When’s the last time you paid attention to the humidity inside your home and not just outdoors? “What?” you may think, “Isn’t it the same in here as out there?” Not always. It can differ quite a bit, depending on the season and your home’s heating system. If you have a basement, then you’re likely familiar with how swampy they can feel. Condensation can form on the walls, and water can even seep into your home. This mid-sized Frigidaire dehumidifier may be just what you need to make your basement (or the rest of your home) feel a bit more habitable.
The ideal indoor humidity is between 30 and 50 percent, if you want to deter mold and pests, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. If the humidity is too high, you’ll feel like you’re swimming in hot soup, and mildew could form in your home. Too low and your skin will begin to dry out, and your wood furniture can develop cracks and splits. The thing you may notice the most when it’s too humid indoors, though, is that it feels hot. Way hotter than the thermostat says it is. Whether you’re ready to try out your first dehumidifier or you’re already using one and just need to replace it, check out this Frigidaire 35-pint model. You may be just as pleasantly surprised as I was. While you’re upgrading your home, take a look at our guides to the Best Air Purifiers, Best Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products, and Best Dyson Vacuums.
Why You Should Dehumidify
More humid air feels hotter. Seventy percent humidity at 70 degrees will feel a lot worse than 40 percent humidity at 70 degrees. I was eager to address the swampy East Coast humidity when I unboxed my Frigidaire. Once I plugged it in, it took only 15 minutes to bring the indoor humidity of my two-bedroom apartment from a life-sapping 75 percent down to a comfortable 40 percent. With its smart settings, you set the humidity in five-percent increments from 35 to 85 percent, and the machine shuts off when the indoor humidity reaches that level.
Photograph: Frigidaire
It won’t run all the time. Rather, it’ll monitor the actual humidity and turn the fan on and vary its speed as needed. The Frigidaire didn’t let the humidity climb more than a couple of percentage points higher than my chosen setting before it turned on again to bring the humidity back. Using a ThermoPro TP49 digital thermometer and hygrometer to measure the humidity level, the Frigidaire had a good read on the actual humidity level of my apartment. When I set it to 45 percent, it stayed at 45 percent, plus or minus no more than a couple of percentage points.
Its automatic function of turning off, on, or very occasionally to a medium or high fan setting was smooth and intelligent. When I opened a window to let in the breeze (and that swampy, humid outdoor air), the machine would soon kick into a higher fan speed to suck up the moist air that’d entered my home.
As far as noise, I’d say it’s not overly noisy for a dehumidifier, but neither is it unnoticeable or “whisper-soft.” Even on its lowest fan speed (of three), you’ll hear it. That’s why I put mine at the end of my apartment, rather than in the middle, even though it should be more centrally located. I like white noise, and I never needed to put it on a speed faster than low, even during sweltering East Coast summers. Using the NIOSH Sound Level Meter app on an iPhone 15 Pro, I measured 50-60 decibels, depending on whether the dehumidifier was humming along on low fan speed or blasting away on high. If you can’t stand the sound of even a floor fan, then, well, the Frigidaire is going to bother you, because it’s louder than that.
Dehumidifiers take a fair bit of energy to run, so expect to see using one show up on your energy bills. The 35-pint Frigidaire I tested used 380 watts. That’s markedly better than the 590 watts the GE 35-pint dehumidifier and a fair bit better than the LG 30-pint dehumidifier’s 420 watts. Comparing dehumidifiers as a whole to perhaps a more familiar home appliance, Anker says the average 55-inch TV will use 77 watts while on and 2.1 watts in standby mode.
