Soleus Air CFM-25E 25-Pint Dehumidifier with Humidistat
by Soleus International Inc.
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List Price: Category: Home See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Soleus Air CFM-25E 25-Pint Dehumidifier with Humidistat
Customer Review: Didn't function
Summary: 3 Stars
My unit arrived missing the guard in the water tank. This probably caused damage to the water tank and tank full switch during shipping. Therefore on receipt, the unit did not function. I did hold the switch in manually to listen to the unit and it does seem to operate very quietly. I can't comment on its use until I get the replacement. ON the upside, the return and replacement from Amazon was very easy. My replacement unit should arrive in a day or two.
**update** I recevied the replacement unit. It does function but still does not have a guard on the water tank like the manual indicates. Not sure if this guard is really supposed to be there or not since this is unit 2 without it. At least this unit functions though. I tried contacted Soleus Air 4 times in email now asking if the water guard should or shouldn't be there. No replies from them. I also emailed their Consumer Sales Office and received no reply. I had a 2nd question for them - the manual indicates you should use 15mm inside diameter tubing for the continuous drain. I can find no such 15mm tuning that exists anywhere - auto stores, hardware stores, Lowe's, Home Depot, Ace, True Value, Tubing specialty manufacturers, US, UK, etc. I asked Soleus what they suggest or where they suggest getting this tubing. Also no replies.
The product is operating and it is indeed quite. I suppose if you never have problems or need anything from the manufacturer its an ok purchase.
** update ** 12/30/2005 I never did get a response from the manufacturer on the tank guard. I called 5 times and emailed about 50 times. At one point I did get a message from someone at Soleus that said he could easily help me. I never heard from him again though ever nor was I able to actually reach him. All I wanted to know was if the stinking guard was or was not supposed to be there.
More importantly, like several others have noted - my unit ran fine for a few months but then stopped collecting water. The fan still runs and it is still quiet but no water in the tank. Just to verify the changing seasons didn't dry out the basement I swapped in my old dehumdifier in the exact spot and it did collect water. Its located in my laundry room so I knew the area wasn't dry enough to not have some collected water. I put the Soleus back in for a period and still no water collection - tried all modes - one each week - continuous, moist, dry, mid - no water collection at all. So, I gave up and went back to my old unit and it is collecting water in that same spot ongoing.
****11-01-2006***** I'm giving my Soleus to the junk collector. What a shame and waste of money. After hundreds of emails and many, many, many calls to Soleus - I got not one single response to my unit failing to function after a short time. Not a single reply, call back, etc - ZERO. I'm frankly astonished that anyone is still giving this product and company any kind of good reviews. I've seen others with the exact same non-functional issue as me as well as the same poor Soleus response. Talking to other owners in local stores, my experience is nowhere near unique so I really have to question whether the reviews in here are by real people or sales reps. Something is quite fishy when I can't find a live person who reports their unit has operated for a year or more and they've gotten customer service out of Soleus. Just my thought. I replace the Soleus with a Maytag unit that has now run flawlessly for almost 1 year. What a treat - plug it in, turn it on, connect the drain and I haven't had to worry about it in 10 months. The Maytag is much louder though. However, what difference does that make if the Soleus is quiest and doesn't function.
Customer Review: Know its limitations.
Summary: 4 Stars
This dehumidifier might work well for some, but it is not for everyone.
First, it is an inexpensive brand that often does not last a long time. There are a lot of reviews that state how it doesn't last long, or only lasted a year before breaking down. On the other hand, it costs considerably less than what one that is clearly superior one might cost.
There are a lot of people who write reviews that say theirs arrived & didn't work. In some cases, I don't doubt that happened, but because of the limitations of this particular unit, maybe in some cases, it was just not meeting their needs. The unit only works down to 50% humidity. This unit may not collect any water & appear not to work, while other dehumidifiers are collecting water, because humidity is under 50%.
Other units usually go down much lower. The lowest setting other than continuous on this model is 50%. Even when the unit is set to continuous, it draws out very little water once it gets below 50% humidity. Mold doesn't grow nearly as well at 50% as at 80%, but often even at 50% there can be some growth. If you have mold allergies, you might need a machine that at least goes down to 45%. This unit is probably not for you.
