Dehumidifier noise reduction

Botany and Cultivation
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I have a sealed grow room work space. I was using a portable dehumidifier, a residential grade you can pickup from Lowe’s. I wanted to install something more efficient and more reliable. I went with the new quest 100 dehumidifier. Awesome machine, my only complaint is the noise. They don’t list an operating db level, from a few feet away I’m measuring 61db with spikes to 63 while the residential unit reads 57-58db. That is with the quest unit on the floor. I have read that hanging it helps. I have the hanging kit, but I don’t want to install 4 bolts in my ceiling if the unit will still be too loud

Anyone have an idea how much hanging will help with sound? Anyone have any other suggestions? I thought about padding the exposed exterior with sound deadening foam.

Originally I was going to throw it in my attic and piggyback on the mini split ducting, but the attic is a unconditioned space and the quest unit has and operating range of only 56-95’f

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Build a 2x4 wall around it, insulate with r12 fiberglass, and then exchange the air with one blower and one passive vent.

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Just throw it on some unistrut, you’ll be glad you did.

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Hooks and ratchet straps for easy lifting

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You can use a high density foam tape/weatherstrip behind the strut if you really want to cut down vibrations

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I wonder if the unit I received is just a dud. Not only is it loud but it’s not performing well at all.

I’m in late flower, so my day temps in my lung room are 70’f@45% humidity and I drop temps to 64’f at night, I’m trying to bring my humidity down to 35%.

The new quest 100 is rated for 67 pints per day @75’f / 50% humidity. I had the unit set to 35%, then 25%, but my pulse meters showed the humidity fluctuating from 52-55%, almost as if you could watch the compressor kick on and off as the humidity would rise and fall. I even set it below 20 to where’s it’s just “on” and set the fan to auto but it never went below 50% and I let it run for 3-4 hours after lights out before I gave up on it. The unit was $2k

I set up my Hisense 60 pint dehumidifier I picked up from Lowe’s for $499 and it immediately started doing a better job, still bouncing from 48-52% with a set point of 35%. I’ve been using the Hisense for weeks, it’s averages 30 pints per day on low setting. It’s a 3 speed inverter unit and pulls 390-420w on low, while the quest 520w. The Hisense unit is sometimes listed as capable of 100 pints/day with a low temperature operation of 38’f

I know 64 is a lot cooler than their 75’f@50% rating, but quest lists an operational range of 56-95’f. Is it just so cold that the quest unit really just performs like shit? They list two ratings, 80’f@60% claiming 105 p/day, but it drops significantly to 67 pints/day at 75’f@50% humidity, that’s only 63% of its full capacity with only a slight change.

The room is small. Only 12x12, with only two 2x4 tents and 15 plants, I water 10 gallons every 3 days. I wanted to expand having a 4x4 and a 2x4 tent, possibly one large 4x8. I thought this quest unit would be overkill and give me plenty of buffer to expand my grow, but now I’m 99.9% sure I’m sending this thing back. Trying to decide if I should ask for a replacement or just go another route.

The sante fe oasis 105 looks like the same unit as the quest 100, but sante fe lists a rating of 65’f/60% and 67 pints/day. I know the units are manufactured by someone else and white labeled for companies like quest, sante fe, anden and aprilaire, but are they manufactured to different specifications or are they all basically the same units just sold by various companies?

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Hanging are the best for the quest. Make sure you have a p trap on the drain. I went from three of those hardware store style units to one 155. A lot more efficient. But yes they are a little louder. I have a friend that tells me he would rather have a bunch of the hardware store style because he doesn’t see much difference on energy saving. The smaller ones work harder and a lot of recall due to fire. Him and I also disagree on using the reclaimed water for irrigation due to ph/ec spikes. If you keep up on it it’s a lot of “free” water.

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Water is one of the reasons I went with a quest unit.

I have read that you should not use water from most dehumidifiers because the coils use cheap metals that will leech contamination into your dehumidifier water and most are impossible to really clean, leading to a buildup of bacteria and funk.

I read that quest units use food grade materials and glues, producing water that is as clean as RO water and perfectly safe for plants. I was going to hang it and let it drain into a 30-50 gallon potable water tank, then reuse the water on my plants.

