"(Update 6/20/2014) My Frigidaire dehumidifier went into service last July 2 as noted below. When I started our coal stove in the basement around 11/20/13, I turned the dehumidifier off--coal stove keeps it plenty dry during the winter. I started the dehumidifier again in mid-April after letting the coal stove go out. This past week, I noticed the humidity was creeping up in the basement. Checking the unit, I found the coils had frozen up. THIS UNIT HAS NOW FAILED AFTER ONLY 8 MONTHS OF ACTUAL USE, in the same manner as other dehumidifiers I've had. Thank goodness I bought a Square Trade warranty with this one. They are reimbursing me for the cost of a replacement unit--which will again be ordered with an extended warranty. I really don't understand why dehumidiers are so unreliable. This unit was run in the proper size area, with ambient temps well within the specs. The filter was checked regularly and cleaned before it was really needed. I'm buying another of this same unit because I need a dehumidifier, and none of the others are any better. (Update 7/4/2013) I requested a replacement unit on 6/30, and it arrived 7/2 as promised. I love Amazon's customer service and return/replacement policies! I chose to get a prepaid UPS label and drop the unit off myself; we have a UPS store nearby. Unpacked and set up the new unit today. I noticed the same issue with the humidity display--it's over 10% higher than the humidity in the room, as measured by my separate (and better) humidity gauge. Guess I'll just have to live with leaving the set-point 10% higher than I want it. The new unit's compressor doesn't make the whine the old one did--it's barely noticeable above the fan, even with the fan at low speed. One thing to consider with this unit is that the output air is noticeably warmer than similar units I've had in the past. Since this unit has been running, the temp in the basement has stayed between 73 and 75F, compared to about 70-73F with my old Kenmore unit. Anyone considering this for use in a non-basement living space should take note. (Original review) We can put men on the moon, but we can't design a basement dehumidifier that works. I've been through three generations of Sears/Kenmore dehumidifiers, each of which lasted less than three years. That's pretty bad, because I burn a coal stove in my basement in the winter and the dehumidifier is turned off 4-5 months. So when I say three years, I'm getting less than 20 months actual run time. I bought this Frigidaire based on the reviews, plus the fact that a decent-priced extended warranty was available (Square Deal) and Amazon's return process is great. The unit arrived a day late--UPS's fault, not Amazon's. I unpacked it and hooked it up. It's been running a little over a full day now. The good: The unit dehumidifies very well. We've had a rainy week, and the humidity in our 1100 sf basement rose to 75%. After this unit was running 12 hours, that had dropped to just over 60%. At 24 hours, the humidity was down to 57%. Not surprised it's dropping more slowly, as more moisture is being pulled from walls, boxes, etc. as the air gets dryer. I'm very pleased with the performance. Dry air exits the unit from the top, blowing upward. This seems to circulate the dry air much more effectively than my Sears units, which blew air out the side. Best continuous drain setup I've seen yet. You don't have to buy or install a drain tube and hose fitting, foam washer to seal it, etc. There's a drain plug cap that simply unscrews from the threaded drain fitting. The fitting is the standard garden-hose threading, so any old piece of garden hose or washer hose should work. The drain cap is tethered to the unit, so it won't get lost. And the drain fitting is angled downward about 45 degrees, so the unit doesn't require as much clearance in the back when a drain hose is connected. Now for the bad: A lot of reviews said the unit is quiet. Mine isn't. The compressor makes a very annoying whine, noticeable from the next room where our TV is. In fact I only have to open the basement door upstairs to hear if it's running or not. I don't like the controls. You can only check the target humidity setting by pressing the "humidity" button on the panel. Otherwise, the display shows the current humidity, which would be ok if it was accurate. But by my separate humidity gauge--which