AMBERdry dehumidifiers

[enterprise]

Just bought a dehumidifier & thought it may be of interest to others considering the same.

It is reported as being new to the market & the spec sounds great for our particular use (assuming you have 240v of course).

There is no compressor like normal dehumidifiers therefore it is light, only 7kg & quiet min 29dba max 45dba.
It works especially well in low temperatures down to 1*c,
extracting upto 5.3l in 24hrs.

Moisture is extracted by air transfer through a silicagel disc, moist air in, warm dry air out.
The air that it discharges is both warm & dry & is reported to raise the air temperature to around 12* above the outside ambient temperature which keeps the dehumidifier in its optimum operating temperature while keeping the boat nice & warm.

It can be set to run automaticaly to either 40,50 or 60% relative humidity or manualy to high, medium or low.

It can like all dehumidifiers be set to drain direct & not to the inbuilt reservior.

For anyone who is considering some kind of heat/dehumidification the benefits of both from the same unit should show in lower running costs.

Now you would think that this would come at a price, well it did, £200 at B&Q but they have just reduced it by 50% to £100, YES £100, just slightly more than there cheapest compressor model. BARGAIN.

There product code for anyone interested is 5420020000227.
Good hunting if you want one they are being sold like hot cakes. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[snowleopard]

please explain more- how does it get the water back out of the silica gel?

 

[enterprise]

I'm not technical but from the diagram shown in the literature the silicagel disc rotates infront of some kind of heating element.
I assume the traped moisture must be thrown from the disc as it rotates.
Just a guess but it works a treat!

 

[Anonymous]

I would be interested in a 'better" dehumidifier - we run two compressor dehumidifiers round the clock (we live aboard). I have googled but can't find anything other than vendors' sites. Just a couple of points:- All dehumidifiers raise the temperature of the room and silica gel needs to be heated to a very high temperature - around 100C or thereabouts, ISTR from my old instrument dessicant days - to dry out. There are hygroscopic materials that turn from solid to liquid but they are irreversible and you need to replace them. Do the instructions tell you that you need to buy new cartridges? If so, how much and how long do they last for?

 

[enterprise]

I will try & put into words the diagram in the literature.

Humid & cold air enters the unit via an air filter on the front of the unit, it is shown in the diagram to be attracted to a dehumidifying disc in silicagel (no mention of replacement disks required or any limited disk lifetime).
The air enters a humid & cold air chamber where the disk of silica gel is shown to rotate, the then warm & humid air passes through a heat exchanger which is where separation of water/air looks to occur leaving only the heated dry air expelled & water draining to either a reservior or via a hose discharge.

At 5*c - 80% relative humidity it is reported to extract 5.29L/24hrs as apposed to 1.8L/24hrs for a 300w compressor driven model in the same environment.
The compressor models only achieve simillar extraction rates @ 15*c -60% relative humidity.

We will be using it while in storage so heating will be only what the unit generates, no other heating needs to be provided to keep the extraction rate at around 5L/24hrs

 

[Anonymous]

It doesn't make a lot of sense to me - what is the stated power consumption in Watts? If you have cold humid air in, and it is heated, you get warmer drier air (speaking in RH terms). So in that sense an electric fan heater is a 'dehumidifier' - but then fan heaters don't extract water! I'm at a loss - there are plenty of technical people around here, maybe someone else has an explanation. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[enterprise]

Sorry but Iv'e tried to explained the workings best I can from the diagram.
Not being technicaly minded I cannot describe the process by which it extracts water, all that I can say is that it works extremely well & provides heat as a bonus.
with no replacement cartridges/parts & only marginaly more expensive than a cheap compressor type unit I am most impressed with the results.

So the fact remains, if you are in the market for a light, powerfull dehumidifier which has the added bonus of warming a cold cabin whilst extracting the excess moisture even at 1*c then it is worth bringing to the attention of anyone contemplating buying either type.

Electricity consumption is quoted as being 0.435KW.

 

[Anonymous]

I think I've figured it out - if the disc rotates slowly so that room air is being drawn through half the disc at a time and for the other half, the disc is being heated to quite a high temperature, then hot, moist air would leave the disc during the heating period and the moisture could be made to condense on a plate or coil cooled by the room air. This could be a continuous process.

