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Dehumidifiers are specialized appliances that remove excess moisture from your home or office space. Maybe you live in a humid climate and don’t want your furniture, clothing, or office space to be warped by excess vapor in the air, or you have a damp basement that smells funky. Dehumidifiers are a great option for these types of environments, so you can prevent allergies, dust mites, and mold, all of which are a huge pain in the butt to deal with.

In fact, studies show that indoor humidity can affect respiratory infections and allergies and that maintaining indoor humidity levels between 40 and 60 percent may be better for your health and well-being. The top dehumidifier can help you identify humidity levels, and keep a consistent air quality. Dehumidifiers can also help pantry food stay fresh for longer or accelerate drying time when hang-drying fresh laundry. With all these benefits, a dehumidifier is definitely a necessary investment if you live in a damp environment. That’s why we did our research to find you the best dehumidifiers so you can breathe easily and stay dry.

How we chose the best dehumidifiers

There are a few crucial elements to consider when shopping for dehumidifiers. First, we looked at pint capacity (i.e., how much water the unit can successfully remove daily). We want to ensure your dehumidifier is as effective as possible in drying out your space. We considered dozens of the most popular models with the most relevant features, drawing on years of experience in the health and wellness space.

We also considered whether the model came with a drain pump or hose so you wouldn’t have to manually empty the excess water reservoir. Additionally, we wanted to recommend models that were as easy to use and operate as possible: features such as auto-turn off, auto restart, Wi-Fi connectivity, etc., were among the capabilities we looked for.

Finally, we looked at the noise level. Who wants to be disturbed by loud machinery? Less humidity and less noise are always top considerations.

The best dehumidifiers: Reviews & Recommendations

The best dehumidifiers suck out moisture from the air, essentially “dehumidifying” the space. They’re sort of like a vacuum cleaner, but instead of sucking up dust and dirt, they suck in moist air through a fan. Then, they draw out the condensation and release warmer, dry air back into the room. 

Some models work more like a refrigerators in that the warm, wet air passes over freezing pipes that cool the air. Then, the dry, cool air passes over a hot compressor unit and gets released back at room temperature through a grille. The excess water can be collected and removed in one of two ways, depending on the model you select. The water is either released into a removable reservoir that you can drain manually or circulated out of the unit automatically through a hose. Our recommendations are suited for every size of home and budget.

Best overall: GoveeLife Smart Dehumidifier

GoveeLife Smart Dehumidifier on a plain white background.

GoveeLife

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Specs:

  • Daily rate: 50 Pints
  • Coverage: 4,500 Square Feet
  • Dimensions: 11.61″D x 15.35″W x 24.41″H

Pros:

  • Large coverage area
  • Helpful smart features
  • Energy Star compliant

Cons:

  • No built-in pump

If you don’t need a dehumidifier with a built-in pump, GoveeLife’s Smart Dehumidifier is your best option. The Energy Star-compliant dehumidifier can cover an area of up to 4,500 square feet, which means an entire floor of your home (such as a basement), and suck up to 50 pints of water from your air each day. Its Wi-Fi features allow you to control and monitor the dehumidifier through an app on your iOS or Android-enabled device, and you’ll receive a notification when its tank is full. GoveeLife includes a drain hose, though you have the option to attach a garden hose to the dehumidifier—it’ll be larger and get water out more quickly—if you’d prefer.

If you’ve set up a smart home, you can control the dehumidifier using Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant to operate it completely hands-free. Don’t worry; if you’re less technically inclined, you can also adjust its settings manually by pushing buttons on top of the device. The dehumidifier is equipped with a “Smart Comfort Mode,” which will automatically regulate the humidity in your room as it fluctuates. You can see how the humidity in your home changes over the course of the day through GoveeLife’s app. This happens in real-time, so you don’t need to set it up.

While GoveeLife’s Smart Dehumidifier is among the smartest models we’re recommending, it’s also the best overall value. Normally $299.99, it can often be found for $80-$100 less, thanks to frequent Amazon coupons.

Best whole house: hOmeLabs Dehumidifier

hOmeLabs Dehumidifier on a plain white background.

hOmelabs

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Specs:

  • Daily rate: 50 Pints
  • Coverage: 4,500 Square Feet
  • Dimensions: 11″D x 15.4″W x 24.3″H

Pros:

  • Built-in pump
  • Full bucket and overheat protection
  • Energy Star Compliant

Cons:

  • Price

If you have a large area and want a set-it-and-forget-it solution for managing your humidifier, hOmeLabs has you covered. Its humidifier can cover an area of up to 4,500 square feet, remove up to 50 liters of water from your home each day, and empty its tank with a single button push thanks to a built-in pump. It’s a little more expensive than our top pick, and doesn’t have any Wi-Fi-enabled features, but the inclusion of a pump more than makes up for it. Once you’ve set the dehumidifier up—a control panel on top of the appliance handles this in a few button presses—you shouldn’t need to adjust it very often. The dehumidifier will beep when its tank is full, at which point you can empty it by activating its pump.

