On some of these models I see options to hookup exhaust venting. I thought that the warm dry air is supposed to go back to the room. No?

Also I'm looking at a 3 year old Santa Fe Compact model on craigslist. It is local to my town. Asking price is 600, because it comes with some optional sump pump and battery backup stuff that I wouldn't need. I'm thinking of offering 400 and he can keep the other stuff. It is the 70 pint model. I know buying used stuff is risky, but if I get to see it in operation and confirm that it works, should I grab it?

sure is dry around here.......get it? dry?( dehumidifiers?) Tough crowd

joehank said:

On some of these models I see options to hookup exhaust venting. I thought that the warm dry air is supposed to go back to the room. No?

Also I'm looking at a 3 year old Santa Fe Compact model on craigslist. It is local to my town. Asking price is 600, because it comes with some optional sump pump and battery backup stuff that I wouldn't need. I'm thinking of offering 400 and he can keep the other stuff. It is the 70 pint model. I know buying used stuff is risky, but if I get to see it in operation and confirm that it works, should I grab it?

Click to expand...

The exhaust venting is designed to be able to mount the unit outside the room to save space and to duct the intake and exhaust back into the room.

For 400 bucks it may be worth a try....

You might look into these, from what I hear their made in the same place as the Santa Fe

But there, more suited towards the industrial side of things with a better warrenty. I picked up a Quest 155 for a little over $1700

If you compare the quest dehumidifiers to the Santa Fe, they’re the same.

chrometrichs said:

I like the ideal air 180 pint units....truly an industrial unit....

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Oh hell nah!!! I got one, and it SUCKS!! (money out of my wallet). I got it because my 70pt and 45pt soleus usa dehuys weren't keeping up with my 12x10 5500w room at NIGHT (was ok 40-45 when lights on) - but struggling to keep it under 60 at night - maxing at like 63. SO I look for a 100pt+ dehuy for under a grand... Well I decide Ideal air 100pt will work, 725 shipped.... well then I see the 180 and say DAYUM that thing looks tough, and another 80pts for only 275 more, including shipping? DONE!! I pulled the trigger... now I want to pull the real one, because it pulls LESS Water out of the room (higher RH) than the 70+45 were (115 pt/day total)... AND for 5 more watts to run the Ideal.

I really thought I was 'stepping up' when I was going to drop 725 on the 100pt ideal, and I thought that would be sufficent for my 5500w in the desert, considering most of the year my 19seer 18000btu mini split is working and pulling out a good bit of moisture, and then to think I reached even further to get a 180pint rated (at what? AHAM? they don't actually say, anywhere. for all I know it could be their saturation rate, or even a guess/lie) because this thing barely competes to collect enough water in the bucket overnight compared to the 70pt soelusa air - nor does it keep the RH much better when comparing the 2.

I turned the unit on about 2 hours into my light cycle last night and it had a hard time getting from 60, down to 55RH. Tonight I gave it a boost and let the 70 run with it overnight, and carry a 50-52rh at night. I let the 70 run 1hr continuous into the light cycle and the room reached 42RH, perfect for me, so I cut off the 70 to let the 180 work alone (as it should be able to handle what I have going on, based on ratings, within 15minutes it raises to 45RH, then 15 more up to 52, then I let it run for 2 hours straight and it kept me at around 49-51 the whole time. I decide to swap back to the 70+45 for 2 horus and it drops my average readings every 10 minutes, by 5-7RH, outperforming the Dumb-Ideal-Air 180fake pt dehuy.

I then swapped back to the 180 only, the room went up to 61rh until the thing went into full compression mode, and has since settled at 51-53 rh with the lights on. and I'm now going to run the thing for 24hours and measure how much water it collects, if it doesn't come close to 100pints its going back and I'm getting the SantaFe dry max XT. Actually I've decided to spend the 2k to get it anyways and quit fn around. I've got a real good relationship with the guy at the hydro shop and he said at minimum I can get store credit, if not full cash back, but he's going to try and shove the thing down sunlight supplys throat if they can't troubleshoot the thing to peform within 10-15% of their quoted specs (or at least outperform my 115pts of portable dehuy power).

Moral of the story if you skipped to the end.... DO NOT BUY IDEAL AIR DEHUMIDIFIER, total dumb-ideal, looks good, but not good. And I can't find a single review saying so online - I did a day of searching to look for them before hand, not a one. I saw the restoration style, but wasn't prepared mentally to spend $2000 on a dehuy, but now I am - and you should do.

Last spring in this thread I mentioned that I had a 2 ton (24k BTu) chiller to cool my setup with- and that it was running at about twice the efficiency as AC to do the same job. I also said it was cooling my RDWC, something AC can't do. In addition, it sits in my office all winter and the heat it expells heats my house, without the need to run the furnace. EVER.