Very clever and simple. It's a wonder nobody thought of it before if the numbers work out as well as you report. The chief use is in cold damp environments like the UK in winter where it is actually a better solution than a compressor system that often ices up. I don't think that it would be of much use in very hot damp conditions such at those experienced in the Med, much of the USA, ME, India, etc., etc., so the market will be limited.

 

[Gordonmc]

Was the B&Q offer limited? Have tried several local branches quoting the stock number but their shelf price is the same as the on-line, ie. £199-ish.
Would certainly use 100 of my drinking vouchers to give one a try.

 

[enterprise]

I picked one up at B&Q warehouse, Halesowen, West Midlands.
At the time I didn't know that it was on offer, I looked high & low for one around the store but had to resort to the service desk staff who said that there were 8 in stock, only after we found one tucked away in storage that we found the ticket price cut by 50%.
Now I wouldn't think that this was reduced just at this particular store, it wasn't damaged & the box was unopened, try your local warehouse but turn up in person & get them to price match there Halesowen Branch.

Hope this helps.

 

[Anonymous]

Comparison:

In case anyone has difficulty working out the cost of electricity, at 0.435kW, each full 24 hour the device will use 10.44 kWh (assuming it is running 24/24). At my marina we pay the cost to them of electricity which, they say, is 4.5p per unit, which I believe might be far cheaper than many marinas. So for us, 10.44 kWh would cost 47p per day or £14 per month.

Our compressor dehumidifiers are on an average of 50% of the time (there is a humidistat) and they draw around 250W so they take, over 24 hours, 3kWhr, or 13.5p per day or £4.05 per month. The larger dehumidifiers like ours can be bought for well under £100 - I paid £60 ish for one, and £80 sh for the other, a few years ago, always on special offer, of course!

 

[jonjo]

If the new design is efficient would it need to run continuously?

For the non live aboard I have two concerns about the new design:

A 300 to 400 watt heating element within an newly designed piece of equipment could be a fire risk.

The heat output cannot be timed for night time only so the daily temperature range within the boat will be larger.

 

[Anonymous]

>>If the new design is efficient would it need to run continuously?<<

That would depend on the local weather, how many air changes per hour of ventilation the boat experiences, and how much moisture the occupants produce (cooking, washing, etc.).

>>For the non live aboard I have two concerns about the new design:<<

Your points are equally vaild for the liveaboard - we do go away for days at a time and leaving the dehumidifier running is the norm.

>>A 300 to 400 watt heating element within an newly designed piece of equipment could be a fire risk.<<

I agree, you would want to see the construction. Similarly, I never leave a fan heater running when we are not on board, although I am happy to leave electric convectors and oil-filled rads on while we are away. I have googled on silica gel and the following supplier has an interesting faq sheet that mentions 100C to 120C
for regeneration and also states...
[ QUOTE ]
Can silica gel be used anywhere ?

Theoretically yes, but it is really only effective in an enclosed environment. In a situation where new air (and moisture) is constantly being introduced, an unpractical amount of silica gel will likely be needed to keep the Relative Humidity at low levels

[/ QUOTE ]See http://www.geejaychemicals.co.uk/faq.htm

>>The heat output cannot be timed for night time only so the daily temperature range within the boat will be larger<<

You could always fit a timeclock and/or a simple thermostatic switch. We haven't been told what controls are fitted to the unit as standard.

 

[enterprise]

Not sure about some of your points but have now tested thouroughly at home before it goes anywhere near the boat.

I have found that if set to 40,50 or 60% humidity it will automaticaly switch between high, med & low to achieve your preference.
Once achieved the unit remains on low untill it sences that the humidity has risen above your preference.

In operation the unit itself doesn't get hot to the touch, burried within, the heating part must be shielded/enclosed. The temperature of which we can only speculate but the air that is expelled is no where near that of a fan heater & as said it only raises the temperature of the treated air by upto 12*.

The temperature of the expelled air cannot be regulated or turned off & on, it is just a byproduct of the dehumidifying process, so yes, when warm outside it will be warmer inside.

The unit has a humidistat built in but no timer, it runs continuously but only on low if there are few air changes.
At the low setting it consumes 370w of electricity.

