Ivation 30, 50, & 70 Pint Energy Star Dehumidifier
Pros
- Product Comes in Three Different Sizes: 30 Pint, 50 Pint, & 70 Pint
- The Largest Sized Product Can Dehumidify Rooms up to Two-Thousand Square Feet
- These Dehumidifiers Are Energy Star Certified With the EPA, Saving You Money Each Month
- Ideal Dehumidifier for Basements or Other Large Open Rooms Such as Offices
- Products Come With a One Year Manufacturer's Warranty
Cons
- The Water Tank Does Not Hold That Much Water
- Some Users Have Complained on the Operating Noise Level
- Delivery Issues - Product Should Be Shipped Upright
- Reports of Failures Out of the Box
- Mold Can Grow Inside The Dehumidifier It Not Cleaned
Back in 2009 I bought my first house. It was rather modest but it was in a nice neighborhood. My wife and I got a hell of a deal on it as it was a foreclosure and there was quite a bit of work that needed to be done. After we bought it and had moved in we started fixing things around the house. In the beginning it was smaller stuff but as we learned we were able to do some larger projects. One of the first things I noticed though was that when I was in our basement there was a damp almost musty smell. It was rather unpleasant, but there wasn’t any standing water or signs of water damage anywhere.
After some research online I understood that the humidity levels in my basement were too high. You see the best humidity range for our homes is between forty to sixty percent. If you go lower then forty percent then you will begin to notice drying or cracking of the skin. In some cases low humidity can cause your respiratory tract to dry out which will lead to infections and other sicknesses.
The inverse of all that is when your humidity is too high. In these cases if your room or basement has a humidity level above sixty percent then that damp or musty smell may be the least of your problems. You see that bad smell in your basement is one of the first warning signs. If the problem is left unchecked then you may begin to see water beading on the inside of your windows, on your walls, or even on your floors. In some cases you may see standing water in your basement or affected rooms. All of this moisture can lead to a host of other problems. If this is left untreated then your basement or home will become a perfect place for allergens to start growing. These could be dust mites, fungus, and even mold. Mold can be bad for your health if you are a perfectly healthy, but imagine what it can do to someone who has respiratory problems or who are allergic to it.
The solution to these excess humidity problems is adding a dehumidifier to your basement, room , or home. A dehumidifier will do just what it’s described. It removes the excess moisture from your room. This will get your area back to that perfect range of between forty to sixty percent. The question though is what dehumidifier should you purchase?
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of options out there. It can be daunting to look at them all. In this article we are going to take an in-depth look at the three dehumidifier models manufactured by Ivation. We’ll dive into the various sizes, the product features, the pros, and the cons. By the time we’re done you’ll know everything there is to know about this product… and maybe a bit more then you should!
Sizing
The first thing that we need to do before purchasing a dehumidifier is determining exactly what size of product that you need. Now there are two considerations when it comes to the size of your dehumidifier. The first is the overall square footage of the room. Square footage is easily measured by taking the length and width of the room and multiplying the numbers together. I’ll warn you right now though that many manufacturers, including this one, state that their dehumidifier can work in rooms up to XX square feet. While this may be true, there is another consideration that has to be reviewed before this square footage promise can come to fruition. (Personally, I always cut the manufacturer’s square footage claims by half, just to be safe.)
The other consideration is the overall dampness or wetness of the room. You see the more damp the room is the more power that you are going to need from your dehumidifier. So, let’s say you are trying to dehumidify a twelve-hundred square foot room. If the room just has a musty smell but has no signs of water, mold, or any other dampness indicators then we can call this room damp. You may get away with the smallest size, the thirty pint model.
However, if you notice water beading on the windows, walls, or even some standing water in that same room then you are going to need a larger sized dehumidifier. Luckily, these models from Ivation come in three different sizes: thirty pint, fifty pint, and seventy pint. Now, I like to tell people to get the fifty or the seventy. Yes, the thirty will work in the damp scenario we gave earlier but with the fifty unit your room will dehumidify quicker and if the room is damper then you thought then there isn’t a problem.
- IVALDH30PW – This is the thirty pint model. In other words, it can remove up to thirty pints of water within a twenty-four hour period. This is the smallest size and while it will work for a moderately damp area you will get better results if you move to the fifty pint. (If your area is a thousand square feet or under you can get away with the thirty pint without an issue.) This unit also works great for a small room or bathroom that you are looking to dehumidify.