Yet, I got zilch for responses. This kills me, because the thing only pulls 8.5 amps! Yeah, I know this is a 'dehuey' thread, and I'm getting there. The point I want to make first is that if you have a dehuey in your growroom it is pushing a shit-ton of heat into the room that you then must spend money to move AGAIN to actually get rid of it. This is 'wasteful'- and if you don't believe me, try operating your dehuey with your AC shut off. Just don't try it for very long...

To solve this problem, I've rigged up a vertical tower of sorts; An 8" muffin fan at the top near the ceiling blows down through an 8" Icebox, the output of which then drops down through a 5 foot piece of rigid 8" duct. On the floor is a tub to catch the water drizzling steadily(!) out of this tube. It sure is doing a hell of a job dehumidifying- and my chiller isn't running any more often/longer than it did before I tried this. It is definitely running less than when I had my Panasonic 70 pint unit running in there. It seems to work best with a variable speed thermostat, like the kind you can get from Hydro Innovations. It even dehumidifies while the fan is completely off. Seriously! The cold air column and the steady drizzle of water combine to pull hot near-ceiling air down through the Icebox so it continues to drizzle without the fan running at all!

So my question is, have I stumbled upon a way to get FREE dehumidification? I know better than to expect a free lunch- physics just doesn't work that way. On the other hand, if I'm not essentially running two AC units directly against each other, it has got to be a whole lot less expensive to operate. I can tell you that the parts needed to do this (chiller not included- but then no one is costing out their AC units, either) are a fraction of the price of a standalone dehuey, especially the units everyone is discussing on this thread.

Input? Thoughts? Theory? Haters, even? I've put this out here and on Cannabis John's AC thread and I must say I'm getting pretty tired of suggesting a better mousetrap for this job, only to have everyone ignore me while they complain about how fast their cheese is disappearing! o_O

This is awesome that this thread has gone on this long....

I returned the Airsponge, (mostly because I had to hardwire it myself) and am still rocking the two Frigidaire 70 pint dehueys. They work for me now, however they never really turn off.

konakings said:

This is awesome that this thread has gone on this long....

Click to expand...

Not sure if that's sarcasm or not, you know its the 'internet' - sometimes its hard to tell, but sometimes forum nazi's don't like old threads being drug back from the grave (this one's last post being back in July). However I felt the need to share my info about the Ideal-Air - because like I said I couldn't find a positive or negative review when I was doing my research.

Anyways I came across this forum in my seach and had to set the record straight about Ideal Air dehumidifiers, and that they are crap (they just blow a lot of air, make a lot of noise, and pull out only about 75pts a day @ 55RH/75F

Peace

Input? Thoughts? Theory? Haters, even? I've put this out here and on Cannabis John's AC thread and I must say I'm getting pretty tired of suggesting a better mousetrap for this job, only to have everyone ignore me while they complain about how fast their cheese is disappearing! o_O[/quote]

hey saw your post and I ran a chiller setup. I insulated all water lines and made my own 8" icebox with a 12x12 to 8" round h-vac piece. Spray foam along the sides and top of exchanger. Got the exchangers for iceboxes minus the plastic off eBay 25 bucks from Hydro Innovations!! Put a drain barb and insulated the outside of h-vac piece too. Drained in my cap ebb n flow controller. Drained back to main rez. I think it also kept E.C. more stable when the chicks are sweating more than eating!! Not all can get out the box that corporate has tried so hard to keep in.

ttystikk said:

o_O

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i've been intrigued by your chiller setup ever since you posted it. but maybe not worth reconfiguring if your dehuey(s) only run during lights out? (mostly cold where i am, so the added heat is welcome, otherwise night-heater would be necessary)

seebobsled said:

Input? Thoughts? Theory? Haters, even? I've put this out here and on Cannabis John's AC thread and I must say I'm getting pretty tired of suggesting a better mousetrap for this job, only to have everyone ignore me while they complain about how fast their cheese is disappearing! o_O

Click to expand...

hey saw your post and I ran a chiller setup. I insulated all water lines and made my own 8" icebox with a 12x12 to 8" round h-vac piece. Spray foam along the sides and top of exchanger. Got the exchangers for iceboxes minus the plastic off eBay 25 bucks from Hydro Innovations!! Put a drain barb and insulated the outside of h-vac piece too. Drained in my cap ebb n flow controller. Drained back to main rez. I think it also kept E.C. more stable when the chicks are sweating more than eating!! Not all can get out the box that corporate has tried so hard to keep in.[/quote]

Sounds like you did it the hard way; I just got a screamin' deal on the chiller and Iceboxes and I've been working out how to best utilize them ever since.

