Santa Fe Classic

The Santa Fe Classic is the most powerful of all the dehumidifiers covered in our sources. Capable of removing up to 110 pints of water from the air per day, it can dehumidify an area as large as 2,500 square feet. It is also extremely energy efficient, exceeding Energy Star requirements by a significant margin. Reviewers at AllergyBuyersClub.com, a retail site that supplies products for allergy sufferers, praise this dehumidifier's two-stage filtration system with a foam pre-filter and a pleated fabric filter. Both are washable, though they will need to be replaced after a couple of years.

However, they also note that this dehumidifier is not particularly quiet, and its 110-pound weight may make it hard to carry down to the basement. Two other drawbacks are the Classic's lack of a water-collection bin -- it must be hooked up to a floor drain by means of a hose -- and the fact that it cannot run at temperatures below 53 degrees Fahrenheit. If either of these problems is a deal breaker for you, consider the 70-pint Danby DDR7009REE (*Est. $210), which costs much less and gets excellent reviews for its performance and reliability.

The most thorough review of the Santa Fe Classic is at AllergyBuyersClub.com, where editors discuss its various features in detail. We also found more than 200 user reviews for this dehumidifier at Sylvane.com, DehumidifierExperts.com and AllergyBuyersClub.com. The Energy Star website run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy provides useful information about this dehumidifier's energy efficiency.