A Sunbeam DHC-20M Dehumidifier in the basement started acting up recently, first the side cover was getting hot then there was water leaking on the floor! Checking the owners manual I saw that it has a washable air filter that they recommend be cleaned monthly. In two years of use I’d never cleaned the filter, oops!
Disassembling the dehumidifier I found that the blocked filter had caused a refrigerant line to overheat melting the insulation installed over the copper tubing. The melted insulation allowed the plastic pipe for the optional house drain connection to melt causing the water leak.
I removed the damaged insulation and carefully scraped off the melted plastic from the soft copper tubing. Next I took off the drain pipe and cut down the rubber stopper from the back panel so that it worked to stop the outlet of the water collection tray (I don’t use the optional external drain). After reassembly the dehumidifier works perfectly and now that I’ll remember to clean the air filter it should use a little less electricity too.
Paul Hutchinson's Blog 