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128 of 129 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good appliance marred by design flaws, August 23, 2008
This review is from: SPT SD-60E 60-Pint Dehumidifier with Energy Star (Kitchen)
I've had this dehumidifier for about three months. There are several things I like about it. It seems to dehumidify very well, pulling water out of the air quickly. It is quiet for a dehumidifier, not objectionably loud even on the turbo mode. The digital controls are (mostly) nice, the unit is relatively attractive, and I like the aesthetics of routing the drain hose out the back, out of sight, instead of off the side.
I also like the way this model exhausts upwards from the top, instead of blowing out the front or back. I think this should result in better air circulation as long as it is placed in the open. Be aware of this design if your situation requires placing it under a table, for example.
Those are the pluses. Where this unit really stumbles is unattended use. It has several serious design flaws making it ill-suited for continuous unattended operation.
The first problem is the connection of the drain hose. Unlike other dehumidifiers I've used before, this unit is NOT designed to drain with a common, screw-on garden hose attached to the outside of the collection tank. It instead has a smooth nipple inside to attach a hose of the correct inside diameter. For most people, this will mean one or more trips to the hardware store to find the right size hose. (It's 1/2" ID, by the way, something I couldn't find documented anywhere in the manual or on the manufacturer's web site.) I was lucky and had some leftover 1/2" vinyl hose in the garage.
While you're at the hardware store, be sure to buy a matching hose clamp. As mentioned, the fitting is smooth. This makes it easy to slide the hose on. It also makes it very easy to accidentally disconnect the hose, something you may not notice since it connects inside. The manufacturer should have included a clamp or used a textured fitting to reduce the risk of disconnects.
Another show-stopper for remote use is due, once again, to the novel design of the drain hose. Instead of draining the collection tank like most units, the hose attaches directly to the dehumidification section, ABOVE the tank. This seems like an effective approach, and it would be were it not for condensation. In high humidity, the underside of the top dehumidification section is cool enough to cause condensation. This condensation drips directly into the collection tank, bypassing the drain hose. This means the tank fills up anyway, eventually turning off the dehumidifier.
For the first couple of weeks after my basement flooded, I had to regularly check this dehumidifier and dump the tank about once a day, even though I had a hose connected. A nuisance for me, an expensive surprise for someone who installs this in a remote location, for example a distant vacation home.
Another design flaw limiting unattended use is the digital control system. Unfortunately, the dehumidifier settings are lost when it loses power. It must be manually reset and restarted. This is a nuisance at best, but completely unsuitable for remote installations. SPT could have prevented this problem by adding a 20-cent memory circuit to preserve the settings.
One final nit re. the digital controls. This model has a two character digital display to show problem and operating status codes. Unfortunately, you have to look up those codes in the owner's manual to see what they mean. There should be a list of the codes next to the display.
In summary, my rating is all about location, location, location. For someone who plans to install this in an accessible, well-traveled location, I'd rate this dehumidifier a solid 4 stars. The rating keeps dropping, however, as it moves farther and farther off the beaten path.
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One final note, contrary to the first review, the collection tank on this model is NOT 60 pints. As with all dehumidifiers, the capacity rating refers to how much water it removes in 24 hours (under specified conditions), not the size of the tank. I estimate the actual tank capacity at around 20-30 pints.
