Best Dehumidifiers for Basements
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Whether you’re dealing with a muggy basement, a humid laundry room, or another damp area in your home, a dehumidifier can help guard against mold and mildew. It can also make the space more comfortable.
But even the best dehumidifier won’t solve all your problems. First, address the source of the moisture in your home.
“A dehumidifier will remove water from the air, but if your problem is driven by a continuous source of water, a dehumidifier won’t be enough,” says Misha Kollontai, the Consumer Reports engineer who oversees our dehumidifier tests.
Tackle any underlying problems (like checking for leaks and clearing your dryer duct and gutters) then run a good dehumidifier to help keep the humidity level between the ideal 30 and 50 percent—any higher and mold and dust mites start to thrive.
You’ll see models from a wide variety of manufacturers in our dehumidifier ratings, including Danby, Frigidaire, GE, Hisense, hOmeLabs, Honeywell, and Midea. A little more than half of the tested dehumidifiers earn an Excellent rating in our water-removal tests. That means they remove the amount of water from the air that their capacity claims.
All dehumidifiers have a humidistat (like a thermostat for humidity), but our tests find that some are more accurate than others. The humidistat detects the humidity level in an area and cycles the dehumidifier on or off as needed to maintain the desired humidity level, similar to how your air conditioner holds the room at its set temperature.
Only a handful of the dehumidifiers we tested earn an Excellent rating in our humidistat-accuracy tests, coming very close to meeting the humidity level you select.
Changes in the Dehumidifier Market
In 2020, the Department of Energy changed its test standard by which dehumidifiers are evaluated. The DOE lowered the room temperature to better reflect conditions in a basement, where dehumidifiers are typically used.
Since then, manufacturers have typically claimed that their dehumidifiers can remove between 20 and 50 pints of water from the air in 24 hours. That’s a change from older dehumidifiers, which tended to have claimed removal rates of 30, 50, and 60 pints per day.
It doesn’t mean that new dehumidifiers remove less water than the old group. “In a colder environment the dehumidifier is surrounded by less water in the air, so the volume of water it is able to pull out goes down,” Kollontai says.
All the models in our current dehumidifier ratings meet the new DOE standard.
Below are seven impressive models, with capacities ranging from about 20 pints to at least 40 pints per day. All score high enough to make our recommended list. Be sure to consult our dehumidifier buying guide as you shop. Our advice? Consider a larger capacity than you might technically need. The dehumidifier will dry your room faster, and you won’t have to empty the tank as often.
Large-Capacity Dehumidifiers
Dehumidifiers in this category pull in at least 40 pints of water per day and should be used in large rooms that are damp or wet.
Medium-Capacity Dehumidifiers
Dehumidifiers we tested in this category can remove 30 to 35 pints of water from the air per day and are meant for midsized or large rooms that are somewhat damp but not wet.
Small-Capacity Dehumidifiers
Dehumidifiers in the small-capacity group can remove 20 to 25 pints of moisture per day and can help dry out small, damp spaces.
