I am stumped by the behavior of my Whirlpool AD50USR dehumidifier.
I have the dehumidifier mounted on a shelf in my basement with the drain flowing into the washing machine drain pipe.
Everything worked fine until I took it down for a day to use in another room.
When I put it back up, it still did all the usual fan blowing and cycling of the compressor, but the volume of water dripping into the container slowed by 90% or more.
Interestingly, when I put it back down on the floor in the same basement room, it started working perfectly again.
When I took another identical unit and put it on the shelf, it too slowed down markedly but worked perfectly again back on the floor.
Note:
- The shelf is perfectly level
- There is reasonable ventillation on all sides (plus it did work before; also it works on the floor even when the ventillation there is artificially constricted even more than when on the shelf)
- There is plenty of humidity in the room at all heights (plus if the humidity were too low at the higher height, the unit would have shut off)
- The temperature of the exhaust air is about the same whether on the shelf or the ground, suggesting that the refrigerant is being compressed the same. When I removed the cover, the front coil felt cold though I did not compare the cold temperature in both cases.
- The cycle time, the fan noise, the compressor noise, etc appear the same in both situations.
About the only difference between the two setups is the height and the fact that when mounted on the shelf, the shelf slides under the unit between the wheels vs. the floor situation where it rides on the wheels directly (however, as stated before the unit is level in both situations).
I am stumped, particularly, since it worked before but now neither unit works on the shelf and I can't think of anything that has changed?
Is there anything subtle I could be missing or is my house just haunted :)?
Thanks