Kenmore Dehumidifier

Hi There, ExSearsCustomer-We haven't had any discussions that I can think of regarding the dehumidifier.  Have you tried www.managemyhome.com?  That is another companion site to Sears.com and it has all sorts of good information, also, on large and small appliances.

What, exactly, is the problem with your dehumidifier? How old is it? What is the model number? Is it under a protection agreement? If so, is it a home or shop agreement? If not, are you trying to get someone to come to the house to check the dehumidifier, or were you aware that dehumidifiers can be dropped off for repair?

There's a lot of information missing here, without which it would be impossible to provide you the help you need. Please answer the questions above and it will help the community find you the answers you seek.

 To ExSearsCustomer,

 We are sorry to hear that your dehumidifier is not working. My name is Brian and I am part of the Sears Cares escalation team. BlueCrewGuy is correct that we would like more information on the issue, and if you'd like to speak with us about what the options are and what we can do to help, we would certainly like to assist you. At your convenience, please contact my office at searscares@searshc.com so that we can see what we need to do to help. When you have a moment, please send an email. Please provide a contact phone number and the phone number the dehumidifier was purchased under (if different than the contact phone number) and we will call you directly. In addition, please provide the screen name (ExSearsCustomer) for reference to this issue, and we do look forward to talking to you soon.

 Thank you,

 Brian J.

Team Manager

Sears Cares

I bought my Sears dehumidifier on 5/13/2006. Mod. 580.54701500.

It worked fine until a month or so ago when the moisture level started increasing in my basement.  Today  I removed the drain line from the sump well and put it in a container to collect the condisate. After 6 hrs no water had been collected and the unit seemed to be laboring, a sound I had not heard before.

 I do not feel 3 years is a very long life span for this piece of equipment. I did not get a warranty as I feel they are a huge rip-off. I would rather put that money toward a better piece of equipment with a better quality history.  My last Seard dehumidifier lasted 11 wears. Refrigerators and freezers last upwards of 15 years. I am not very happy.

Can this unit be recharged? I can bring it to a service center

  We bought a Sears Dehumidifier Modal 580  35 pint and was wondering how much electricity it uses while running. I called thje Seares1 800 number and pushed 2 ,then 3 then 2 and couldn't understand the person I was talking to then she said something about the ! 800 line was down for repair to call back. So can any one answer my question? 

My sears dehumidifier worked off and on for maybe 18 mo. The fan stopped working and it would cost me 100.00 for them to com and look at it. I really got ripped off .The thing wasn't even paid for yet. So my wise son decided to take it apart and take the fan part to where he works to test it .Well the test guy never did it or fogot about it .Now I gave a dehumidifier in a thousand peices in the basement . Any one got any ideas what to do now besides scrap it?

Hi there, my home all appliance were from Kenmore when I bought my house four years ago in Rhode Island near the ocean but not waterfront. Everything is fine from Sears so far. Thank you! Now there is a question about a dehumidifier that I am thinking to buy one for my craw-base. My craw-base is covered by plastic cloth, 30 x 26. In winter time, the windows of craw-base is closed all the time, and it caused mold that I found this May after I opened the windows. A friend of mine suggested me to have a dehumidifier settled in craw-base when winter comes.

I need your opinion about this suggestion how to take care of mold problem, please. Do you think the dehumidifier can take care of this problem in craw-base? And what kind of dihumidifier that you would like to suggest if you think it will help.

Thank you very much for help!

SuShia

Dehumidifier model # 54501 purchased in April of 2004 is my problem! Was mis-lead at the store when I bought it....they said it was sooooo quiet! Yeah, right. No Way, sounded like a freight train! BUT it did really work well, sucked up the humidity from our finished basement, no complaints there. However, lately it started feeling really hot to the touch, and the fan only worked on low, not high. I did not purchase an "agreement" -I feel they are a waste of money, but now I am out of a dehumidifier that I paid $200 for and only got 5 years worth of use from! Am I expecting too much? And please don't tell me to take it to the Sears repair center..I took my snowblower there for a tuneup, brought it home and it still didn't run. Called Sears and they sent a repair person out, he took a look and said "Lady, I don't know what they told you they did to this, but they didn't touch the oil, spark plug, nothing!" Well, at least he was honest, but Sears, you have lost my respect and trust.

Some fun facts about dehumidifiers:

They are air conditioners, and, as such, produce quite a bit of heat and vibration.

They have a small fan that, if not maintained, can become slightly off-balance as the bushings wear. The more off-balance it becomes, the harder the dehumidifier has to work to be effective. The harder it works, the more heat it produces. It may be something as simple as a $10 bushing that needs replacing, but it's impossible to say without it being checked out.

