Dehumidifier vs Humidifier

Anybody ever seen on of these? I'm surprised you don't hear about them more often up here. Maybe things have changed as this is the second or third dehumidifier I've seen on Craigslist over the last couple months.

Back in the late 70s I bought one. I was living at a small place out on Beechwood Drive in Cutten. It only had a small electric wall heater and was very cold in the winter. I felt it had to do with how damp the house was. I'd heard about dehumidifiers somewhere and decided to try one.

I drove down to Sears but couldn't find one in their appliances section. I asked the sales guy where they might be found. He kept replying as if I wanted a humidifier. He apparently had never heard of a DEhumidifier. Why anyone would want a humidifier up here, unless they had a house with wood heat, was beyond me. It's damp enough around here as it is.

So we went back and forth: "We have plenty of humidifiers." . I'd reply, "I don't want a humidifier. I want a DEhumidifier. It takes the moisture out of the air, not into it.". He didn't seem to get it but we finally ended up looking in the Sears mail order catalog and found one. Seems to me they were fairly expensive for the time at around $150.00, but I ordered one.

It finally arrived. I set it in the living room, turned it on and watched it go to work.

They work like a small refrigerator. They have coiled copper(?) tubes that get real cold. The moisture in the air condenses on them and drops into a storage container sitting below the coils. I'd guess the container held about 3 gallons.

For the next 3 days I was dumping it out every few hours. It was amazing how much water that thing pulled out of the air. You'd think that moisture from the outside would replace the water that was going into the container but that didn't seem to be the case as after the 3 days water collection really slowed down and I could get by dumping it out once a day.

And the house felt a lot warmer. It really did work in making the house more comfortable. I'm surprised more people don't use dehumidifiers up here as cold and damp as it can be.

Do we use one now? No, but this house doesn't seem that damp. Besides, I don't want to use any more electricity than I have to. When I've seen them being given away on Craigslist for free, though, I've been tempted to snag one. Maybe one of these days I will and see if it makes this house seem any warmer.