Hi everyone,
I have a Kenmore dehumidifier, model 580.53650. I believe it is manufactured by Goldstar. It's about 2 years old. I run it in my basement during the warmer months of the year.
When it is initially powered up (or restarted after emptying the bucket), the compressor and fan will run for about 5 minutes, then both shut off. After exactly 2 minutes, the compressor and fan come back on, run for about 2 1/2 minutes, then shut back off for 2 minutes. This cycle (2 minutes off, 2 1/2 minutes on) continues until the bucket is full. The fan never runs without the compressor; they're either both on, or both off. Fiddling with the humidistat has no effect. The unit behaves exactly the same regardless of the humidistat setting.
Other notes: I recently cleaned the filter and coils. I've never noticed any frost on the coils, and I've never run the dehumidifier when the room temperature was below around 70 degrees. There's also plenty of air circulation on all sides of the unit. As far as I can tell, there are no adverse operating conditions or neglected maintenance issues that would be causing it to malfunction.
Any ideas what the problem might be? Besides being annoying, this can't possibly be good for the compressor.
Thanks! Paul