I would also love to hang it in my unconditioned attic space but I haven’t confirmed it will function yet. I want to duct it inline with my mini split supply and just run the condensation outside like my mini split. Would be great and free up floor space. But I’m a little confused by the ducted rating and operational temp ratings. Some units claim they will work as long as the air intake temps are within operating range like 55-95’f range, while some units just market an operational range without specifying if its just intake temperatures or ambient temps. My attic is unconditioned and sees temps ranging from 20’f-115’f

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I would keep it where it needs to work. You can use a controller like titan or something to get better humidity control. I found the quest doesn’t have pinpoint settings on their controls.

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I was really surprised that most quest units have a dial to control the humidity. I know they’re really comparable with controllers though, I’m guessing that’s for reliability. The new quest 100 has a digital display, I figured it would have a more accurate controller, but maybe not.

I thought about mounting in the closet attached to the grow room. It’s a nice 6x6 space but I don’t want to make supply and return holes in the wall. I could leave the door open or remove it completely, but I’m not sure how well the humidity would move from the grow room to closet without some sort of fan to move the air around. I could just run a duct from the dehumidifier supply and point it out the door. The mini split return duct is on the other side of the room so in theory it would pull the dry air across the space

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My Quest allows me to use other controllers - so you don’t have to use the on-board stuff at all, looks like the one you have is the same. I’ve seen some of these things shit the bed out of the box, so that’s possible. I’ve also seen people wire them incorrectly and duct them incorrectly. And I’ve seen drain pans back-up because people didn’t plumb them correctly. All three of those things caused them to be significantly less efficient than one might expect.

I’m running 15 Quest at my facility right now. Humidity is always in check, and they reduced my summer load much more than some other, I’ve got redundancy in each room…but I also don’t get error readings or failures from them very often, continuous operation for 11 months at this point.

I agree that hanging them is MUCH QUIETER. I have four hanging and 9 that are resting on the ceiling, those are much louder. You might also consider what you consider “loud” - as your decibel readings are pretty low. :slight_smile: I’ve got some much louder things for sure. You could insulate. We were already insulated to save on heating costs - so the mechanical area where they are is pretty loud, but the grow room is quiet (except for the FANS…)

You might do some calculations and see if you can duct it in your existing return ducting - pull it out of the duct, put it back into the same duct. If I recall correctly, you were going to do something like that with your lung room… using a couple of different options for your Split.

Also - Temperature matters for how dehums work. And so does total RH. So lowering temperature and lowering RH, you would expect to have less - right? Cause there is less physically available in the air.

So you’ll want to think about the temperature of the air going into your dehum (not just where your dehum is located).

You might also consider when are you seeing those spikes in humidity? I’m assuming the spikes are not happening at the same time as say… watering activities. I know my plants thrown down an extra 3-4% in first bit of time after of watering. And I can see it in my charts.

And I was just talking to the team about not putting plants in immediately after cleaning - because you need to give the system time to get back to normal after spraying everything down.

Let us know what you decide to do. <3

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There was a class action lawsuit fairly recently about those residential dehumidifiers catching fire. The units have a “constant on” setting and probably plastic bearings in the fan motors. If it never shuts off, it will probably at least melt at some point.

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I did expect it to pull less moisture when the temps and humidity were low, I was just expecting it to be oversized for the room and was surprised to see it struggle to get below 50% last night. I had watered a good 5 hours prior to lights out, 10 gallons over 15 plants. I gave the quest unit a good 3-4 hours before turning in the Hisense for the rest of the night. I’ll leave the quest on today and tonight and see how it does.

Originally I was going to hang it in my attic beside my mini split. The dehumidifier would have its intake air ducted into the return duct of the mini split, and exhaust into the supply. This would allow the dehumidifier to run when the mini split is off while using the same supply and return duct. It would also allow the dehumidifier to ensure it’s pulling in warmer more humid air from the return ducting of the mini split. I was going to duct the condensate line with the ac so they can both drain outside. This would free up floor space and move the noisy components like dehumidifier and ac into the insulated attic space.

