Vintage Oasis Dehumidifier: averting disaster

[petek]

Well my fear came true today. Our hottest day of the year so far.. about 89 and I go out for a spin on my motorcycle. Come back, walk in the house and there's a burning, damp odor. I open the door to the basement and phewww. Head on down to my little workshop/furnace/computer/wall o applianace room and the floor is all wet. The bloody water heater has blown and why my fear because there's no floor drain in this basement of all things.. I knew that when we bought it in 06 and could never understand why a house with hot water heating, a hot water heater would never have a basement floor drain,, very odd. Anyways, thankfully most of my stuff was off the floor and my crazy rugs soaked up much of the water.. A little sucking with the Craftsman Wet/Dry vac and just the dampness remaining..
So I hustled over to moms basement and grabbed the vintage Oasis (by Ebco) dehumidifier my dad bought waaay back in the early 60's I remember him buying it but I was about 5 or 6 so 1961-62 ish. It still runs like a champ and it's purring away now drying out the basement.. Here it is

 

[petek]

Why can't they make things as good as this anymore...mom also has a Kenmore dehumidifier about 15 years old now but even it's not as whisper quiet as this thing is. It's really no louder than a table fan on medium or low.

 

[sudsmaster]

Wonderful that the vintage dehumidifier saved the day.

Other suggestions: replace that blown water heater with a tankless one, if possible. Also, invest in an inexpensive sump pump, one that drains through a pipe or hose outside through a window or hole in the wall. You might also want to sink a little pit in the floor for the sump pump to live. Most sump pumps come equipped with floats that turn the pump on automatically in the event of a flood... The pit could easily be created with an air hammer, and then lined with concrete patching compound... just a thought...

 

[petek]

Fortunately we "rent" our gas water heater from the utility so there's 24/7 free replacement within 24 hrs. They're to be here between 0700 & 0900 Monday morning. It's something like $15 per month rental. There was an article recently in our paper on tankless' and with the cost including rebates there really wasn't any savings over something like 15 years iirc and the "instant" wasn't as instant hot water when you have a large house with long travel for hot water pipes.

 

[tlee618]

Pete, sorry to hear about your "problem" look on the bright side though, you have a really clean basement floor now!! "ducking and running"!!! Terry

 

[scott55405]

My dad has a Kelvinator dehumidifier from that same era that looks almost just like that, only grey in color. I'm sure he bought it at the power company where he worked, since they sold Kelvinator products, among other things. He also has an RCA Whirlpool he bought at a sale somewhere. Both run perfectly.

Somewhere recently, I don't know where, I read that people struggle these days to get 5 years out of a dehumidifier. I guess it's just like new vs. old air conditioners.

 

[polkanut]

My parents have a Coldspot dehumidifier that they received as a wedding present in 1967, built like a tank, and as quiet as can be.