A Desiccant Dehumidifier To Repair Water Damage

When your home has been subject to significant water damage and you have a pressing need to dry it out quickly, one of the tools that will come in extremely useful is a desiccant dehumidifier. These dehumidifiers can be rather expensive to buy so the most usual course of action to take is to find a hire company to get one for some short term use. Alternatively you can find a water restoration company that uses a desiccant dehumidifier as part of their water cleanup.

A desiccant dehumidifier works by using a desiccant material to produce a dehumidifying effect. In other words the desiccant attracts high humidity air into the device and away from the room accelerating the drying process as a result. The moisture is retained in the dehumidifier and in the meantime a second level of air is created that is used to dry the desiccant material so that it can continue to work. This type of system is a cyclical dehumidifier with the desiccant moving around the machine, drying out as it completes a revolution.

The means of regenerating the desiccant allows the dehumidifier to operate continuously for long periods of time needing only to be paused to remove the trapped water when the well becomes full. Other dehumidifiers can be connected to a hose that deposits the water outside of the room that is being dried. Those dehumidifiers that operate with a well system can take from between 8-12 hours to fill before they need to be replaced.

To give you an idea of what is meant by a desiccative material, think of those sachets of silica gel that come with many products to ensure they are kept dry. The desiccative material used in your average dehumidifier is much the same.

A desiccative dehumidifier operates by means of important components that work together as a cohesive unit. The first is the desiccant holder, the next is some type of fan that will direct the air to be treated into the unit, a heater is then used to dry the used desiccant and finally a fan that drives the desiccant through the holder.

These desiccative dehumidifier units are important when removing moisture from a water damaged wood floor because they are extremely effective in removing air from the room quickly. Whether it’s a wooden floor that has to be dried out or soft furnishings, the dehumidifier will dry the moisture out in no time.

Although they can be integrated into an existing air conditioning system, there are smaller models that can be easily moved from room to room as required. Not all dehumidifiers run on electricity either. In some cases they are needed in disaster or flood areas where there is no power and for these situations you can use a gas powered dehumidifier.

For regions of very high humidity, a desiccant dehumidifier can be an extremely valuable asset to have in order to remain comfortable during the most humid of days. It is quite common that hardwood floors will have suffered from the high humidity and have buckled a little because they have absorbed some of the moisture. In this case you would need to operate one not only for your own comfort but also for your floors too.

As a means of solving water damage within the home and to reduce the risk of having mold taking root on the walls and ceiling, a desiccant dehumidifier is a great option. It is certainly worth looking into getting a unit of your own, particularly if you have found re-occurring mold and mildew problems.

More reading about dehumidifiers

A Whole House Dehumidifier