was nearly dead-on with my last two Sears units--this unit reads the humidity as 10% higher than it actually is. I'll check it again when it lowers the humidity enough to shut off, but it looks like it'll try to keep the humidity 10% lower than I set it for. The timer control is strange. On my Sears units, this cycled the unit on and off at the specified interval--if set at three hours, the unit would just cycle on and off at three hour intervals. This can be useful to keep the unit from running during hours you're in the basement to, say, watch TV. However, the Frigidaire's manual refers to the timer as "delayed start or stop." You can set the time to half-hour intervals up to 10 hours, then hour intervals up to 24 hours. But then the manual explicitly states that the timer will turn the unit on or off once, and then you have to reset the timer. If timed on/off operation is important to you, call Frigidaire and verify this before you buy. Not sure why they'd include such a useless feature. I suspect it really does cycle on and off, and the manual writer was just confused. I'll test this at some point and report back. When I first powered the unit up it wouldn't start. I assumed it was packing material in the drain bucket interfering with the bucket-full float and shutoff switch. When I pulled the bucket out, I found the float, which activates the switch that shuts down the unit when the bucket full, wasn't even attached. It was laying loose in the bottom of the bucket, with no padding or packing around it. It was easy to install--two plastic pins on either side snap into holes where it's to be mounted--but it could easily have broken rolling around loose like that. It was also laying under the clear plastic splash cover mounted near the top of the bucket. This cover is mounted over the center and one side of the bucket. Nice idea--you empty the bucket through a one-inch hole in the splash cover, so there's no wide stream of water sloshing over the whole side of the bucket. However, the cover looks permanently mounted--I couldn't remove it to retrieve the float, and ended up reaching in from beside the splash cover to get it. This would not make for easy bucket cleaning, if you're concerned about that. Overall: Seems to be at least the equal of other basement dehumidifiers in the $200-$300 price range, which isn't saying much, but it dehumidifies effectively, and does have several nice features. I'm going to give it a few more days--if the compressor still whines and the humidity sensor is off, I'll return it and try another unit. Definitely, I will never again buy a dehumidifier without an extended warranty/service plan."
Frigidaire FAD704DWD Energy Star 70-pint Dehumidifier (Compare Deals from $219)
"Why would you want a dehumidifier? It can improve your health and comfort. It can help fight stuff like mold and other unwanted things that are attracted to the humidity. Feel free to do your own research but chances are, you already have your reasons for wanting one. I'll just note that mold shouldn't be underestimated as a health concern. Simply put, if your relative humidity is above 50% and the area you want to dehumidify is at least 45F, you'll likely benefit from having a dehumidifier. AC units aren't really designed to dehumidify. They just do it as a consequence of how they operate. That is, unless your AC unit happened to come with a dehumidifier. There is, of course, a benefit of your AC unit being more effective when you use a dehumidifier. It means you don't have to get the house as cold to feel comfortable. This can lead to overall savings in electricity. How does this one perform? It managed to fill the bucket about once every 12 hours on Low fan speed, reducing the humidity about 1-2% per day. I've heard box fans that were noisier than this thing when it runs on Low but on High it tends to get loud. The only sound you'll likely hear is air rushing through the unit. You'll also hear dripping and occasionally a beep telling you to empty the bucket, if you don't properly attach a drain hose. I wouldn't put it in the same room as a TV or near a place people gather and talk. I also wouldn't run it on High, if it's near a bedroom. Otherwise, the noise shouldn't be too bad. I put it in the same room as our AC blower unit and it seems to be having a nice effect on my whole house. My