Not sure how this compares with the compressor types.

If a normal compressor dehumidifier freezes a coil to attract moisture then doesn't it cool the room at the same time assuming there is no other source of heat?
I have heard of hot gas defrost where there must be some form of inbuilt heat to defrost the coils, is this true?

If there has to be another source of heat for a compressor dehumidifier to work efficiently then the power to run this would need to be considered alongside the dehumidifiers consumption.

I will test on the boat for the next few weeks & report what happens.

 

[Anonymous]

[ QUOTE ]
In operation the unit itself doesn't get hot to the touch, burried within, the heating part must be shielded/enclosed. The temperature of which we can only speculate but the air that is expelled is no where near that of a fan heater & as said it only raises the temperature of the treated air by upto 12*.

[/ QUOTE ]My main dehumidifier (compressor) raises the temperature (i.e. inlet vs outlet) by 7C.[ QUOTE ]
The temperature of the expelled air cannot be regulated or turned off & on, it is just a byproduct of the dehumidifying process, so yes, when warm outside it will be warmer inside.

[/ QUOTE ]The same is true of all dehumidifiers; the units push out heat equal to the amount of electricity they consume plus the latent heat required to condense whatever mass of water that has collected.This is the same latent heat that it would take to boil dry the same amount of water in a kettle.[ QUOTE ]
Not sure how this compares with the compressor types.

[/ QUOTE ]My dehumidifiers take about 250W with a duty factor of around 80% in the winter (UK) while we are living aboard (i.e. 20C to 23C).[ QUOTE ]
If a normal compressor dehumidifier freezes a coil to attract moisture then doesn't it cool the room at the same time assuming there is no other source of heat?

[/ QUOTE ]No, the evaporator (cold plate) is just in front of the condenser (hot plate) so the net effect is to warm the air by the power consumed by the compressor plus the latent heat required to condense the water.[ QUOTE ]
I have heard of hot gas defrost where there must be some form of inbuilt heat to defrost the coils, is this true?

[/ QUOTE ]Yes, to defrost the evaporator you either leave it for a long time with no heating, or you heat it with an electrical element or heat the refrigerant. This process is fairly brief and the energy and temperature consequences are second-order.[ QUOTE ]
I will test on the boat for the next few weeks & report what happens.

[/ QUOTE ]In your tests at home, how much condensate have you collected over a reasonable time? We collect around 5 litres per day from our main compressor dehumidifier, at this time of the year.

David

 

[enterprise]

Thanks David,
I can understand the process of the compressor dehumidifier from your post & to answer your question the absorption model extracted around 4litres of water on average every 24hrs for 3 days.
This of course was at home where doors/windows were opened regularly so the air change was probably greater than onboard a stored boat.

My main interest with this product was it's ability to remove moisture at lower temperatures.
I will be leaving the discharge hose in the galley sink so will be unable to measure the amount of water extracted by the dehumidifier.
Having not used one before I will be unable to say if it's any better or worse than an equivalent compressor type but if it works for me I will undoubtably keep it.

Thanks for the informed opinions, will update in a few weeks.

 

[Anonymous]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the informed opinions, will update in a few weeks.

[/ QUOTE ]Please do, I will be very interested to hear how it has worked. I have a small concern about the longevity of the silica gel under these conditions; I wonder whether it might lose its crystalline structure - i.e. become amorphous - and no longer perform as well. If this is a risk then I imagine that they would specifically exclude the silica gel from the warranty - or to put it the other way round, if they don't exclude it from the warranty it is probably not a problem. David

 

[sparkymonster]

If it helps anyone struggling to find a supply of the machine I've seen them available at http://www.dry-it-out.com/amberdry.htm for the same price as B&Q with free next day delivery and they seem to have them in stock .

 

[enterprise]

Thanks for finding this,
The unit shown as the Ruby-Dry in the dehumidification tab is the exact model bought at B&Q for £100.
At the time, I bought one because of the features it offered.
Looks like I had a bargain, hope some of you also found them for the same at your local stores.
The articles that acompany thier literature seem to highlight what I tried to explain in my last postings, guess I should have found this site before.

I will be visiting the boat this weekend & will update on my return.