LESLIE: John in Pennsylvania is on the line and has a question about dehumidification. How can we help you?
JOHN: Yes, I recently had my house waterproofed. And they suggest that I run a dehumidifier all the time. Actually, two of them. I was wondering if there was any cheaper way to keep the moisture out.
TOM: Well, these waterproofers, did they tell you to improve your grading around your property and make sure your gutters are clean, your downspouts are extended away from the wall? Did they give you any of that kind of advice, John?
JOHN: Yes, they did. And we took care of that.
TOM: OK. Well, those are all important things and that’s going to go a long way towards cutting down the volume of moisture.
Now, in terms of these dehumidifiers, you may be thinking of the kind that sits on the floor and has a pan in it that you have to empty all the time. Is that correct?
JOHN: That’s correct.
TOM: John, there are a lot of other options in dehumidifiers, aside from the kind that sit in your basement on four wheels and have a quart-sized pan you have to dump out all the time. In my house, I have a Santa Fe dehumidifier. This is more of a professional product. And when I say that, I don’t mean for commercial buildings. I mean it’s for a house but it’s designed to be a lot more efficient and effective. If you take a look at – just Google “Santa Fe dehumidifiers.”
Mine is one that takes out 90 pints of water a day and it kind of hangs from the ceiling in the basement, so it’s kind of up and out of the way. And it has a nice pull-through of air. And so it’s going to really constantly draw the water out of that. And then it’s hooked up to a condensate pump so that once the pan inside of it is filled up, it just pumps the water right outside. And I ran that right out, actually, in my case to a splash block.
So I think you may be unaware of the better-quality dehumidifiers that are out there. You could look at the ones from Santa Fe and kind of start right there.
JOHN: OK. Thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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