Dehumidifiers are growing in popularity across the country. These useful machines can remove the excess moisture from the air in your home while protecting your belongings from damage. And they make your house feel comfortable and livable again.
However, the best dehumidifier for controlling mold is also a winner because of its health benefits. These units are helpful to people with respiratory conditions like asthma, as they can aid in better air quality. This is because they remove mold from the air in your home.
With all this being said, people are still wondering exactly how effective dehumidifiers are. They want to know will a dehumidifier kill mold and mold spores. This article will educate you on the answer to this query.
How Do the Best Dehumidifiers for Mold Work?
Dehumidifiers work by taking the hot air in a room and passing it through a fan inside the machine. The moisture in the air is stuck inside the machine, and the resulting dry air is cycled back into the room. Once your room has been dried out with the use of a dehumidifier, there is much less of a chance that condensation will settle on your possessions.
Mold will not form, and items will remain safe and unaffected by moisture damage. The size of your dehumidifier really depends on how large the area is that you wish to keep cool and dry. The dehumidifiers vary in terms of how much moisture they can remove from a space. The smallest is 30 pints per day, and the largest is over 90 points per day.
So, will a Dehumidifier Solve My Mold Problem?
Mold has the ability to grow anywhere that it wants to. It can be found in books, carpets, window panes, or even in your kitchen. Obviously, none of us want to be in close contact with mold, as it can potentially harm us and our families.
The most likely places where mold will be found include areas in the house that are damper than others. This could include basements or crawl spaces. This article contains a couple of factors that should be taken into account when deciding the best way to use a dehumidifier to fight your mold problem.
Humidity Level
The amount of humidity that the dehumidifier removes from your house is important to know. This is because mold in the house will remain active and toxic if the humidity is at or above a certain level. Typically, if the humidity level is above 60%, the mold will start to become a serious issue, and will not go away. With only limited access to moisture, the mold spores will continue growing and infecting the inhabitants of the home when the humidity level is above 60%.
When dehumidifiers are set to remove enough moisture so the humidity level drops below 50-60%, the mold spores are unable to grow and spread. If this level of humidity is regulated for a certain amount of time (approximately 1 week), the spores will be deprived of moisture and everything should air out. New spores will be unable to develop at all, and the air should become easier to breathe.
Checking the humidity level of the home is fairly simple. Visually, you should be able to see obvious signs of humidity, such as condensation on the windows, mildew growth, or water stains on ceilings and walls.
To test the level more accurately, you can purchase a hygrometer for your home. It is battery-operated and looks similar to a temperature gauge. By following the instructions provided by the manufacturer, you should be able to use your hygrometer to check the humidity levels of the house and set your dehumidifier correspondingly.
Existing Mold Spores
Even though dehumidifiers have the ability to prevent mold growth and spread, they cannot remove spores that are already in existence. To ensure that this infectious fungus is gone for good, it needs to be removed and the area has to be continually cleaned. There are a variety of products that you can look for in the store that may assist with the removal of visible mold spores. Alternatively, simple household products such as soap, water, and bleach can remove mold when regularly used.
Mold Spores
To prevent mold from growing inside your dehumidifier, you must remember to empty it on a regular basis. The moisture bucket is a warm and damp place, which is exactly the conditions where mold is likely to form.Your dehumidifier should have a fill indicator on it, which will let you know exactly when you have to empty it. The frequency of having to empty it will depend on where you are located, and what the climate conditions are like. It can vary from once every few days, to multiple times per day.
If you are a forgetful type of person and don’t want to worry about remembering to empty the bucket, there is an alternative. You can run a drain hose from the dehumidifier into a floor drain or sump pump. This means that the dehumidifier will automatically drain water as soon as it has been collected.
If you have a serious mold problem in your home, it is recommended that you get it professionally removed, and then continue using your dehumidifier afterward to prevent further spore development.
Conclusion
To answer the question that was posed at the beginning of the article: dehumidifiers will not kill mold, because the existing spores will not be removed. However, the best dehumidifier for mold can stop the onslaught of new mold from appearing and will work to stop any further spore growth in the house.
Have you had any luck dealing with mold in your house? Sometimes it is challenging to get rid of mold when the typical methods prove to be ineffective. Let us know how you solved the problem, we’d love to hear it!
Do not ignore signs that you have mold in your home. It creates an unhealthy environment for all of the inhabitants and should be dealt with before it gets worse.
Last update on 2024-04-18 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
I live in an area with very high humidity and have mold in the air in the house. We cannot close the house because there is no glass on the windows. Is there any chance that a dehumidifier will help or would it be a waste of money?
You’ve probably figured it out by now Shane, but if the environment is not sealed, the dehumidifier will need to work constantly to fight the encroaching moisture. Dehumidifiers are fairly expensive to run, so while this would decrease your ambient humidity (given a large enough dehumidifier), the cost would be extraordinary. (I ran mine in a sealed 10x12x7 room in Hawaii, and it cost over $100/mo)
This article glossed over why the hot air condenses in the dehumidifier, but I believe it runs a compressor to create a heat pump.. making it basically an air conditioner with poor heat exchange properties, and air flow control. (And, an air conditioner serves as a dehumidifier if you were in the market for a/c)