The dehumidifier is rated at 25 pints a day when the room temperature is 86 F & humidity is 80%. As the temperature drops the unit becomes incredibly less efficient. This is common with dehumidifiers. In my basement at 65 degrees F, even when the humidity is high, it might, if I'm lucky get out 4 pints a day. As bad as this sounds, this sort of reduction in capability is common with dehumidifiers, but since this one is one of the smaller ones on the market, you are likely to really notice the reduction with one this size.
This unit does have auto defrost. It is the reason I bought it. Well, the auto defrost & that is was on a very good sale. I have a dehumidifier 3 times more powerful that is supposedly for low temperature use, but does not have auto defrost. When it is cool, below 75 F, it doesn't freeze up, but spends almost all its time idling waiting to thaw out, since it doesn't auto defrost. This unit actually occasionally heats up the coils to defrost & then quickly goes back to dehumidifying.
While its size can be a disadvantage, it is the quietest dehumidifier I've ever owned & is extremely easy to move. One other thing that I like is that you can put a hose on it to have it drain into a floor drain. It doesn't come with a hose or garden hose attachment. You'll probably need to make a special trip to the hardware store to get the right size hose.
If you have a small room that will always be above 75 or 80 degrees F & you don't want to spend a lot, then this might be perfect for you, assuming you get shipped one that works. If you have a larger unit to use during the summer, but need something that can deal with lower temperatures & only a little humidity during the early Spring, this one might work, but might still be too small to do the job.
Reading the different reviews of this product, maybe the unit I have will only last a year or so. We will see. When it dies, I'll buy something more powerful, but so far it does work as advertised, although, how quickly the effectiveness of a dehumidifier drops when used in cooler temperatures is usually lost in the fine print.
Customer Review: Unconventional but miles ahead
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Ahhhhhhhhh, silence is golden
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Zero pints per 24 hours!
Summary: 1 Stars
I ordered two of these units in order to have more flexibility, and also on the off chance that one of them might be defective. Unfortunately, neither of them worked properly. I read and followed all the instructions, and set them to run continuously on high so I could check out how much water they would collect in 24 hours, to test them. Neither one collected even a drop of water! I "rebooted" them by turning them off and unplugging and plugging them back in and turning them back on. I will say the fans worked fine; too bad the compressors didn't.
As for documentation and customer service: When I first received them and read the instruction booklet, in the safety warning area (pg 5?) the text warned not to use the unit near fine art or edible items. Huh? I thought that seemed strange, so I called customer service to find out why. I did get through on the first try, but the young man who answered wasn't familiar with the instructions and warnings and had no idea why, so he put me on hold while he consulted with his supervisor. He then told me the reason I shouldn't use the unit near edible items is because it would remove the moisture from the food which would make it go bad, and they don't want anyone to get sick. WTF?
They did remove moisture from me (in the form of perspiration) while I struggled to get them back in their boxes and ready for UPS to pick up, as I had requested a refund from Amazon.com. Although they were on the same order they arrived in their original separate boxes, however Amazon issued only one UPS call tag, and the driver could only pick up one of the boxes. So one of them did remove additional moisture from me (and my gas tank) when I drove it to a UPS pick up location in a nearby town and struggled to get the box out of my car and into the store. I am soooo glad there wasn't a turnstyle to go through! I'd probably still be stuck there, laughing like a loon.
So, I think these are for people with a dry sense of humor. Back in the day, if Lucille Ball needed a dehumidifier, I bet she would have chosen one of these if they were available.
Actually, I've had a good laugh because of the irony of the situation, and I am very grateful I was able to return both to Amazon.com. After reading what some reviewers went through with Soleus customer service I didn't bother contacting them for a return or replacement. They would have expected me to return it at my expense, from what I understand. From what I read by other reviewers, they work great if you happen to receive one that isn't defective. Based on that, I thought I would give the item a shot, but I made a poor choice. Based on the time and effort I wasted by ordering this item, I can only warn other would-be buyers to avoid this product.