Customer Reviews

Soleus Air CFM-25E 25-Pint Dehumidifier with Humidistat

5 star:		(153)
4 star:		(49)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(49)

 

 

This dehumidifier seems to be substantially superior if you have a living space to dehumidify or care about the amount of energy you use. It is, however, quite different from any other dehumidifier I have used.

First of all, the controls are much simpler. You can only choose continuous dehumidification or three measured settings: 50%, 60%, and 70% RH. I thought I'd miss the continuous variability of my old unit, but these settings are the only choices I would really use. As a general principle, this seems like a better design because its easier to achieve accuracy at reasonable cost with three discrete measurements vs. a whole range. And I'm pretty sure it won't get stuck in the "on" position like the mechanical controls on my old noisemaker.

Its light enough for an average guy to pick up, while my old unit would give me a hernia. While it wouldn't exactly add to my decore upstairs, it looks far better to my eye than most units. Its not going to satisfy the people that like industrial, in-your-face appliances.

Speaking of noise, the Soleus is really quiet. The box says 39 db(A), but it seems like even less on the lowest fan speed. Its quite acceptable background noise for a bedroom or for watching a movie and night and day quieter than a standard dehumidifier.

The fan, as B. Hughes noted, does run continuously. However, Home Energy magazine's 2002 article on basement humidity indicates this is better for efficiency as it tends to even out the humidity in your conditioned space. It certainly does a better job of keeping corners dry.

The big selling point for me is efficiency. The Soleus excels here in several ways despite the fact that Soleus seems to have not bothered to get an Energy Star rating.

Both the Canadian and US governments participate in the Energy Star program but the Canadian one actually gives you some useful dehumidifier data on their web site. By my calculations, the Soleus is roughly twice as efficient as the better models in its size class (measured in terms of liters/KWH, the CFM-25 rates about 2.4, while the *best* units on the Candian Gov't site in its size class clock in at 1.3. Obviously, Energy Star sets an exceptionally low bar for dehumidifiers).

Additionally, most manufacturers only offer units too big for a small space, which means that they have to short cycle and won't reach their peak efficiency. The CFM-25 is much better sized for many smaller houses.

Finally, here's some data I couldn't find anywhere -- but fortunately I have a nice watt meter. The fan on my CFM-25 takes 22 watts on low and 28 on high. My meter shows a power factor of 1, which is as good as it gets. On the low fan speed with the barely audible compressor running, that jumps up to about 205 watts and a PF of 0.9, which is still pretty good.

I couldn't find a greener, easier to live with dehumidifier anywhere and am very happy this the CFM-25.

We have spent this summer attempting to find a tolerable dehumidifier. Of the 5 brands we brought into our home this was the only one reasonable to use in a space where people live. It is truly quite. It actually pulls the water out of the air. It does not leak. It does not produce astounding amounts of heat.

It's draw backs are: 1. Even though it is weighs about half that of those dehumidifiers using the traditional compressor technology, it is still rather hard to move due to having casters instead of wheels. 2. The water catcher is more cumbersome to remove with grace than in other brands.

I was extremely impressed by all the great reviews that this dehumidifier received which prompted me to make my own purchase.

The first unit I received would not collect any water, not even a drop. I noticed that another consumer who wrote a review had a similar problem. Since the 1-800 number for customer service for Soleus would not return my call, I had to contact Amazon.com for a replacement. I might note that Amazon.com reacted extremely quickly to my concern and I had my replacement Dehumidifier the following day after I contacted them.

Unfortunately, the 2nd unit produced similar problems. The only way the unit would collect any water was if it was operating in the "continuous" mode. When one of the humidity levels was selected for the operating mode, once again, not even a drop of water would be collected and despite the user manual clearly indicating that when the humidity level was reached the unit would automatically turn off, it never did.....it would run constantly (which is a waste of electricity) and it wasn't even collecting any moisture from the air.

Well, I attempted to contact the Soleus 1-800 number again to only reach a voice mail service AGAIN. I called this number at various times of the days and I never reached a person, only their answering machine. Naturally, I left my return telephone again as well as a good time of when to return my call M-F. Several weeks elapsed and I received no return telephone call. I then e-mailed the company and a few days later I finally received a return call from one of their customer service representative.

This company originally attempted to suggest that the dehumidifier was operating normally. Since I was certain that it was not, I asked to speak to his supervisor and I outlined once again what the problem was. This supervisor provided me with instructions to perform a "test" and asked that I call them back the next day to advise if the unit was collecting water. The unit did not collect any water during the test therefore I called the company back. I should mention that rather than providing a 1-800 number to call them back, they provided a toll number for California hence I was forced to pay for the call several times.