house is 2 stories and around 2100 sq ft. I can't confirm how the humidity is upstairs but the entire downstairs hit my target of 45% humidity (down from 52% when it started.) I can say that the upstairs feels a lot less humid now. Cooking still makes the place hot and humid but it goes away fairly fast given how hot and humid it is outside and we don't have a kitchen vent. The unit is reasonably small (roughly the size of a small-medium waste or clothes basket,) which makes it easy to fit where you want it. I don't know any reason why they couldn't have included a cheap drain hose with it. I picked one up for less than ten dollars at a local Lowes. I did have to cut it down to length and avoiding kinks in the hose is kind of a pain but it works. If you're getting water in the bucket after attaching the hose, you need to make sure the hose isn't blocked and properly drains downhill in the shortest length you can manage. While you're out buying a drain hose, you might want to consider whether you need an extension cord or not. If you do get one, make sure it's either 12 or 14 gauge wire. The power cable on the unit itself says it's 16 gauge with 300V shielding. If you're confused, the smaller the number the more electricity it can handle. Normal, everyday appliances tend to use 18 gauge, while portable AC units, dehumidifiers and "heavy duty" power tools tend towards 14 gauge. You can plug an 18 gauge into a 12 or 14 gauge extension but not the other way around. I used this heavy duty splitter, just so I'd still have a usable outlet near the AC unit. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BQU576 My biggest complaint about the unit is a problem with every dehumidifier I can find. They're all sealed units with no serviceable parts. Even the ones that cost 10x as much are sealed units. So, it's a crap shoot as to whether you'll get a good one and just how long it'll last. When they do die, your only option is to replace the whole thing. Needless to say, this is one of the few things I bought an extended warranty for. Why did I buy this unit? As for why this unit in particular, it seemed like the lowest amount of risk with the highest potential to get the job done based on numerous reviews. If you have a smaller house, you could go for a smaller unit. I don't know enough to give exact numbers though. Other brands don't seem to as well as this one. As for why I was looking for a dehumidifier in the first place: I don't know what happened but all of a sudden our house went from the usual (and barely tolerable) 56-57% humidity to 61-63%. That may not sound like much of a difference but I assure you it's huge. Once you hit 60%, you officially hit the point where you'll never feel dry again. You'll always feel like you're coated in a film of sweat. Even with the AC cranked up, you still just end up cold and damp instead of hot and damp. We called up the HVAC company we have a maintenance contract with to see if they could check out our AC unit. The first time they replaced 2 lbs of missing freon and it seemed to help a little but didn't really last. The second time, they sent out what I would assume to be two of their best techs and spent quite a bit of time inspecting things. They claim they didn't change anything but within a day after their visit the humidity dropped all the way down to 54% and settled on 52% humidity. I'm now wishing I'd observed what they did. They did offer to install a dehumidifier, vent and duct work (which wasn't much work at all, in my case) for around $2100. We told them, we'd think about it. To be fair, the dehumidifier they offered to install probably cost them around $1500-1800 based on prices of similar models and whether they're getting a discount. We'd had enough of being at the mercy of our AC unit to handle our humidity problems and we figured it was time to actually get the house below 50% humidity. Again, such a small change in humidity (from 52% to 45%) may not sound like much but it can make a world of difference. So, what's the bottom line of all this? Our utility room is a bit warmer and noisier than normal, at times. However, the whole house is overall a lot more comfortable and I'm not the only one feeling better for it. If I had to do it all over again, I would have bought a drain hose and cut it to right length before the dehumidifier even got here."
