We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing the
dry air at them.
I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?

On 31/12/2022 14:04, R D S wrote:
> We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing the
> dry air at them.
> I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?

If you are hanging the clothes in fairly small room and keep the
door closed then it doesn't really matter.

On Sat, 31 Dec 2022 15:37:14 +0000, Andrew wrote:

> On 31/12/2022 14:04, R D S wrote:
>> We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing the
>> dry air at them.
>> I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?
>
> If you are hanging the clothes in fairly small room and keep the
> door closed then it doesn't really matter.

Just a note: keep the evaporator clean; all the fluff and dust seems to
accumulate on the wet fins and the effectiveness drops right off.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On 31/12/2022 14:04, R D S wrote:
> We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing the
> dry air at them.
> I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?

It might make a slight difference, either way, but I would suggest
adding some sort of extra fan. A fan will move the air around the room,
giving the dehumidifier a better 'share' of the moist air, as well as
aiding greatly the evaporation of the moisture from the clothes.

On 31/12/2022 17:46, PeterC wrote:
> On Sat, 31 Dec 2022 15:37:14 +0000, Andrew wrote:
>
>> On 31/12/2022 14:04, R D S wrote:
>>> We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing the
>>> dry air at them.
>>> I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?
>>
>> If you are hanging the clothes in fairly small room and keep the
>> door closed then it doesn't really matter.
>
> Just a note: keep the evaporator clean; all the fluff and dust seems to
> accumulate on the wet fins and the effectiveness drops right off.

The ebac Powerdry that I bought recently clogs up its fins with
frost after about 15 minutes. This blocks the air throughput but
it chugs on until an hour has elapsed and then the compressor
switches off for 10 minutes and the frost+ice melts and dribbles
into the container.

There doesn't seem to be any way for it to detect this icing up
by measuring the airflow?. My old ebac homedry circa 1986 had no
fins in its aluminium cold coils so the build up of ice did not
impede air flow through them.

The most it seems to collect over 24 hours is about 750ml yet
it claims to extract over 15 litres a day. This might be true
in a hot humid location but not during typical winter weather
in the UK.

On 31/12/2022 20:59, Harry Bloomfield Esq wrote:
> On 31/12/2022 14:04, R D S wrote:
>> We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing
>> the dry air at them.
>> I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?
>
> It might make a slight difference, either way, but I would suggest
> adding some sort of extra fan. A fan will move the air around the room,
> giving the dehumidifier a better 'share' of the moist air, as well as
> aiding greatly the evaporation of the moisture from the clothes.

Or even a fan heater plus the dehumidier effectively giving
you a heat-pump/condenser dryer. :-)

On Sat, 31 Dec 2022 14:04:09 +0000, R D S <rsandr@yahoo.com> wrote:

>We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing the
>dry air at them.
>I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?

Forcibly circulating dry air through the rack of wet clothes must
surely be the best way of drying them. Allowing room-dampness air to
diffuse slowly through the rack is bound to be slower.

--
Chris

On 1/1/2023 11:24 AM, Chris Hogg wrote:
> On Sat, 31 Dec 2022 14:04:09 +0000, R D S <rsandr@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing the
>> dry air at them.
>> I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?
>
> Forcibly circulating dry air through the rack of wet clothes must
> surely be the best way of drying them. Allowing room-dampness air to
> diffuse slowly through the rack is bound to be slower.
>

If the room humidity is high, even forcing that air
through the rack does not work quickly. It could take
the whole day (60%-70%).

Numbers at my place:

January hot air heating: ~25% RH (Dry a snow-shoveling coat in three hours)
Between seasons: 60% RH (Hard to dry clothes with a fan)
June air conditioning: 40% RH (Easily dry rinsed biking clothes)

Current humidity is 31%.

Thick items need to be turned inside-out, to finish the drying process.
You can't expect miracles :-)

Paul

On Sun, 1 Jan 2023 14:27:08 +0000, Andrew wrote:

> On 31/12/2022 17:46, PeterC wrote:
>> On Sat, 31 Dec 2022 15:37:14 +0000, Andrew wrote:
>>
>>> On 31/12/2022 14:04, R D S wrote:
>>>> We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing the
>>>> dry air at them.
>>>> I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?
>>>
>>> If you are hanging the clothes in fairly small room and keep the
>>> door closed then it doesn't really matter.
>>
>> Just a note: keep the evaporator clean; all the fluff and dust seems to
>> accumulate on the wet fins and the effectiveness drops right off.
>
> The ebac Powerdry that I bought recently clogs up its fins with
> frost after about 15 minutes. This blocks the air throughput but
> it chugs on until an hour has elapsed and then the compressor
> switches off for 10 minutes and the frost+ice melts and dribbles
> into the container.
>
> There doesn't seem to be any way for it to detect this icing up
> by measuring the airflow?. My old ebac homedry circa 1986 had no
> fins in its aluminium cold coils so the build up of ice did not
> impede air flow through them.
>
> The most it seems to collect over 24 hours is about 750ml yet
> it claims to extract over 15 litres a day. This might be true
> in a hot humid location but not during typical winter weather
> in the UK.