Automatic overheat protection is a feature that’ll come in handy if you run this dehumidifier continuously—especially when sleeping, and its auto restart function will bring the dehumidifier back to life if you experience a power surge. These little touches—on top of having a pump and covering a large area—make hOmeLabs’ dehumidifier stand out. If you live in a single-floor dwelling or multi-floor home with an open staircase, this dehumidifier is the one to get and worth its cost.

Best with pump: Honeywell Smart Dehumidifier for Home

Honeywell Dehumidifier for Home on a plain white background.

Honeywell

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Specs:

  • Daily rate: 50 Pints
  • Coverage: 3,500 Square Feet
  • Dimensions: 12.4″D x 15.75″W x 25.4″H

Pros:

  • Built-in pump
  • Energy Star certified
  • Removes odors
  • Continuous drain

Cons:

  • Price

Honeywell’s Smart dehumidifier may not cover as much space as hOmeLabs’, but is a little less expensive and was also designed to remove odors. Energy Star deemed this one of its Most Efficient options, a distinction that’s important if you’d like to run it all the time without significantly raising your utility bill every month. The dehumidifier has thermal overload protection to keep it from overheating, and is made from a heat-safe casting. You can set up this dehumidifier to begin automatically at a set temperature so it’ll kick on to keep you comfortable before you need it.

It may not have smart features, but you can set this dehumidifier to continuously drain its tank thanks to its built-in pump. This is a great feature if you plan to be out of the house for an extended period of time, but it would have been even better if this dehumidifier was smart, so you could keep track of how often it was being emptied. Regardless, this is an optional setting, albeit one that’s very welcome and a primary reason this is the best dehumidifier with a pump. If you’d like to take a mostly hands-off approach to moderating your home’s climate, this is the dehumidifier to get.

Best industrial: Waykar 130 Pints Dehumidifier

Waykar 130 Pints Dehumidifier on a plain white background.

Waykar

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Specs:

  • Daily rate: 130 Pints
  • Coverage: 6,500 Square Feet
  • Dimensions: 10.83″D x 14.96″W x 24.41″H

Pros:

  • High coverage area
  • High daily rate
  • Automatic drainage

Cons:

  • No smart features

Waykar’s 130 Pint Dehumidifier is designed for office spaces, storage facilities, or similar work environments, and it’s a heavy-duty option if you’ve got serious climate control needs. It can remove nearly three times as much water from the air daily than our other recommendations, and cover way more space to boot. Waykar recommends using it in a wine cellar or similar space, where ignoring environmental control isn’t an option. This dehumidifier also features a continuous drain feature, which, as the name suggests, will monitor the status of its water tank and automatically empty it periodically.

You can also empty its internal bucket if you’d prefer or if you don’t have a sink or other drainage area in the room. A small transparent strip on the front of the dehumidifier allows you to see how full its tank is at a glance, which is helpful if you’re emptying it out manually. The dehumidifier doesn’t have any smart features, which is surprising given its higher price and automatic draining function. It’d be helpful to get an alert each time the tank is being emptied or enable and disable the feature depending on how long you’ll be out of your house. Still, there’s no denying that this is the best dehumidifier if you’ve got a very large area that needs continual maintenance.

Best budget: NineSky Dehumidifier

NineSky Dehumidifier on a plain white background.

NineSky

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Specs:

  • Daily rate: 1.88 pints
  • Coverage: 300
  • Dimensions: 6.1″D x 6.1″W x 9.25″H

Pros:

  • Price
  • Night light
  • Compact size

Cons:

  • Limited use cases

If you’d like to control your home’s climate but live in a small space or are on a tight budget, NineSky has you covered. For $50, you’re getting a dehumidifier that covers 300 square feet and can suck 1.88 pints of water out of the air without reaching capacity. This is a great bathroom dehumidifier or one to keep on a bedside table overnight to prevent waking up due to discomfort. At just under 10-inches tall and a tiny bit over six-inches wide, you can fit this dehumidifier just about anywhere. It’s also just over 3 pounds, so you can carry it from room to room throughout the day if you have a home office that you’d like to keep comfortable during the day before bringing it back to your bedroom once the sun goes down.

While it’s a lot less feature-rich than our larger, more expensive dehumidifier recommendations, NineSky didn’t skimp out on the essentials. This dehumidifier will automatically shut down when its tank is full to prevent it from spilling over, and it only has two buttons, which makes it easy to operate. If you’re in a dorm room or other smaller space and wake up feeling uncomfortably sticky in the summertime, NineSky’s dehumidifier is essential. (Looking for more small dehumidifier options? We’ve got you covered.)

What to consider when looking for the best dehumidifiers

There are many factors to consider when deciding which dehumidifier is right for you. Below are the factors we considered most important when writing this guide.

