Customer Reviews

Haier CJ30M 30 Pint Mechanical Dehumidifier

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Extracts HUGE ammounts of humidity from the air.

My condo is humid. The dehumidifier filled the large container in less than 12 hours! WOW!

VERY hard-working device. A real workhorse, & first-class effective. Great results!

That said, quite noisy, on high. Some would be bothered by this.

Altogether, a pretty good value, & if bought for a basement, attic, or storage space, a truly excellent value!

UPDATE--dehumidifier is quieter, after a period of use. Keep a pad under it, to reduce noise.

It is proving to be EXTREMELY effective.

The Hipster gives it a Thumbs Up!

I live in a 750 sq ft apartment and constantly had problems with humidity. The Haier dehumidifier works great, and keeps my apartment around a comfortable 40% humidity. Although it does not have a digital control panel (something I was not too worried about myself) it performs great and keeps the humidity constant. Others complained of noise level from the fan, but if you keep it on low I really don't find it to be bothersome. Of course there is going to be some white noise. Its a dehumidifer, it has to blow the air to extract moisture!

Filled up and stopped as advertised in about a day in a large storage room under our houses porch. This room was previously un-usable for storage due to high humidity. The difference after a day is VERY noticeable--the room it is in no longer has that moldy dirt smell and the air is for sure dryer. Control knob doesn't give humidity percentages--middle is "normal" and high is "continuous. Not too much difference between low and high fan settings. We have it in the small room so it's on "high." Auto defrost is a huge plus if it is in an area like this where it gets cold.

Honestly isn't that noisy...I don't know what those other reviews were on about but I was expecting like a swamp cooler sound--it's really no louder than your common old box fan set to about medium.

These are a boatload to ship normally and few stores stock them--none where we are in Utah. The fact that you can do the Amazon Prime shipping on this is a $50 bonus.

I live in the south, and I purchased this unit to keep my RH under control during the period where it's humid out, but not warm enough for the AC to keep the house dry. I cranked it up and was shocked at how loud it was when the compressor kicked in; it could be heard throughout the entire house. As a point of comparison, on the "low" fan setting it was about as loud as a typical window AC unit on high.

I know this sort of equipment isn't ever going to be silent, but I just couldn't believe that was normal, so I returned the unit. I received my second unit and... well, it's slightly quieter, but it's still very noisy.

With respect to the noise level, here's what I've noticed:

- Sometimes it'll run only the fan without actively running the compressor. When it does so, it's as loud as a typical small fan

- When the compressor kicks in, it dwarfs any noise of the fan. Low or high, the compressor is equally loud. There's no reason to ever run it on low.

I see varying reports on the noise this unit puts out, and that makes me curious as to what's going on. I've noticed that if I tilt the unit and position it *just so* while the compressor is running, the noise drops a good bit. I assume this is the reason for differing opinions: the compressor itself isn't the culprit, but due to some variance in manufacturing or shipping, some part of the unit may vibrate loudly. It's also possible that the use of the wheels (or type of flooring) does something to exacerbate the situation.

That said, the results from using this unit are quite impressive indeed. I'm not out to make my house a desert, I just want to keep my stuff from being damaged; my target RH for this purpose is 55%, and when I started testing the unit my RH was close to 70%.

I experimented with various settings. 55% RH was achieved by placing the dial at roughly 80 degrees shy of the "Normal" setting on the dial. With the door to the test room (which measures roughly 20 square meters) closed, it ratcheted down the RH to the desired level in a couple of hours; of course, it generates heat, so the room was also warmer (and RH had dropped just by virtue of that fact). The bucket had filled to about 1/10 full.

The real test was leaving the door open, so as to allow air circulation with the rest of the house. I'm particularly interested in keeping this one room below a certain RH, but making the rest of the house slightly drier in the process is also useful. With the door to this room open, the unit kept running about half the time, and the bucket filled much more quickly (as expected). The sheer volume of water the unit was pulling from the air into the bucket made me realize why the desiccant-based solutions are little more than snake oil for any area larger than a small cabinet. There's just no way they can physically retain this kind of moisture.

So now, where does that leave me? I love how effective this thing is, it's nice to finally be able to forget about damp-rid and know that my stuff will be safe. But the noise... wow, it's just so loud. I don't want to return a second unit only to get another that might be just as bad, either. I may attempt to disassemble this unit and try to track down the source of the vibration; if I can figure it out, I'll post the information here so others can use it.