I still haven’t confirmed the dehumidifier will run, being in an attic exposed to temperature ranging from 20-115’f. If ducted with the mini split, it would be pulling air from a sealed room that would never be outside of 64-74’f. I’ve read the manuals for different units, some list a an operating temperature based on intake air temperature, others simply list operating temperature range. Reading the quest manual, it says “designed to operate in temperatures between 56 and 95’f”. Then in the ducted install section it says “to avoid dehumidifier from cycling defrost, it’s recommended that the leaving air temperature of the a/c coil is not below 55’f.” When reading the manual for the Sante Fe oasis 105, which appears to be the same unit as the quest 100, claims “designed to operate between 49 and 115’f. If the inlet temperature is out of this range, the unit will display an error code and not operate.”

I was shopping anden, sante fe and aprilaire before I read that quest units, allegedly, use food grade components and I could reuse the water for plants. That spurred the idea of hanging it in my lung room and draining into a 30-55 gallon water tank and reusing the water for plants. After hearing how loud the unit is though, I’m not sure I want to listen to it. The lung room is also my office so sound is a consideration.

It’s good to hear that hanging them is much quieter. Because the fan noise isn’t a problem, but the compressor droning is obnoxious. Right now it’s sitting in some plastic/rubber sawhorse. But my house is built on a slab so the vibrations reverberate and can be heard much louder in other rooms when compared to this cheaper Hisense unit. I think hanging it in my closet would help reduce the volume a lot as well, I would just need to duct or circulate the air in and out, the closet doorway kind of makes a microclimate because air doesn’t circulate in and out very well

I’ve had the quest 100 running all day, it’s been doing well, steadily dropping humidity even with only being 72’f. It’s at 41% now, which is lower then my Hisense has been keeping it.

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Aye, the Hisense unit was intended to be temporary until I settled on a better more permanent solution. The first unit I got died after 2 weeks, just gave an error code. Returned it and got another one, I still have a week to return it to Lowe’s if I want

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Efficiency ratings drop dramatically as you lower temperature and humidity.

It is likely that the 100 is just not powerful enough to pull humidity out fast enough to beat transpiration rates in the temp range you’re operating to reach your goal of 35%.

Here’s a link to a few efficiency curves from Quest - the new 100 is not listed but could be expected to fall between the 70 and 195.

To run the numbers you’re shooting for you’d likely need a much larger daily capacity, or to allow your ambient temperature to be a bit higher.

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Thank you for this, I had not seen this graph and would have helped. Crazy to think the 70 pint, which I considered, would only pull a little over 10 pints/day at 63’f.

I wonder if the same level is degradation is experienced with portable units. They seem to have a much lower operating range, some listing as low as 32’f, with many as low as 39’f. Maybe they’re insulated or the way they function somehow keeps them warmer.

I notice the quest unit is cold, like the metal box is chilly. The mostly plastic Hisense unit has never felt anything but warm. I dont know if they function differently or if the condenser is just more insulated in the portable unit.

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You could make a trap for the “free,” water and have a pump, pump the water through some filters and pH balance the water. You could use a bucket, a pump, 2 filters and another bucket. All you gotta do is use the right fittings to make it all work.

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After reading long debates about the subject of collecting dehumidifier or ac water, in theory it is ok. However, based upon my own experience, the collected water will often have visible oils floating on the surface, typically due to poorly manufactured and/or degrading components. It just depends on the specific equipment from which the water is being collected.

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I didn’t think about the mystery lubes that can contaminate the water. … I guess maybe distill the water in a still that you set aside for distilling that collected water, would be a more healthier option before making a makeshift r./o. filter. :octopus:

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I’m an Anden man, luckily a buddy pointed me to them when I asked about how he liked his Quests.

I’ve had a few pretty good nerd out chats with the tech support line at Anden and they’ve always directed me to drain my dehumidifier condensate to waste, it definitely contains trace residues and oils that are not plant/root biome friendly.

From what I understood this is due to the condensate being acidic and over time dissolving the condenser components, leading to trace heavy metals and oils and anything that drips being brought into the water.

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