"I decided to do a quick initial review of this 70 pint dehumidifier since everyone will be looking at getting one for the summer season soon. I will update durability in future months. I received this May 2013. It came delivered in its original box very quickly (2 days) shipped UPS. It says on the box not to lay on its side. I recommend upon receiving this unit to leave it sit for 24 hours before plugging in when you get it in its final resting spot just in case someone along the way shipped it on it's side to let the compressor oil drain back down. The shipping box seemed sufficient, however It did come with a crack in the plastic back due to an impact. The box appears to be able to flex on the backside enough and there is only foam protection on the ends. Amazon of course took care of me on this. On to the initial review. The design of the cabinet is tasteful and has a few features I liked over my past Fedders unit. Thoughtful features like an integrated handle that hides away at the top when not in use. The unit rolls easily on its caster without tipping. The bucket has a red ball in it to show you water level and a flip down handle to assist in the emptying process. I also liked the way the hose outlet was molded into the cabinet with a screw on plug. Past units I have owned seemed the hose connection was an afterthought. The only feature I thought was oddly placed was the reusable filter which can only be accessed when the bucket is removed. The control panel is nicely layed out and includes power, fan speed, humidity control and a handy timer function in which you can program it to come on in so many hours from now when the energy costs are lower. Very legible 2 digit readout for humidity and can be adjusted in increments of 5% down to 35, or continuous operation. When you are adjusting the levels the readout reflects your setting and when you release the buttons it then reads the room humidity. There is also a filter reset on the top panel. After so many hours of operation it will remind you to clean it. I set the humidity to 50 and turned the fan on high. The compressor does not start right away and seems to take 5 min to kick in. I played with the high low fan speed. There is a noticeable lower noise between the two, but not enough to make me want to leave it in low. On to the energy use. When the unit is plugged in with nothing running it appears to use about 2 watts of power, but not continuous. I noticed it reads 2 watts intermittently, maybe coming on to check the humidity level. If this is the case, it would only need to do this once every couple of minutes instead of every 20 seconds or so like it does. When the fan is in the low position with the compressor off, it uses 58 watts and when it is in high it uses 66 watts. Not a lot of energy savings, but a bit of payoff (slight) in noise. The air is sucked in the front and ejected out the top vents. When the compressor kicks in the noise does not increase by much at all and can hardly be heard over the fan noise. Initially with the compressor running and the fan on high the wattage consumed was between 630 and 591, fluctuating. As the unit ran for a couple of days this seemed to drop to a steady 578, well below the wattage in the spec, possible the compressor breaking in?. Instead of water dripping continuously out of the hose connector, it seems to be ejected at regular intervals. This interval initially was every 16 seconds. The amount of water ejected was 7.5ml. The water being pulled out was well over the 70 pints a day, somewhere just over 90 pints. This continued for the first couple of days and now seems to be ejecting about 7ml every 35 seconds. I will continue to monitor this as time goes on. It may just be that the humidity was so high it was taking more out than the rated average. Overall I am satisfied with it so far. I highly recommend using the hose end as you will be dumping that 16.3 pint bucket a few times a day. If you do not have a floor drain, maybe look into a model with a built in pump for a few dollars more to pump it up to a sink. Something notable about the noise. I did find it quieter than my fedders model and since it is in my basement I don't care much. If you are watching TV beside it you may be annoyed. Thanks to John M Yelton, I can now confirm that the fan DOES shut off when the dialed in humidity has been reached. On average it takes about 7 minutes after the compressor shuts off for the fan to go off. This is a bit annoying, but perhaps it will eliminate rust issues I noticed my fedder unit had after a few years as the coils get a chance to air dry after they start to go back to room temp. I did notice though that the unit doesn't stay off for long. Between the 7 min fan cycle it give the sensor a bit of time to activate the compressor so it seems that it just shuts off, then the compressor kicks in again 5 min later to take some more moisture out of the room and it just repeats itself. Mind you, I am drying a 2000 square foot basement and this will probably slow down as it drys out. Keep in mind this is the first few days of operation, and since I am on "time of use" hydro billing, it has been off much of the day since that is the expensive time to operate. I have an idea for mine to be turned on only when my hydro is at its cheapest (7pm to 7am) For those of us with home automation you could say run this unit 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday, and all weekend (cheapest energy rate times). This unit could be controlled remotely by utilizing the bucket full contact switch. UPDATE May 11 -2013. The wattage consumed continues to drop. I monitored it again for an hour and it has dropped below 500 watts, in the 480 range (A far cry from the 745 Watts they rate it for) so this is a pleasant surprise. I will continue to monitor this. It could be the compressor loosening up an not having to work as hard (hopefully) and not something else. I also noticed the time between moisture ejects has increased from 7.5 ml every 16 seconds to 7.5 ml every 60 or so seconds. A sign my basement is getting drier I suppose. Happy so far."