- IVALDH50PW – This is the fifty pint model. In most cases this is going to cover your needs. Even if you have some moisture beading on your walls. This will dehumidify up to fifteen-hundred square feet as long as you don’t have actual standing water in your home. Again, this is great for your basement or large open area within your home or office.
- IVALDH70PB – This is the seventy pint model. This is the biggest size of this model range and will be more then big enough to handle a two-thousand square feet area with standing water. Most folks recommend going a size larger then what you need when it comes to dehumidifiers. Your machine won’t work as hard and will last longer.
Product Features
Alright folks now that we’ve covered the sizing requirements we can begin to get into the details and features of this dehumidifier. To start off I think it makes sense to look at what this unit can do as far as dehumidifying your home. As we mentioned above, there are three sizes. The thirty pint model will remove thirty pints of water from your home within a twenty-four hour period. The same logic can be applied to the fifty and to the seventy pint.
When you turn the machine on you will see the current humidity in the room. You are then able to adjust the humidity up or down to your desired level. Remember that somewhere between forty to sixty percent is ideal. The dehumidifier adjust by five percent increments, so if you’re at sixty and lower it once you’ll be at fifty-five. This is all displayed on the digital display on the control panel of the unit. These three products have a range between thirty to ninety percent humidity and will work in temperatures ranging from forty-one to eighty-nine degrees Fahrenheit.
Along with the basic concept of dehumidifying these products also come with a few other features. The first is what’s known as an auto-restart. If you lose power during a rain storm or other event then your dehumidifier will instantly turn back on and at the settings it was at before the power loss. This is a handy feature if you’re away from home for a period of time or even if you forget to turn the unit back on.
There are also two speeds on the fan. There is your regular mode and then a turbo mode. The faster the speed of the fan the faster moisture will be removed from your room. It may be a good idea to start your unit in the turbo mode. This will help you get to your desired humidity faster. Then, once you’ve reached your desired level you can set the speed back to normal. Along with the fan settings there is also a timer setting. The timer will allow you to program the appliance to stop or start after a certain amount of time has passed. You could set it for an hour or all the way up to it’s maximum setting of twenty-four hours. This is a great tool as it lets you set it and forget it.
All dehumidifiers come with a water tank. After all, that water you are removing from your room has to go somewhere…right? In the case of these units from Ivation the tank can hold 1.6 gallons. Once capacity is reached you will need to remove the tank and empty the water in a sink or bathtub. To make things a bit easier for you Ivation added a water level window so that you can easily monitor the water in the tank and empty it once it fills up. Continuing with the water tank, there is an auto shut-off on these dehumidifiers if the water tank becomes full. This will prevent water from overflowing from your tank and spilling out onto your floor. When the auto shut-off occurs there will be an indicator on the control panel informing you that the tank needs emptied.
Emptying the water tank is relatively easy. The tank slides out from the bottom and has a handle attached to it for easy back and forth carrying. However, if you are not a fan of having to empty the tank every time it fills up then there is an alternative option available. These dehumidifiers come with an opening for continuous drainage. This means that you can connect a hose and route that house to a nearby floor drain. Now all the water that would go in your tank goes down the hose and into the drain. It should be noted that this drain is gravity fed. In other words, the drain you are feeding the water into will HAVE to be lower then the dehumidifier itself. It will not work correctly if you try to route the hose to a sink that is above the dehumidifier.
For those of you that do not know, a dehumidifier is basically just a mini air conditioner. You see dehumidifiers operate the same way that an air conditioner does. They use refrigerant and they go through cycles of liquid and gas. In the case of these products from Ivation they all use the popular HFC refrigerant known as R-410A. This is the same type of refrigerant that you will find on newer home split systems. The only difference between a dehumidifier and an air conditioner is that with the dehumidifiers there is an extra feature. This extra feature is a heater that warms the air backup to room temperature.
Just like with air conditioners there is a risk of your dehumidifier’s evaporator coils accumulating frost and ice. If this happens then your unit will freeze up and it will no longer be able to operate. The good news is that these products from Ivation have an auto-defrost feature. This defrost feature recognizes when ice has begun to build up and then resolves the problem. If ice is found the unit will shut-off except for the heater and the fan. The warmth of the heater and the fan will melt the ice on your evaporator. Once the ice has been melted the dehumidifier will start up again just like new.
