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Rain and the cold weather can pose a challenge when it comes to humidity in your home. The more humid it gets, the worse it is for your house. Humidity makes a space damper, promoting the growth of mold and mildew. Ideally, your home should stay at 30 to 50 percent humidity, says Melanie Carver, chief mission officer for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA). “If indoor humidity is above 50 percent, mold and dust mites will thrive. These can cause allergy symptoms and/or trigger asthma.”
Dehumidifiers work by drawing water out of the air and storing it in a tank; (though you’ll need to empty the tank and clean it regularly). “Dehumidifiers can play a supporting role in a healthy indoor-air environment,” says Carver. “Monitoring and controlling the humidity in your home can help you manage your asthma and allergies.” They’re also a way to improve the overall air quality in your home. If you want to buy an air purifier, you need to ensure your room isn’t too humid, says Carver: Purifiers won’t work in humid environments. Even if you don’t have allergies, a dehumidifier can be helpful. They’re good to have on hand if you live somewhere that floods easily, and any basement-apartment dwellers can benefit from a humidifier. “We find dehumidification is used in townhouses that have basements because the basements are below ground level, and that ends up being a humid environment,” says James Mansfield, the founder and CEO of West Village GC. He recommends “literally running it all summer in a steamy basement. It’ll sort your humidification problem right out.” And in fall, you need a humidifier to keep any moisture arriving in your property at bay.
I spoke to six experts about their recommendations for the best dehumidifiers, and then pored through dozens of documents on standards and regulations, as well as thousands of reviews, to try to identify the best-in-class dehumidifiers for the average-size living space. Read on for the best dehumidifier for large spaces, best dehumidifier for a bathroom, the best dehumidifier for attics and more.
What we’re looking for
Size
Most models come with a space recommendation, but “we’ll generally double the space recommendation,” says Mansfield. “If you’ve got a 1,000-foot basement, we’ll buy a 2,000-square-foot one. Why not just have the space dried out as quick as you can and keep the mold at bay and the other moisture issues that arise from it?” I have made sure to list the coverage each unit claims to be able to do in square feet. Bear in mind Mansfield’s advice on doubling your requirements when looking through these listings.
Power and efficiency
“When it comes to buying a dehumidifier, look for the highest IEF, or integrated energy factor,” says Ryan Marks, engineering research and development manager at RenewAire. “This is not only a great measurement of efficiency, it is directly tied to the quality of the dehumidifier. High-quality units have extraordinarily high IEFs.” The IEF is often measured in pints per kWh, but sometimes liters. To get from liters to pints, multiply any IEF by 1.76. Not every dehumidifier has the IEF listed, but I’ve included it where applicable.
Hose
If you have easy access to a drain, look for a product with a hose attachment alongside a storage tank. “Get one that connects to a garden hose and then the garden hose you put into a drain,” Mansfield says. “Rather than having an individual tank, which fills up remarkably quickly — on a humid New York summer day, if that space isn’t air-conditioned, it’ll fill up in two or three or four hours — if you get one that’s got a hose that goes into a drain, then you can run it 24/7 with no issue.”
Best dehumidifier overall
Coverage range: Up to 1,500 square feet | IEF: Unknown| Hose: Optional
I think that the Midea is an excellent choice for an at-home dehumidifier. It includes a 24-hour timer and the option for attaching a hose at an affordable price ($160), while offering excellent coverage range. Yes, the filter needs checking every once in a while, as with others. But like many, the filter is washable at home. This is easy to do: Remove it from the machine and run it under water to get rid of gunk, then leave it to dry. The machine also has an indicator that lights up when it needs to be cleaned out. It’s a solid choice for under $200, as evidenced by its 9,500 five-star reviews on Amazon.
The Midea is a constantly running dehumidifier, shutting itself off when its tank is full. That might concern some given high power prices, particularly in colder months, but it is Energy Star certified, with reviewers saying they haven’t noticed their bills skyrocketing. It comes on wheels, so you can move it from room to room if needed, while an enhanced smart version of the device can be controlled by an app or voice-activated smart assistant.