** Update 05/31/2011 **

Just ran through the worst case scenario for RH around here, a full day of rain where the temperatures didn't get out of the low 70s (and thus didn't trigger the AC at all). This thing fought one heck of a fight, running almost constantly, and managing to keep things in my test room a nice and dry 55% RH. The bucket needed emptying every 9-10 hours under that kind of load.

** Update 07/15/2011 **

Torrential downpours exposed a flaw in our roofing, and for a while we had a nice little waterfall pouring into our nursery. Water everywhere: on the crib, on the rug, you name it. This dehumidifier, right then and there, paid for itself five times over. I ran it full bore and it ripped 30 pints out of the air every 8 hours; it managed to dry the room out before mold even had a chance to creep in.

Of course, it's still loud!

I bought a larger Frigidaire dehumidifier on Amazon prior to this purchase for my home, and loved it so much that I decided to purchase a smaller one for the office.

We ended up not going with a smaller Frigidaire because at the time, this unit was cheaper (it might still be).

We did hesistate to try an "unknown" over a brand we already knew was working, but the majority of the reviews were positive, and the price difference was considerable, so we ordered it. Delivery was VERY fast.

This unit has been working every day for twelve hours a day since its arrival, except for weekends (occasional Saturday mornings)

and has been fabulous. It is relatively quiet for a dehumidifier, and has required no maintenance, other than emptying the bucket, of course. (It notifies you if it needs defrosting, also.)

The controls are basic, and you will not have as many "options" as some other units. There is high and low, and a knob to choose either "normal" or "continuous" operation. (Unless your needs are ultra-specific,though, you'll probably be ok. The Frigidaire has many more options/buttons, and we have yet to make use of them,except for its ability to set the humidity percentage you want, and I'm not sure that if we DIDN'T have that whether it would really be noticeable.)

We ran it continuously for the first several days until we were comfortable, and now leave it generally on Normal. Our office is located in Central Texas, where outdoor humidity usually runs 80-100%. It is perhaps 1,000 square feet, mostly all one large area, but the parts that are separate (bathrooms,closets)feel fine too. We are VERY comfortable inside, and as a bonus, we find it feels at least five to seven degrees cooler inside than it "really" is, so that we are able to save on our air conditioning bills, as well.

(This is also the case at home with the Frigidaire, by the way.)

Overall I feel I can give this unit a great recommendation!

I chose this dehumidifier over others in its price range because it does not have digital control settings. From my reading, the digital control panels seem to be the part that malfunctions frequently. With the mechanical, there are fewer options for settings, such as timers, but for my needs the simple "on/off" "high/low" are all I need and I am hoping this will last for quite some time. I have only used it for one month, and so far it has worked great and seems very well made.

I did a whole lot of looking before getting a dehumidifier. I live in the Seattle area, with rain and humidity galore, so it's pretty up there on my list. I've only had it a short while, but the Haier has been cutting the mustard in my 7000 cubic foot apartment.

Pro: The mechanical control is, I hear over and over, more durable - it's a purported pro, but we'll see. The whole construction is good and sturdy.

Neutral: In terms of efficacy, it took care of the constant condensation on my porch windows, but I have yet to see it fill the bucket in 24 hours as it is rated to be able. So, effective by my standards, but I don't live outside a steam room.

Con: I think it could use a lower fan speed - it has hi/low, but low is still very strong. Moving that much air may be good if this is the only source of circulation in the area, but it is pretty loud. I used to have a massive 70 pint-er, and that was quieter than this.

Overall: If sound isn't a huge concern for you, this seems a great unit for even a bit more than it sells. True durability is something I can't comment on as yet, but I'll try to update this review as I've had it for longer.

I've had this item for a little over a month and love it so far.

I turn it on before I go to work or bed, so the noise doesn't bother me. Set on high during those times, it fills the bucket every 24 hours in my 700 square foot Portland, OR apartment. My indoor humidity has come down from 65% to under 50%. It's really cut down on the condensation in a problematic building. I even notice my bath towels dry out faster.

I keep it in the kitchen, and am thinking of putting it on the counter and letting it drain directly into the sink so I don't have to keep emptying that bucket every day!

Perfect for my surf shop! I leave it on at night and it pulls out all the moisture that leaves the shop sticky and "wet" in the morning! 5 Stars!

I live in Hawaii which is humid in the winter and the damp salt air is hard on electronics in my home office. I decided to try a dehumidifier to extend the life of my printers, scanner and computers.

The unit takes a bucket of water out of the air daily, plus the A/C is taking even more. I have the cj30m set to maintain about 40 to 45% humidity and it works great.

The only negatives are the fan noise and the unit seems to short cycle at times [ 600 sq ft apt].

I purchased the unit in January 2011. Will update in a few months