Top 5 Best Dehumidifier for Mold (2023 Reviews Updated)
At the end of each workday, I’m sure that you’d want to come home to a clean and comfortable place without being greeted by humidity, musty odors, and stale air. If you live in a region where high humidity is a problem, too much moisture in your house will make it prone to growing mildew and mold. Not only do they make the rooms in your home smell worse, but mold may also cause health issues and structural damage to your residence.
Best Dehumidifier For Mold Removal
- hOmelabs (Editor’s Choice)
- Frigidaire FFAD7033R1
- Vremi 70 Pint Portable
- Ivation
- Honeywell TP70WK
Don’t risk the health of your family– get rid of those odors and keep the humidity level under control! Finding the right model can help to remove the problem of excess moisture from the air. Join us as we take a look at the best dehumidifier to get for mold and help you find the right one to keep your home dry and mold-free.
The Best Dehumidifier for Mold Reviews
1. hOmelabs 70 Pint Dehumidifier
A fairly new company on the appliance scene, hOmelabs came into existence in 2014. Even so, their portable, 70-pint hOme dehumidifiers gives other established brands a run for their money. This dehumidifie
r is perfect for larger rooms, basement, or cellar where you want to remove humidity issues.
As an Energy Star certified machine, this dehumidifier doesn’t use much electricity, to keep your room dry, so it not only saves your home from the threat of mold spores, mildew, and airborne allergens—it also saves you money. It is incredibly energy efficient, meaning you’re easing the burden on the environment. It costs less to run this dehumidifier compared to others on the market, too.
The hOme Dehumidifier is fairly straightforward to use: you just set your ideal moisture level and it will remove the humidity in the air on a continuous 24-hour cycle until its water tank is full. At that point, it will automatically turn off until you drain the machine. For convenience’s sake, you get an included a drain hose outlet so you can attach a hose for continuous draining if you prefer continuous operation.
What sets this one apart is the turbo mode feature that increases the fan speed from Normal Air of 165 CFM (cubic feet/minute) to High Air 188 CFM to maximize moisture removal and odor reduction in your household or basement.
Pros:
- Energy Star certified
- 70-pint per day capacity
- 24-hour continuous cycle with a drain outlet
- Perfect for larger rooms
- Auto-turn off feature
- Turbo mode feature
Cons:
- Small water tank (12.8 pints) means you’ll have to drain the tank over six times a day in high-humidity environments
- Does not work in the same room as an evaporative cooler
2. Frigidaire FFAD7033R1 Dehumidifier
The first entry in our list of best dehumidifiers for mold comes from Frigidaire, one of the most renowned consumer appliance brands that have been around for over a century. The craftsmanship and quality in their work come through once again in the FFAD7033R1 with its high capacity of 70 pints of air per day.
This unit works round the clock, battling humidity and protecting the rooms in your home from mildew and mold by drying out the air it processes. Keeping the air dry can also help to eliminate the problem of airborne bacteria that make breathing difficult, providing your home with cleaner and higher air quality.
The most prominent feature of the Frigidaire is its Ready-Select electronic controls with a digital display readout that allows you to see the current humidity level in your household. The Effortless Humidity levels panel lets you adjust the level of moisture to with its straightforward controls. Also, you can set the time on this dehumidifier for up to 24-hours of operation and a control lock, so you get complete control of when, and how it operates.
This unit is good for the bedroom, garage or basement. The FFAD7033R1 Dehumidifier’s patented SpaceWise portable design includes a top handle, integrated side handles, and caster wheels, making it incredibly easy to move the machine from one room to another.
Pros:
- Comes from a well-known brand, Frigidaire
- High-quality craftsmanship
- 70 pint per day capacity
- SpaceWise Portable Air Design
- Effortless Humidity Levels
- Ready-Select Electronics
- Good for the bedroom, garage or basement.
- Easy to transport from room to room
Cons:
- The sensor can break after a few years, resulting in an “F0” readout error
- You get a shorter lifespan compared to other dehumidifiers on this list
3. Vremi 70 Pint Portable Dehumidifier
Our second entry comes from Vremi, an appliance manufacturer that has been around producing kitchen appliances for many years but recently expanded into all manner of home appliances, including dehumidifiers. While the company has a fairly short history of manufacturing air-conditioning appliances, you can’t knock the quality and affordability of its 70-pint model.