The company acknowledged at that point that "yes" the product was defective. They also offered to send me a replacement however I was instructed that I would have to absorb the cost of the shipping. I informed the customer service rep. that I was not paying for the shipping for this defective product and I asked if they would provide a return mailing label for postage. He claimed he was unable to authorize payment for the shipping and I told him I would like him to confer with his supervisor and call me back. Three days elapsed before I received a call and the Supervisor also advised me that they would not pay for the shipping to return the product. I patiently explained to him that I was willing to try a replacement product again, despite the fact that it would be the 3rd unit, but only if they absorbed the cost of the postage. I wasn't about to pay $25-$30 in postage when I already paid over $125 for a defective product. I also told this supervisor that if they would not pay for the postage, I was going to contact Amazon.com and request a refund, not a replacement hence they were going to loss my business. The supervisor would still not provide return postage.

Long and short of this message, the customer service for this company is beyond terrible. You are unable to contact them at your convenience because the 1-800 number never reached a person but instead an connects you to an answering machine. In addition, this company is extremely slow in contacting you back, it's possible that you won't receive a return call until you contact them through their e-mail address. Lastly, don't be surprised if they attempt to tell you that the unit is operating properly when you know that it is not. To top off this story, the supervisor at Soleus had the audacity to suggest that he could provide his e-mail address for me to contact him in the event I had any problems in returning the unit AGAIN through Amazon.com. Naturally, I declined his offer. I have a lot more confidence in Amazon.com in taking the proper corrective action in this case than I do in Soleus to intervene on my behalf if I did run into any problems.

I'm happy to report that Amazon.com did the right thing again and they are sending me a mailing label to return this defective unit. I am not getting a replacement again nor will I ever buy anything in the near future from the Soleus Company. If you don't want to experience any major headaches, I would steer clear of this company.

When it works, this is a great dehumidifier - it's quiet, effective, about as attractively designed as possible, and energy efficient. I would recommend it at 4 or 5 stars, except for the following issue.

However, after about three months, I had the same problem as the last several reviewers, my Soleus just stopped working. The fan ran, but the unit didn't collect a drop of water. I tried opening the unit up and vacuuming the dust that had collected on the metal flanges (I guess they're the Soleus's version of condenser coils), but it didn't help, so I e-mailed Soleus.

Soleus's e-mail response was very quick and friendly - I got two responses within a few hours of e-mailing them. Soleus kept e-mailing me with ideas for the next few days, but was unable to solve the problem. Ultimately, Soleus offered to repair the unit under warranty, but only if I mailed it back to them at my own expense.

There is definitely a risk to ordering something like this mail order (or maybe even from a brick and mortar store). It's a great machine, but if it breaks, it's a serious hassle to pack and ship a 30 pound suitcase sized gadget at your own expense. At the very least, if you buy one of these mail order, I recommend that you save the packaging, just in case you need to ship it in for service.

As to the underlying problem, if your Soleus goes dry, I recommend the following steps.

1) Put a tub of water (or a humidifier) close to the intake valve to see if the humidity has dropped below some minimum.

2) Try moving the machine to a warmer room. According to the manual, the unit automatically stops collecting below some (quite low) temperature - your room may be colder than that, or the thermostat may be set incorrectly. (All the unhappy reviews seem to be clustered in the winter months).

3) Before you open it up and vacuum it out, check to see if that voids your warranty. If your warranty has run, definitely give it a try.

Great dehumidifier at a great price. Worked straight out of the box. We live on the 'wet side' of Oahu and have been getting more rain than usual. Humidity was so high, we had mold growing on the bottom of shoes on the floor and the entire 12x12 room felt damp. No more. This baby pulls about 1.5 gallons of water a day from the air. We already have a window a/c unit that puts out a good bit of noise and I didn't want a loud dehumidifier. This model is sooooo quiet, you can't even tell its on. Simply amazing.

Lots of pluses and very few negatives:
Very lightweight and small footprint on floor.
Doesn't require a lot of space around it as some other do.
Easy to use (just plug it in!)

It only has four settings for dehumidifying and doesn't tell you the humidity level of the room, but that wasn't important to me...I want to keep the room dry and keep it on 'continuous dehumidify' all day long. Also, it vents warm air into the room, raising temp 1-2 degrees F but with the drier air we barely notice.

I bought it about a month ago. It's been working effectively in my basement and making the 800 sqr-ft area nice and dry. The noise is minimum. Normally you don't hear it unless you listen to it purposely. The settings are very easily understandable.

