Dear Bullamanka-Pinheads,

          My two cousins and I have an old house we inherited from
          our grandmother.
          My cousin Estelle is living there for the time being.

          We would like to make the basement more use-able.
          It is a dry basement with no seepage or flooding.
          But it "feels" humid.

          For years, our grandmother kept a dehumidifier running
          in the basement.
          It seems to be mostly worn out.
          Half the coils would frost up in use, while the other
          half would stay dry.

          Estelle's habit was to run it for a few hours, then turn
          it off for a few hours to let the frost melt into the bucket.
          Then she would empty the bucket and turn it on again.

          I was afraid that the humidity was creeping up during
          the times the dehumidifier was off.

          So I bought a hygrometer and put it in the basement.
          A hygrometer measures relative humidity.
          To my surprise, the humidity stayed around 60% to 62%
          whether the dehumidifer was on or off.

          I thought that meant the old dehumidifier wasn't doing
          much.

          And 60% humidity means mold and mildew grow rapidly.
          Obviously that is much too humid to use the space,
          even for storage.
          I can smell the mildew around the laundry tub.

          So, we bought a new unit, a Whirlpool 50 pint rated
          dehumidifier.

          (I don't understand why a 50 pint dehumidifier would
          have only a 24 pint bucket.)

          It was $212.49 including tax, so we (me, Linda, Estelle)
          each paid $70.83.

          We turned on the new dehumidifier and left it running
          continuously at full power, which is what the manual
          suggests you start with.

          I stopped by the house regularly to see the hygrometer.
          I thought I'd see a big drop in humidity.

          But the reading only went down to 58% and stayed there.
          That's after 36 hours of running the new unit nonstop.

          WHAT IS GOING ON???
          This is supposed to be one of the most powerful units
          on the market.
          It is top rated in "Consumer Reports".

          The basement windows are all closed.
          They haven't been opened in years, maybe ever.

          My cousin Linda says that if we can't get the humidity
          down to 30%, we might as well give up.

          I thought we should run both the new and old dehumidifiers
          at the same time, but there aren't enough electric outlets
          in the basement.

          The weather here has been 85 degrees F. during the day,
          with 40 percent humidity.

          The basement has been about 72 degrees F., with 58 percent
          humidity -- with the new dehumidifier RUNNING CONSTANTLY.

          What should we do?  We are at our wits' end!

                                       Very truly yours,

                                       Philip McPherson
                                       Toledo, Ohio