Bought a cheap dehumidifier from Walmart last month and my basement went from smelling like a wet dog to smelling like nothing in 3 weeks. | Front Porch Tales - Babble Community
Oh man, I did the exact same thing with my cheapie dehumidifier from Home Depot! I was running it on auto for like two weeks and still had that damp basement smell, then I switched to continuous low fan and boom, totally dry within a week. Actually noticed the coil wasn't freezing up as much on low either (that was a problem on auto for me). It's wild how much difference just the fan setting makes, right?
Man, that's exactly what happened with my old basement unit too. I had it cranking on the highest setting for weeks thinking more power meant more water pulled out, but switching to continuous low just made everything work better somehow. It makes no sense on paper but once you actually try it you never go back to auto mode.