What DryBook Equipment Tracks
The Equipment section in DryBook is used to record and track the drying equipment placed on the job. It records where equipment is placed, when it was installed, and when it was removed, giving you a complete timeline of your drying setup.
Equipment can include:
- Air movers
- Dehumidifiers
- Air scrubbers
- Heaters
- Large fans
- Specialty drying equipment, such as Injectidry systems and floor mats
Why This Matters
- It tracks how much equipment is used on a job.
- It supports billing and invoicing, since equipment charges flow from these records.
- It helps you verify that the amount and type of equipment is appropriate for the affected area.
Any equipment logged here is available when building invoices, and can be reviewed later for equipment usage across projects.
Adding Equipment
- Go to the Equipment tab in DryBook.
- Click Add Equipment. The side pane opens.
- Choose the chamber and the room the equipment is going into.The equipment list stays locked until both are chosen, because the list depends on where the equipment is going.
- Select the equipment you are placing. The equipment recommendations will not appear immediately. The dehumidifier recommendations appear once you select a chamber, and the Air Mover recommendations appear once you select a room. Ticking an air mover will not move the dehumidification count, and vice versa — each item counts toward its own equipment type.
- Enter the details for each item:
- Equipment type, such as air mover or dehumidifier
- Specific unit, if you track by ID or serial number
- Placement date
- Removal date, when it is eventually pulled
- Any additional notes, for example stacked, pointing to an exterior wall, or placed under cabinetry
- Click Save to log the equipment. The tiles refresh once the save completes.
Note: Equipment already placed in the target room is left out of the list, because picking it again would not change anything. Equipment in use on another project still appears, but Albi will ask you to confirm before reassigning it.
Note: Equipment marked as removed stops counting toward the recommendation tiles, which is why a tile can go back to amber or red after a demobilisation.
Note: Equipment listed at the bottom of the Basic Info tab can also be added directly to DryBook from that section.
Moving Equipment Between Rooms
Use the Move Equipment side pane to relocate a unit that is already placed.
While a move is in progress, the destination's recommendation tile counts the unit as though it were already there, so you can see the effect of the move before committing to it. Nothing is saved until you save.
- Cancelling the move leaves everything as it was.
- Choosing the room the unit is already in will not count it twice.
Equipment Recommendations
Once you have entered your DryBook details, Albi calculates how much drying equipment the affected areas call for, following the IICRC S500 standard. There are two separate recommendations:
- Air movers — calculated per room, from that room's affected floor, wall and ceiling areas, plus one extra for every deep offset or inset.
- LGR dehumidification — calculated per chamber, from the total volume of every room in the chamber and the chamber's water class.
Each recommendation appears as a tile showing what is required, how much you have already placed, and a colour telling you at a glance whether you are there yet. Every tile expands to show the figures the number came from, so you can justify the count to an adjuster without redoing the arithmetic by hand.
Note: These are recommendations, not limits. Albi will never stop you placing fewer or more units than recommended. The tile only reports what the standard calls for against what you have placed — the final call is yours, based on what you are seeing on site.
Where the Recommendation Tiles Appear
| Where | Which tiles |
|---|---|
| The Chambers tab, recommendation card | The selected chamber's dehumidification |
| The Chambers tab, rooms card | Air movers for every room in the chamber |
| A room's details card | That room's air movers |
| Add Equipment side pane | The target chamber and room, updating as you tick items |
| Move Equipment side pane | The chamber and room currently selected as the destination |
The same recommendations are available in the Albi mobile app. Albi calculates the numbers once and shows the same result in both places, so mobile and web always agree for the same DryBook.
Reading a Recommendation Tile
A collapsed tile shows four things:
- Title — either "Air movers" or "LGR dehumidification".
- Subtitle — the room or chamber name, then what is required. Air movers show a range, for example "7-10 reqd", unless the low and high ends happen to be the same, in which case you will see a single number.
- Placed count — how many of that equipment type are currently placed in that room (air movers) or chamber (dehumidifiers).
- Status colour.
| Colour | Air movers | Dehumidification |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Nothing placed | Nothing placed |
| Amber | Some placed, but fewer than the low end of the range | Not used |
| Green | The low end of the range is reached or passed | At least one placed |
Note: Green means you are inside the recommended range, not at the top of it. A room recommending 7-10 air movers turns green at 7. Anything from 7 upward meets the standard.
Click a tile to expand it and see every figure behind the number. That expanded view answers most questions about why a recommendation is what it is.
Air Movers: How the Number Is Calculated
The Measurements Albi Starts From:
The room's own dimensions, entered or drawn on the room's layout page, give:
- Floor area — length × width
- Ceiling area — the same as the floor
- Wall area — 2 × (length + width) × ceiling height
Each surface then has an affected portion. You can enter that as a percentage or as an area, and Albi shows the other one alongside it so both are always visible.
Note: Floor area, ceiling area, wall area and wall length are always calculated from the room's dimensions or its sketch, and are read-only. There is no manual override — to change them, change the dimensions or the sketch. Only the affected percentages and areas are typed in by hand.
