Dehumidifier not working – that’s ok, it’s normal

Why do dehumidifiers turn off and stop collecting water?  This is something that callers ask us over and over again.  I think that once someone has invested in a dehumidifier they want it to collect water on a daily basis and they are disappointed when it stops collecting water.  Before I explain why the dehumidifier not collecting water is perfectly normal lets switch to another piece of equipment that we use in the house that we have a greater understanding of – our central heating.

An explanation – with the aid of the central heating example.

When we set the thermostat to say 22°C our radiators become hot, if we were to put our hands on the radiator later and found it to be lukewarm or cool then we would not think that the radiator is faulty, we would just accept that the room temperature is up to 22°C and the radiator has been turned off by the stat.  We know that when the room temperature drops the radiators will turn on again and they will once more be hot to the touch.

Back to the dehumidifier and the same thing is happening, albeit in reverse.  You select your set point and the dehumidifier dries the air down to this point, when the relative humidity falls below this level the dehumidifier stops working.  When the relative humidity rises again the dehumidifier will turn itself on and start to collect water again.

Hopefully that makes sense and you now know why your dehumidifier sometimes stops working.

Products featured: dehumidifiers

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311 responses

  1. I have just got a brand new Meaco ABC 10L. Never had a humidifier before. I have noticed that the unit has a slight wobble that lasts about a second on start up Is this a normal thing to happen? The unit isn’t noisy at all when running, and this wobble only lasts a second, but I’m not sure if it should do that. I am not familiar with humidifiers

        1. hello, the night mode does not work if the fan speed does not decrease in the session after turning on the night mode the equipment is new 25 l

          1. Not sure that I understand the question, but Arete has two fan speeds and if it is already in low fan speed when Night Mode starts then the fan speed will not decrease because it can’t.

  2. We have a Meaco 10L small home dehumidifier approximately 3 years old. It is set to run until a relative humidity of 40% is achieved and then automatically switch off. The fan has been running continuously without switching off for at least a week. The machine is taking in air and blowing out air, however no water is collecting in the water container. One night when it was below freezing all our windows were covered in condensation, but still no water in the tank. Is there a simple solution?

    1. Arlea,

      Best way to test it is to clean the filter, and then run it in a bathroom, after a bath or a shower. Make the room nice and humid by not running the extractor fan and keeping the window closed. Then put the dehumidifier in there on the laundry droplet setting and let it run with the door pushed to. After 4-5 hours have a look and if you have water then everything is probably ok.

      Chris

      1. Hi, I have a MeacoDry ABC 12L for just under 2 years. It has stopped collecting moisture. I’ve tried your suggestions in other posts – cleaned the filter, checked that the fan is turning freely, placed the unit in a very moist shower room with the setting at 45 ….but I’m afraid still nothing in the tank. Any suggestions?
        Thank you

        1. harry,

          Please make a note of the reading on the display when the fan is running and then press the button under the display and make a note of the number that flashes up for 5 seconds. Let me know what those two numbers are or call customer service on 01483 234900 with those two numbers.

          Chris

          1. Hi Chris,
            Thank you for response. The first number is 51 then 40 flashes for about 5 secs.

          2. Ok, if you are seeing readings above 40 for long periods of time and it is running for hours and not collecting water then please call the team on 01483 234900 or email them on customerservice AT meaco.com and they will help you.

  3. Hi there, we bought a small 12l dehumidifier with two fan speeds. At the lower speed, apart from the sound the fan makes, there is a high pitch continues noise sounding like a fridge… is this normal? The dehumidifier otherwise works fine. Thank you!

    1. Sammy,

      Thank you for your purchase and your message. On R290 compressors it is possible to hear a higher pitch noise, especially at lower decibels. This is common when the compressor is cold but normally disappears as the compressors warms up. A bit like a change in tone from a car engine when it starts on a cold day.

      Chris

  4. I have a Meaco DD8L Zambezi desiccant dehumidifier, and it has been working fine for over a year. I use it on a timer, for about 4 hours a day, between 2am and 6am in my garage. Under normal weather, the dehumidifier would produce about 8-10L of condensate. I measured it into a 14L bucket and it is pretty consistent in its water production.

    Yesterday I went to empty the bucket and found the bucket empty. I tried manually turning on the DD8L and nothing…no messages in the LCD, no sounds, no beeps, nothing….so I checked the power supply…all checked out good. I checked the power cord fuse, and it is fine/working. I took apart the easily accessible bits in the condensate drawer area, and cleaned up everything. The filter on the back of the machine was barely dirty, but I washed it and dried it, and it is fine.

    None of my actions had an impact on the condition of the dehumidifier, and I’m hoping there might be a hardware reset button combination, to reset the state of the dehumidifier state machine….is there some such combination? Any other suggestions?

    1. Jim,

      Thank you for your purchase an your message. re you using Zmbezi’s own internal timer, hopefully you are? the reason is that an an external timer is basically creating a power cut and this will stop the machine from safely cooling down when you turn it off. To do this the dehumidifier runs in fan only mode for around 5 minutes when the shut down process starts. This makes the machine safe and extends the lifespan of the components.

      Your symptons suggest that the main PCB has gone, which could be linked to over heating.

      Chris

  5. Hi Chris, I bought a 10L Meaco ABC Dehumidifier last year and it has been fantastic and made such a difference. However I notice that sometimes it has switched itself on and is still running despite the target humidity being higher than the current sensor readings. For example the target humidity is currently set to 55 (I confirmed this by pressing the middle button and see 55 flashing) but the reading on the screen is 43 and it’s still running. I’m just a bit concerned that it’s wasting electricity and making the room drier than it needs to be. Please could you advise what we can do about this? Many thanks.

  6. I purchased a 12L low energy dehumidifier in Nov 2019 , it has worked perfectly up until one week ago when it stopped collecting water and the setting in any room is reading between 39 and 43. I have cleaned the filter and reset the humidity to 55 but unfortunately it’s still is not working.

    1. Anne,

      If you are seeing readings of 39 or 43 it just tells you that the house is dry enough and for now there is nothing for the dehumidifier to do. As temperatures warm and the rain comes it will increase again and then the dehumidifier will deal with the humidity when it has to.

      Chris

  7. I bought a MeacoDry ABC 10litre and left it running overnight on landing. Set to 55% on Low fan speed. It was very quiet on Low speed but kept changing itself to High speed when it was nosier. Why doesn’t it stay on Low?

  8. Hi
    I have a meaco dda 8l junior
    I can only see hourly switch inside and no rh setting is there a thermostat built in so it stops at a certain point
    Hope this makes sense
    Thanks in advance
    Willie

  9. Hi Chris, I bought ABC 12l 5 months ago, it worked perfectly fine, I had been cleaning filter on a weekly basis, something went wrong a week ago. It stopped collecting water, keeps icing and will not switch to defrost anymore. Coils are clean, there are no obstructions in the air flow, the only thing I can observe is humidistat and thermoresistor board gets flooded when I switch machine off for de-frosting. Room temperature 22°C, humidity 60% and above according to the weather station readings, set point has been set at 40-45% on a machine side. Has it been fitted with electromagnetic de-frost valve and circuit? Any guess about what is happening? Is it worth checking for humidistat replacement as possibly faulty?

    1. Peter,

      My first commemnt would be not to turn the dehumidifier off when it is in defrost mode as this will cause problems as the coils will not have been cleared. Please let it run and then if you still have issues and are seeing a build up of ice on the coils (and not just light frost) then please do email customerservice@meaco.com.

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