How to Clean and Properly Maintain a Dehumidifier
A dehumidifier is a great piece of equipment to remove access moisture from your home or business, but how do you keep one clean? A dehumidifier is designed to pull moisture out of the air which cuts down on the chances that mold, dust mites, and bacteria will grow in your home or business.
Keep in mind, though, that periodically your dehumidifier will need a small amount of maintenance to assist in keeping it working properly and efficiently. This means that you need to know how to properly clean your dehumidifier to keep it in optimum working order.
What is a dehumidifier and how does it work?
Dust mites can live in a variety of textiles in your home, including your bed sheets, rugs, curtains, and drapes, and even in the air. They thrive and increase in numbers if there is a high level of humidity, which can make asthma and allergies much worse than normal for many people. A lot of people have purchased dehumidifiers to help keep the number of dust mites down as much as possible in their homes.
As your dehumidifier works night and day to pull the extra moisture out of the air, you may eventually start to see a slime-like substance or brown spots inside of your dehumidifier.
These are caused by dirt and mold that is being pulled from the air and building up inside your dehumidifier. Mold is a living organism that creates spores that can then move into the air and then land on a variety of different surfaces to grow in numbers.
Your dehumidifier works hard to keep down the level of humidity to stop this from happening, but if your dehumidifier needs to be cleaned, it can actually release mold spores back into your home, which is certainly not the point you had when you bought your dehumidifier.
This is why it’s important to clean your dehumidifier on a regular basis, as well as to keep the machine running properly and to be effective.
How to Clean the Dehumidifier and how to Disinfect a Dehumidifier
The way cleaning a dehumidifier works is that it takes air from your home into it over cold coils and then the air forms condensation which then drips into the catch bucket. The air is then passed over a warm coil and pushed back into the room.
When you clean your dehumidifier’s coils, you’ll need to check your manufacturer’s instructions on the proper way to do this, but waiting to clean the coils too long can cause blockage of things like hair and dust to build up in your dehumidifier will not run properly. This is the reason it’s so important to keep these coils clean.
You will also want to remove the catch basin, especially when the warning light and automatic shut-off are activated to let you know when it is full. It’s very important to keep it empty on a regular basis so that mold and bacteria will not begin to grow inside of it. You can clean it with bleach to ensure that all mold spores and bacteria are destroyed.
It is very important that you change the filter in your dehumidifier on a regular basis to keep it functioning properly and to ensure the air that it is putting back into your environment is clean and free of dust mites, bacteria, and mold spores.
Contact Us
There are a variety of different types of dehumidifiers, including whole-house dehumidifiers. Not only can the dehumidifier specialists at Contact Ace Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning assist you in keeping your dehumidifiers clean and in proper working order, but they can also install dehumidifiers for you to keep your home or office free of extra moisture, mold, and other harmful contaminants. Call for an appointment today!