Comfee dehumidifier creating a weird toxic smell

Question

Recently bought a new Comfee Dehumidifier MDDF-16DEN7 WF and turned it on in a relatively small bedroom.

Even though it dropped the humidity from average of 90 to 60, it left a weird smell in the air which leads to coughing. To fix the smell I've opened the windows and ran a Blueair purifier. The Blueair purifier was in automatic mode and kept running intensively for quite some time.

Yesterday I connected it again, but this time together with the Blueair purifier. The weird smell still appeared.

Even though it's great to have the good levels of humidity, the weird / toxic smell isn't worth it.

What can I do with the dehumidifier now?

Answer 1

It's not uncommon for new appliances to emit fumes when first used. Common causes are over-lubrication, off-gassing of materials, and moving parts wearing in.

But coughing and "toxic smell" sounds like ozone. Short term exposure to ozone is irritating, and can be harmful to people with respiratory or other health issue. Long term exposure at even low levels can be harmful to anyone.

In appliances of this size, ozone is usually generated by high voltage components (in the kilovolt range). For example, poorly built high voltage drivers in old tube TV's would leak ozone. Laser printers and copiers generate ozone when printing.

Some air purifiers also generate tiny amounts of ozone to eliminate smoke and odors. If your appliance is just a dehumidifier, I can't imagine why it would be creating ozone. It's possible your dehumidifier uses ozone to controls odors, but it not at the levels you are describing. That indicates a fault with your dehumidifier.

I strongly recommend that you stop using it until you identify the cause.

Answer 2

The dehumidifer you are using is a desiccant dehumidifier. Desiccant dehumidifers use a crystal called zeolite to pull the water out of the air.

When the dehumidifer is running it is removing the moisture from the zeolite crystals using heat casuing the smell of the zeolite to be released into the air. This smell is non toxic. It affects all desiccant dehumidifers. This smell will go away eventually.

This is not a fault with the product. The literature it comes with will probably even mention it.

If the smell bothers you too much you can get a compressor dehumidifer that doesnt use zeolite in the process. However they are much more expensive and are aimed more at commerical spaces.