# Dehumidifier with hose to sump pit with no sump pump?



## lelechim (Jun 8, 2019)

I recently bought a Frigidaire 70 pint dehumidifier, model FAD704DWD, to remedy my humid, stinky basement. Since I just got it, it's pulling an insane amount of moisture from the air as it's been running continuously for the past few days. About twice a day I need to manually empty out the bucket as it fills with water. Since the property is being renovated and is not (yet) inhabited, this is a little inconvenient.

I didn't buy a model with a built-in pump since I have a sump pit, but there is no sump pump yet and it may be a while until I can get one installed. Is it safe to direct a hose from the dehumidifier to the pit if there is no pump? I don't know how quickly the pit can drain and I would hate for the water to overflow. While it can get humid down there, it's not a wet basement and the bucket doesn't fill up as quickly as it did earlier in the week.

If a hose would work at this time, would any old garden hose do?


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## Windows on Wash (Aug 30, 2011)

Not ideal, but I doubt you are going to pull that much out of the air that couldn't be readily accommodated in the soils.


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## Yodaman (Mar 9, 2015)

Garden hose is fine for a drain line. I agree the sump pit will likely more than handle what little water you drain from the humidifier. You might try to cover the pit with something. For starters some of the humidity in your basement is coming from the open pit. With out a cover, some of the water drained into the sump will evaporate into the air for you to take it back out and go round and round.


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

I don't see your state/location mentioned and this is the high humidity season in many places. Much of the moisture you are removing may be coming from outside air leaking in, kind of an endless task.

Pick up a couple of inexpensive temp/humidity meters to start tracking inside and outside readings. I realize that construction may make it difficult to keep the house closed but takes some of the worry out when You know it is outside air.

Bud


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## user_12345a (Nov 23, 2014)

Really the basement should have a floor drain - if you're doing any wastewater plumbing work the time to add one is now.

you should have it anyway if a water heater, condensing furnace and or central a/c air handler or coil will be installed down there.


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## lelechim (Jun 8, 2019)

To answer some of your questions, there is a wooden board to cover the sump pit but for some reason I've thus far had it uncovered. I just recovered it today.

I live in New Jersey where the temperature and humidity fluctuate a lot at this time of year. This past Wednesday it was disgustingly hot and humid and today it was cool and breezy.

My hot water heater is in the basement, but rather far from the sump pit. The furnace is in the attic. I don't think there's a floor drain.


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

Ah, NJ, Middletown and Brick were my areas. Be sure the water heater is venting to the outside, gas I assume and a disconnect or backdrafting unit will put a lot of moisture into the air. Dryer exhaust to outside as well.

To give you an idea as to what you are battling a normal completed home exchanges all of its inside air with outside every 3 hours, on average. that means a lot of that outside humidity is headed for your dehumidifier.

If your sump pit is connected to the perimeter drain system and is not currently feed water into the pit, then there should be a lot of capacity for water to flow the other direction at least until the storms arrive.

Bud


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## JohanXV (Oct 26, 2020)

Hey does it works? I keep my rubbish in my basement and there is always a high humidity. Because of it, the smell from the basement is awful. I don't keep the rubbish for many time, but the smell is still there. I don't know what I have to do more. When it is raining there is a catastrophe. I started to think that it is time to buy a dehumidifier, maybe it will help me. I even found this Best Dehumidifier for Basement 2020 Reviews site where I read about different dehumidifiers and found out what will be the best for my basement. So what do you think about my idea?


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## snic (Sep 16, 2018)

Some of the smell might be due to mold, and mold growth will be reduced by keeping the humidity lower. I set my basement dehumidifier at I think 70% and that cleared up the smell.

As for draining the dehumidified into the sump - I tried that, too, but it seemed the dehumidifier ran all the time. That's probably because of the water level set by the sump pump. Some of that water was probably evaporating right back into the basement, possibly right through the concrete floor. I think it worked better when I found a way to drain the sump pump into a drain.


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## 3onthetree (Dec 7, 2018)

He's a spammer on a dead thread.


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