AprilAire 76 Digital Wall Mount Dehumidifier Control

love that I can now control my dehumidifier from upstairs, less having to go into the crawlspace to check the humidity levels. Easy to install, good directions. would buy again A++

Works as expected. If you want the Dehumidifier to read the humidity at the location of Model 76 and not at the location of the device (1850 in my case), you have to setup the device to run in External Control mode. I had issues in making the device work in External Control mode and I could not find any documentation on the internet on how to address it. Eventually, I was able to fix the issue with help of Brent at technical support at Aprilaire. I am documenting the solution below.Solution:The main problem is unclear documentation. The model 76 remote works just fine in external control mode. You have to wire it as described, turn it on and let it be for at least 3 minutes. After 3 minutes the machine will turn on and you will see dehumidifying on the top right of the screen. Neither the Model 76 nor the main screen on the dehumidifier will give any display readout about it (it just appears that model 76 is on and nothing is happening at the dehumidifier). This is not documented in the installation instructions manual and what confused me / threw me off was the fact that when you use the same device in remote control mode it doesn't take 3 minutes to turn on, It just turns on immediately.I am assuming that it is performing air sampling at the model 76 location for 3 minutes before it turns on the machine but without any readout, I cannot be sure. Brent will try to have a reply written from Aprilaire's account about this and he will try to have them include this in the instructions manual down the line as well.

Wiring was fairly easy, recommend that you triple check that each wire (4) attach where it should on the dehumidifier control panel. Would be super nice if they simply setup their controller and their dehumidifier to wire 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, & 4-4 for basic controller powering and operating rather than the diagram with small faint lines showing wires crossing over one another. Much easier to color code and numerically number both to match. Would make wiring the controller more user friendly and remove any possible human error.Only reason I didn’t give the product five stars is due to the programming. Really wish the programmer would have designed these AprilAire Controllers to set the unit to specific RH% “range” (ex, 50%-55%) rather than Levels 1 thru 7 option of which is difficult to determine if the dehumidifier operates better or worse (we did not see any difference between Level 3 and Level 6 setting). Along with following the installation recommendation per manual, you’ll start at a lower Level (3?) for 24hrs and allow the unit to sample the atmosphere and then you can determine if you’d like the unit to power on more frequently depending on % humidity shown on controller. We have operated our new dehumidifier on a lower and higher level setting and haven’t seen the % humidity differ on controller display. We believe the dehumidifier is programmed to run as efficiently as possible (duty cycles) and pretty much runs itself.

The product was used with Aprilaire 1880 dehumidifier. It is very basic and serves the purpose and Gauranteed to work with other aprilaire products. Installation is straight forward (basic 3 wire tstat). A little pricey but compatible.

Good to have an interface that doesn't have me crawling around under the house

Works great as a remote for a dehumidifier in the crawl space.

I would say that the Model 76 is very simple to install. Based on readings from a nearby hygrometer, it seems to be accurate... when nothing's running. When the dehumidifier (Aprileaire 1830) or the AC are running, the humidity rating nosedives. When they stop running, the number goes shooting back up to above threshold. This causes the dehumidifier to cycle pretty often. Comparably, the humidity % on my hygrometer nearby shows steady declines and increases. When nothing is running - the numbers on the two devices agree... when either system is running, there will be a 4-5 % difference (lower) between the hygrometer and the humidistat. I know I can set an offset on this thing but I feel like that'll just move the peak of the curve.Curious to hear thoughts.

I had a Dehumidifier installed in my crawlspace. I didn't want to crawl into my crawlspace to check the unit and the humidity level and/if the unit has a error code on the display. So I installed this unit (in my closet) and configured it as a remote device. I can now see the current humidity levels in my crawlspace and if the unit has an issue, I'll know ASAP.Easy install (4 wires) and 2 switches to change on the dehumidifier. Instructions have all the details needed.