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Q & A

What can happen if you have excess humidity in the bathroom? Mold, damage?

Having excess moisture in the bathroom can cause a lot of damage. Specifically mold damage.

When you’re having a problem with excessive moisture in the bathroom, you will eventually discover that you have mold growing.

And when it becomes visible in the shower, you can be sure that it has found a whole host of dark places to take root as well.

High unchecked humidity in the bathroom will eventually lead to mold feeding on your wood surfaces, window frames, baseboards, etc. and can lead to significant damage.

Other areas you may find mold growing:

• Ceiling tiles, wall tiles
• Carpet and rugs
• Gypsum board (drywall) and the insulation inside the walls. Drywall typically bows out when it’s full of moisture and the paper begins to peel.

Once mold has become a problem in the bathroom, the spores from the mold will be everywhere from your towels, toothbrushes, as well as your pillows and bedding if your bedroom is adjacent.

When do you need to use a bathroom dehumidifier? Winter, summer?

The summer months news typically when you find the higher levels of humidity outside and when you have the most problems controlling the humidity inside.

But humidity inside of the bathroom can be an issue in the winter also when the outside air is cold and it is coming in contact with the warm inside air via the window.

You have probably noticed condensation on your windows during the winter.

The condensation will lead to mold just as fast as any other type of moisture.

So controlling the humidity in the bathroom can be a all year endeavor

Where would you put a dehumidifier in the bathroom?

  Finding the space in a bathroom for a dehumidifier is not the easiest thing to do, especially if you, like me, live in a house with a lot of females.

The ideal spot for a dehumidifier in a bathroom would be on an elevated spot on the sink countertop.

That way you could run a small hose to the sink from the dehumidifier and not have to continuously empty it.

The same concept would work well for the shower too. An elevated spot next to the shower would give you excellent access to either emptying the dehumidifier we’re running a continuous drain hose to the shower drain.

  Desiccant dehumidifiers come in small portable units easily hung on the wall next to the shower.

Desiccant dehumidifiers do not extract nearly the amount of water as a traditional mini compressor humidifier, so using more than one in the bathroom is a good idea.

Does a bathroom dehumidifier use a lot of electricity?

The amount of electricity that a bathroom dehumidifier uses depends on the level of humidity and the runtime of the dehumidifier to extract the humidity everyday,

You can expect a small dehumidifier to use as much as 30 Watts and a larger dehumidifier to pull as much as 70 Watts.

How loud are bathroom dehumidifiers?

Bathrooms are pretty loud spots in my house, it’s not uncommon to hear the radio blasting, shower running, and hair dryer is going at the same time.

  Dehumidifiers can be compared to the level of noise you would get from a window air conditioner. Around 65 db.

Pretty loud. 

But the bathroom is not exactly in use as much as the living room or a bedroom.

What’s the difference between desiccant bathroom dehumidifiers and mini dehumidifiers?

Desiccant dehumidifiers absorb humidity much like a sponge. They also never have to be emptied or run with a continuous drain hose.

They are also much quieter.

Desiccant dehumidifiers for small spaces like bathrooms and closets, or easily mounted to the wall or hung from a hook.

You probably know “desiccants” as the little silica gel packets that come and everything from shoe boxes to keeping gerbil snacks fresh.

Desiccant dehumidifiers are the same concept in a much larger version.

Traditional compressor dehumidifiers extract moisture from the air exactly the way that a window air conditioner does. It pulls air in with a fan, drags it pass a series of condenser coils that capture the moisture and then releases the air back into the room dry.

A mini compressor dehumidifier can extract moisture from a room as big as 200 or even 300 square feet.

That’s much more then you will be able to achieve with a small desiccant dehumidifier.

But there is also maintenance to be considered with compressor dehumidifiers.

If you do not go the drainage hose method, you ‘ll have to empty the bucket for the dehumidifier to run.

And the potential of having standing water is much higher. Dehumidifiers must be cleaned often to avoid mold growing in the machine.

They can also be quite loud.

But One mini portable dehumidifier is big enough to use in the bathroom, bedroom, laundry room, and kitchen.

 Will a dehumidifier soak up water?

A dehumidifier will make it easier for water to dry and is often used to help clothes to dry faster on hangers.

But it is primarily a device to remove moisture out of the air.

Although it will help considerably to reduce the capacity for mold to grow, it will not soak up standing water, nor will it wipe down or squeegee off shower walls, or condensated windows.

Bathroom dehumidifier versus an extractor fan

Installing a dehumidifier is as simple as plugging it in and turning it on. But you will have to empty the bucket on a continual basis and keep the machine clean.

Which to be fair is a much easier endeavor when you are next to a sink or a shower.

On the other hand, a humidity extractor fan just has to have a switch flipped on. No other maintenance involved.

But installing a humidity extractor fan will take much more than plugging it in.

It will require cutting a hole in the ceiling, and hardwiring it into your existing electrical grid.