The Importance of Choosing the Right Dehumidifier: A Guide to Selecting the Best Unit for Your Home

Dehumidifiers are essential appliances for homes, especially those prone to moisture issues like basements and humid areas. When shopping for a dehumidifier, it's not just about its physical size that matters; rather, it's about considering factors such as capacity, features, and energy efficiency. In this article, we'll delve into the key aspects to consider when selecting the right dehumidifier for your home.

The Importance of Capacity

When choosing a dehumidifier, the first thing to consider is its capacity in pints of water removed per day. A larger capacity unit is generally more efficient at removing moisture from the air, and it's also quieter because you can run it on a lower fan speed. This means that if you're planning to use the dehumidifier in the same room, it will be significantly quieter than smaller units. It's essential to choose a unit with a capacity that meets your specific needs.

Frost Control: A Crucial Feature

Another feature to consider when shopping for a dehumidifier is frost control. If you plan to place the unit in an area where it may get cool, such as a basement or garage, frost control is essential. Without this feature, the coils can freeze and stop the unit from working altogether. Frost control helps prevent this issue by ensuring that the coils don't freeze, even when the temperature drops.

Auto Restart: A Lifesaving Feature

Another feature that's becoming increasingly important in dehumidifiers is auto restart. If the power goes out, some units won't come back on, while others will automatically start up again and return to their previous setting. This feature is a lifesaver, especially during power outages when you need your dehumidifier to keep your home comfortable.

The Truth About Energy Star Certification

One of the most misleading marketing terms in the appliance world is "Energy Star certification." While it may seem like a guarantee that an appliance is energy-efficient, the truth is more complex. The Energy Star program only compares individual capacities, so units with similar capacities are pitted against each other. In reality, larger dehumidifiers are often more efficient than smaller ones, despite not being compared to their peers.

The Importance of Relative Humidity

Finally, it's essential to understand the importance of relative humidity when choosing a dehumidifier. The ideal range for maintaining relative humidity in your home is between 30 and 60%. While all dehumidifiers can maintain this range, some are better than others at doing so consistently.

Our Testing Methodology

At our publication, we take testing methodology very seriously. To ensure that our ratings are accurate and reliable, we use a rigorous testing protocol. We place each unit in an environmental chamber and ramp up the humidity to test its performance under various conditions. We then compare the results to determine which units excel and which ones fall short.

Conclusion

Choosing the right dehumidifier for your home requires careful consideration of several factors, including capacity, features, energy efficiency, and relative humidity maintenance. By understanding these key aspects and choosing a unit that meets your specific needs, you can enjoy a comfortable and dry living space. Be sure to check our ratings to see which dehumidifiers excel in each category.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: endehumidifiers are great at drying out basements and other humid parts of the home I'm here with product tester John galta who's going to explain what you need to look for when you're shopping for one so John tell us does size matter size does matter and bigger is better but it's not the physical size of the unit it's the capacity and these dehumidifiers claim capacities in pints of water removed per day and the reason you want a bigger capacity unit is that they're more efficient at removing water out of the air the other benefit is that you can run them on a lower fan speed so if you're going to be in the same room where they're running it's going to be a lot quieter okay so what other features does should a consumer think about when they're shopping around Frost control is important if you're going to put the unit in a place where it gets cool because what will happen is the coils can freeze and it'll stop the unit from working another feature is auto restart if the power goes out for any reason some units will not come back on where others will come back on and they'll be at the setting that you left them at okay now energy star should Shoppers really rely on that little blue label for dehumidifiers not really and the reason is is that the qualifications for de idif is energy stall looks at each individual capacity so they're comparing only small units to small units and large units to large units what we did is we looked at the Energy Efficiency among all capacities and we found that the larger units are much more efficient than the smaller units and these units use a lot of electricity so that can mean a big difference in the amount of money you pay each month okay now we recommend homeowners maintain relative humidity somewhere between 30 and 60% can all dehumidifiers maintain a accurate relative humidity no and the way we tested for that is we put each unit in an environmental chamber and we were able to ramp up the humidity and ramp it back down and had the units set at particular points and we were able to see when they turned on and when they turned off some were much better than others and you'll need to go to our ratings to see which ones those were okay we'll do John thanks I'm Dan de clerico senior editor for home and garden and be sure to check those ratingsdehumidifiers are great at drying out basements and other humid parts of the home I'm here with product tester John galta who's going to explain what you need to look for when you're shopping for one so John tell us does size matter size does matter and bigger is better but it's not the physical size of the unit it's the capacity and these dehumidifiers claim capacities in pints of water removed per day and the reason you want a bigger capacity unit is that they're more efficient at removing water out of the air the other benefit is that you can run them on a lower fan speed so if you're going to be in the same room where they're running it's going to be a lot quieter okay so what other features does should a consumer think about when they're shopping around Frost control is important if you're going to put the unit in a place where it gets cool because what will happen is the coils can freeze and it'll stop the unit from working another feature is auto restart if the power goes out for any reason some units will not come back on where others will come back on and they'll be at the setting that you left them at okay now energy star should Shoppers really rely on that little blue label for dehumidifiers not really and the reason is is that the qualifications for de idif is energy stall looks at each individual capacity so they're comparing only small units to small units and large units to large units what we did is we looked at the Energy Efficiency among all capacities and we found that the larger units are much more efficient than the smaller units and these units use a lot of electricity so that can mean a big difference in the amount of money you pay each month okay now we recommend homeowners maintain relative humidity somewhere between 30 and 60% can all dehumidifiers maintain a accurate relative humidity no and the way we tested for that is we put each unit in an environmental chamber and we were able to ramp up the humidity and ramp it back down and had the units set at particular points and we were able to see when they turned on and when they turned off some were much better than others and you'll need to go to our ratings to see which ones those were okay we'll do John thanks I'm Dan de clerico senior editor for home and garden and be sure to check those ratings\n"