Best more expensive dehumidifier
Coverage range: Up to 2,600 square feet | IEF: 7.6 pints/kWh | Hose: Optional
The Santa-Fe Oasis scores highly on Marks’s ranking for its high IEF of 7.6 pints/kWh — a proxy for its efficiency and quality. “The Santa-Fe Oasis 105 has the highest IEF of all portable dehumidifiers on the market,” he says. At a foot high and a foot wide, it’s also an ideal model to cover a surprisingly large area. At 45 decibels, its hum is halfway between a whisper and normal conversation, but the horizontally aligned unit is designed to go in attics, crawl spaces, and basements.
However, it is expensive — much more so than others here, costing anywhere between $1,500 and $2,500, depending on where you buy it. You’re paying for the square-footage coverage and the reliability and a more permanently installed solution than others on this list.
Best dehumidifier for large spaces
Coverage range: Up to 4,500 square feet | IEF: Unknown | Hose: Optional
It’s worth considering the HomeLabs dehumidifier because of the sheer coverage it offers. The $250 HomeLabs model speedily sucks moisture out of the air, drawing 322 watts, even in large spaces up to 4,500 feet, though at full speed it can be a little noisy. Even before you hit the turbo button, this thing thrums at 60 decibels. The water-level indicator, a transparent slit in the front of the machine, is handy to see how the water tank is filling up — though you can buy a hose at an extra cost. It is a large unit, but it comes with plenty of customizable options, including setting target humidity levels as well as a timer function to switch on the unit and a run-time feature to switch it off after anywhere between 30 minutes and 24 hours.
Best dehumidifier for a bathroom
Coverage range: Up to 330 square feet | IEF: 3 pints/kWh | Hose: Optional
Not all of us live in massive homes, and some smaller spaces within our properties may need to be dehumifidied — a laundry room or a bathroom, for instance. At $199, the Frigidaire is a smaller, cheaper unit — which does mean you’re likely to have to empty the water tank more frequently. (Larger-capacity options are available; the 35-pint version is an extra $40, for instance.) Its IEF is 1.7 liters/kWh, making it relatively efficient, while the filters within capture some dust from the air and can be detached from the unit and washed easily. The Frigidaire’s maximum volume is a not-too-intrusive 49 decibels, making this a good all-rounder for smaller spaces. If you have a little more cash and need to cover more space, Myles Robinson, the owner of CompareBoilerQuotes.co.uk, recommends the $349 Frigidaire Gallery High Humidity 50 Pint Capacity Dehumidifier with Wi-Fi. Not only is it bigger and able to cover a broader footprint, but as the name suggests, it’s app-controlled. “What sets this device apart from many of its peers is its Wi-Fi compatibility, which grants access to a selection of smart controls from anywhere inside your home,” says Robinson. “It is very energy efficient overall”, he adds.
Best less-expensive dehumidifier for bathrooms
Coverage range: Up to 215 square feet | IEF: Unknown | Hose: None
If the Frigidaire is out of your budget, but you’re worried about mold in your bathroom in colder seasons, the Pro Breeze is one-fifth of the price. For that money, it’s much less well-featured, and the one pint tank will quickly fill with water — so you have have to drain it regularly. The machine’s coverage is also far and away the smallest out of those I’ve selected. But it comes highly recommended by Leo Watts, head of content at CNCSourced and an accomplished DIY and home improvement expert. “Having tried numerous dehumidifiers throughout my life, the Pro Breeze stands out for its simplicity and power,” he says. He likes that its compact design — six inches by six inches by 8.5 inches — fits any space discreetly. Watts also praises its user-friendly operation (it literally has one button to switch on and off, and indicating lights to say when it’s running, and when its full) and quiet functionality.
Some more dehumidifiers we’ve written about
Our experts
• Melanie Carver, chief mission officer for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
• James Mansfield, founder and CEO of West Village GC
• John McKeon, CEO of standards-setting company Allergy Standards
• Ryan Marks, engineering research and development manager at RenewAire
• Myles Robinson, the owner of CompareBoilerQuotes.co.uk
• Leo Watts, head of content at CNCSourced
Additional reporting by Jenna Milliner-Waddell
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