

Is this defrosting?

Is it possibly miscalibrated and defrosting more often than it should?

It's Soleus-Air 65 unit.

[m Ransley]

I dont think it should defrost unless ice is on the coils.

[kdk]

I had a whirlpool that did the same thing, we noted a huge increase in our electric usage in Sept-Oct last year and narrowed it down to the dehumidifier. It was supposed to be a low temp energy efficient model but the old one we replaced never ran up an electric bill like this new one. This year I manually turned it on and off when I felt it was needed. The humidistat is useless. I contacted the manufacturer and because it was just over the warranty period there is nothing they would do. I did take it to one of their authorized service centers where they said the compressor is fine but possibly the electric touchpad controls are faulty but it would be cheaper to buy new than replace.

Watch your electric usage!

[Art]

My top of the line kenmore just started to do the same thing. My basement was still pretty warm. I think it is busted. This will be the 3rd one that broke in 3 years. Mine was the last year with a 5 year refrigeration system warranty. New ones have 1 year warranties. They are junk.