Soleus Air CFM-40 40-Pint Dehumidifier with Humidistat
by Soleus Air
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Soleus Air CFM-40 40-Pint Dehumidifier with Humidistat
Customer Review: With a couple improvements, this would be a 5 star.
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased the Soleus Air CFM-40 for use in a condo in Florida. I was impressed with its low noise as we could run the unit in the living room without bother to people who were listening to music, reading or watching TV. The Soleus is attractive, compact, ergonomic, and especially quiet.
The Soleus Air had everything I was looking for in a small dehumidifier ... Except ... the humidistat can not be turned down below 50% and an interruption in electrical supply results in unit shut down.
As we live in the South, we run our AC throughout the Summer months. Our AC unit removed sufficient moisture that the dehumidifier never turned on.
Also if the electricity turns off for a brief amount of time, the unit will not self start. The unit defaults to power off and must be restarted manually. This would be a huge disadvantage to anyone who wants to set it and leave for the Summer season, as many do in sub-tropical climates.
I decided to place the Soleus in the condo of a family member who is out of state for half the year. The little Soleus works well in this environment, and pulls out the excess moisture from the vacant condo.
For my own place, I ended up purchasing a unit that is larger, less attractive, boxy, and noisier. It does, however have settings below 50%.
Soleus would do well to include humidistat settings below 50% and provide a memory system to restart the unit if the power goes out. If the Soleus humidistat could be turned to 40% or 45% humidity, I would have kept it for myself. Unfortunately, I think I gave away the better unit, simply because it didn't work for me.
Regards,
DW
Customer Review: Excellent little machine
Summary: 5 Stars
General: We purchased this little Soleus in August of 2008 and it is still going strong c. 2 years later. We love the portability; it is not too heavy for me (5'7" 140lb woman) to move from room to room, up stairs, or even into the car. In general we keep it in our damp basement and it maintains a very livable environment.
Operation: This 40-pint Soleus is very decently quiet even at the High setting. Our basement is c. 800 sf and this machine handles the space well. We empty the water collector about 2x day in hot humid summer weather, about once a week in the much drier winter. The bucket is very easy to empty albeit somewhat unwieldy when full of water. I recommend using near some kind of sink or drain just for the ease of use, since it is not advised to move the thing around when full of water (sloshing occurs). I am about to open the side access hole to insert a continual drain hose and drain it directly into our sump well; I will update with more information on that when some time has passed. Specifically I want to know if it becomes immobile once that hole is opened, or whether one can still wheel it around to use sans hose.
Specific product successes: With the car doors closed, this gadget will dry out wet automotive carpeting like magic overnight. It is quiet enough to use in the bedroom during extremely humid nights, especially on the lower settings. All in all we are extremely pleased with this model and are definitely considering Soleus' larger ones for semi-permanent installation.
Caveats: Made in China. In our view, this is really the sole drawback of the machine, and I hope it does not impact the quality of the materials & fabrication long-term.
Customer Review: Worked great but died after 2 years.
Summary: 1 Stars
Update: Second unit died after 6 months. Do not buy this! Look at all of the reviews that say the same thing. How can a company sell a product with a known defect?
Purchased my first one in 2008. It died in early 2010. (fan kept working but no longer filled the reservoir with water. After reading all of the reviews of others out there, it still seemed like this was the best choice, since I liked the performance up until it died. So I am taking the risk and hoping the new one lasts longer than the previous.
I use it for a 1100 sq ft office space and it works very well. The space is much more comfortable and requires less heating. It is nice and quiet. ( Its not like I sleep next to it but, esp at the low setting I think it is very quiet.) I normally have it on the medium setting and it fills its reservoir every day. I empty it every day to water the planters so I actually like that it has to be emptied so often- keeps my plants alive.
Positives:
Works well and makes my 1100 sq foot office much more comfortable.
Takes a lot of water out of the air.
Makes me water my plants
Negatives:
First one I had died after only 2 yrs. and is now landfill
Not designed for disassembly/ recycling.
A Very ugly product.
Reservoir tray is not as easy to disengage as I would have liked.
Air outlet vent on top has a flap to direct the air where you want but can also be inadvertently closed (which might not be good for the product if you run it with the vent closed)
If it would have lasted I would have given it 4 stars. If it lasted and the design was nicer, 5 stars.
Customer Review: Noiseless Dehumidifier
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this unit to replace an old unit that insisted on icing up and not removing moisture from the air. I use the unit in a basement room where I have an Endless Pool for swimming. Normally with the cover on the pool, humidity is not a problem but when the cover is pulled back and the pool is in use the humidity goes into the 80% range. The Soleus is a very QUIET dehumidifier that is only barely audible so if you have to live in the same room with it, this is an excellent choice. The unit has 3 levels of power or speed and ALL are very quiet. My old dehumidifier was loud compare to this one. A second nice feature is that the Soleus vents the dry air out the top as compared to out the back or side. The vent can be directed by simple louvers which I like much better than blowing air against a wall and I think this gives better air movement in the room. My old unit has a humidity sensor and displayed the humidity level. This allowed you to not only see what the humidity was but you could set the digital readout to bring the room to a certain level. This is nice if you want that level of feedback but I found I set it once and left it alone. Since I didn't have a need to constantly change it, the absence of this feature on the Soleus is not significant. Soleus provide three levels of room humidity which is very adequate with "DRY' equal 50% humidity. The unit will run continuous or turn off once the humidity level is reached. In my setting I run the unit for a few hours after the pool cover is back in place and the room humidity is remove and I turn the unit off. The collection tank removes from the front and is relatively easy to empty.Customer Review: A few upsides and many downsides
Summary: 2 Stars
It's true, this unit is the quietest dehumidifier you'll find. And yes, it's attractive enough that you won't be embarrassed to have it in your living space, though it still sticks out as some kind of appliance (unlike our Rabbit Air BioGS Purifier). But there are some serious flaws in engineering, reliability, and overall usefulness. We're on our second unit right now because the first one did not work... at all... on any settings combination. The unit we have now works, but is nearly as painful to use. Quiet/Med speeds and Dry/Med/Moist dryness settings do nothing at all, even in a bathroom that is clearly humid. A customer service rep told me High/Auto was the ONLY setting that works. And the unit has literally NEVER turned off or slept in Auto mode. We have an LG in our basement that's ugly and loud as an outboard motor, but it always works, never overflows, and has a spill-cover for emptying. The Soleus has overflowed onto our hardwood floors 5 times in the last 5 months--the unit simply didn't register that it was full and emptied gallons of water onto our wood floor while we were at work. The detachable float device to sense fullness is cheap and easily displaced, causing most of the overflows. And the lack of spill cover means that every time you empty, you can be sure you'll be mopping up water as you detach, or moving on your way to empty, the bucket. Even moving the unit from place to place is enough to splash water from inside the unit all over your floor. Very very disappointing design and usability. The quiet and form factor make it one of the only choices for use in a living space, but be warned you need to babysit this appliance a lot.