Colzer PD582A 140 Pint Dehumidifier
Pros
- This Unit from Colzer Can Work on Rooms up to Six-Thousand Square Feet
- Product Comes With an Unheard of Two Year Warranty
- Product Comes With a Sixty Day Money Back Guarantee From Colzer
- These Dehumidifiers Are Light Weight and Easy to Transport
Cons
- Put Simply, the Price. This is a Very Expensive Dehumidifier
- You May be Better off Purchasing a Smaller Seventy Pint Unit Instead
- Delivery Issues - Product Should Be Shipped Upright
- Reports of Failures Out of the Box
- Mold Can Grow Inside The Dehumidifier It Not Cleaned
The humidity levels in your home are not something that a lot of folks think about often. But, if a humidity problem is left unchecked then a whole host of issues can pop-up. The ideal humidity temperature for us and our families is between forty to sixty percent. If you end up going lower then forty percent humidity then your skin can become dry and cracked. In extreme cases of low humidity your respiratory tract can begin to dry out. This can lead to coughing and can also make you susceptible to more sicknesses such as viral infections like the flu.
On the other side of the coin, if your humidity levels are too high then a whole new list of problems can occur. When humidity levels climb above sixty percent that means that you have excess moisture in your home, basement, or other building. Areas with too much moisture can be prime breeding grounds for a host of allergens such as dust mites, fungus, and even mold. If left unchecked these allergens can begin to take root and spread throughout your home. In mild cases this can lead to typical allergy symptoms such as itchy eyes, congestion, or runny nose. In more extreme cases this can lead to breathing problems for you or those within your home. If you have an asthma sufferer who lives with you then this problem is compounded.
So, how do you know if you room has excess moisture? Well folks there are a couple of signs to look for. The first is a damp or musty smell that you notice while in the room. The best example I know of for this is if you walk into your basement and notice that damp smell hit you. This is a sign of high humidity levels. The good news though is that if it is just the smell that you encounter then the problem is not too bad… yet. Check the windows of the room that you are in. Do you see water droplets forming on the inside of the windows? This is another indicator and this can also signify that your problem is more extreme. In the worst cases, when you look around the room do you see puddles of standing water?
This stagnant standing water can not only mess up the carpet and furniture in your room but it is also a breeding spot for allergens. It has to be taken care of right away before they can get a foothold. This is where a dehumidifier comes in handy. Dehumidifiers do just that, they remove the excess moisture from your room and get you to the targeted humidity level you input. In this article we are going to take an in-depth look at the one-hundred and forty pint dehumidifier PD582A from Colzer. We will look at the various features, the pros, and the cons. Hopefully, by the end of this article you have a pretty firm grasp if this is the right product for you.
Sizing
Now before we get into the details of this product I want to spend some time on the sizing requirements for dehumidifiers. If you feel you already know what size you need then feel free to skip this section. This particular dehumidifier from Colzer comes in the one-hundred and forty pint size. That means it can remove up to one-hundred and forty pints of water from the room it is in over a twenty-four hour period. This size is one of the LARGEST dehumidifiers out there today. It is rated to work in rooms up to six-thousand square feet. Think about that size for a moment folks. Six-thousand square feet is more then twice the size of the average house.
In my opinion a lot of folks are not going to need a dehumidifier this large. If it was me and I was looking for a product for my home I would go with either the seventy or the thirty pint models from Colzer. Colzer is a great brand and you still get the same quality you would with this one-hundred and forty pint model. We also did a review on the thirty and seventy pint model.
All that being said, there is a consideration that will have to be factored before you buy. How damp or wet is the room you are looking to treat? The answer to this question will help you in deciding what size unit you need. Let’s say for example you have a thirty-three hundred square foot commercial space you are trying to dehumidify. If this area is just a little damp and there is no standing water then you can probably get away with purchasing the seventy pint model. However, if this same room has areas of standing water and can be rated as ‘very wet’ then you may in fact need this one-hundred and forty pint model.
While the seventy pint model is rated up to four-thousand square feet you have to realize that square footage maximum is made with the assumption that you are using it in a damp room and not a wet room. So, while the seventy pint may be rated for four-thousand square feet that is only in best case scenarios. If you have a very wet room then you will need a more powerful unit to resolve the excess humidity.
The last thing I want to mention before I get into the product features section is that running a dehumidifier in affected area is not a miracle worker. If you have excess humidity and water in the area then a dehumidify will remove it… but it will not prevent it. Look at it this way, let’s say you have water pooling in your basement. That water is coming in from a crack at the top of your foundation. Running a dehumidifier will remove the water but it will not fix the source of the problem. The crack is still there and more water will come in. Just be cognizant of that when you purchase… the dehumidifier treats the symptoms, it is not the cure.