Seems to be over-gassed for a cool room.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On 01/01/2023 14:27, Andrew wrote:
> On 31/12/2022 17:46, PeterC wrote:
>> On Sat, 31 Dec 2022 15:37:14 +0000, Andrew wrote:
>>
>>> On 31/12/2022 14:04, R D S wrote:
>>>> We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing the
>>>> dry air at them.
>>>> I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?

The draft from the fan will probably help.
I have one in the airing cupboard. I can hang a load of washing in
there, switch the dehumidifier on, and shut the door. Dries the clothes
quite quickly.

>>> If you are hanging the clothes in  fairly small room and keep the
>>> door closed then it doesn't really matter.
>>
>> Just a note: keep the evaporator clean; all the fluff and dust seems to
>> accumulate on the wet fins and the effectiveness drops right off.
>
> The ebac Powerdry that I bought recently clogs up its fins with
> frost after about 15 minutes. This blocks the air throughput but
> it chugs on until an hour has elapsed and then the compressor
> switches off for 10 minutes and the frost+ice melts and dribbles
> into the container.
>
> There doesn't seem to be any way for it to detect this icing up
> by measuring the airflow?. My old ebac homedry circa 1986 had no
> fins in its aluminium cold coils so the build up of ice did not
> impede air flow through them.

I bought 3 ebac-lookalikes about 20 years ago. They all suffered from
icing up the evaporator when running below around 14C. There was a
temperature probe on the evaporators connected back to the control
boards, and a defrost indicator light, but it never worked on any of them.

When the controller died in one of them, I built a raspberry pi to
control it instead. My logic for icing up was, when the evaporator drops
below zero, kick off a 10 minute timer. When that expires, switch off
the compressor (and switch on the defrost indicator lamp), but keep the
fan running. This 10 minutes was found by experimentation to not be long
enough to block the fins with ice. You then see the ice melt quite
quickly helped by the air still being fanned through. When the
evaporator goes back above zero, a 5 minute timer is kicked off, which
allows the melted water to drain out of the evaporator, and then the
compressor comes back on.

The 10 min run-on of the compressor when the evaporator drops below zero
before initiating a defrost cycle allowed the dehumidifier to work
effectively at a lower ambient temperature than the units could
originally handle.

If the unit had a variable speed fan, that also could have been utilised
to delay or prevent icing up, but these units don't.

> The most it seems to collect over 24 hours is about 750ml yet
> it claims to extract over 15 litres a day. This might be true
> in a hot humid location but not during typical winter weather
> in the UK.

It will depend on the humidity.

Andrew

On 01/01/2023 14:28, Andrew wrote:
> On 31/12/2022 20:59, Harry Bloomfield Esq wrote:
>> On 31/12/2022 14:04, R D S wrote:
>>> We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing
>>> the dry air at them.
>>> I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?
>>
>> It might make a slight difference, either way, but I would suggest
>> adding some sort of extra fan. A fan will move the air around the
>> room, giving the dehumidifier a better 'share' of the moist air, as
>> well as aiding greatly the evaporation of the moisture from the clothes.
>
> Or even a fan heater plus the dehumidier effectively giving
> you a heat-pump/condenser dryer. :-)

The dehumidifier does heat via the condenser. If operated in a small
room (or airing cupboard in my case), it gets warmer in there as you'd
expect. You get the 250W of heat from the power consumption, but you
also get the latent heat of evaporation back from condensing out the
water on top of that. Using it in a larger room will also do this, but
the effect is going to be much less noticeable, and probably less
effective at further enhancing the drying.