Types of Dehumidifiers

  • Heat Pump Dehumidifier (refrigerator style). These dehumidifiers use a fan, pump, and heat exchange coils to dehumidify the space. The air is sucked in through a fan and then passes over the super cold heat exchanger coils. Excess moisture is then collected into the reservoir or through a drainage hose. They’re not always best for colder climates, as the air is already cold.
  • Desiccant Dehumidifier (aka Chemical Absorbent Dehumidifier). Instead of cooling the air to remove moisture, desiccant dehumidifiers use a chemical drying agent, such as silica gel. The chemical agent is then passed through a heat exchange wheel that helps to draw out moisture, and pushes dry air back into the room.
  • Ventilating Dehumidifiers. These use a sensor control to measure the amount of humidity in the air. Once the humidity reaches a certain level (that you can manually specify), it will turn on the ventilator and draw in air from outside. These aren’t as common. 

The type of dehumidifier

Dehumidifiers can be broken down into one of three categories, and we’ve explained the differences between them below.

  • Heat Pump Dehumidifier (refrigerator style). These dehumidifiers use a fan, pump, and heat exchange coils to dehumidify the space. The air is sucked in through a fan and then passes over the super cold heat exchanger coils. Excess moisture is then collected into the reservoir or through a drainage hose. They’re not always best for colder climates, as the air is already cold.
  • Desiccant Dehumidifier (aka Chemical Absorbent Dehumidifier). Instead of cooling the air to remove moisture, desiccant dehumidifiers use a chemical drying agent, such as silica gel. The chemical agent is then passed through a heat exchange wheel that helps to draw out moisture, and pushes dry air back into the room.
  • Ventilating Dehumidifiers. These use a sensor control to measure the amount of humidity in the air. Once the humidity reaches a certain level (that you can manually specify), it will turn on the ventilator and draw in air from outside. These aren’t as common. 

Pint Capacity

This is an indicator of how much water, or humidity, will be absorbed throughout the day. This is rated in moisture absorbed per 24 hours (i.e., a 30-pint humidifier removes 30 pints of moisture per day, then 50 pints, then 70 pints, etc). Selecting pint capacity depends on your room size and how damp the room is.

Whole home vs. portable

Do you need a dehumidifier that can work for an entire house or office space? Or will you need a smaller, more portable model for just one room? Portable dehumidifiers are less expensive upfront, but whole-home dehumidifiers are more energy efficient in the long term.

Energy usage

Dehumidifiers can range anywhere from 50 to 800 watts. The higher the wattage, the more powerful, but also the higher your energy bill might be. This is something to consider, so look for Energy Star certified dehumidifiers to make sure you’re not wasting energy and running up that bill. 

FAQs

Q: How do I know if I need a dehumidifier?

According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), humidity levels indoors should be kept below 60% to prevent mold and an infestation of pests. If your humidity levels reach 60% or higher, you can use a dehumidifier to bring those levels back down. 

Q: How many rooms will my dehumidifier reach?

Generally speaking, a dehumidifier will have the most impact on the room it’s actually in. While some dehumidifiers promote reaching a large amount of square footage, closed doors, and long hallways may hinder its ability to reach the humid air in other rooms. For example, if you have a particularly damp basement, you can place your main dehumidifier in the basement and then place smaller, portable dehumidifiers in other rooms.

Q: Do I need to replace any filters?

No, you do not need to replace filters. Dehumidifiers come with permanent filters that you can periodically rinse and clean to ensure long-term, extended use. 

Q: Does a dehumidifier use a lot of energy?

It depends on the size of the dehumidifier you’re using. Larger dehumidifiers use more energy, but they typically do not need to run as often, so they may be more energy efficient overall. 

Look for Energy Star Certified labels to ensure that your dehumidifier “uses more efficient refrigeration coils, compressors, and fans to remove the same amount of moisture as a similarly-sized conventional unit but uses nearly 15% less energy.”

Final thoughts on the best dehumidifiers

Dehumidifiers are a lifesaver when it comes to keeping our humidity levels at bay. Stave off mold, allergies, and dust mites with the help of this water-sucking device. Just be sure to find ones that are Energy Star certified to keep your utility bill as low as your humidity! 

Why trust us

Popular Science started writing about technology more than 150 years ago. There was no such thing as “gadget writing” when we published our first issue in 1872, but if there was, our mission to demystify the world of innovation for everyday readers means we would have been all over it. Here in the present, PopSci is fully committed to helping readers navigate the increasingly intimidating array of devices on the market right now.

Our writers and editors have combined decades of experience covering and reviewing consumer electronics. We each have our own obsessive specialties—from high-end audio to video games to cameras and beyond—but when we’re reviewing devices outside of our immediate wheelhouses, we do our best to seek out trustworthy voices and opinions to help guide people to the very best recommendations. We know we don’t know everything, but we’re excited to live through the analysis paralysis that internet shopping can spur so readers don’t have to.

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