Dehumidifier Fix: Ideal-Air CG2

Botany and Cultivation
1

Hi Everyone,

I have an Ideal-Air CG2 Commercial Dehumidifier that has been sitting idle for some time. Went to start it up and doesn’t seem to be working. The display works fine, does not read any error codes, however the purge doesn’t work, and when the desired humidity is set below the room’s ambient humidity the machine still fails to start up.

Anyone have any luck troubleshooting this kind of dehumidifier?

Or advice on where it could be serviced?

Posting from Seattle.

Thanks anyone for any attention, and possible helpful tips!

Gratefully,

organicallygrown
:black_heart:

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As an electronics nerd, just doing some mind-troubleshooting I would check your humidity sensor first. Bad sensor = no activity if for some reason it’s not getting the ambient RH of the room. Normally it goes

sensor - relay - load bearing device (in this case the dehu motor)

My thinking is that if there’s no error codes it thinks it’s operating just fine so you may have a bad physical part.

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Ahh thank you so much!

Sensor appears to be functioning fine as it reads the room’s ambient RH.

Dehue motor sounds very plausible, as I am not hearing any kind of start up action. I’ll check my connections next.

Haha this should be fun doing a tear a part, if I don’t find anyone who can professionally fix.

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Could also be a loose or corroded connection. I’d follow the outline @SubstituteCreature laid out for troubleshooting, checking the connections on the way as well. It is in a dehumidifier, so corrosion or loose connections from vibration are likely. Dielectric grease is a good idea to use on any connection when you take things apart and put em back together.

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Buy yourself a cheap continuity tester, that’ll tell you extremely quick, you just need to identify the power connection for the motor to the relay :slight_smile:

Beep beep = good

no beep beep = bad

Good luck and shoot me a DM if you’re having continued issues, happy to help

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Looks like a good circuit diagram on page 12 of the manual you linked. Page 13 has some basic troubleshooting for Problem 1 stating to check for a blown fuse or circuit board, loose connection, or bad capacitor. Probably good places to look by the sounds of it.

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@BigM thank you for the recommendation of dielectric grease, purchasing some and a cheap continuity tester as @SubstituteCreature recommends!

Thank you both, I will certainly be referencing the diagram once I get the tester and grease! fingers crossed I don’t fuck it up more (;

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Ol’ @Agtonik here to pee in your cornflakes about retail hydroponics stores. Hawthorne is just a middleman on China electronics and they are cheap and just made to be thrown away. I would take it back to where you got it and they should give you another one.

After a broken unit was returned by a customer, Hawthorne’s return policy for the stores to get credit (at least it used to be) was sending in a picture of the control face smashed up and unusable to prove it was inoperable. It’s easier to send a few more new China units than haul cheap broken junk around.

Good luck.