The filter on these dehumidifiers is quite easy to remove and maintain. First make sure the unit is shut-off and not plugged in. Then all you need to do is remove the water tank and then, above the water tank, you will see the filter. Slide it out easily. Once you have it in your hands it can be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner or with water. If you decide to use water please ensure that the filter is dry before reinserting it into your dehumidifier.
Ok folks, last couple points before we move onto the Pros section. The first is that all three of these models comes with a standard one-hundred and ten volt plug-in. The cord reaches up to six feet so it gives you a bit of leeway to position the unit. Lastly, moving these products is fairly easy as well as they come with handles and wheels. The largest sized unit, the seventy pint, only comes in at around forty pounds. So, this shouldn’t be too difficult to move around your home.
Pros
I have a bad habit of doing this folks. I go through and write everything that I absolutely can for the Product Features section. You see, I want to be thorough. I want to ensure you understand everything that you’re getting into. Because of this I kind of shoot myself in the foot when it comes to the Pros section. A lot of the features that we mentioned earlier can also be considered Pros. Take for the example the auto-defrost or the auto-restart during a power failure. Both are Pros to look at when you consider buying. That being said, there are a few other Pros that I haven’t mentioned yet. Let’s take a quick look.
All three of these products are Energy Star certified with the Environmental Protection Agency. What that means is that you will save money versus other competing dehumidifiers. The Energy Star program is designed to evaluate various appliances and determine if they meet the EPA’s efficiency standards. An Energy Star appliances is on average about fifteen percent more efficient then a competing machine. So you will save on your power bill each month if you purchase this unit over a dehumidifier that is not Energy Start certified.
Along with the Energy Star rating you also get a one year full warranty from the Ivation manufacturer. Having a warranty is always good and protects you from any defects right out of the box. I will say that a one year warranty is pretty standard and is mostly what you will find on competing models as well. Ivation’s customer service can be contacted by phone at 1-866-849-3049 or through e-mail at info@myivation.com.
Cons
Every product, no matter who makes it, will have drawbacks. That’s just how it is. That being said, it was difficult to find specific cons on these products. Instead, nearly all of the complaints that I read through 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 Frigidaire offered a complete replacement product. It’s good to know you’ll be protected here.
Cleaning
One of the main objectives of a dehumidifier is to lessen the possibility of mold growing within your home. But, what happens if the very thing that is supposed to be preventing the mold starts to grow mold itself? Well, this problem has happened to a lot of folks. Some may argue that this is a manufacturing defect and others would say that the consumers who had this problem didn’t take care of their dehumidifier in the first place.
A dehumidifier needs to be cleaned regularly. That means checking and cleaning the filter. Again, I couldn’t find this information to be one-hundred percent sure, but most of these dehumidifier filters come with what’s known as an anti-bacterial mesh. This mesh aims at preventing bacteria. If you attempt to clean the filter with water then you risk washing away this protective coating. Instead you should either try to shake it out or use a low powered vacuum with a hose attachment. This will clean the filter and still protect your coating. It’s not just the filter though that needs to be cleaned. Ensure that the machine itself is as clean as can be and if you began to suspect mold growing within it then take it apart and try to identify the culprit area. When dealing with water day in and day out there is always a chance that some could spill and get isolated within the machine only to stay there and become stagnant. This is a prime candidate for mold growth. This is why you need to stay vigilant and ensure the unit is as clean as it can be.
Conclusion
I think we have practically covered everything there is on these dehumidifier models from Ivation. We have gone over all of the features, pros, and cons. If you are thirsty for more information though you can view each of these model’s instruction booklets as well as their specification sheet in our next section titled, ‘Important Links.’
If you are thinking about buying this unit I can assure you that it is a good product. But, if you are unsure we can also take a look at our Amazon partner. These products have over two-hundred reviews on Amazon and all have an average rating of four and a half stars out of five. That is a ninety percent approval rating, or an A grade if you are in college. If you’d like to purchase this product via the below links. Please note these are affiliate links and we will make a small commission if you purchase through our site.
- Check out the thirty pint model on Amazon
- Check out the fifty pint model on Amazon
- Check out the seventy pint model on Amazon
However, 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.
User Manuals and Documentation
If you want to read more documentation on these dehumidifiers, then please do so via the links below.