Protection agreements are only a waste of money when they're not used. In this case, the $15/year for a 5 year protection agreement would have not only given you free repair (or replacement, if not able to be repaired) for this issue, but would have included annual preventive maintenance checks, which would have included replacing the bushings at least once by now. This potentially could have averted the present issue. If we simply offered preventive maintenance check-ups on dehumidifiers for $15, would you consider that a good deal?

If you refuse to have it repaired, it will never get better. Machines do not have immune systems, so problems only ever become worse with time and continued use.

As a sidenote, was it a tune-up or repair you brought the snowthrower in for? If it was a tune-up, it should have been quite easy to see if the spark plug had been changed. And, really, the only annual maintenance for a snowthrower is replacing oil and a spark plug. That's $6 worth of materials. I'm not sure what, exactly, you were requesting done on the snowthrower, so I can't say if they did something incorrect or not, but annual maintenance should be simple enough to do on your own.

I've never owned a dehumidifier.

Is there owner preventative maintenance that can be performed on a dehumidifier?

Is there an air filter that needs replacement or cleaning?

If there are bushings that can wear on the unit, can those bushings be lubricated to forestall increased wear?

I've owned several over the years from different manufacturers and I've used them in vastly different operating environments ranging from damp basements where they run continuously to relatively dry spaces where they hardly turn on.  I mention the different operating environments because in my experience, this has a lot to do with both the longevity and the preventative maintenance requirements.

Like any other mechanical device, dehumidifiers have an expected service life for their various components, and from an engineering standpoint, this is normally based upon a projected duty cycle (how often it's switched on versus how often it's switched off).  In an "average" home--if there is such a thing--a dehumidifier will be on only part of the time and usually not year round, but if your specific environment requires more frequent operation, your product simply will not last as long as one that's placed elsewhere.

Complicating matters even more is the fact that humidity is already affected somewhat by the specific temperature settings of your home's thermostat, since air is capable of picking up more moisture as its temperature increases.  Adding yet another variable is the outdoor air temperature, since the difference between indoor and outdoor temperature governs the duty cycle of your HVAC system, which can alter the level of humidity coming out of that system with some HVAC designs.

In essence, two dehumidifiers built to the exact same engineering standards but installed in different locations can have vastly different life expectancies based upon factors that may not be within the control of the operator.  And, just like someone who is opening the fridge every five minutes (and causing the compressor to constantly kick in), frequent operation of a dehumidifier will make it wear out more quickly.

One thing that IS within your control is keeping the unit clean, since the efficiency of removing water from the air is directly proportional to how close the cooling coil surface temperature is to the air's dew point for that location.  The dew point is dependent upon the room's temperature, but in general, the colder the coils get (and therefore the greater temperature difference between the coils and the ambient air), the more condensation will form on the coils.  Dirt and dust on the coils acts as insulation and prevents the proper exchange of heat.  This means that with lower efficiency, the dehumidifier will have to run longer to achieve the same humidity level, causing premature wear.  Additionally, the excess heat COULD degrade other components such as rotating parts and electrical assemblies, resulting in their eventual failure.  This is not so different from running a car with a broken cooling fan or water pump---the heat has to go somewhere or something will break.

The periodicity associated with cleaning the coils is dependent upon the environment---if your home is closed relatively tight with little traffic in and out, and if you have good HVAC filtration that keeps dust down, you may not have to do it very frequently.  On the other hand, if you've got kids or pets coming in and out all day dragging in dust and dirt, you might have to do this more frequently.

In regard to manufacturers' recommended maintanence---I'm assuming this is brand and model specific, though having owned different types I can state that they're all pretty similar in basic design.  I have no connections with Sears whatsoever other than as an occasional shopper, but I believe their dehumidifiers are as good as anything else out there.  Just like any other brand there will occasionally be items that fail prematurely, but this is a product that's difficult to assign a projected lifespan to.  My mother still has one that she's had since I was a little kid (and I'm 35 now), and I've had one fail after three years of heavy use.  Just like a car, it's all about how you "drive" it.

The Kenmore 50 pint Dehumidifier is a lemon.  We had our basement finished 3 years ago and put one in our laundry/work room since it was walled off from the finished portion of the room.  The laundry room has an open french drain connected to one of two sump pumps, so the air is damp.  We have just sent our 3rd dehumidifier for service.  Each time they have been returned to us as "Unable to repair" because the compressor breaks and it stops drawing in moisture.  We will never purchase another Kenmore product again.

