Maintaining your IW25
As with all air treatment devices, certain on-going and scheduled maintenance is required to keep the IW25 dehumidifier in peak operating condition. All of these maintenance procedures are easily performed along with your maintenance staff’s normal monthly HVAC filter change for the particular dwelling unit.
MONTHLY
- Change and/or clean the air filter. Dehumidifier filter cleaning requires removal of the front grill and snapping the filter out of its frame and re-inserting a clean filter. We recommend keeping enough extra filters on hand to make the exchange, cleaning the dirty ones later, so as to speed up the process and cut down on any inconvenience for the resident.
- Note that the unit de-humidistat is properly set. We recommend a constant setting of 45% relative humidity.
- Check the grill and ensure all airways are clean and not blocked and that nothing is directly in front of the grill to impede air flow.
- Check to make the drain hose is properly inserted in your “house drain” and is flowing properly, and make sure the electrical connection is in place and secure.
- If you are monitoring the dwelling unit for a particular problem, such as moisture on windows or high humidity, take temperature and relative humidity readings with a hand held humidistat at this time and keep an on-going record to spot trends or other issues that may arise.
QUARTERLY (in addition to your monthly procedures noted above)
- It’s likely that at some point your condensate line will develop sludge or algae growth. There are many manufactured chemicals and devices on the market aimed at alleviating this issue once it occurs in the form of a slow drain or complete blockage. There are also chemicals available which can help to keep the condition from occurring. We, however, prefer a more conservative and therefore less caustic approach, and recommend a quarterly application of vinegar and water poured slowly, directly into the drain pan of the unit. This will keep the drain line clean and kill algae present in the pan or line if properly administered. 4 or 5 ounces of a mixture made up of 1 part vinegar (white or apple cider) and 3 parts water, slowly poured into the drain pan while the unit is in operation and allowed to slowly work its way out the drain should be adequate to control most situations and keep the condensate generated by your dehumidifier draining properly. The simplest method of application is to carry your vinegar and water mixture in a plastic bottle and use a small plastic funnel to pour the mixture into the pan.
- Pay particular attention to the grill louvers, coil fins and humidistat, and make sure these areas are dust free and have not accumulated. If so, the grill can be vacuumed or wiped clean with soap and water. The humidistat housing itself can be wiped clean with a damp cloth. The coil fins can be vacuumed with a shop vac or sprayed with the vinegar and water solution while in operation. For extremely dirty coils a mild coil cleaner can be sprayed directly on the coils, following the cleaner manufacturers’ recommendations.
- Check the fan blades for dirt build up as well, and vacuum or wipe clean as needed.
