How to make an LG LD301EL dehumidifier drain the water out of a hose instead of the bucket

Last Updated on November 28, 2015 by Dave Farquhar

I recently came into possession of an LG LD301EL dehumidifier. It was supposed to be draining out of the hose, but it wasn’t. I figured out why.

If you have one of these or a similar dehumidifier, chances are you have the same problem. The instructions on the back of the dehumidifier aren’t as clear as they could be and the diagrams are tiny. The manual doesn’t quite seem to explain it either. If you don’t have the manual and don’t want to download one from a dodgy web site–and as a computer security professional I recommend that you don’t (more on that at the end)–here’s how to get it done.

To hook up the hose, there’s a cap on the drain in the back. On some dehumidifiers, you unscrew the cap, hook up a hose, and you’re done. But not this one.

On this one, and perhaps others, you have to remove the bucket. Above the bucket, there’s a threaded drain, just like the one on the back of the unit. Take the cap that you removed so you could hook up the hose and screw it onto the drain above the bucket, then replace the bucket.

If you don’t do that part, the water continues to drain into the bucket while the hose stays dry.

So what do you do if the previous owner discarded the cap? A 3/4-inch threaded hose cap from a hardware store is a suitable replacement and costs less than $2. In a pinch, you can improvise with the cap from a 20 oz soda bottle, but a considerable amount of water will leak into the bucket unless you wrap the threads with a couple of layers of Teflon tape, and then there are still no guarantees. I speak from experience.

If you have an LG dehumidifier and can’t figure out why it won’t drain out of the hose, you probably know now everything you wanted to know and don’t need the manual.

Now, about downloading owners manuals from web sites other than the original manufacturer… The problem with doing that is that it’s rather simple for someone to embed malware in an Adobe PDF file, which is the format owners manuals are distributed in. I’m not saying that the people who archive owners manuals and redistribute them do that, because I don’t know that they do. But I can’t prove that they don’t, either.

If you’re in a bind and you need a manual, at the very least, use something other than Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. I’ve written about alternative PDF viewers before. And if you’re using a Windows PC, it’s a good idea to protect whatever PDF viewer you use with Microsoft EMET, which is free.

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