This model works well in any space in your home from the attic to the basement, and any rooms in between. If you are environmentally-conscious or want to save a couple of dollars each month on your electricity bill, the first thing that will draw your attention to this one is that it is Energy Star certified, meaning it will remove humidity levels in your home with minimal energy consumption.
Vremi designed the Moisture Maniac Dehumidifier with the convenience of the end-user in mind. In addition to keeping the air dry, it sports a sleek and clean look with convenient built-in wheels and handles to ensure that you can move it around the house if you need to. You also get whisper-quiet operation with this dehumidifier, ensuring that you will not hear it operating in the background as it reduces moisture, odors, and allergens in the air.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how to run this machine, as you can easily set the ideal humidity level for your home and then let it run in continuous 24-hour cycles until the water tank is full. You can either drain it yourself or attach a drain hose to an available outlet to help remove water for continuous operation.
Pros:
- Lowers humidity with minimal power usage
- Eco-friendly, doesn’t use much electricity
- Compact size
- Large 70-pint per day capacity
- Easy to operate
- Drain hose slot for continuous operation
Cons:
- Comes from a brand that is more known for kitchen appliances
- Small water tank
4. Ivation 70 Pint Dehumidifier
Keep mold and mildew at bay with this durable, smooth-rolling caster wheels and lightweight build, the Ivation 70-Pint Dehumidifier rolls into our list as one of the best dehumidifiers for mold spores on the market today. As its name implies, the Ivation Dehumidifier can remove up to 70 pints of moisture each day during those incredibly humid months. It can combat the growth of mold spores and mildew all year round.
While the Ivation Dehumidifier isn’t the sleekest looking machine, its compact and lightweight build ensures that it fits discreetly in most places. You can roll it into any room in your house that needs moisture reduction the most, even the basement.
Like most dehumidifiers on our list, it is Energy Star certified, so it doesn’t require much electricity to operate. It won’t only save you from mold spores and allergens, either. It also saves you much needed dollars each month. The dehumidifiers auto-shutoff feature and cleanable filter make you even more of an eco-warrior, saving energy and keeping waste out of the dump.
It is incredibly easy to use. With its simple LCD interface, you set your ideal humidity level, set the fan speed between normal and turbo mode, program the time for up to 24-hours, and you’re good to go. The integrated handles on this unit also make it easy to transport down to the basement, or up to the attic when humidity strikes.
Pros:
- Energy Star Certified
- Auto-shutoff feature
- Cleanable filters
- Two fan speed options
- Easy to transport from room to room
- Easy to use
- Drain outlet
- Frost sensor for auto-defrost
Cons:
- Small water tank (10.4 pints) makes the drain hose necessary
- Generates a bit of heat during operation
5. Honeywell TP70WK
Control the humidity in medium to large rooms with the TP70WK dehumidifiers from a brand renowned for its top-quality products and design. Energy Star certification means that this dehumidifier is not only powerful, but it also uses less electricity than other conventional dehumidifiers, saving you more money in the long run and using less energy. Taking the eco-friendliness a step further, the TP70WK also has a durable and easily washable filter that will age with the dehumidifier.
The best thing about buying dehumidifiers from a renowned brand is that you have peace of mind in case something goes wrong with your device. In this event, you can call the Honeywell Comfort customer service hotline to help you with maintenance.
The Smart Digital Humidistat control on this device automatically activates the appliance based on your pre-set conditions. Additional features like a sleep mode, low-temperature operation, auto-defrost, auto-restart function after a power outage, make the TP70WK one of the best dehumidifiers for mold out there. You can also schedule the time on this product for up to 24-hours of energy-saving dehumidifying. We also like that this model also comes with a drain outlet and a hose, something that most companies don’t include in their package.
If that isn’t enough to convince you, Honeywell also offers an extended warranty on their products, and great customer service to help you with any questions or concerns.
Pros:
- Energy Star certified
- Drain outlet and hose included
- Extended warranty
- Sleep Mode
- Auto-restart function after power-outage
- 24-hour energy-saving timer
- Durable and washable filter
- Great for medium to large rooms
Cons:
- Made in China
- The water tank is flimsy – it’s best to use a hose for continuous drainage
What Causes Indoor Mold Growth
There are a variety of reasons that mold might grow inside your home, but there is one main cause behind all of them: moisture and humidity. Excessive moisture and humidity can come from several things, including high humidity, condensation, and water leaks. You can easily resolve the latter two by finding the source of the water. One of your pipes may be leaking – or worse, burst. In this case, mold growth is probably the least of your problems, as such an incident can cause structural damage to your home.
