Well, I am on my third dehumidifier in two weeks. I want to keep the humidity in my storage closet below 45%.

There are small dehumidifiers without compressors. They are cheaper and give off much less heat, which is important in a small area. The small ones may burn out if you run them often, or for longer than the 12 hours recommended. I proved it.

The larger ones without compressors still give off to much heat for a 9x4x8 closet; but get the job done.

The best thing to do, so it seems, is to get a larger one with a compressor and run it outside the closet. It looks like I will run it every other day for around 10 hours.

The library of congress says to keep humidity at 35% for books. Most other reputable sites say between 40-50%, which is safe and comfortable for people. As any cigar smoker knows, humidity changes with temperature and pure random who-the-hell-knows. Its also near impossible to get more accurate measurement than +/-3%. Testing two hygrometers and averaging the two is about as close as you can get to satisfying obsessive paranoia.

Catharsis off. Thanks!

I really enjoyed reading your experience with dehumidifiers. I don't have much experience with them... Arizona. Even if you can't hit the target humidity, seems like every ten percent you can knock off ambient would be beneficial.