I purchased a Sears Kenmore 50 pint dehumidifier in August 2008. (model#54501) I used it one month in 2008 and then about 4 months in 2009.  Well, I just turned it on in May 2010 and water started forming on the top in the seam. Now the water has turned to ice and the unit feels hot on top. When I tried to shut it off, the button was also frozen and I had to unplug it..(Not too safe!).   I am very disappointed with my dehumidifier especially since my last Kenmore dehumidifier lasted 9 years. I called Sears 1-800 4-My Home to ask if it was covered for repair.  It took 3 days to get through to a customer service human because with each call I had to hang up after 5 minutes of being on hold.  When I finally spoke to someone he told me it wasn't covered for repair.  I read the 5 year limited warranty in the booklet which states that "the sealed refrigerant system will be repaired free of charge if it is defective in material or workmanship." The customer service agent said I had to bring it to a Sears service center and pay $29.95 to have it looked at.  Then I could get the $29.95 applied towards the repair.  When I again read the warranty, (since I don't feel I should have to pay anything),  he made some sort of comment that things aren't really what they say in the booklet and I should bring the booklet in to service so I could "prove it to them ."  This is nonsense! I expected my unit to last longer than a summer and a half.  Besides, the main problem with taking a dehumidifier in for repair is that my basement will be without one for who knows how long.  I do not want my basement to get damp.  So I am now going to go buy another one.  But I will most likely not buy a Kenmore...SF  

Hello; I would like to say something. I need a new dehumidifier. I bought a no name for 150.00. It lasted 1 year and the motor went. I looked up replacement motors which cost 130.00 so really that would be foolishness. Now I am thinking buy a reputable company right? Uh well after reading these reviews it seems that Sears may have had t sacrafice a great product name to keep up with this world. That is very sad. Now I am stuck. I really need one but I can't decide buy cheaper and expect to replace? If sears would stand behind their products I would buy Sears but that doesn't look like that happens anymore. I see people that do buy the extended warranty are out of luck so why bother is right.

I use multiple (3) dehumidifiers constantly running, 365 days a year,  to keep the humidity down for my indoor hydroponic garden down to 40%  I ONLY use Kenmore brand. I have bought the 35 pint, and the 50 pint units!  Each unit works great! 

I am a sheetmetal worker by trade and i know a little about air and air quality!  Has anyone that has problems with their dehumidifier ever cleaned the filter?  How many of you people that have had problems even know about the filter?

I bought the 54501 in June 2009. It ran fine, was noisier than the last two I've had in this location, yet removed quite a bit of moisture from the basement. After cleaning the filter, I plugged the dehumidifier in late this spring 2010 and the fan came on, the compressor came on later and the device will not remove any moisture.  I had a similar problem as "SF" did in that water formed on the top, near the seam. I've been in this house 14 years and had two others to this point both Haiers from Wal-Mart. This Kenmore does not cut it for noise, reliability, and quality. This experience has been the only time a Kenmore (or SEARS) product has ever let me down.

 

I bought the 99701 Kenmore Elite 70 pint on 18 June 2009 and it just died on 20 June 2010...  It lasted one year and two days on partial duty in my relatively dry (50% humidity) basement then the compressor died and its done. The compressor was so hot when it failed that you could feel it through the white plastic on the front of the unit. $300.00 gone... It was nice while it lasted but its just another piece of junk thats basically designed to just outlive a one year warranty (or maybe it was 90 days and I just got lucky) then completely fail that way you run back to Sears and buy another one. First time a Sears Kenmore turned out to be junk.

So Chairman's Circle- You're saying what- that this person should not have taken it to you for a tuneup? You suggest that it's a simple matter to check and see if the sparkplug had been replaced? WHY SHOULD THIS PERSON HAVE TO CHECK AND SEE IF IT WAS DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE? If I take an applianced to Sears for repair, do I have to double check your work to see if it was done properly?

I am really disappointed with the reviews.  I bought a Kenmore dehumidifier in 2005.  It was quiet & worked great for 5 years.  When it broke we bought one from Home Depot & it sounds noisey, just like the Kenmore did before it broke.  I had hoped to get another Kenmore that would run for five years, but it sounds like they have changed the design & are now noisey & break all the time.

that sounds about right......which isn't right at all.  I have the same one almost to the year its died but it's at the "service" shop now after about a 4 hour sears run around.  If they can fix it great they can refund the money either way I already bought anouther one from Home Depot.  For a $300 dollar unit it still never got the humidity below 65% (or the guage is broken) either way the smaller unit I have now seems to do a much better job but doesn't pump.  Sears customer service is awful and the fact that their products seem to be less reliable makes for an extremely short relationship from this consumer......