Possible stupid question: Dehumidifier for drying cabinet

socceronly said:

I have never used, or even seen a dehumidifier before.

Do they work like a windoe air conditioner, as in you need a break between the closed system and another to move the heat to?

Do I just sit the thing inside the cabinet or does it need to have the back end outside of the cabinet?

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A dehumidifier puts off a fair amount of heat...so you will probably need to vent your cabinet or it is going to get very warm in there. The larger the dehumidifier the more heat it will produce.

I just installed / placed a very small dehumidifer in my cabinet , it reduced drying time to 3 hrs instead of over night .
My cabinet holds 10 newman frames , the dehumidifer is a small 2 pint unit so not much heat
not sure why I waited so long to do this

Actually, heat in the drying cabinet is not a bad thing, as that helps to lower the relative humidity--which is the point, after all. The only bad aspect to that is it reduces the efficiency of the dehumidifier since it has to work in a warmer environment. Of course, don't want to go crazy hot in the cabinet, as that will ruin some emulsions, and probably cook the dehumidifier too.

If i need a screen dried quickly I put a small space heater in my cabinet. Works great for drying screens in 2-3 hours, just remember to turn it off when you leave for the day!