However, if the weather has raised humidity in the past weeks, or if it’s the rainy season in your part of the country, then mold spores can start growing indoors. After all, the humidity level only needs to be above 55% for mold to start growing.
Climate, high humidity, moisture levels, and weather aren’t the only culprits that cause mold spores. Actions such as drying clothes indoors also help to increase humidity levels inside the home. If you get an HVAC system that artificially heats and cools the air in your home, condensation form high humidity and moisture is a part of this process, and this also increases the chances of mold thriving in your household.
How to Identify Mold
You can best identify mold spores through several means. The first sign is an increase in allergy symptoms. If you’re consistently having allergic reactions such as sneezing, sore eyes, runny nose, or nasal congestion, then there’s a good chance that mold is growing somewhere in your home. If you have allergy symptoms while at home, but they disappear as soon as you step out, that is a common indicator of indoor mold. If you’re having neurological symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, and memory loss, it’s best you visit a doctor. These can be signs that you’ve been exposed to a particularly toxic type of mold.
If you may not want to leave anything to chance, trust your senses. If you start smelling that stale or musty odor in your basement, or any other area of your home, there could be a problem with a mold infestation your home. Don’t ignore that smell—start searching for signs of mold.
You can easily miss the signs of a potential problem if you don’t know how to spot them. Some types of mold can look white and thread-like. Others can look like small clusters or just black spots on your wall. Moreover, depending on the surface it’s growing on, mold can be colored black, gray, white, brown, gray-green, or grayish brown. Some kinds can even be pink, orange, or purple.
Can a Dehumidifier Kill Mold Effectively?
Let’s get this straight: dehumidifiers do not kill mold directly. They do, however, help to prevent it from becoming a bigger problem by making the environment inhospitable by reducing humidity for the growth of new mold colonies in your home. As mentioned previously, too much moisture and humidity in the air makes it incredibly easy for mold to grow and thrive. The area in the basement, bathroom, laundry room, and attic are the most susceptible to mold. Dehumidifiers take this excess moisture from the air, thus stopping mold in its tracks.
Again, dehumidifiers do not kill mold, but they do prevent it from becoming a problem. If you already have mold in your household, even with a dehumidifier, you’ll need to find the spore colonies and eliminate them. It’s important to remember that, even with the best dehumidifier, you might still occasionally find mold around your home. Direct water sources, such as a leak in the pipes, can still lead to mold issues. Removing these water sources and having dehumidifiers in your home increases the chances of preventing mold from growing in your home to the degree that it will affect the health of your family.
In addition to preventing a problem, keeping humidity levels also makes the air less hospitable to other allergens such as dust mites and airborne microbes. It also reduces the load on your air conditioner, too, allowing it to run more efficiently.
How to Choose Dehumidifier Size
Choosing an appropriately-sized dehumidifier is vital if you want to effectively prevent humidity from becoming a problem and stop the growth of mold in your home. By “size,” we don’t mean the dimensions of the dehumidifier unit itself, although that does go hand-in-hand in that bigger dehumidifiers work on larger areas than smaller ones. What is important is the processing capacity of the dehumidifier, be sure to get one with a large enough capacity that would be effective in multiple areas of your home, such as the bedroom the basement. All of the dehumidifiers reviewed here have 70-pint on them – this is the amount of moisture that it can remove from the air in a day.
There are two things that you have to consider when choosing the capacity of your dehumidifier: the area of your home and how damp or humid the air is. Here is a quick guide on what capacity dehumidifiers you need for a damp space and a specific area size:
- 500 square feet = 12-pint dehumidifier
- 1,000 square feet = 17-pint dehumidifier
- 1,500 square feet = 22-pint dehumidifier
- 2,000 square feet = 27-pint dehumidifier
The dehumidifiers we’ve reviewed are appropriate for 3,000 to 4,500 square-foot spaces.
Wrapping It Up
This has been our review of the best dehumidifiers for mold on the market in 2020. We hope our product reviews helped you choose the right dehumidifier for your needs. If you don’t think any of the product reviews fit your home – for example if you don’t need a dehumidifier with such a high capacity – consult our buyer’s guide and reviews to figure out what kind of dehumidifier is appropriate for your specific needs. Mold isn’t just unsightly. It can also cause structural damage and affect your health, so consider investing in one of these best dehumidifiers for mold.