Soleus Air CFM-25E 25-Pint Dehumidifier with Humidistat
by Soleus International Inc.
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Soleus Air CFM-25E 25-Pint Dehumidifier with Humidistat
Customer Review: 4 years and still running fine
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm sorry for the people who've had bad luck with theirs, but my experience couldn't be more different. I bought mine in March 2005 here on Amazon, and it's still running like a champ. Just pop out the plastic filter on the back and rinse it out (occasionally give it a good vacuuming with a wand hose too) and it's happy to go again.
And it's quiet, quiet, QUIET. I can sleep with this in my bedroom on the soggy spring days it's too humid to breathe easily but still too cold for the air conditioner. Its regular home is in the basement TV room, where it's quiet enough to leave running even when watching things.
The one thing that caught me off guard was that power blips will turn it "off" -- if you have a power outage and then the power comes back on, you'll find its little green light is on but it's not dehumidifying water until you press the Power button again.
My parents liked mine so much they had me order two of the 40 pint CFM units (the big brother of this one) for them. This spring I ordered a 40 pint Energy Star unit for myself -- that one is definitely noisier, but has a digital humidistat. And according to a CFM-line reviewer, this line isn't too far off Energy Star certification itself; the non-Energy Star part of this one is that it doesn't shut off, it keeps its fan running even when not in dehumidifying mode. But its fan is much MUCH quieter than the Energy Star model. There's no way I could sleep with the Energy Star model.
If you're wondering whether to get the 25 pint or the 40 pint, though, I'd recommend the 40 pint simply because of a misunderstanding I had. An online calculator told me I'd need 25 to 40 pints of dehumidification in an 800 s.f. space. That wasn't nearly enough dehumidification for an 800 s.f. basement space built on former swamp land in the middle of what used to be a creek bed. And the 40 pint model is very close in size to the 25 pint model -- the pint rating isn't based on the bucket size, but on how much it handles in a given amount of time.
So the 40 pint models will dehumidify almost twice as fast as the 25 pint models, without costing almost twice as much or taking up almost twice as much space. I wish I'd known that when I was originally picking mine out.
Still, I've been very happy with this one for 4+ years now, and if I ever retire it from the basement I'll replace it with another Soleus model. (I'll replace it with a Soleus CFM 40 pint, to be specific, because I do want something quiet in the basement TV room, and that would let me keep this nice quiet one upstairs in my bedroom for lowering humidity without having to air condition the whole house.)
Customer Review: Worst Customer Service Ever
Summary: 2 Stars
I don't know how the SoleusAir 25 pint dehumidifier got such a high rating because 1) It never removed more than 10 pints in 1 day even though the humidity level in my closed bedroom started out at 80%. In fact, once the humidity level reached 50% it never removed more than 3 pints in a day or took the humidity level below 48% even running on Continuos High 24/7. 2) The 1st week it was very quiet but by the 3rd week it was so noisy that I had to turn it off at night or it would wake me up. 3) Soleus does not believe in any form of customer service. They are by far the worse company I have ever dealt with
I called and left a message, after the 1st week and got no response. I emailed them and got an automated response then nothing. After another week I called and left another message and got no response. I again emailed them and got no response. End of another week I then called and kept hitting re-dial until I got the operator who told me to leave a message. I told her I wanted to talk to a real person so she transferred me to the wrong person who put me on hold for 5 minutes before transferring me to the right person, a Tommy Vong. He rudely told me that as long as the unit was taking any water out of the air that the unit was not defective. Then he said that if I wanted anything else from him to FAX him a copy of the original receipt so he could be sure the unit was still under warranty. Also, if I wanted any warranty work done I would have to pay for the shipping to them. Lastly he said that until I provided the receipt there was nothing else he would do for me. Needless to say, I returned the unit to the Amazon.com. They sent me a return label then promptly gave me a full refund.
I then bought a Haier HDN305 30-pint a day Dehumidifier, which was less expensive that the SoleusAir and even though it is nosier works much better. I use the Haier in my bedroom in the day & living room at night and it takes the humidity in these rooms from 80% to 35% in less than 4 hours. Also, I called Haier and got Customer Service phone number and within a minute I was talking to a customer service rep who was both pleasant and helpful.
Customer Review: Serious problems
Summary: 1 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Wish they lasted longer
Summary: 3 Stars
I am reviewing both the CFM-25 and the CFM-40 as I have owned one of each. They are essentially the same except for the pints per day they are supposed to be able to remove from the air.
I first purchased a CFM-25 in June 2005 and set it up in my basement. I ran the unit almost continuously, except for when it filled up and stopped. It lasted until about November 2008. The fan was still running, but I realized, and a hygrometer confirmed, that it was not actually pulling moisture out of the air any more. As other reviewers have discovered, the compressor goes out. Well, three and a half years of basically constant use is maybe not so bad.
So in December 2008 I purchased the CFM-40 here on Amazon. With this unit, I punched the knockout on the side, found some clear tubing at Home Depot or Lowes that fit, and set the unit up near the utility sink so I wouldn't have to worry about emptying it all the time. Thus, this unit truly ran constantly. The resultant humidity levels varied depending on the settings I chose (and the variable natural humidity level), but I easily kept the basement around 50% in the humid season (in Oregon this is the winter).
About a month ago (March 2010) I noticed that this unit had stopped working effectively. Humidity in the basement is now 60-65% with outside humidity at 80%. So while the first one lasted more than three years, this one worked a little more than one year. Arguably the second unit saw more hours of actual operation since I set up continuous drain to the sink rather than using the built-in container, but no way was it three times as much.
These things aren't exactly cheap. I'm not happy about the prospects of buying one every year or so. And if you are a responsible citizen, you should not throw these in the landfill because they contain some form of antifreeze in the coolant fluid, so proper disposal costs must be factored in as well. I paid about $20 when I took the CFM-25 to a recycler.
Customer Review: Dehumidifier is nice, quiet but does NOT work!
Summary: 1 Stars
After a lot of research and reading many reviews on dehumidifiers, I decided to gamble and purchase the Soleus Dehumidifier. The reviews told me that those who have units that work were extremely happy with them. I also knew that some arrived DOA - sounding like they were working, but not extracting water from the air.
I even contacted Soleus customer service to get a feel for their responsiveness - I was able to reach someone via email and even had a phone number. So I went ahead and puchased the unit from Amazon - which turned out to be a very big advantage for the return.
The unit arrived. It was nice, sleek and easy to set up. This unit was placed in a finished basement that gets very damp on rainy days. We already have a very noisy older unit that pulls out a gallon or more a day on rainy days. So, we had a baseline for how much the Soleus should extract in the same space. I was hoping for a quiet unit to perform the same work. Well, not the case.
Here is my experience.
The unit was VERY QUIET which was very nice. However, the unit did not work properly! We waited and waited for water to come. We decided we had not set it properly so tried again and again. After constant running we were only able to get a few drops of water in the resevoir bucket. Obviously the unit was not working and we were one of the unlucky ones. We started our older unit and it pulled out a bucket of water - so we knew we had a unit that was not working properly. I was disappointed but happy I could return this to Amazon. We will get another noisy unit from somewhere rather than hassle with getting one of these that works.
The return process at Amazon was flawless and very smooth though so I am happy with that part of the transaction! I would NOT recommend this unit - don't be hopeful, just go ahead and save yourself the time and get another brand that works.