Quietest Dehumidifiers From Consumer Reports' Tests

CR’s take: For a large, wet space, buy the largest-capacity unit you can afford. The Honeywell TP70WKN is a large-capacity dehumidifier that can pull 50 pints of water from the air per day under current Department of Energy standards. Its limited tank (13 pints by our measure) means you’ll need to empty it frequently, but at least it automatically stops when full. It earns a Very Good rating in our noise test; it’s about as loud as a normal conversation. Features include a timer, a digital display, and auto-restart, which comes in handy when there’s a power outage or brownout. But the brand earned middling ratings of Good for predicted reliability and owner satisfaction in CR’s member surveys.

CR’s take: The Midea MAD50C1ZWS checks all the key boxes for keeping your basement dry. Water removal: Excellent. Humidistat accuracy: also Excellent. Noise and energy efficiency: Very Good. Indeed, its only notable drawback is it has a relatively small, 15-pint tank, contributing to its mediocre convenience score. To remove the 50 pints it’s designed to handle daily, you’ll have to empty it several times a day, or buy and attach a hose to divert the water to a drain. Predicted reliability, though, received an Excellent rating in our member survey; owner satisfaction earned a lukewarm Good score.

CR’s take: The hOmeLabs HME020031N quietly, ably, and reliably removes up to 50 pints of moisture from your air per day. We give it a Very Good rating for noise and an Excellent score for water removal. Its humidistat earns a Very Good score for accuracy, and it’s very energy-efficient. It’s not convenient, though; its relatively small, 12-pint tank will require frequent emptying, unless it’s placed near a drain. The brand earned an Excellent score for predicted reliability in our member survey and a Very Good score for owner satisfaction.

CR’s take: Medium-capacity dehumidifiers are meant for a midsized or large room that’s somewhat damp but not wet. The medium-capacity Midea MAD35S1QWT is the highest-rated model in all of our dehumidifier ratings. This top performer, which can remove 35 pints of moisture from the air per day, earns an Excellent rating for noise, making it one of the quietest in this category. It also aces our water removal, energy efficiency, and convenience tests. This model is equipped with a digital display, a built-in water pump, an auto-restart feature, and a timer.

CR’s take: Capable of removing about 35 pints of water from the air per day, the medium-capacity hOmeLabs HME020006N is one of the quietest in its category, garnering an Excellent rating in our noise test. There’s a timer and a clean-filter alert, and like most models we’ve tested, it has an auto-restart feature. In our member surveys, hOmeLabs received an Excellent rating for predicted reliability, which speaks well for its long-term use, and a Very Good rating for owner satisfaction.

CR’s take: Our top-scoring small-capacity dehumidifier is the Midea MAD20S1QWT. This model earns Excellent ratings for water removal, noise, convenience, and humidistat accuracy in CR’s lab tests. It’s also energy efficient, comes with a drain hose, and has a timer and an auto-restart feature that turns the machine back on to its prior settings after a power outage.

CR’s take: The TCL TDW20E20 is an affordable and well-performing small-capacity dehumidifier, with the ability to remove 20 pints of moisture per day. Well-suited to drying out small spaces, it earns a Very Good rating in our noise test and an Excellent score for water removal. It comes with the ability to auto-restart and has top-notch energy efficiency, but it lacks built-in cord storage. TCL is a new brand in our testing, so we don’t have long-term customer satisfaction or reliability information yet.

CR’s take: The Frigidaire FFAD2233W1 earns a Very Good rating in our noise test, and it garners our highest ratings for convenience, energy efficiency, and water removal, removing 22 pints of moisture per day from the air. This dehumidifier’s water tank holds almost 12 pints of water, so you won’t need to empty it as frequently as the other small-capacity models we’ve tested. But our testers found its humidistat accuracy struggles to precisely match the desired humidity level we set.

CR’s take: The hOmeLabs HME020030N small-capacity dehumidifier earns a Very Good score for noise in our ratings and an Excellent rating for water removal. Its humidistat accuracy also is top-notch, so you can set it and forget it, knowing it’ll reach your desired humidity level. However, it’s not particularly energy-efficient; what’s more, its small, 7-pint tank means you’ll need to empty it frequently. Notably, hOmeLabs dehumidifiers earned an Excellent score in our member survey for predicted reliability and a Very Good score for owner satisfaction.