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57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely Pleased!, August 11, 2008
This review is from: SPT SD-60E 60-Pint Dehumidifier with Energy Star (Kitchen)
Normally I rely quite a bit on customer reviews. After moving into a new home with a basement, I realized one night after a few humid days, that mildew/mold had started to form on some items. I immediately rectified the situation and came back upstairs to finish researching dehumidifiers. I had been eyeing them in the stores (Big Box Stores, etc.) but they all seemed overpriced and I felt like I was settling. I had used a small dehumidifier in the basement previously but as a new homeowner I had NO idea that my little bathroom sized unit would not handle my basement!! Nonetheless, this 60 pint machine got my checkmarks through my list of wants...it was big, energy star rated and seemed to have a fair price for the size, etc., What it didn't have was any reviews! Ok so I'm sure you want to know... It's been well over a month and this thing is amazing. I plugged it in at 9:45 p.m. and by 9:00 a.m. I had a full 60 pints! It's VERY easy to remove the water (which also has a continuous mode if needed) I can simply slide it out from the front and bring it up the stairs and dump it. This is not heavy at all. It comes on wheels which makes moving it very easy as well. As I said I've had it for over a month and honestly, my electric bill is STILL less than what I was paying for at my apartment...so energy star rated is right!! I like the digital read and I can fluctuate the humidity level to what is needed for the day. When it fills up, it will auto stop and show an easy digital read to identify (along with the front water gauge.) This gets a thumbs up from me. It's been reliable and it's doing exactly what I need it to! I should also say, it's not very loud (Not 100% quiet) but I do have a roommate in the room next to where this is and he has yet to complain about it. I can never hear it until I go down the stairs and even still it's a very low sound...comparable to a fan or A/C on low fan mode. Oh and I should also say...there is no mold growth and it's completely dry down stairs now!
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Seemed like a good unit, but may have some flaws..., March 23, 2010
This review is from: SPT SD-60E 60-Pint Dehumidifier with Energy Star (Kitchen)
Ok, I did weeks of research trying to find a dehumidifier that would fit my needs. If you've been doing the same, you've probably realized by now that it seems as if every dehumidifier on the market is a piece of garbage and will break within a few months of purchase. At least, that's what it seemed like to me after reading countless reviews.
I have a partial sub-terranean condo in the boston area and part of it got really humid last summer, which caused some mild mold problems. I wanted to go into this spring/summer with a good dehumidifier to keep the unit dry and comfortable. The unit is only about 800 sq feet and the bedroom is the one room that is relatively under ground. So, I need to put the dehumidifier in the bedroom.
I needed a dehumidifier that was quiet enough to sleep with, and ideally can pump the water out into a drain so I'm not emptying a bucket every day. I had bought a 65 pint LG model last fall that worked great at pulling water out of the air, but it was very noisey. So I returned it.
I narrowed my choices to this SPT SD-60 model and the LG 45 pint model.
SPT Pros:
Unit was definitely quiet and I could have slept with it on.
Had a feature that would show the actual humidity level in the room in addition to setting what humidity I wanted
The hookup for the constant drain seemed to be secure, although I didn't get a chance to use it.
Unit looks very modern and stable
Good controls for using the system
SPT Cons:
The system does not seem to have a constant mode. It has a setting for it, but once the humidity got to 35 or 30, it turned off. Now, that may be correct, but..........
I don't really know for sure if the humidstat on the unit was accurate. So it kept turning off. I ran a test and turned on the LG 45 pint (I bought both at the same time to compare noise levels) and after about 2 hours the LG had pulled an inch of water from the air. The SPT didn't because it kept turning off. Now, that doesn't mean the LG worked better... its very possible that the humidity was already really low and it shouldn't have been pulling more water out, but it continued anyway. I will just warn that I had a hard time getting the SPT to continuously run and pull water.
Finally, another big con for me... although the unit was quieter than the LG, when it went into the fan mode it had more of a buzzing sound, which grew annoying. The LG is about as loud as a normal sized air conditioner, and when the compressor turns off sounds like a regular fan. More than adequate for sleeping next to. I would have been annoyed sleeping next to the buzzing of the other unit.
So, I decided to return the SPT. I think it could be a really good product and had more features than the LG, but in the end I think the LG was better for my living situation. If I were buying a dehumidifier for my basement, where I don't spend much time, I would probably have kept the SPT because of the auto-restart feature and the fact that it was a 65 pint vs 45 pint. Also, the LG has a 5 yr warranty. Something to think about if all these units break after 1.
Hope this helps. Oh yeah, another thing I couldn't get around... it seems like its impossible to find any of the higher rated items at a physical store to try out. Luckily for me the LG was available at a local hardware chain, so I didn't have to ship it back and forth. It makes it much more difficult to try a unit out for a day when it takes a week to arrive.
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