Dehumidifier Reviews
Buying the best dehumidifier for you home requires performing some due diligence. If this is the first time you’re dealing with dehumidifiers and you’re not a technical person then you’re probably looking for a set of buying guidelines that can help you identify the ideal one more quickly. If you are like most home owners with humidity issues, you’ve looked at endless types of dehumidifiers, read consumer reviews & buying guides, and you’ve probably talked with your neighbours and friends about the dehumidifier they use. Still, you may be having a hard time picking the best dehumidifier for your apartment. Choosing the best dehumidifier for your home depends on a few main factors, which can help you to narrow the field of choices. There are so many air dehumidifiers to choose from these days, but when your health and home confort are involved you need a solid choice. It’s our hope that our dehumidifier reviews together with other dehumidifier ratings you might read online will help you pick the best dehumidifier for your home.
What is a Dehumidifier ?
Dehumidifiers are great at drying out basements and other humid parts of the home. While you cannot control the outdoor humidity level, you can keep it under control within your home. Most experts will recommend you to have the relative indoor humidity level between 30% to 50% in the summer to prevent mold growth and minimize dust mites, while maintaining it between 30% to 40% during the winter to prevent the window condensation. I’ve found an interesting article about the indoor air quality at this link. It definitely helped me understand better some of the problems I was facing with. You might want to read it as well.
There are some dehumidifiers that have built-in humidistats, but if the model you’re planning to buy doesn’t have this feature you could use an indoor humidity meter (also known as a hygrometer) to constantly monitor your indoor humidity levels, allowing you to take the appropriate action if the levels are too high or too low. Purchasing a quality dehumidifier will help you remove the excess household moisture.
Most common problems caused by excess humidity are:
- mold, mildew & fungus
- dust mites (can cause problems for allergy sufferers)
- window condensation
- metal rust & wood warping
- millipedes & other pests that need a damp environment to live
Dehumidifier Buying Guide. Choosing the Best Dehumidifier.
Before making your purchase I think it’s always a good idea to take a few minutes for your own research. In comparison with the local hardware stores where you might have only few models to choose from, searching for dehumidifiers online you can find a wider range of models from various brands. For example on websites like Amazon.com, you can find plenty of models organized by feature, price, ratings & bestsellers with literally hundreds of dehumidifier reviews for almost all the major brands.
Having the possibility to analyze hundreds of dehumidifier reviews from consumers who actually purchased the exact model that you may have in mind, is one of the biggest advantages of buying dehumidifiers online. You would want to choose a dehumidifier that is highly efficient, durable, safe to use & has useful features at a price that suits your budget and consistently gets positive reviews.
What to look for in a dehumidifier ?
Not quite as easy as buying a shirt, based on your situation and personal preferences, a dehumidifier purchase requires a bit more time because there are so many factors to consider:
Dehumidification Performance:
Dehumidification performance is measured in pints per day and represents the amount of moisture extracted from the air in 24 hours. Remember that 2 US pints of water is approximately the equivalent of 1 litre. To be more precisely 1 US pint is 0.47 liters of water. Some people could easily get confused and fail to understand about what does the dehumidifier’s capacity refer to. Consider the following example: a 70 pint dehumidifier will remove up to 70 pints of moisture from the air in a 24-hour period.
Also, not to be confused with the water tank capacity, where the dehumidifier stores to moisture extracted from the air. While testing dehumidifiers, Consumer Reports (an US consumer organization) concluded that large capacity dehumidifiers are more energy efficient than smaller units.
