Dehumidifier Review

Durability is a key factor when evaluating dehumidifiers

In analyzing professional and consumer reviews of dehumidifiers, we were surprised to find considerable difference between what professional reports focus on and what owners discuss. More often than not, the sticking point is durability, something professional reviewers typically don't discuss. Expert reviewers at Good Housekeeping magazine or ConsumerReports.org, for example, may find a certain dehumidifier performs very well in tests designed to measure effectiveness, ease of use and reliability in the short term, while owners writing at Amazon.com, Sears.com and Epinions.com are likely to report dehumidifier problems that crop up over time and their attempts to deal with them.

Among brands, few have better name recognition than Kenmore, a Sears exclusive. But none of the professional sources we consulted recommend Kenmore dehumidifiers, which are manufactured by Comfort-Aire. Instead, we turned to consumer reviews at Sears.com. The majority of owner-written reviews for the company's three dehumidifiers -- the 35-pint Kenmore 54351 (*Est. $160), the 50-pint Kenmore 54501 (*Est. $200) and the 70-pint Kenmore Elite 515101-KM (*Est. $300) -- are critical, with numerous complaints about poor durability. Many owners say these dehumidifiers don't last more than one or two seasons.

Comfort-Aire also sells dehumidifiers under its own name, including the 65-pint Comfort-Aire BHD-651 (*Est. $295) and 50-pint Comfort-Aire BHD-501 (*Est. $230). We did not find many reviews for these dehumidifiers, but most user comments echo those for the Kenmore-branded models, with complaints about reliability.

Like the Kenmore dehumidifiers, the Haier HD306 (*Est. $190), a 30-pint unit, also receives mixed reviews. While earning some considerable praise from a leading product-testing publication, there are only a handful of lukewarm owner reviews at Amazon.com; other dehumidifiers in this line, such as the Haier HDN455 45-Pint Capacity Mechanical Control Dehumidifier (*Est. $170), also earn mixed reviews. Many of the reviews cite problems with reliability and ease of use.

We found the greatest volume of user-generated reviews for Soleus dehumidifiers. The 25-pint Soleus Air CFM-25E (*Est. $200) and 40-pint Soleus Air CFM-40E (*Est. $195) receive mainly good reviews from owners. However, sprinkled amid the generally favorable reviews are a few considerably troubling stories about Soleus' customer service. Owners report that it's next to impossible to get a person on the phone, and we couldn't find a customer-support phone number on the Soleus website.

While most consumers who buy Soleus dehumidifiers seem happy with them, we find the severity of the customer-service complaints to be troubling. It should be said, however, that we found at least a small percentage of similar complaints for every single brand, and customer experience in general seems to vary considerably for nearly every product in the dehumidifier category.