You're ahead of me as far as insulating the lines; mine sweat and drip all over the place! I was seriously thinking of grabbing a bunch of pool noodles and using those to insulate the waterlines with- at least for the part of the runs that are inside the growroom environment.

You're right about EC staying more stable, because the water is replenishing itself. It was a nice added bonus...

El Cerebro said:

i've been intrigued by your chiller setup ever since you posted it. but maybe not worth reconfiguring if your dehuey(s) only run during lights out? (mostly cold where i am, so the added heat is welcome, otherwise night-heater would be necessary)

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My room needs dehuey night and day. You are correct about the heat at night, the chiller doesn't address that issue.

This dehumidifcation thing is really just the icing on the cake of improved performance and efficiency in your entire cooling plant. Chillers are better than AC because they're more efficient AND because the cool can be placed for maximum effect. That's much harder to do with AC ducting.

SiRStonedAlot said:

Not sure if that's sarcasm or not, you know its the 'internet' - sometimes its hard to tell, but sometimes forum nazi's don't like old threads being drug back from the grave (this one's last post being back in July). However I felt the need to share my info about the Ideal-Air - because like I said I couldn't find a positive or negative review when I was doing my research.

Anyways I came across this forum in my seach and had to set the record straight about Ideal Air dehumidifiers, and that they are crap (they just blow a lot of air, make a lot of noise, and pull out only about 75pts a day @ 55RH/75F

Peace

Click to expand...

No Sarcasm at all. If you check back I was the one that started this thread way back when. I was sincerely surprised it was still being kicked around. I enjoyed all your input and even laughed at your screen name. One marvel of the net is the ability to kick a thread down the road for years and update it with new information. I salute all that come and contribute, especially with high caliber info like yours. There are actually more new comments now then when this thread started.

Cheers!

ttystikk said:

My room needs dehuey night and day. You are correct about the heat at night, the chiller doesn't address that issue.

This dehumidifcation thing is really just the icing on the cake of improved performance and efficiency in your entire cooling plant. Chillers are better than AC because they're more efficient AND because the cool can be placed for maximum effect. That's much harder to do with AC ducting.

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DUDE i cant believe i stumbled upon this at frickin 4am... This is frickin sweet.. I run a UC system 8xl... I am planning on putting together a larger room like 2 12 bucket ucxl13 with 6k overhead... I am dying to see some people water cooling their setups... I need some ideas on how to do this... I have thought about the icebox route cooling the hoods or maybe making my own large car radiator with big fans pushing the air through the water cooled radiator.... My question is how big of a chiller would i need to cool 6-1k's and the room?? 1HP big enough?? There really isnt that much info about this out there but i figure i need to buy a chiller for my UC's why not use it to cool the room as well... I would love to see some pics of your setup ttystik... Make a new thread entitled Water Cooling your UC room..I wouod make one but i dont have any pics or experience with it yet....But I would love to see some ideas people come up with...

I run a fantech 130 pt, an ideal air 100 pt, and 2 drizair 1200's and I like the drizair 1200s the most. They have a flange to run ducting also.

( I know this is a older thread but seemed useful )

Quest vs Santa Fe ?
just wanted some suggestions on models and wanted to make sure this is still the Stuff that's bomb and dependable .

Quest:


Or
Santa Fe
suggested model (or quest is better ? )

Burned Haze said:

( I know this is a older thread but seemed useful )

Quest vs Santa Fe ?
just wanted some suggestions on models and wanted to make sure this is still the Stuff that's bomb and dependable .

Quest:


Or
Santa Fe
suggested model (or quest is better ? )

Click to expand...

I have both!Always a santa fe user but i bought a quest 105 awhile back and id say its more efficient.The 155 is best bang for the buck but the 105 is the most efficient electrically using almost half the amps of the 155(4.9 vs. 8),depending on what size you need 2 105s might be better than a 155,probably save the cost in electricity fairly quickly.SHOP AROUND if you have cash,i got mine about 30% off list price.

fishwhistle said:

I have both!Always a santa fe user but i bought a quest 105 awhile back and id say its more efficient.The 155 is best bang for the buck but the 105 is the most efficient electrically using almost half the amps of the 155(4.9 vs. 8),depending on what size you need 2 105s might be better than a 155,probably save the cost in electricity fairly quickly.SHOP AROUND if you have cash,i got mine about 30% off list price.

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Received my quest 105 today ! I def am excited to get this installed and as a inprovement to my room! I Got mine for $1750 (out the door price )

If needed I will get a 2nd but first 5ton a/c upgrade ;)