"Update 4/15/15 New unit dehumidifies very quickly and efficiently but unfortunately the issues with the humidistat accuracy and maintenance of a given setting continue to be problematic. After allowing the dehumidifier to run for about an hour during which time it reduced the room RH from about 56% to about 48% (per my standalone hygrometer), I set the machine to 50% RH. The dehumidifier kept the room at about 48% RH for the first couple of hours after which it crept up to about 52 to 52.5% (per independent hygrometer.) This morning the independent hygrometer was at or just above 55% RH and the unit was not on. Setting the machine to 45% RH immediately kicked the compressor on and for the past few hours it has been keeping the room at 50% RH. (Compressor runs for 4 to 6 minutes followed by 3 minutes of fan only and then kicks back on about a half minute after the fan comes to a stop.) It is obvious to me that Frigidaire has not fixed the humidistat accuracy issue. This would be less problematic (since one can set the RH up or down to compensate for the inaccuracy) if it would always come on or shut off at a given room RH (allowing for the inaccuracy of the humidistat). The fact that it was not running this morning at a room RH of >55% when it never allowed the room to get to that level yesterday indicates that it cannot maintain its own settings. I certainly appreciate amazon's having sent the replacement. I, however, will have to decide if the unit is worth keeping considering the amount of monitoring it will require for me to keep the basement at the desired RH without adjusting the settings daily. Update 4/14/15 Following contact with amazon and their reading my review, it was their recommendation that I accept a replacement which I have just taken possession of. I will update the review with new info as applicable. New unit has a date of manufacture of 10/14 as opposed to 06/14 on the unit returned. Update 4/13/15 The humidistat continues to be a source of concern and some frustration. While it was already clear from past experience that the humidistat was not in agreement with the independent room hygrometer, it was easy enough to allow for the differences in calibration by raising or lowering the dehumidifier's settings by an appropriate amount. (If it was off by +/- 5% compared to your hygrometer you'd just raise or lower the auto setting to compensate.) However, I've noticed a trend of late that requires a bit of "trickery" on my part to get the unit to behave as I want it to... ...For example, when working "properly" (or at least as I have come to expect), the 50% RH setting on the dehumidifier kept the room at a fairly constant 51 - 52% RH per my standalone hygrometer. (Compressor would run for about 10 minutes or so, followed by about 5 minutes of fan (only) and then repeat the cycle after a minute or two hiatus following the fan's stoppage. During this time there would be little to no movement on the independent room hygrometer.) What I've now observed, more than once, is that the unit sometimes fails to come on at an appropriate RH (as measured by the room hygrometer). To combat this, I've resorted to decreasing the dehumidifier's RH setting to 45%. In this instance, the unit's compressor starts right up (since it's reading 50% RH on the display) and will run until it hits the 40% RH level (momentarily) on its display. On my room hygrometer the actual RH at this juncture is about 47 to 48% RH despite the readout on the dehumidifier. After letting the device go through a cycle or two this way, I reset the unit to 50% RH and it begins keeping the room at 51-52% RH as described above. Why the unit fails to register the higher RH and come on is a mystery. I can understand the calibration differences compared to my hygrometer, but why the humidistat does not flip on the compressor at humidity levels it had previously responded to is beyond me. Unfortunately, I have seen this behavior on the other Frigidaire units we owned previously and have to believe it is a known and, as yet, unresolved issue. That said, the dehumidifier itself actually reduces the RH in the room quickly and effectively. It's the "set and forget" issue with the humidistat that is problematic. Hope this info proves helpful to others. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keeping my fingers crossed that the third time proves to be the charm as we have had very poor experiences with dehumidifiers over the past couple of years. Purchased a Frigidaire FAD504DWD in November, 2013. (Manufacture date 09/13). This unit dehumidified the basement very efficiently but the humidistat could not be relied upon to maintain a constant (or near constant) humidity level as verified by separate hygrometer. After 6 months or so I contacted Frigidaire about the issue (to create a record) and a few months later after many emails and phone calls finally received a "buy back" from Frigidaire for the unit. (Full price minus any taxes and/or delivery charges.) Since it was the winter I held on to the unit (despite having received the buy back) to see if it would operate manually come spring. While it turned on and the fan would run, the compressor did not operate properly and it would no longer dehumidify. Off to the dump. Purchased another FAD504DWD (mfd 06/14) to replace this one in early March, 2015. (I figured I'd give Frigidaire another shot since they refunded my purchase.) This one had some issues over the next couple of weeks in terms of both humidistat readings and auto on-off...as well as compressor reliability. It never dehumidified the basement