Product Features
Ok folks so now we are into the meat and potatoes of this product. In this section we’ll look at every feature there is and then move onto our pros and cons section. The first and most important feature I want to touch on is the humidity settings and controls. You can set your desired humidity level on this machine easily by navigating to the ‘humidity control’ button. From here you can adjust to your desired humidity level by five percent increments. This machine from Colzer has a humidity range between thirty to eighty percent. This product can operate in temperatures ranging from forty-one degrees to ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit. (That’s five to thirty-five degrees Celsius for those of you across the pond.) The current humidity and temperature are digitally displayed on this product’s control panel as well.
Some of the other more miscellaneous features are that this product comes with are two fan speeds. When you first start your unit be sure to turn the fan to the highest setting. This will lower the humidity in your room the fastest. Once your humidity has been lowered you will then be able to lower the fan speed and maintain the current humidity setting. Another option is known as the ‘timer.’ This allows you to program the dehumidifier to turn off or to turn on after a set amount of time has passed. This can be handy when you only want to run the unit at night while you are sleeping or during the day while you are at work. The timer can be adjusted in one hour increments all the way up to twenty-four hours.
In case there is a power loss at your home or office this product comes with an auto-restart feature. So, when your power comes back on your dehumidifier will turn right back on to the same settings it had before the power was cut. That is one less thing you have to reset once your power comes back on. I always hate changing the clocks back…
These next two features are interesting and are not commonly found on other dehumidifiers. The first is the child lock function. If you set this, by holding the button for three seconds, then no other functions can be selected or modified on the machine. This gives you that extra security that if your child does come across the machine they will not change the settings you have chosen. Although, I still wouldn’t let your children near the machine as it will be either full of water or draining water and if they tip it over a mess can occur.
The next unique feature is known as ‘Dry Clothes’ mode. Yes, you can actually dry your clothes with this dehumidifier. All you need to do is hang up the washed clothes in a small room such as a laundry room or bathroom. Bring the dehumidifier in and set it to a humidity value of thirty percent and change the mode to ‘Dry Clothes.’ Leave the dehumidifier running and then in about six to eight hours your clothes will be dry! I’m not sure how often this will be used here in the United States… this seems more like a European function, but to each their own I guess.
For those of you that do not know, a dehumidifier is actually just a small air conditioner. They work exactly the same as an air conditioner, the only real difference you will notice is that the dehumidifiers come with a built in heater at the end of this process. This heater warms the air that is pushed back into your room. Have you ever noticed that with your central air conditioner there is a hose coming out of it leading to the drain? That is there to drain the water that accumulates from your air conditioning removing humidity. They are very similar machines.
Just like air conditioners, dehumidifiers have a chance of freezing over. Basically, during normal operating process the evaporator coils can begin to accumulate frost or ice. If left unchecked this ice can grow and eventually stop the evaporator from working. The good news is that in the case of this unit from Colzer it comes with an auto-defrost feature. This function will recognize when ice begins to build on the coils and shut down the refrigerant process. It will instead only run the blower and the heater. This will eventually melt the ice and prevent a system freeze up. Once the ice has melted the dehumidifier will start back up normal operating procedures. Also, just for your reference, this dehumidifier uses the common HFC R-410A refrigerant. This is the same refrigerant that is found in modern day central air conditioning systems.
Remember folks, this is a very large dehumidifier and with a large product like this one you will need a large water tank. This PD582A model comes with a seventeen pint water tank. That is the equivalent of eight liters or just over two gallons of water that it can hold at one time. I don’t know if I would let it get that full though as that may be difficult to pull out, carry, and empty into a sink. Two gallons can get heavy! The good news is that if you do forget to empty this water tank that the dehumidifier will shut itself off if the tank is full. This will prevent an overflow of water onto your floor.
If you don’t like having to empty the tank again and again then there is another option you can look into. This is known as the continuous drainage option. If you purchase this unit you will also receive a six and a half foot drain hose attachment. This can be screwed into the water tank. This will then drain the water into a nearby drain or sink. It should be noted though that this is a gravity fed hose… so you can not drain the dehumidifier to a sink that is above it. The drain will have to be lower then the dehumidifier.
The last few features I want to mention is that this unit comes with rollers, or wheels, on the bottom of it to make for easy transport. But, if you have to take the product up and down stairs you won’t have to worry too much as the entire thing only weighs about fifty pounds. Just be sure to empty the tank before moving as a full tank will add a lot of weight when carrying it around.