The following chart will give you an idea about the dehumidifier pint capacity required for you actual conditions. You’ll need to know the size of the area (square feet) and then to assess the condition (dampness level).
| ↵ Sq.Feet | ||||||
| Moderately Damp (space feels damp and has musty odor only in humid weather) | ↵ pints | |||||
| Very Damp (space always feels damp and has musty odor. Damp spots show on walls and floor.) | ↵ pints | |||||
| Wet (space feels and smells wet. Walls or floor sweat, or seepage is present.) | ↵ pints | |||||
| Extremely Wet (laundry drying, wet floor, high load conditions.) | ↵ pints | |||||
Source: Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) |
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Find out first the surface area of the room with excess moisture in the air. Assess the dampness level of the room without any dehumidification and then analyze the chart above. Depending on the surface area
(square foot numbers in the chart, top-right) and dampness level (the left of the chart) you will find out the minimum pints/day capacity your dehumidifier needs to have. Then find out the best dehumidifier to buy for your current conditions, and try to go a little bit bigger if possible.
Considering the above table, if you have a small room that’s up to 500 square feet and you asses the dampness level to be moderately you could pick a dehumidifier with a capacity of 10 pints a day. But again, going a little further could also be ok just in case the moisture level will increase.
Energy Efficiency:
ENERGY STAR® is a government-backed program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. According to them, energy efficient dehumidifiers you could save at least 10% the amount of electricity required by the conventional models. I have found an interesting dehumidifier energy savings calculator on their website that will determine your approximate savings from switching to a new ENERGY STAR® qualified dehumidifier.
ENERGY STAR® defines energy factor as the number liters of water removed per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of energy consumed or L/kWh. On the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) website you can find a list with the Energy Factor for a lot of well-known dehumidifier brands. What I find really interesting is that the lower pints capacity dehumidifiers have also low energy factors. For example, the model Frigidaire FAD504DUD (50.0 Pints/24 hours capacity) has an EF (Energy Factor) of 1.6 while the model FAD704DUD (70.0 Pints/24 hours capacity) has an EF of 1.8. It’s easy to see that a larger capacity dehumidifier can bring significant energy savings during the time, while dehumidifying faster than a smaller model.
Dehumidifier noise:
Almost all the dehumidifiers will produce some noise. It really depends on the model & the numbers of speed options, as probably a dehumidifier on a lower speed should be quieter. Once you have identified the best dehumidifier for your home, prior to making your purchase, you can spend some time reading some dehumidifier reviews on large retail sites (like Amazon.com for example). Keep in mind the fact that we are all different and some might say that a model is noisy while others could find it ok. I think in the end it also depends if the dehumidifier will stay next to you, in the basement, bathroom, other small rooms or maybe on the corridor. It’s up to you if you rely on the dehumidifier ratings (positive or negative) given just because of the noise.
Low Temperature Operation:
The frost control feature could be a vital feature for you if you’re planning to use the dehumidifier in a cool room or basement for example. Don’t forget to double check this option with the manufacturer, or if you don’t know ask a local dehumidifier expert. Without this feature you’re dehumidifier could free and stop working properly. Also, you might find the dehumidifier reviews and ratings useful as well but don’t rely only on them if you’re not sure about it.
Water Tank Volume:
Taking into account the fact that some dehumidifiers have the power to extract between 10 to 35+ liters of water per day (depending on the conditions and dehumidifier pint capacity), the bigger the water tank is the better for you. That bucket will need regular emptying so look for bigger tanks if possible.
Automatic Shut-Off:
Some dehumidifiers can automatically turn off when the humidity level reached the limit you pre-defined, or when the water bucket is full, waiting you to empty it.
Continuous Drainage:
Dehumidifiers that come with this feature will save you from having to constantly empty the water tank manually. This way your dehumidifier could work uninterrupted until it reaches the desired humidity level whitin your home. Continuous drainage could be done with a gravity drain or a condensate pump allowing the water to be discharged at a level higher than the dehumidifier.
Built-in Humidistats:
This feature can easily allow you to adjust the dehumidifier settings to maintain the relative humidity at a certain desired level. The built in humidistat will switch the dehumidifier ON/OFF once the humidity level that you have set is reached.
Dehumidifier Portability
Planning to use the dehumidifier elsewhere later? maybe in the future you would like to move it in the basement or to another room? Having rolling casters or maybe a carry handle for easy portability would help you maneuver the dehumidifier easier.
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