as efficiently and quickly as the first unit. Not sure if this was exacerbated by the seller shipping the dehumidifier upside down within an outer carton indicating "This Way Up" on the packaging. (The delivery company got it right but it was no help since the shipper put it in upside down.) Returned for credit. Which brings us to the current model. Decided to give Frigidaire one last chance with the the FAD704DWD (mfd 06/14). While the humidistat readings were a bit all over the place initially and the unit was not turning on and off when expected, after some patience and trial and error it now seems to be keeping the basement at a relatively steady 50% RH (+/- 2%) in agreement with a standalone hygrometer in the room. While I'd prefer that the unit did not (short) cycle on and off as much as these do, (for fear of compressor / motor failure and higher than necessary power usage as reported by other respondents here), the dehumidifier does (currently) bring down the RH quickly and efficiently. The compressor will generally run for about five to ten minutes then shut off after which the fan runs for about five minutes. Once the fan shuts off, the compressor will generally kick back on and begin running again within a minute or two. The separate hygrometer will have barely moved (if at all) during this hiatus. Older dehumidifiers would not kick back on until the RH had gone up a few percent in our experience. For what it's worth, we've never had any similar kind of issues with other electrical or mechanical appliances in our home."
"Purchased from Amazon in May, 2014. It initially worked very well...quiet, good controls, impressive water removal in a basement storeroom. Six months later it died... now just ices up. Room size and temperature not an issue...small space, typically close to 70F. And the humidity setting is a modest 45%, which it previously achieved with the compressor running much less than full time. Filter is clean and I've left it off for days to let all the ice melt before trying again...same result. Other reviews are not encouraging regarding this product, or the manufacturer's "customer no-service" system. Guess I should have read them more carefully (instead of just looking at overall "stars"), especially the ones reporting multiple units failing. Actually, I would have rated the unit as 4 stars just after purchase, perhaps 5 stars if the handle on the water bucket had not been so flimsy. (I always made sure to support the load from underneath.) Now looking for a quality dehumidifier, one that's American-made. Though I love Amazon for their prices and their no-hassle return policy, if you buy from a local store and the manufacture gives you the run-around after failure months later, my experience has been the store will step up and make things right. UPDATE: I contacted Frigidaire to report the failure. The toll-free number printed on the unit, 1-800-944-9044, is a frustrating phone maze. With persistence you will eventually learn you have to call another number, 1-800-374-4432. It's best not to make any responses as you struggle through its maze...just wait until you get someone on the line. (Ask how to get back in touch with them and you'll get yet another number.) Here's how it went: Reported the in-warranty failure on 3-12, was told someone would get in touch with me in 2-4 days. Nothing by 3-23 so I called back and talked with a helpful lady who said I should hear something in 1-2 days. Nothing by 4-04 so I called again and told another agent my tale of woe. A supervisor got involved and, again, I was supposed to hear back shortly... Not really. Finally, Frigidaire called me on 4-14. Because I didn't buy the dehumidifier from a Frigidaire dealer she wanted me to "work with Amazon" on getting a replacement but I responded it was Frigidaire's problem, not Amazon's, and the fact Frigidaire shipped only to dealers (not individuals) was no reason to dump the mess on Amazon! At that point she replied there was no dealer in my Zip Code so I suggested nearby cities that certainly had Frigidaire dealers but she had no way to input place names in her system, only Zip Codes (duh!). And she had no access to USPS.com to look up Zip Codes so I did that for her. After verification she called back to say she had a dealer....but no dehumidifiers to ship out until the new models arrived. Wow! She promised to call back weekly with a status update and gave me yet another number to contact them. No update calls happened but two weeks later I was notified that the dealer 45 miles away had the replacement for me and I should contact them to arrange pickup at the store (taking my bad unit with me). That part was smooth and when I told the dealer about my trials and tribulations with Frigidaire he just rolled his eyes up and said it was a familiar story. THE GOOD NEWS is that the replacement unit, Model # FFAD7033R10, has been redesigned. The exhaust air comes out the side (not the top), the controls are improved, it's noticeably quieter, the handles (unit and water tank) are stronger, and the dehumidifier is heavier by at least 6 pounds... all good signs. So far it's running quietly and efficiently. My hope is that it will continue to perform that way over time, in which case Frigidaire will have redeemed itself and the NEW dehumidifier model will have proven it's reliable, and truly deserves a high rating. Color me "hopeful" UPDATE 2: DOING GREAT SO FAR. QUIETER, SMOOTHER, APPEARS MORE EFFICIENT (WATER REMOVED PER HOUR) IF IT CONTINUES TO PERFORM AS IT'S DOING NOW, THIS NEW MODEL, # FFAD7033R10, WILL DESERVE 5-STAR RATING."