There are a few things you may want to keep in mind:
1. Fan is always on no matter it is dehumidifying or not.
2. I usually want to set the dehumidifying level to 'dry' (50%). Each time when I power it off and then on, however, level is always restored to 'continuous'. So I have to reset it. But no big deal - just one click - as long as I can remember.
3. The user's manual only gives size of the water pipe in millimeter. I found out that ID-5/8" OD-3/4" is a perfect fit to the pipe.

Over all, strongly recommended!

I bought the Soleus because of its outstanding low noise rating.
It is indeed very low noise. Unfortunately it has control problems.

The computerized controls in the 2 I've owned do the following:
Once humidity setpoint is reached, the compresser turns off, never
to restart. The fan alone runs. Because of the fan, you will think
it is working until you either realize it is collecting no water,
or notice the very faint compressor hum is missing.
To restart the compressor it is necessary to do a hard reboot,
which means unplug, wait 1 minute, plug back in and work the buttons
on top to get it to dehumidify again.
You can see another review on Amazon for a 40 pint unit where
no water extraction is the complaint. I suspect this is why.

A 30 pint Maytag M3DH30B2A I also own is louder, but always works.
One big Maytag advantage in my opinion:
It has manual control - no computer to go wrong.

Finally - both the Soleus and Maytag blow out an odor I don't like -
I think it comes from the plastics used for their construction.
The Maytag is now 1 year old; the odors have diminished.

I've never owned a dehumidifier before, but we needed one for a room that is built a ways off from the rest of the house. The room tends to get more moisture and a mild mold problem becuase the area is foggy. Since we've had the dehumidifier, its been raining and the musty smell in the room is gone. The small amount of mold on the walls was removed when we bought the dehumidifier and none of it has come back. so far so good. i highly recommend this product.

The above was written in March 2005. Just wanted to update 6 YEARS LATER and these dehumidifiers we bought back then are still working great!

Pros: low electricity usage(?); effective; quiet; simple; looks good; drain hose not on bucket.

Cons: fan always on, unless powered off manually; drain by-pass connector isn't garden hose screw-on type, is push-on for plain (connectorless) hose.

This is a refreshing change from the old style dehumidifiers, except I don't have any comparison to other newer ones.
My parents bought this one for me from amazon.com to replace an old Goldstar brand they had once stored away and gave me last year. They use a couple others (Goldstar) at home and at a lake retreat, both also outdated, and we ran this Soleus Air in their basement first where they have their entertainment, office, hobby rooms so they could see what I was talking about while I had shopped around for a new one and they decided to give it as a gift.
The Soleus is hardly noticeable, even on high continuous settings, so that the TV volume could be turned down a lot.
Got it home to my place and ran it draining to bucket for a day (have drain hose in floor) and collected about 3 pints of water while central heating also runs (drier air). I normally use a vent-free propane heater that creates copious amounts of moisture in the air, but just happen to need a refill of LP right now so it isn't being used.
The CFM-25E label states it is rated to pull 10.5 pints of water per day from 80 degrees F air that has 60% relative humidity (or 25 p. from 86 F air @ 80% RH). Began at about 61% here, temperature 70 F, and dropped it to 55% in that amount of time, albeit with a little confusion about how it should be running. Meaning, I had thought all dehumidifiers turned on and off completely, whereas this one only cycles the compressor not the fan, so I had used the lowest settings all night expecting the fan to stop at some point.
If I weren't so satisfied with the performance and appearance of this dehumidifier I'd have given it only a 4 star rating for not being able to power itself completely off after dropping humidity level to one of the 3 possible settings. Yet it is so quiet my refrigerator seems noisy now! Not much difference from high to low fan speeds, far as sound output goes, but every speed blows a lot of air. This could be a big minus if you don't like air blowing all the time since, like I said, it never turns off. I'm anxious to find out if power cost drops or stays the same, the 220 watts (on label, not 200W said elsewhere) was a selling point for me.
At least it doesn't put hot air into the room like those old dehumidifiers because I'll be using this all summer in our humid climate of the Deep South, and in my case I can use the extra air movement even when the vent-free gas heater is on to help convection.
Anyway... I'm very happy with the Soleus Air CFM-25. Real good price, too.

I bought this for our basement and have used it for about a month now. The controls are very intuitive and easy to operate. I set it to keep my basement at 50% humidity and it usually fills up in about a day. Emptying the unit is pretty easy too. I dry clothes on a clothes rack in my basement and having this unit means the clothes dry in about a day, or two days max. The unit is very quiet, you hardly even hear it.

One warning if you use this in your basement, try and set it on a flat surface or use a small piece of wood or folded cardboard to keep it flat. Our basement slopes very gently so that water flows into our sump pump. I noticed that water was leaking out of the unit because apparently the slope of our basement was causing the float/auto shut off mechanism not to trigger. I put a small, nearly flat piece of wood under the unit to level it and the problem went away.