The Bottom of the Wall Is Excluded
Air movers dry the upper wall, so Albi leaves out the bottom of every wall before calculating: the bottom 2 ft in imperial, or the bottom 60 cm in metric. The wall figure Albi uses is therefore 2 × (length + width) × (height − 2 ft), then the affected percentage.
The expanded tile shows this as Affected wall above 2 ft (or above 60 cm), on its own line, next to Affected floor and Affected ceiling.
The wall and ceiling figures are added together before being divided, so those two lines add up to the number the "Wall+ceil AMs" row divides. This is why the wall and ceiling counts are not two separate calculations added together.
Offsets and Insets
On the room's layout page there is a counter for offsets and insets — alcoves, bays, closets and similar recesses deeper than 18 in (imperial) or 45 cm (metric). Each one adds one air mover, because air will not turn the corner into a recess on its own.
The counter cannot go below zero. Recesses shallower than the threshold should not be counted, since counting them will raise your recommendation.
The Full Calculation
| Component | Imperial | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Room baseline | 1 per room | 1 per room |
| Floor air movers | low = affected floor ÷ 70 high = ÷ 50 |
low = ÷ 6.5 high = ÷ 4.5 |
| Wall and ceiling air movers | low = (affected wall + ceiling) ÷ 150 high = ÷ 100 |
low = ÷ 14 high = ÷ 9.3 |
| Offsets and insets | +1 each | +1 each |
Every division rounds up to the next whole air mover. The two ends of the range are then:
- Low = 1 + floor low + wall/ceiling low + offsets
- High = 1 + floor high + wall/ceiling high + offsets
Worked Example: Imperial
A 12 ft × 10 ft room with a 9 ft ceiling, everything 100% affected, and one alcove:
| Step | Figure |
|---|---|
| Affected floor | 12 × 10 = 120 ft² |
| Affected wall above 2 ft | 2 × (12 + 10) × (9 − 2) = 308 ft² |
| Affected ceiling | 120 ft² |
| Wall + ceiling combined | 308 + 120 = 428 ft² |
| Room baseline | 1 |
| Floor air movers | 120 ÷ 70 = 1.71 rounds to 2 low 120 ÷ 50 = 2.4 rounds to 3 high |
| Wall and ceiling air movers | 428 ÷ 150 = 2.85 rounds to 3 low 428 ÷ 100 = 4.28 rounds to 5 high |
| Offsets | +1 |
| Total | 7-10 air movers |
The tile reads "7-10 reqd" and turns green once 7 are placed.
Worked Example: Metric
A 4 m × 3 m room with a 2.4 m ceiling, everything 100% affected, and no offsets:
| Step | Figure |
|---|---|
| Affected floor | 4 × 3 = 12 m² |
| Affected wall above 60 cm | 2 × (4 + 3) × (2.4 − 0.6) = 25.2 m² |
| Affected ceiling | 12 m² |
| Wall + ceiling combined | 37.2 m² |
| Floor air movers | 12 ÷ 6.5 rounds to 2 low 12 ÷ 4.5 rounds to 3 high |
| Wall and ceiling air movers | 37.2 ÷ 14 rounds to 3 low 37.2 ÷ 9.3 rounds to 4 high |
| Total | with the room baseline, 6-8 air movers |
Very Small Rooms
A room with a floor area under 25 ft² (imperial) or 2.3 m² (metric) will only ever recommend the single baseline air mover, whatever the surfaces work out to — a closet does not need four air movers.
The expanded tile says so: a note under the total explains that rooms below the threshold get the baseline only, so the surface figures shown above it are not counted.
LGR Dehumidification: How the Number Is Calculated
This recommendation is per chamber, not per room, because a chamber is dried as one air space.
Chamber Volume
Albi adds up the volume of every room in the chamber, each being length × width × ceiling height.
Water Class
The chamber's class can be set manually, or left on Auto. On Auto, Albi works it out from how much of the chamber's surface area is affected:
- For each room, affected area = (floor × floor %) + (ceiling × ceiling %) + (wall × wall %).
- For each room, total area = floor + ceiling + wall.
- Both are added up across every room in the chamber, then affected ÷ total gives a percentage.
| Affected surface area | Class on Auto |
|---|---|
| Under 5% | Class 1 |
| 5% to 40% | Class 2 |
| Over 40% | Class 3 |
| Not applicable | Class 4 is a manual selection only, and is never chosen automatically |
Class Factors
Required capacity is the chamber volume divided by the factor for its class, rounded up:
| Class | Imperial (pints/day) | Metric (litres/day) |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | volume ÷ 100 | volume ÷ 6 |
| Class 2 | volume ÷ 50 | volume ÷ 3 |
| Class 3 | volume ÷ 40 | volume ÷ 2.4 |
| Class 4 | volume ÷ 40 | volume ÷ 2.4 |
The expanded tile shows the chamber volume, the factor, and the division itself as a caption, for example "1,890 ft³ ÷ 50", so you can check it.
