Dehumidifier recommendations

[John Welte]

Hi all, does anyone have recommendations for a good dehumidifier and tubing to exit the trailer?  John Davies recommended the night table between the twin beds as there's an outlet there.  I am looking for some way to use tubing to let the condensate exit the trailer by some tubing.  I will have the basement door between the beds if that helps.  Thanks.

John

[NCeagle]

5 minutes ago, John Welte said:

Hi all, does anyone have recommendations for a good dehumidifier and tubing to exit the trailer?  John Davies recommended the night table between the twin beds as there's an outlet there.  I am looking for some way to use tubing to let the condensate exit the trailer by some tubing.  I will have the basement door between the beds if that helps.  Thanks.

John

The Ollie doesn't need a large dehumidifier for the small space, and I've found the Ivation brand to be the best for its size (small).  A compressor type works best in warm humid climates and a desiccant type works best in cooler, humid climates.  If you live in the Pacific Northwest, the desiccant would work well year round.  If you live in Florida, the compressor would work best.  If you live in North Carolina like I do, you may opt to have one of each and use the compressor most of the year and the desiccant in the cooler months.  The drain hose is just some standard vinyl tubing.  I think it's 1/2" and you can buy a roll of it at any hardware store and have as long a drain as you like. 

Ivation 14.7 Pint Compressor Dehumidifier - Small and Compact with Continuous Drain Hose for Smaller Spaces, Bathroom, Attic, Crawlspace and Closets -

Ivation 13-Pint Small-Area Desiccant Dehumidifier Compact and Quiet - With Continuous Drain Hose for Smaller Spaces, Bathroom, Attic, Crawlspace and C

[John E Davies]

John, you need to decide if you are going to keep a small heater going in winter, and at what temperature. You definitely don’t want to let it freeze inside the Ollie with a dehumidifier going, and the compressor types don’t operate at all in really low temps, they ice up. I think all these dehumidifiers release some waste heat during operation, but I doubt if that alone is enough to maintain inside temps.

If you plan to winterize the water system and let the trailer stay at ambient temperature, you will need to empty the tank and shut off the dehumidifier for those below freezing  times.

John Davies

Spokane WA

[Corvus]

The Ivation 14.7 compressor model NCeagle linked to in his post was not available when I needed one ASAP. Here is my experience with the Ivation 13 Pint desiccant model.

Although a desiccant type dehumidifier I've been using mine for up to four weeks continuously in Florida since January. The desiccant types produce more heat than the compressor types plus a significant chemical odor. The unit is only used when in storage so the amount of heat and chemical odor have not been an issue. The chemical odor has diminished but it is still noticeable.

I set mine at 65% and the SensorPush placed at various locations shows it works well throughout the interior. I leave doors and drawers a jar to help. I also have a canary on the table (salt shaker) it has not caked yet.

The trailer is closed all the time so the unit spends most of the time dormant or monitoring, which is a very nice feature. In monitor mode the fan will occasionally run and oscillate for a few minutes then start the dehumidifier if above the humidity level set. The unit will also restart then run the monitor routine after a power cycle.

I didn't have time to route my water hose outside so I placed the unit in the bathroom and ran the supplied hose to the open drain in the shower pan. I was concerned about excessive moisture and stench escaping from the drain, but I was pressed for time. To my surprise, and great relief, that has not been the case, even during the hot summer months.

[dewdev]

We in Maine do have hot humid weather in the summer, but not like down south. Generally we will have hot spells in the mid 90's that lasts 2 to 4 weeks straight. I live along the coast so the humidity is very high during these times, making it feel like 100.

I use a small ProBreeze dehumidifier (see picture - 1200 cubic feet (205 sq ft) Electric Mini Dehumidifier). I do have to empty the water container every 3 to 4 days, but that is better than having a large dehumidifier like some others are using and it is easy to store when traveling.

For the past 2 summers this dehumidifier has worked fine for me, keeping the Oliver dry and no mold has formed.

[Patriot]

We use this larger Pro Breeze and it has served us well. We don’t use a drain hose as we store our Ollie here at home. We empty it about every 5-6 days it shuts off automatically when full. It’s very quiet with just a tiny bit of white noise. It’s also stores and travels easily in the closet.
 

 

[C&MCurrie]

We use this one. Works great and is very compact for a compressor type dehumidifier. 

[mhowell12]

Just as a completely different recommendation, we have for 8 years now used an Air-Dryer 500 when our trailer (cough, Airstream, not an Oliver 🙂 ) is parked in our pole barn in Central Florida.  Intended for boats, it's basically a small space heater w/no moving parts.  We crack both Fantastic Fans, and this little unit keeps the interior air "dry" enough with heating and air turnover to prevent musty odors and mildew.  It does of course require 120v power.  For 8 or so years before that we used a large compressor unit in our motorhome, and it did a good job as well.  Never did get around to plumbing it, just emptied the tank every 10 days or so.

Hope this helps.

 

[Katjo]

On 9/11/2022 at 10:45 PM, dewdev said:

We in Maine do have hot humid weather in the summer, but not like down south. Generally we will have hot spells in the mid 90's that lasts 2 to 4 weeks straight. I live along the coast so the humidity is very high during these times, making it feel like 100.

I use a small ProBreeze dehumidifier (see picture - 1200 cubic feet (205 sq ft) Electric Mini Dehumidifier). I do have to empty the water container every 3 to 4 days, but that is better than having a large dehumidifier like some others are using and it is easy to store when traveling.

For the past 2 summers this dehumidifier has worked fine for me, keeping the Oliver dry and no mold has formed.

This is what we use also, works great!👍🏼

[Cameron]

I wonder if I could use this running at night while boondocking in cold weather, to help with the condensation on the windows. it looks like it doesn't use a lot of electricity so I don't think it would drain the batteries. 

[Patriot]

2 hours ago, Cameron said:

I wonder if I could use this running at night while boondocking in cold weather, to help with the condensation on the windows. it looks like it doesn't use a lot of electricity so I don't think it would drain the batteries. 

Our Pro Breeze works fine as long as our interior temp is an above 45 degrees. As for battery draw down, I can’t answer that question as we have never run ours all night on 12v.