Pros
The big selling point on this PD582A from Colzer is the overall size and the capacity it can handle. As I mentioned earlier, this dehumidifier can work on rooms or spaces of up to six-thousand square feet. Think about that for a second… that is a ton of square footage. My entire home is only twenty-three hundred square feet. When most people purchase a dehumidifier they are typically trying to remove excess moisture from their basement or a floor within their home. In these cases they can get away with using a seventy pint or even a thirty-five pint model.
This unit from Colzer is one-hundred and forty pints… double the size of the traditional seventy pint. You are getting a ton of power if you purchase this product. I could see this PD582A unit being used in a large open office or commercial building. Or, in an area that isn’t quite as large but that is extremely wet. Remember earlier how I had discussed how the dampness/wetness of the room can determine what size of unit you need? Let’s say for example you are trying to dehumidify a three-thousand square foot basement that is extremely wet. There is significant standing water. A seventy pint unit will most likely struggle with this job while the one-hundred and forty will do just fine.
The same can be said with even larger rooms. Believe it or not, there is an even larger sized dehumidifier out there from Colzer. Yes, the Colzer CFT4.0D comes in at two-hundred and thirty-two pints and can work in rooms up to eight-thousand square feet. Both the one-hundred and forty and the two-hundred and thirty-two pint are great products, you just need to make sure that a dehumidifier this large is right for you. I’d hate for you to waste your money on buying too much appliance.
The other big selling point here is the warranty on this product. When I visited Colzer’s site on I saw that they offered a two year warranty. Yes, two years. Now I have been reviewing dehumidifiers for the past four months now and I have to say that is one of the best warranties that I have seen on the marketplace. There isn’t much out there that can match it. And, on top of their warranty, Colzer offers a sixty day money back guarantee. So, if something goes wrong during delivery or if the product fails after the first month you can get your money back. I have heard nothing but good talk about their customer service. If you need to get a hold of them you can e-mail them at service@colzer.com
Cons
Overall this is a very high quality product. You are getting a premium dehumidifier if you purchase this unit from Colzer. That being said , with a premium product comes a premium price. This dehumidifier from Colzer is by far the one of the most expensive units I have seen on the marketplace. It is easily double the price of some of the smaller models. As I stated in our sizing section earlier in this article, I would only purchase this product if you are absolutely sure that you need a unit this large. Could the job get done with a seventy pint unit instead? If so, I’d opt for that and save yourself a few hundred dollars. But, if you really do need to dehumidify an area between four to six-thousand square feet then this is your product!
The other con is the so called ‘upside down’ con. Nearly all of the complaints that I read on this dehumidifier were towards the delivery of the product. Remember before how we stated that dehumidifiers are very similar to air conditioners and refrigerators? Well, just like with refrigerators you cannot turn or ship a dehumidifier upside down.
Earlier this year I was helping my father move a refrigerator and we were very careful not to tilt it too far. The reason for this is if the refrigerator or dehumidifier is upside down or tilted too far then the oil can drain out of the compressor. Without proper lubrication your compressor will fail and the compressor is by far one of the most important components of your air conditioner, refrigerator, or dehumidifier. Many folks have reported premature failures of their dehumidifiers… but this is most likely due to them turning on the product right away after it being upside down. If the product did arrive upside down then turn it right side up and then wait for quite a while, maybe even a day. Then, start your dehumidifier up and you shouldn’t have any issues.
It also may be best practice to wait a day or two before turning on your new dehumidifier. The product may come to your home right side up, but who is to know if it was like that earlier that day. Always better to be safe then sorry. The good news here though is that if your dehumidifier does end up not working after a few weeks or months Frigidaire offers a one year warranty. Through my research I had found cases where Colzer offered a complete replacement product. It’s good to know you’ll be protected here.
Conclusion
Well folks that about covers it for the Colzer PD582A one-hundred and forty point dehumidifier. It is a solid product that will definitely get the job done… you’ve just got to keep in mind the size of this unit and determine if this you need a product this large or if you should stick with a more traditional seventy pint unit. If you do decide to go with this unit you can be assured that you’ll be getting your money’s worth. But hey, don’t just take my word on it. If we look at Amazon.com we can see that there are over thirty reviews that average a rating of four and a half out of five stars. That equates to a ninety percent approval rating. Pretty damn good if you ask me.
If you’d like to purchase this unit then please do so from the Amazon product page – we’ll get a small commission in that case. Otherwise, if you find that you need to do additional reading or need a different dehumidifier entirely please check out our dehumidifier buyer’s guide. This guide will take you through everything you would ever need to know about dehumidifiers. We go into sizing requirements, what features to look for, and many other topics.