Note: Class 4 also shows a desiccant note. Class 4 is deeply held moisture in low-evaporation materials, where LGR refrigerant dehumidification alone is usually not the right tool. The note is advisory — Albi still shows the LGR figure.
Worked Example: Imperial
A chamber with two rooms, 12 × 10 × 9 ft and 10 × 9 × 9 ft, on Class 2:
| Step | Figure |
|---|---|
| Room volumes | 1,080 ft³ and 810 ft³ |
| Chamber volume | 1,890 ft³ |
| Class 2 factor | 50 |
| Required | 1,890 ÷ 50 = 37.8 rounds to 38 pints/day |
The tile reads "38 pts/day reqd" and turns green once one dehumidifier is placed.
Note: Albi counts units, not capacity. One dehumidifier turns the tile green even when 38 pints per day are required, because Albi cannot tell whether the unit you placed actually delivers 38 pints per day. Matching capacity to the requirement is still up to you — a green tile confirms something is placed, not that it is big enough.
How Counts Update as You Work
The placed count is not only what is saved. It follows what you are doing, so the tile always reflects the state you are looking at.
- While picking equipment to add, every ticked item counts immediately, before saving. Ticking an air mover never moves the dehumidification count and vice versa, because each item is counted by its equipment type.
- While moving equipment, the destination's tile counts the unit being moved as though it were already there, so you can see the effect before committing. Nothing is saved until you save.
- After adding, removing or moving, the tiles refresh on their own — on web when the save completes, and on mobile when you land back on the equipment page.
What Changes a Recommendation
If a number changes unexpectedly, it is almost always one of these:
| Change | Effect |
|---|---|
| Room dimensions or ceiling height edited | Both recommendations change, since volume feeds dehumidification |
| Affected percentages or areas edited | Both change |
| Offsets and insets counter changed | Air movers change by one per offset |
| A room added to or removed from a chamber | Chamber volume changes, so dehumidification changes |
| Chamber class changed, or Auto recalculating | Dehumidification changes |
| Unit system changed | The figures are restated in the other system's units and divisors |
| Equipment marked as removed | It stops counting toward the recommendation, so a tile can return to amber or red |
Frequently Asked Questions
My room is asking for far too many air movers.
Expand the tile. Usually one of two things is happening: the affected percentages are still at 100% for all three surfaces when only part of the room is actually wet, or the offsets counter has been used for shallow recesses. Both will raise the count legitimately.
Why is there a range instead of one number?
The standard gives a range per square foot of affected surface, so Albi shows both ends. The low end is the minimum that meets the standard; the high end dries faster. Anything within the range is compliant.
When exactly does the air mover tile turn green?
When the placed count reaches the low end of the range. A 7-10 room is green at 7.
A closet is only recommending one air mover. Is that right?
Yes. Rooms under 25 ft² (2.3 m²) only recommend the single baseline unit, and the expanded tile shows a note saying so.
The wall figure looks smaller than I expected.
The bottom 2 ft (60 cm) of every wall is deliberately excluded, since air movers are drying the upper wall. The tile labels this "Affected wall above 2 ft".
Why do the wall and ceiling air movers not add up if I calculate them separately?
The wall and ceiling areas are added together first and then divided once. Dividing each one separately and adding the results rounds up twice, which gives a higher number than Albi shows.
What counts as an offset or inset?
A recess deeper than 18 in (45 cm), such as an alcove, bay or closet opening. Each adds one air mover. Shallower recesses should not be counted.
The dehumidification tile is green with one small dehumidifier, but the chamber needs 38 pints.
Albi counts units, not capacity. Matching capacity to the requirement is still up to you.
The chamber class changed on its own.
The chamber is on Auto, and an edit to a room's dimensions or affected areas moved the affected percentage across a class boundary, at 5% and 40%. Setting the class manually stops this.
Why can Auto not pick Class 4?
Class 4 describes deeply held moisture in materials like hardwood, plaster and concrete, which cannot be inferred from areas and percentages. It is a manual selection.
I do not see a dehumidification tile at all.
The chamber has no water class resolved yet, so there is nothing to divide by. Set a class, or give the chamber rooms with dimensions so Auto can work one out.
The placed count went up before I saved anything.
That is expected. Ticked items in the picker, and the destination of a move in progress, are counted live so you can see the result before saving. Nothing is stored until you save.
Do mobile and web show the same numbers?
Yes. Albi calculates the numbers once and shows the same result in both places. If you see different numbers on the two apps, one screen is showing older data — reopen the page on web, or leave and re-enter the equipment page on mobile.
Why can I not edit the floor, wall or ceiling area directly?
Those figures are always calculated from the room's dimensions or its sketch, on both apps. To change them, edit the dimensions or the sketch. Only the affected percentages and areas are typed in by hand.
Some equipment is missing from the picker.
Equipment already placed in the target room is hidden on purpose. Equipment in use on another project still appears, but will ask you to confirm before it is reassigned.
The equipment list in the side pane is greyed out.
That is expected until both a chamber and a room are chosen. The list unlocks as soon as both are set.