Dehumidifiers in Florida: what the data says
The federal registry, the recall record and 62,317 owner reviews, read against a climate that never lets up. Which unit fits which room, what the pint rating means, and what it costs to run.
The number on the box
The test procedure changed in 2019, and the labels did not. A box printed 70 pint is quoting the old method. Across 511 certified portable models, nothing measures above 50.0.
How pint ratings work now →Start here: which one do I need?
The scorecard: capacity, energy factor, drainage and complaint rate, brand by brand.
Why a 70-pint label and a 50-pint measurement describe the same machine.
The target percentage for a Florida house, and why lower is not better.
Bucket, gravity or pump: what each needs and where each fails.
Watts, hours and the annual figure the registry publishes.
The bucket, the coil and the filter: cleaning what the machine collects.
By capacity
The top of the portable class, and what it actually covers.
The middle tier: rooms, not houses.
Small spaces, and the point where a mini unit is the wrong answer.
Ducted units: a different class with a different registry category.
By room
Noise at night is the constraint, and the specs rarely publish it by speed.
Where the water goes when there is no floor drain anywhere.
An unconditioned box in a humid state: heat, dust and duty cycle.
The minority of Florida homes that have one, and what the space demands.
Its own anatomy: what changes against a site-built house.
Shore power, drainage and weeks of absence: a different problem entirely.
Brand reviews: portable
The only portable that runs with no bucket at all.
Publishes the most, and collects the most complaints.
A lineup that turns over faster than the reviews of it.
A residual range, and the same filer behind the GE badge.
Twice the warranty, half the reported service life.
The largest review cohort in the sample, and a change of owner.
33 dB on the listing, 53.9 on the meter.
The best ratings in the sample and the shortest lives reported.
Claimed savings against the registry’s own running cost.
The brand that stayed behind when the others were sold.
63,907 reviews on a class that scores better in Florida than elsewhere.
Brand reviews: whole-house
Two capacity ratings per model, and coverage that halves in a humid region.
The highest energy factor in the category, four of twelve models certified.
One machine listed under four brand names, and a certification no longer current.
Head to head
Architecture against disclosure, at the same measured capacity.
Two brands where the sensor complaints run opposite to the sensor accuracy.
The one pair in the sample landing on opposite sides of the average.
A longer warranty on the unit that owners report failing sooner.
Two brands, one certification filer, half the advertised capacity.
Two brands under one owner: only two model pairs actually compare.
The underlying data
What owners complain about, brand by brand, with the Florida cohort separated out.
Millions of units, several brands, and the fire reports behind them.
Every certified model, sorted by what it actually measures.
Enter your room size and how damp it is — get a pint recommendation tuned for Florida in seconds.
We run no testing of our own. These pages report the federal registry, manufacturer documentation, published bench measurements and owner reviews, with the source named on the page. Some links are affiliate links.