Danby Dehumidifier DDR5011 is not working properly. It keeps freezing up and the dumidistat is not functioning right. We have cleaned the filter every week. It is on a rubber mat. and the temperature does not drop below 73 degrees F.

well there are three things i know of that can cause this :
1st your filters are dirty needs cleaning .
2nd your humistat is set too low , unit runs too long with out a cool down period , 70% rh is a "normal" setting
3rd in older units that might be getting up there in years its possible that some of the cooling gas has leaked out and this causes freeze ups

There are two major causes of a dehumidifier or air conditioner to freeze up the evaporator coil. First is lack of air flow try cleaning or replacing the air filter if it has one; make sure the fan is running and the coils are clean. Second is a low charge of refrigerant in which case it may be cheaper to replace the unit than have a certified repair person fix it. Make sure to recycle the old unit if you replace it.

Blocked/poor airflow are the most likely culprit. Make sure the filter and evaporator are clean. If the evaporator is caked with dirt you can try carefully cleaning it with a wet rag and a shopvac. If they are both clean check to make sure the fan is blowing air across the coils. Final diagnosis would be a refrigeration issue.

Lori, the Danby Humidifier, Model # DDR2504 does not have a heating function. It's just a 25 pint dehumidifier. In fact, there are no Danby Dehumidifiers that have a heating function.

By, chance do you have Multifunction Air Conditioning unit, rather than a dehumidifier? If so, please provide the correct model number.

Thanks for choosing FixYa.

Bryan, it may imply be a case of the humidity extraction level being set to high. Lower the level to 35% and see what happens. As far as the fan running is concerned. Most dehumidifiers are designed for the fan to run, even if the compressor doesn't turn ON. It's designed to keep the air circulating and if the humidity rises above the setting you have it on, the humidity sensor will pick up this change and turn the compressor ON.

Also, remove the air intake filter to see if it's clogged and needs cleaning. Maintain at least a minimum of 12" of free air space all around the dehumidifier. Poor air circulation will prevent the unit from working properly. As will, to low an ambient air tempeature. Most unit struggle to work at temperature between 40 & 60 degrees F.

Hope this helped you to troubleshoot and solve the problem. Please let me know. Thanks.

Hi,

Here is a tip that I wrote that will help you understand why and what you cando with a dehumidifier that ices up.

Dehumidifier is Freezing up and not working

heatman101

Hi,

There are many reasons why a dehumidifier will not work or collect water.

Here is a tip that I wrote to help people to figure out what is going wrong with their dehumidifier

Dehumidifier is running but no water is in bucket

heatman101

How often does the unit run? Does the fan run when the unit is suppose to be running(as the fan pulls the air thru the filter). If every thing operates correctly and the filter is in the right location on the unit then all I can say is that you keep a clean house. Personally I only need to clean the air filter on my dehumidifier about once a summer. I wouldn't be overly concerned if it isn't getting very dirty.

Hi,
If you are having problems with your dehumidifier freezing up them here are a few things that you can check and also a few things that may help you.

First check the ambient temperature of the room at the level of the dehumidifier. If it is below 65 degrees and you do not have a special low temperature dehumidifier then you are asking for trouble. Most units are only designed to work in temperature 65 or higher and will freeze if they are working at lower temperatures. Some even will not work well below 68 degrees F.

Many dehumidifiers will shut off when the coil starts to freeze to let them thaw, then they will restart when the coil is warm enough again. This can take an hour or so. Some will not shut down the compressor and when the dehumidifier coil starts to freeze it reduces the air flow and only compounds the problem.

Check the air flow over the coil. If the coil becomes dirty or the fan motor stops or even slows down a bit, you will get freezing. The dehumidifier is very dependent upon the proper amount of air going over the coil to keep the coil warm enough to not freeze. Any restriction will cause problems.

The final and worst thing that can happen is for your dehumidification unit is to develop a slight leak in the refrigeration system. This will cause the coils to run even colder then they would normally and this will create the same problems. If everything else check out then you may have to have the refrigeration system checked by a professional. The problem with this is that many of these units only cost a few hundred dollars and a service call can soon add up to more then the unit is worth.

Some things that you can do to help out a dehumidifier that is freezing up are:

Raise the temperature of the room and provide a bit of heat for the room as the dehumidifier is actually a very small A/C unit.
Raise the dehumidifier up off of the floor… the air is usually warmer when you go higher up in the room, hot air rises.
Clean the coils off so that the air can flow through them easier and keep them warmer.
Make sure that the fan motor bearings are oiled and that the fan is running freely. Even a tiny bit of resistance will slow the fan enough to make a difference.


By checking all these things out and making some small changes you maybe able to make your dehumidifier work much more effectively.

Take care

I had a similar problem with the pump not working and the water flowing into the main drainage bucket instead. I had to disassemble the housing...not an easy project to reassemble...and found that the pump has its own smaller drainage tank with a float device, a pump pre-filter, the actual pump, then of course, more drainage tubes. The entire pump drainage system of components needed cleaned of accumulated, mucoid, slime! I cleaned the channel in which water flows into the pump's tank...located on the screen filter side of the dehumidifier. Then I moved to the other side of the dehumidifier and cleaned-out the entire pump drainage tank. Note that the pump's drainage tank only empties about 1/2 inch of water each time the pump activates. Thus, there is always alot of water in the pump's drainage tank. Thus, alot of time for slime to accumulate. Next, I cleaned off the float mechanism. I then cleaned-out the pump's pre-filter. Cleaning out the pump's pre-filter was paramount to the pump functioning properly and quietly! I checked that my pump was properly installed and NOT rubbing against its mounting so that it operated quietly. I added fresh water to the pump's tank several times to insure that the pump was working properly and that all slime was eliminated. Finally, I reassembled the housing...not an easy task! My pump now functions like new. All this work had to be done to insure proper function of the dehumidifier's pump system. My dehumidifier is only 11 months old. It is still covered by the one year warranty, but it is too expensive to ship the entire unit, as Delonghi requires you to do at your expense for them to fix it under warranty. You can be assured that I will check for future slime build-up to keep my dehumidifier functioning properly. The dehumidifier works great, it's just that it's high maintenance.