"This unit dehumidifies...right onto the floor, unfortunately. This is my second unit from Amazon in a week, and they both have/had the same problem: water flows from the bottom of the case in the back and onto the floor, instead of into the bucket. While possibly being a neat "Inception" situation, where the dehumidifier is dehumidifying the water spilled from dehumidifying, I can't say I find that too compelling. I called Frigidaire--just to be certain they didn't have a hidden "shipping only" plug somewhere, or a piece of tape I missed, but no such luck. (Interestingly, Frigidaire sells no parts for these aside from buckets and filters, something to keep in mind if you buy one with the idea of servicing it in a year or two.) One thing you may not know, or want to know: if your dehumidifier is going to be in a location where is will run relatively constantly, you're eventually going to have to open it up to clean the accumulated gunk (some sort of black algae or something similarly yucky) out of the water collection tray. This black slime will eventually block the drain holes and cause the unit to leak. I get about six months of service from a Danby (which lives in a similar location) before I have to disassemble it to get to the water collection tray and de-gunk it. No manufacturer seems to make this job easy, and if you have to do that cleaning job on this unit, it will be a tedious few hours, with the strong possibility of breaking something if you're not careful. Home dehumidifiers seem to share the same basic design: two condensing radiators sit above a "tray" (really just a molded bit of the very elaborate, single-piece plastic inner skeleton, not a separate bit which can be removed for cleaning). The condensers have refrigerant pumped through them by a compressor, which lives in the base, and that entire system is sealed. There is a panel on top for controls, a box of minor electronics, a power supply, a fan unit, a bucket, and various case pieces. My Danby and this Frigidaire have detail differences, but they're the equivalent of the differences between two small sedans, not a jet airplane and the Wright Brother's Flyer. Cleaning is a huge pain because not only does everything need to come off the outside, but to do a thorough job the condensers need to be lifted off the tray. Because the entire refrigerant system is sealed, this means the compressor and condensers need to come out as a unit, a job requiring about six hands and a delicate touch. On the Danby this is a fraught operation, and I suspect you get to do it only a few times before some of the plastic pieces won't snap/unsnap and decide breaking is a better idea. (I've cleaned the Danby three times in two years, so far.) The Frigidaire definitely is not an improvement in this department. Maybe I'm the only guy who tries to clean a dehumidifier which otherwise works fine, dunno... Because this is the second of these units I've bought that leaked immediately, I thought I'd take a quick (but careful!) peek inside to see if it was something obvious, like a "thingymabobber" knocked loose during rough shipping or something obviously missing or broken. (Plus the waste really bugs me, talking to Frigidaire's people make it sound like returned units just go to the scrap heap if they don't work. That's just kind of gross, if true.) To make this long review shorter, at the end of the day, I discovered no really obvious reason why this unit leaks by examining the innards...nothing was disconnected, cracked or broken, though I have a couple of theories...how likely they are, who knows? I think the first one is the likely cause, but can offer no real proof. 1) The back of the water tray, where it runs beneath the fan motor, is quite warped on this unit--there is a big bow in the long, unenforced plastic "back" of the water tray. The bow isn't low enough to allow water to just flow over the top, but it may provide the right shape for water to be drawn upwards by the fan, and once it's outside the tray, it will flow down into the base and eventually out the back. There doesn't seem to be a better explanation, as the water tray was free of cracks, and pouring large quantities of water directly into the tray without the unit running saw all of that water flow properly into the bucket. My first example of this model, which I did not investigate the innards of, had evidence that water was getting to the fan blades...and this is the only place that could happen. 