Dehumidifier water?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
A dehu pulls air from the living space. Living space air is statistically heavy in contamination.

A large portion of the "dust" in the air is dead skin cells. the dust that floats in the air and clings to the coils, condensing to water and running off is likely whats breaking down into ammonia.
Also, any chemicals sprayed or used in the home, the vapors would be pulled through the coils and collect in the pan.

If you were to treat the airspace with a serious decontamination device and air purifier (like the activetek 2000) and install a UV light over the coil and drain pan, then maybe you could use that water, but i would still test it first.

If it uses refrigerant (R410A R134A R22) then a leak would not cause the ammonia.
 
I have used a dehumidifier in the 1500gal room for almost a hear with no problem. It simply drains back into the tank and hasn't caused a problem yet
 
If you just want to eliminate the hassle of dumping the water, you could hook a drain line up to it and run it to a condensate pump. Pump line and fittings cost would be like 40 bucks or less.

If you have central ac, and the air handler or furnace is in the basement, you probably already have a condensate pump.

what size is your tank?

I imagine a 1500g tank could much more easily handle the gallon or so per day of bad water than a couple hundred g tank.
 
My town charges me $4 per 1000 gallons of fresh, potable and frequently tested water. I can't see any reason to even care about the dehumidifier water unless you literally want to flush your toilet with it.
 
If it is a new dehumidifier in good shape the water should be almost the same as DI and it might be handy for fish tanks. It will not have any mineral hardness at all so depending upon the kind of fish you have you will probably need to add in some hardness with either a hardness booster or tapwater.

I use dehumidifier water on my potted houseplants and they love it. It is very good for houseplants because it does not have any dissolved minerals.
 
I don't think humidifier water is something you should classify as Deionlized or distilled because it's not. It's condensate and can be a host for all types of things from heavy metals to Legionnaires.

The way I look at it is if you wouldn't drink that water, why is it ok to make your fish live in it?
 
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