All of the dehumidifiers we tested feature an external drain port to which you can connect either an included plastic hose or a standard garden hose (or any other correctly sized hose for that matter). You might not think that you’re actually going to need to drain the dehumidifier you end up buying. You might be thinking that you’ll just empty the condensate collection bucket when it fills up, and that’s it, no problem right? Well, the truth is that you’ll be fine just emptying the dehumidifier’s collection bucket when it fills up. It works. It gets the job done.
However, we strongly advise you to at least consider gravity drainage, especially if your humidity problem is severe. We’ll give you two quick reasons why we make this recommendation.
#1 Bucket Size
You’d be surprised how quickly a large capacity dehumidifier can remove moisture from the air. The average 50 pint dehumidifier removes roughly 50 pints of moisture a day. The average condensate collection bucket on a 50 pint unit has a capacity of somewhere between 14 and 16 pints. You’re easily looking at removing the dehumidifier’s bucket, emptying, and replacing it up to 3 or 4 times per day. That’s quite a bit of work. Work that you won’t have to do if you drain your dehumidifier and let gravity do the work for you.
#2 Interrupted Operation
Remember, a dehumidifier will stop operating as soon as its bucket’s full. It won’t resume operation until after you’ve emptied the bucket and replaced it. As an example of why this is important, let’s say you need to leave your home to run some errands or go to work for the day. In this scenario you leave your dehumidifier running at home while you’re away. As soon as the dehumidifier’s bucket is full, it automatically shuts off. You come home after several hours of the dehumidifier not running because its bucket was full. You’re looking at hours, even half a day or a full day wasted in which the dehumidifier could have been dehumidifying but wasn’t because its bucket was full.
Now consider the alternative. You connect a drain hose to the back of the unit and drain it using gravity. You no longer need to empty the unit’s condensate collection bucket 3 or 4 times per day. You also don’t have to keep track of when the dehumidifier beeps to let you know its bucket is full.
Have a question or comment? Let us know below.
If we run a hose on a space that is large can we use a small dehumidifier since we don’t have to empty a bucket?
How do you stop the buckets from filling and drain from hose only
Are there any dehumidifiers that collect water in a bucket because using a hose is not possible
Stupid question, I know. If you plan on letting the machine drain to the floor drain does it matter what size the dehumidifier is? Are the larger capacity units more powerful or efficient, or can I save money and buy a smaller unit? Thanks.
where can I get the blue cover of the drizer dehumidifier 1200?
Do you review dehumidifiers with built-in pumps? I’m interested in the Frigidaire FFAD7033R1. It’s your top rated model and Frigidaire also makes this same basic unit with a pump. My application requires manually emptying the bucket or using a pump to pump the water up 10’ and then out of the house. What do you think of the units with built-in pumps?
We generally do not recommend built-in pump units. For our complete thoughts on the subject see here.
I need a reliable 70 one using gravity feed to be left in Florida while I am gone for 3 months
All top rated units are reliable units that feature gravity drainage functionality. See our general buyer’s guide for our latest rankings.
I just purchased the a 70 Pt. Frigidaire (model # FAD704DWD) and have it auto-draining into my sump pump hole. I saw a photo where someone had their dehumidifier connected directly into the PVC piping of their HVAC, but can’t find any instructions on how/where to do this with my system. Do you have any instructions on how to accomplish this?
Unfortunately, we do not.
Your reviews of 70 pint dehumidifiers are comprehensive but some things were not addressed. Sometimes these dehumidifiers are placed in crawl spaces where access is difficult. Concern is what happens in event of a brief power failure? Are auto settings saved? If set for continuous operation does unit simply come back on when power is restored or would I need to crawl around under the house to re- start it? Lastly regarding connection to a condensate pump. I plan to connect it to the same one that the AC is connected to. May I assume that should the condensate pump fail, the dehumidifier will continue to operate and cause a flood? Do condensate pumps normally have their own auto shut-off?
Regarding your first question: most 70 pint units do come equipped with an auto-restart feature that saves your settings on restart. You will not need to crawl around under the house to restart one of these. Regarding your second question: we do not have enough experience with condensate pumps to give you a good answer.
In reply to Alfred Puglia’s question about preventing a flood if the condensate pump fails, this is what I did: The Little Giant pump has a pair of wires for connecting a “bucket full” switch. I went into my dehumidifier (OK, it’s probably not encouraged by the manufacturer) and connected the pair of wires from the “bucket full” switch to the Little Giant’s connection for that purpose. That way, if the tank in my external pump should fail to empty, it will shut off the dehumidifier just as its internal “bucket full” switch would.
Clarifying my slightly mixed-up post: The Little Giant has its own internal “bucket full” switch with an external connection. I wired that to my dehumidifier, replacing the two wires from the dehumidifier’s internal “bucket full” switch.
Connected hose and bucket still fills up and unit shuts off…also have unit sitting higher for drainage…water not going in hose
Same problem on my Haier. Any suggestions?
Have you tested the Whynter RPD-501 WP-50 Pint or the Whynter RPD-702 WP-70 Pint dehumidfiers and if so, how did they compare to the Frigidaire FFAD 5033R1 50-Pint and the Frigidaire FFAD7033R1 70-Pint dehumidifiers?
We haven’t yet although Whynter units are definitely on our radar and should be part of a future round up.
Hi.
I am a first time buyer/owner of a dehumidifier and I’m not always home.. travel for work.
I just bought the keystone KSTAD 70pt dehumidifier and I was wondering how long can I run it if I connected a hose for continuous draining? Can I run it for more then 24 hours?
And also I was reading your reviews in regards to this brand and model and I can set it to go on automatically and run continuously and set it to automatically turn off too?
i.e. To run for 10 hours then turns off but the next day it will turn on on its own?? And automatically turns off?
Thank U.
Yes, you can run the unit continuously for more than 24 hours. And yes, it does have a timer feature that allows you to set it to automatically turn off after a set number of hours.