Soleus Air CFM-40 E 40-Pint Dehumidifier Reviews

The first portable dehumidifier on the market, weighing less than half that of other models. It has built-in wheels and a carrying handle, allowing it to be transported with little effort. With 40 pint large capacity front removable water bucket.

Technical Details

-40-pint dehumidifier with removable reservoir tank; optional continuous-drainage port
-Full-bucket indicator alarm; automatic shut-off prevents overflow; washable air filter
-Adjustable humidistat; whisper-quiet operation; automatic defrost
-Built-in wheels and carrying handle provides easy portability
-Measures 14-1/2 by 10-1/4 by 21 inches (WxDxH); backed by 1-year warranty

Customer reviews

"Great performance and QUIET, with some caveats" 2010-05-20
By B. Edwards
We have a split level house, with the bottom floor (finished) being at or below grade in some places, so it's constantly humid down there.

I bought a GE dehumidifier when we moved in, but unfortunately we also use that floor/room for the TV room, and the GE unit (bought at Lowe's I think) was LOUD, BIG and UGLY. Worked great, however due to noise (rattled like crazy in addition to high noise level of condenser/fan) and lack of any kind of aesthetic consideration, was just a terrible choice for a main living area.

Eventually I sold it and decided to try out the Soleus Air since I had seen that it was designed to be quiet AND it looked like something I could be ok with in the living room, design-wise.

Turns out that it is indeed quiet, even on the high setting. Certainly not loud and rattly like the old GE unit, which required you to turn it off any time you wanted to watch TV, listen to music, or even have a conversation without yelling.

Also, works pretty well, as I have a hygrometer downstairs to monitor the relative humidity.

Overall, highly recommended with the following caveats:

CONS:

- expensive relative to other dehumidifiers in this performance class (unless you count noise level as performance)

- Runs CONTINUOUSLY! This could be a biggie for the more energy conscious. The GE I had ONLY came on when the RH went above a certain level. Well Soleus takes a different approach and has the unit to ALWAYS run....the only difference is that when the RH rises above the range set, the condenser kicks in...otherwise, just the fan is running (and fwiw, you can hardly tell the difference in noise level between the times when just the fan is running, versus fan + condenser running). I wish I had known about this aspect, because I really don't want to run the thing all the time, and at least with the GE, you got some periods of complete quiet. Although this unit IS quiet at all running levels, it's still not silent, so there is the noise issue.

- Settings are ridiculously high (in terms of RH %). This is probably the biggest drawback of this unit imo. There are only three settings on the unit for humidity levels, and the LOWEST only gets you to 50%! I think the other ones put the RH at 65 and maybe 75%...which just seems crazy humid to me. WTH. So if you want to reduce the RH to something BELOW 50%, you need to set the unit to run the condenser continuously, which is not something I want to do.

- Pull out water tray is awful as mine "sticks" and I have many times sloshed water all over my hw floors because of it. I think the problem is the tray/reservoir is fully made from plastic, so it gives and flexes a lot when full of water...this creates pressure and resistance when you try to pull it out. The much stiffer GE tray never had this problem BUT it also was the source of the mind numbing rattle. This could easily be improved with a little better design, or maybe by using less flexible plastic.

PROS:

- Looks great, by far best looking dehumidifier if you plan on putting this in a visible living space.
- QUIET. By far most quiet dehumidifier I have heard.
- Works great ...even though it's quiet, it seems to pull as much moisture out as my old unit.
- Small and portable - if you need to transport it, it has a handle

I would probably give this 3.5 stars if I could, primarily because of the ridiculously high RH settings, and the continuous running. But I haven't seen anything better on the market, so for now, I would still recommend it to someone in the market for one to put INSIDE a house (as opposed to an unfinished basement area).

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