Humidifiers and Dehumidifiers - 2nd hand dehumidifiers

I picked up a couple of small dehumidifiers from Goodwill. I think they hold 2.5 gallons and have a connection so they can be attached to a drain. I set them to 50% humidity and noticed they dont come on util the humidity is over 70% or go off until around 40%. Both units seem to work about the same so I am wondering if this is component failure or just the nature of the beast. I got these units to assist my HVAC in removing moisture.

Since I added some solar shielding on the west wall of the house and improved my attic insulation and a few other things the house stays a lot cooler and the AC doesnt run enough to keep the humidity down. I know I could crank the T'stat down to 72 or so but this causes problems for my wife so I try to maintain the temp around 77F plus or minus a couple.

One thing that seems to help is using a programable T'stat and I set it up to vary the temp a few degrees during the day swinging it from 79 to 75.

I thought I would save some money by making my house easier to cool now I have to make my AC less efficent to get rid of moisture. Some days it just doesnt pay to get out of bed.

Sounds like the "nature of the beast". 2nd hand humidifiers were there because they didn't do what the original owners expected. Not a bad deal but not perfect. Looks like you either pay for perfection or live with what you have. Good luck.

Thanks but I dont think I will need the extra dehumidifiers now. I turned off the water to my humidifier and discover I no longer have a humidity problem. Apparently the solenoid valve has a leak and was causing water to be contiuously feed to the humidifier. Since this happened right after making the insulation and thermal upgrades I jumped to an erroneous conclusion.

Oh well, I got the dehumidifiers real cheap and I still have a use for them.