A dehumidifier is going to remove excess moisture from your indoor air. But should you run a dehumidifier all the time in, say, summer?
In a relatively dry place, there is no need to run a dehumidifier all the time. You only need to keep the indoor humidity at 50%. When there has been basement flooding, you might want to run a dehumidifier day and night.
If there has been flooding in your basement, you might need to run your Frigidaire 70 Pint Dehumidifier all the time, until the humidity lowers.
To make it even better, you can connect a hosepipe to the outlet on the dehumidifier side so that it drains out the water automatically. You do not have to keep emptying the 70-pint bucket all the time.
Should I run my dehumidifier all night?
Do you have a modern dehumidifier with a function such as humidistat? You do not have to worry about forgetting to switch off the dehumidifier.
Once it attains the set humidity level, say 50%, it will turn off automatically. Thus, it will not continue to dehumidify making your air too dry.
Thus, even when you are traveling, the dehumidifier will not make your indoor air too dry. Another thing is that once the dehumidifier bucket is full, it will stop pulling moisture out of the air until you empty the bucket.
So, instead of asking whether you should run the unit all the time, the right question would be the best time to run the dehumidifier.
Is it better to run a dehumidifier at night or during the day?
There is no specific preference here since it depends on when you are in the house and the level of humidity. For instance, if the humidity in my house is 85%, I would run the dehumidifier all the time, in the day and in the night.
However, if the level of humidity in my home is 60%, I would run the dehumidifier a couple of hours a day, say about three hours in the day and three hours at night.
For this, you would need a unit that has a timer so that you can set the number of hours that you want it to run.
When you should run dehumidifier all the time
Unless your dehumidifier is faulty, there is no reason to run it all the time. However sometimes, the circumstances might demand that you run the unit all the time. These are as follows:
1. When the basement has flooded
If there has been flooding in the basement, you might want to run the dehumidifier day and night. That way, it will help dry out the walls and the floor quickly.
To do that, you need to use a unit that has an outlet to attach a hosepipe so that it can dehumidify continuously.
When you want to dry out a flooded basement, it is best to set the humidity at a low level, say, about 25%. The unit will keep running hour after hour extracting excess moisture from the air in the basement.
2. When you live close to the sea
If you live in a place such as Florida, which is the most humid place in the USA, you will need to use a dehumidifier for more hours than a person who lives in a dryer place.
Seattle is also humid, but not as much as Florida. Because of the warm climate and the proximity of Florida to the oceans, it is unusually humid. In summer, you might need to run a dehumidifier continuously during day and night.
In a very humid place, you will have to run your dehumidifier for at least 12 hours a day. But you can always use a hygrometer to find out the humidity level in your house at any time.
The best thing is to run your unit as long as you need to until you feel comfortable enough in your space.
3. When you experience very humid summers
Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Alaska experience the most humid summers, with humidity levels approaching 80%. Thus, if you live in such a place, you might need to run your dehumidifier for more than 12 hours a day.
4. When you are using a dehumidifier to dry laundry
You can use a dehumidifier to dry your clothes. If this is the case, you might have to leave it running higher than on normal days.
You want to extract as much moisture from the wet laundry as possible. Wet clothing makes the air in your rooms more humid. Thus, you can crank up your dehumidifying unit to help dry the clothes faster.
Conclusion
As you have seen here, the answer to the question of: Should you run a dehumidifier all the time is, it depends.
It depends on where you live. In the most humid areas, you need to dehumidify the air for a long time. In the less humid areas, you need to run your dehumidifier for a maximum of six hours in the day and six hours at night.