Andrew

On 01/01/2023 20:12, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
> On 01/01/2023 14:27, Andrew wrote:
>> On 31/12/2022 17:46, PeterC wrote:
>>> On Sat, 31 Dec 2022 15:37:14 +0000, Andrew wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 31/12/2022 14:04, R D S wrote:
>>>>> We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing
>>>>> the
>>>>> dry air at them.
>>>>> I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?
>
> The draft from the fan will probably help.
> I have one in the airing cupboard. I can hang a load of washing in
> there, switch the dehumidifier on, and shut the door. Dries the clothes
> quite quickly.
>
>>>> If you are hanging the clothes in  fairly small room and keep the
>>>> door closed then it doesn't really matter.
>>>
>>> Just a note: keep the evaporator clean; all the fluff and dust seems to
>>> accumulate on the wet fins and the effectiveness drops right off.
>>
>> The ebac Powerdry that I bought recently clogs up its fins with
>> frost after about 15 minutes. This blocks the air throughput but
>> it chugs on until an hour has elapsed and then the compressor
>> switches off for 10 minutes and the frost+ice melts and dribbles
>> into the container.
>>
>> There doesn't seem to be any way for it to detect this icing up
>> by measuring the airflow?. My old ebac homedry circa 1986 had no
>> fins in its aluminium cold coils so the build up of ice did not
>> impede air flow through them.
>
> I bought 3 ebac-lookalikes about 20 years ago. They all suffered from
> icing up the evaporator when running below around 14C. There was a
> temperature probe on the evaporators connected back to the control
> boards, and a defrost indicator light, but it never worked on any of them.
>
> When the controller died in one of them, I built a raspberry pi to
> control it instead. My logic for icing up was, when the evaporator drops
> below zero, kick off a 10 minute timer. When that expires, switch off
> the compressor (and switch on the defrost indicator lamp), but keep the
> fan running. This 10 minutes was found by experimentation to not be long
> enough to block the fins with ice. You then see the ice melt quite
> quickly helped by the air still being fanned through. When the
> evaporator goes back above zero, a 5 minute timer is kicked off, which
> allows the melted water to drain out of the evaporator, and then the
> compressor comes back on.
>
> The 10 min run-on of the compressor when the evaporator drops below zero
> before initiating a defrost cycle allowed the dehumidifier to work
> effectively at a lower ambient temperature than the units could
> originally handle.
>
> If the unit had a variable speed fan, that also could have been utilised
> to delay or prevent icing up, but these units don't.

My elderly ebac Homedry has a small circuit board with a 555 timer.
Once an hour it activates a valve that sends warm refridgerant backwards
through the cooling coils, whereupon the ice crackles, and drops
off into the water tray beneath. After 5 minutes the valve closes and
the cooling coils go cold again. Both the 1 hour and 5 minute timers
must be set by rotary pots on the circuit board but I haven't tried
fiddling with them.

Odd that their latest models don't seem to have this quick defrost
ability.

R D S
>We d this and have the machine pointing towards the clothes blowing the
dry air at them.
>I'm wondering whether it would be better the other way around?

blowing the dry air at the clothes is the fastest way to dry them. The fan has more effect than the dehumidifier, in most cases you can just use a fan.

Andrew
>The ebac Powerdry that I bought recently clogs up its fins with
>frost after about 15 minutes. This blocks the air throughput but
>it chugs on until an hour has elapsed and then the compressor
>switches off for 10 minutes and the frost+ice melts and dribbles
>into the container.

There do seem to be a lot of questionably designed control cycles out there. It seems someone somewhere doesn't give a whatsit how well they work.

>The most it seems to collect over 24 hours is about 750ml yet
>it claims to extract over 15 litres a day. This might be true
>in a hot humid location but not during typical winter weather
>in the UK.

true of all dehumidifiers really. 20C 60% air holds a lot less water than 30C 100%, and the machine can only remove some of it.

Andrew
> Or even a fan heater plus the dehumidier effectively giving
> you a heat-pump/condenser dryer. :-)

sure, but a waste of energy

On 1/1/2023 11:24 AM, Chris Hogg wrote:
> Forcibly circulating dry air through the rack of wet clothes must
> surely be the best way of drying them. Allowing room-dampness air to
> diffuse slowly through the rack is bound to be slower.

depends what you consider best. If best is zero work, zero energy consumption, zero costs then just hang them up in the wardrobe, job done (if your house is dry).

Andrew Gabriel:
>I bought 3 ebac-lookalikes about 20 years ago. They all suffered from
>icing up the evaporator when running below around 14C. There was a
>temperature probe on the evaporators connected back to the control
>boards, and a defrost indicator light, but it never worked on any of >them.

It's working by letting you know it needs deicing :)

>If the unit had a variable speed fan, that also could have been utilised
>to delay or prevent icing up, but these units don't.

I think the future is variable speed fan & compressor. The machine can then run at the most energy efficient all the time. And die in 1.1 years.

Andrew

>My elderly ebac Homedry has a small circuit board with a 555 timer.
>Once an hour it activates a valve that sends warm refridgerant backwards
>through the cooling coils, whereupon the ice crackles, and drops
>off into the water tray beneath. After 5 minutes the valve closes and
>the cooling coils go cold again. Both the 1 hour and 5 minute timers
>must be set by rotary pots on the circuit board but I haven't tried
>fiddling with them.
>
>Odd that their latest models don't seem to have this quick defrost
>ability.

it's cheaper & more energy efficient to turn the compressor off.

On Sun, 1 Jan 2023 14:28:47 +0000
Andrew <Andrew97d-junk@mybtinternet.com> wrote:

> Or even a fan heater plus the dehumidier effectively giving
> you a heat-pump/condenser dryer. :-)
All the electrical energy you put into the dehumidifier ends up
heating the room, you don't really need to add any more.