Do Dehumidifiers Contain Freon or Refrigerant?

Before I answer your question let’s take a quick look at what benefits dehumidifiers can offer you. Adding a dehumidifier to your home can solve a lot of problems. Most folks end up using a dehumidifier to resolve a damp smelling basement. You could also see them used in rooms where humidity can collect such as a hall bathroom or a laundry room.

While they can remove humidity and water from a room, or your whole house, they also have another purpose. If you, or someone in your family, suffers from allergies then a dehumidifier may be the right solution for you. A home with high humidity can lead to all sorts of problems such as dust mites, mildew, fungus, and even mold to begin growing. In some extreme cases of high humidity mold begins to grow on the floor walls, curtains, and even on your clothes or bedspread.

Adding a dehumidifier can get your humidity levels back to the optimal level of between thirty to fifty percent. This will remove the environment for these allergens to grow and prosper. But, how does a dehumidifier work? Does it actually contain Freon?

Freon

There are a few different types of dehumidifiers out there, but by far the most common are the ones that contain Freon. So, yes, to answer your question dehumidifiers do contain Freon. But, what is Freon? Well folks the term Freon is actually a brand name of refrigerant. Think of it like how Coca-Cola is a brand name of soda. Many people call all soda under the brand name Coke. The same thing applies with Freon and refrigerant.

In fact the actual brand name of Freon isn’t used very much anymore in today’s world. Most of the Freon branded product from DuPont/Chemours has been phased out due to their Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP). Some Freon refrigerants are your R-12, R-22, and R-502. R-22 is the last to be phased out and will see total phase out by January 1st, 2020.

Now you may be wondering why your dehumidifier uses Freon/refrigerant. Well, that is because your dehumidifier is actually just a small air conditioner. Yes, that’s right. It works almost exactly the same as your central air conditioner. Have you ever noticed the hose from your central air conditioner that leads down to a drain in your basement? This hose drains the water when your air conditioner removes humidity from your home.

With dehumidifiers the same air conditioning cycle with refrigerant is performed. The only difference is that at the end of the cycle where the cold air is normally blown back into your home the air is instead warmed back up to room temperature by an additional heating element. So, you get the humidity removed from your home and then the air warmed back up so as not to cool your home.

The back and forth changing states of the refrigerant in your dehumidifier is what absorbs the humidity and converts it to water.

Conclusion

In conclusion, your dehumidifier does not contain Freon…but instead contains a different type of refrigerant. Most likely it contains an HFC refrigerant. In the models that I have looked at recently they all seem to contain the HFC refrigerant known as R-410A. (This is also known as Puron refrigerant.) This refrigerant is very common nowadays and can be found in most of your newer central air conditioners.