At Home In The Woods

[dstig1]

I haven't had one myself, so grain of salt time, but I have read posts from a bunch of people that say no matter what you get, they only last a couple years, at best. Condensate is actually rather a bit corrosive and so it eats away at metals and other items. It seems to be getting to be more common to run the condensate through a neutralizer (a pipe section filled with limestone chips), prior to draining it out to protect the pipes. The same is actually true for condensing furnaces and other condensing appliances.

FWIW

 

[hawkeye08]

If you remember, a few weeks ago I made a mouse trap using a bucket.



I didn't put any water in the bucket to see if I could catch the mice alive. I caught no mice that way. There were mouse droppings in the bucket so I know the peanut butter was attracting the mice.

Last night my wife and I could hear a mouse inside one of our walls chewing on something in our wall. The mouse was inside an area where the duct shown in the picture runs between the basement ceiling and the 1st floor ceiling. Our sympathies for the mice quickly abated.

So last night I put fresh peanut butter in the bucket trap and added 3" of water to the bucket. This morning I found 2 dead mice! Yay! The bucket trap is a very effective device. It's much better than risking putting out poison. Plus, when using poison, you don't necessarilly know how well the poison is working. The bucket is also better than the traditional spring type mouse traps because the spring traps only catch one mouse at a time. You have to continually bait them and reset them. The bucket trap can catch several mice at a time.

I made one of these recently also and caught 3 mice in the shop (first 3 days I had the trap out)... I am going to move it to another outbuilding and get a few more.. eventually, I will have one in each of the outbuildings as long as they are working..

 

[ruralruss]

I haven't had one myself, so grain of salt time, but I have read posts from a bunch of people that say no matter what you get, they only last a couple years, at best. Condensate is actually rather a bit corrosive and so it eats away at metals and other items. It seems to be getting to be more common to run the condensate through a neutralizer (a pipe section filled with limestone chips), prior to draining it out to protect the pipes. The same is actually true for condensing furnaces and other condensing appliances.

FWIW

That has been my experience exactly, 2 years for around $300.

 

[eepete]

I've also had short lifetimes with dehumidifiers. At this house, I put a source and return duct in the basement so the heat pump can take care of the humidity. At the old house, it was get a new one every 2-3 years, I don't know why I didn't think of just making it semi-conditioned space...

Pete

 

[Obed]

The heavy rains and storms we've been having resulted in a rut running down our driveway. Our driveway was constructed with a crown that runs down the middle of it for its entire length. The crown (i.e. hump) sheds water quickly off both sides of the road into the swales to prevent erosion in the road.

Our road has been in place for almost 2 years and has had very little maintenance done to it. We have a significant slope to the road in places but have had very little road washing issues. We designed our road based on information in the Gravel Road Maintenance Manual put out by the state of Maine. I highly recommend this guide for anyone building a gravel or dirt road.

When the huge hickory fell across our driveway last fall, we had a tree guy remove it for us. While the tree guy was here with his skidsteer, he thought he was doing us a favor and, with out asking me, graded flat a section of the crown on our driveway. He made sure to tell me, very proudly, how he removed the "hump" in our road and thought I would be pleased. I didn't say anything to him about it and might have even thanked him even though I was very perturbed. It's kind of hard to raise a fit when someone attempts to do you a good deed. He was trying to be nice and helpful; he just didn't know he was messing up our road. He really didn't have any business grading our road; he was here to remove a tree. It just so happens, not coincidentally, that that section of road is where the rut down our driveway developed.

Today I did some work to correct the rut that developed in our road. The first think I needed to do was try to limit the amount of water running down the high side swale. Thus I built two water bars. A water bar is basically a shallow trench that you run across the road to funnel water from the high side of the road to the low side. A water bar is a cheap way to avoid putting in a culvert. Culverts are expensive when you count the cost of the culvert, the gravel required around the culvert, and the labor.

I put the first water bar across the road above where the road was washing. I put the second water bar about 200 ft below the first one. If done correctly, the water bar will divert the water to the downhill side where it will run away from the road. A second advantage of the water bar is it acts as a speed bump. The contractors really drove fast on our road. I put in 3 water bars a year and a half ago. I didn't do a great job installing them so they didn't divert the water very well but they did slow down the contractors!

I used the extra dirt and gravel left from constructing the water bars to fill in the rut. I did some grading with the FEL and bebuilt the crown in this section of the road.

 

[Obed]

How much did you guys spend for your dehumidifiers that lasted only 2 or 3 years? I'm wondering if the higher end models last any longer. I'm also wondering if your dehumidifiers were undersized for your basements. Apparently, if you undersize them, they will run continuously and wear out sooner. I don't know if that is the case for you guys. I'd hate to buy one of the bigger more expensive models if it is just going to wear out in 2 years.

Obed

 

[tony Cecil]

Obed

I got mine from Lowes, a Whirlpool, and I only run it in the summer...It has been down there three or four years now and no problem...I set the knob on the middle of the range for a few days and then about a quarter turn...The basement feels much drier and it is about nine hundred sq ft..Just loafing along and cost a couple of hundred---don`t know it`s size....

When you get your road really settled I myself put in some crossing in the road that would look like a U made from treated wood...They are on an angle--high side about three ft above discharge side-- and the opening is about four inches and about six or seven in deep...A plank on the bottom of the trench, and the two planks for the sides....They look quite attractive, and I keep them open with strategically placed block of wood , only about four by two in ...I keep them cleaned (once a yr) with a special hoe that is cut off so it reached down inside....They are still fine and at least twenty yrs old....When I put new gravel I just put it by hand where they cross. It is cheap and gives the road a finished look like the old time roads......Tony

 

[eepete]

Brand was whatever the big box store had, last two were Whirlpool.

Size of basement area was 800 sq feet. Can't remember the sizing on the last one, but I know I check that sort of thing. I had the humidity set at 60 percent, so it shouldn't have been running a lot. A five year life would have been OK, the 2-3 year life is too short given what they cost.

The hard part about getting a "good" one is figuring out if it's really any better, or if it just has the same compressor as the cheap ones, but it's got a nice digital display on it. In our "good-better-best" world, often "best" just means it had cup holders added to it.

Pete

 

[tommu56]

I am in the condition the space camp.

My dad had a dehumidifer in his basement and his basement when it died I cut a diffuser in the return duct and one in the suppy at the other end of the basement it wasn't qute enough air flow so I cut in another return figuring the air would come down the steps from up staire it worked fine and he said it didn't seem to increase the electric bill

tom

 

[Bill 55]

Obed just how long is your driveway? I have read the entire thread and can't remember you ever saying how far off the road you are.