Dehumidifiers Reviews

In analyzing the best professional and consumer reviews for dehumidifiers, we were surprised to find a pretty big split of opinions. There were often outright contradictions between what professional research revealed and what was experienced by owners of some dehumidifiers.

Since we found so many differences between the findings of the pros and among owners, we balanced the results of expert tests against user ratings at Amazon.com, Sears.com and Epinions. More often than not, the sticking point was durability. An expert reviewer, such as Good Housekeeping or Consumer Reports, would find a certain dehumidifier performed very well in tests designed to measure effectiveness, ease of use and reliability in the short term, but owners would report long-term problems.

For example, GoodHousekeeping.com tests six dehumidifiers based on effectiveness, noise level and ease of use. While the Kenmore 70-Pint 54701 (*est. $200) is recommended by editors, we found extremely negative reviews at Sears.com for this dehumidifier. In close to two hundred user reviews, owners fault everything from its overall usability to its bulky design and reliability. For this reason we couldn't include this model in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers, despite its being popular with professional reviewers.

Comfort-Aire also sells versions under its own name, including the 65-pint Comfort-Aire BHD-651 (*est. $260) and 50-pint Comfort-Aire BHD-501 (*est. $270) . We did not find as many reviews for these dehumidifiers, but most comments echo those for the Kenmore-branded models, with complaints about reliability.

The Haier HD306 (*est. $160) also faces much of the same controversy as the Kenmore dehumidifiers. While earning some considerable praise from the pros, there are only a sprinkling of positive reviews at Amazon.com for other dehumidifiers in this line, such as the Haier HDN455 45-Pint Capacity Mechanical Control Dehumidifier (*est. $170) , which earns mixed reviews at best. 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 CFM-25E (*est. $150) and 40-pint Soleus CFM-40E (*est. $215) receive mainly good reviews from owners.

However, sprinkled amid the generally favorable reviews are a few considerably troubling stories about Soleus's customer service. Owners report that it's next to impossible to get a person on the phone. No support phone number is currently listed on the Soleus website. While most owners with working Soleus dehumidifiers seem happy with them, we find the severity of the customer-service complaints to be troubling. It should also be said, however, that we found at least a small percentage of complaints for every single brand and that -- in the case of dehumidifiers -- customer experiences seem to range far and wide for nearly every product in the category.  ... Continued

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

We found very few professional reviews for dehumidifiers. However, we did find a large number of owner-written ratings for dehumidifiers. Some expert reviewers recommend buying virtually any dehumidifier based on size and efficiency, but we found notable differences in owner-written reviews when it comes to durability and customer service. The chart above includes picks in professional testing; we corroborated these results with user reviews at Amazon.com, Sears.com, Walmart.com and Epinions.