2) I'm not thrilled about the design of the fan mount, as it sits both inside and outside of the "wet" areas of the water tray. It seems really unlikely, but it might be possible that where this mount closely fits against the wall of the water tray on the wet side, capillary action could draw water out of the tray and into places where you don't want it. But capillary action isn't that strong, I don't think: on my first unit, I would estimate that at least 3/4 or more of the water collected went into the guts of the unit, compared to what made it into the bucket. If this capillary idea has any merit, I would think ALL of these Frigidaires would leak from day one, and clearly that's not the case. That said, I really hate this part of the design, along with that long, thin back to the water tray. On the Danby, for all its own foibles, nothing sits in the water area except the condensers, other parts screw to the top of the tray. So I don't know. I just hope I'm not out the $240 paid. I hate returning stuff and I can't imagine Amazon is going to be thrilled to get another one back from me in less than a week. I will not be buying another of these, in any case. There is no way in the world I can trust it."
"We have a finished basement with living quarters and bedroom...for many, many years, we've owned dehumidifiers from various manufacturers due to living in the rain-soaked, damp Pgh area. All were extremely noisy when the compressor would kick-in, it was customary to turn-off the entire unit at night while sleeping. The noise level progressively became unbearable with every dehumidifier we had to the point of taking the unit and throwing it off the nearest hillside...but I am environmentally-friendly and properly disposed of it instead. After 2 months of continuous use, this 70-pint model is the best-performing unit we've ever owned (knock on plastic). Very quiet by dehumidifier standards. By quiet, the blower fan generates an overall "white noise" effect that is not disturbing at all...similar to a quality floor fan on medium-high setting (not one of those cheesy loud box fans that sound like a Cessna airplane propeller). However, when the compressor turns on, there is a low-decibel background hum for a few seconds, then all you'll hear is the blower fan...and when the compressor turns off, there is a slight clunking sound for a couple of seconds (nothing to the point of being annoying; I just hope it doesn't become objectionable as it ages with repeated use...time will tell). I set our humidity level at 50% and the blower fan runs continuously 98% of the time...however, the entire dehumidifier unit will turn off completely if the compressor has not kicked-in after 7 minutes or so. So in other words, expect the blower fan to run all the time, especially if set at lower humidity settings (haven't seen a noticeable difference in our last month's electric bill). When I first set-up the unit, the instructions tell you to run it on the continuous operation setting for 3 to 4 days or so to reach desired humidity level. I used the internal water bucket to see how much water it would collect. Every 24 hours, it completely filled the large bucket to the brim. I was amazed how much water was in the air. After the test making sure it was not defective (which I understand out-of-the-box quality control is a 50-50 flip of the coin), I securely elevated the unit on a counter near our laundry room wash basin and purchased a cheap washing machine hose cut to length for continuous drain. I noted when using this method, the water doesn't come out "continuously". It seems drain intermittently, while the bucket stays dry. One more thing, there has been some discrepancy whether this model automatically resets and turns itself back on after a AC power outage. We've experienced two electrical outages and both times it turned back on to my custom presets. Highly recommended...I hope to have many years of reliable service."
Frigidaire FAD704DWD Energy Star 70-pint Dehumidifier (Compare Deals from $219)
