Well. It was a great dehumidifier while it lasted. Quiet. Efficient. Quiet. Very quiet. You couldn't tell when the compressor would kick in. I had a GE before.That is, still have it. When the compressor is compressing, it is as if someone is trying to give birth. To a porcupine. Against the grain. Without anesthesia. Very loud and very... laborious.
So exactly two years ago I bought the Frigidaire. I had the previous model which I was happy with and I read this one was even better. For pretty much the same price.
So it came. It worked the summer and fall of 2016. Then it rested and then worked the summer and fall of 2017. It gave me an error, the infamous F0, a couple of times, but then it worked on. This spring I saw it kick in and then after a while the error came. I reset it....same. And no denumidifying. After a couple of days I decided to call Frigidaire and vent. After all, the new looking all polished unit after less than a year of pure working time just croaked. Then, after reading some users' accounts of dealing with the F0 I decided to open the unit first, after all I am an EE.
Upon having it opened I saw the whole condensor having rusted out. Leakage of some sort. Probably lost the freon due to this.
So I called.
To my amazement (I expected to hear some "we're sorry but....") the customer service promptly advised me of the buyout of these units. They sad they would at their discretion either refund the money or replace the unit. I submitted the document (easy) over the email, and after not hearing anything for two weeks I received a new unit (I was prepared to get the refund which is the amount less tax and was really surprised).
So. Really great attitude of the customer service. Even if it indicates there is some known issue(s) with the model they are aware of and won't admit, but will just replace an out of warranty unit, and from what I understood, mine is not alone.
The new unit is working as it should now, I have to get rid of the previous one. It happened one week after the bulk pickup in our town.
So....even though the unit has reliability problem, I'm hoping maybe since the issue has been identified, maybe in newer units it got addressed.
Two stars deducted for reliability. But one is added back for the customer service.
Let's hope this one lasts longer. The previous 70pt model has been with me for over three years now.
= Works with smart plugs =
If you don't want to hear the fan at certain times, you can use a smart plug. Because it automatically turns back on after a power outage, remembering it's last settings, you can use it with a WeMo smart plug (or any brand), to schedule it to run only at certain times.
= My Testing =
50 pint model works extremely well to dehumidify my entire house (2 story, 1800 square feet). I tested it so far at maintaining 45% humidity while being placed relatively centrally, near an intake duct (HVAC), with a fan setting of high, medium, and low. I believe humidifiers are more efficient when the fan is at a higher setting, but the noise level is also higher. I live in a humid area and during the summer my place was resting at 60% humidity without dehumidification. I feel like it did an excellent job. I took a few hours to reduce the humidity level. I run my HVAC fan continuously, so it affect the whole house humidity very quickly. If you don't run your house fan often it may take longer for the humidity level to drop in room thats are far from the dehumidifier.
= Impact on my thermostat temp setting =
I have found that I could raise my thermostat cooling temperature at least 3 degrees in the summer when my home humidity dropped to 45%. Because of the humidity, I found was setting the thermostat to a lower temperature than needed.
UPDATE: My only issue with it is that it seems to continue to run even after it reaches the set relative humidity. I have it set at 40% and it had reached 45%, so I decided to set it to 50%. I waited, and waited, and waited.....and nothing changed. It continued to run at full bore (fan speed set on high). This is bothersome to me and I'm not sure if I would be able to just add a timer to it or not because I suspect that it will need the power button manually pushed to turn it on. I'll have to test it to find out.
For the past two years during the spring and summer we have been dealing with a mold issue in our basement. The house was built in 1920 with a stone foundation and a backyard that slopes toward the house. Water isn’t pouring in to the basement but it has always had that damp and musty feel. After having to throw away a few boxes of items because of mold growth the purchase of a dehumidifier was inevitable.
CAPACITY >>First, the sizing for these things is all over the map. I sized the unit using various sources, including the manufacturer’s recommendations and for our 625 sf (4400 cubic foot) damp basement this 30 pint unit should do the trick. Unpacking and setup was a breeze.
UNBOXING/SETUP >>Between unpacking the box and screwing in the hose and adapter it may have taken 10 minutes.I was able to use the gravity drain and set it on a shelf just above our laundry sink. If you have a sump pump you can also set the unit up close by and run the hose into the pit.
OPERATION >> Unit was self explanatory - turn it on and set the desired humidity. Unfortunately this unit seemed to be undersized for our application. I set it to 40% humidity and after a week of running the lowest it ever got was 50% on a cool dry night. With the drain hose installed I was able to let the unit run 24 hours a day for 7 days without worrying about if it was getting full.
Pros:
1. Sleek Design
2. Extremely easy set up
3. Nice secure hose connection with adapter
4. Gravity drain means no emptying the trays
5. Easy to set with automatic shut off and timer
6. Fairly quiet
7. Built in handle for easy maneuvering
Cons:
1. Was not large enough for out application
Final thoughts:
I am giving this item 5 stars even though I had to return it, the only issue was the size of the unit and I will have to take the blame on that one. I liked the look and operation so much that I simply returned it and bought its big brother to take care of the moisture issue in our basement.
For about a month, we ran this unit in our basement, and emptied the bucket daily. It worked really well, but we got tired of emptying the bucket. About a week ago, I set it up to drain automatically into the washing machine drainpipe, and it is working flawlessly. Since the water drains by gravity, the hose or drainage tube must be sloped downward for its entire length. This means the unit must be higher than the hole that the water drains into. To achieve this, I stacked cement pavers on a solid ledge which is behind our washing machine, and put the dehumidifier on the ledge. The unit comes with a plastic drainage adapter that fits a garden hose. I wanted to use 1/2 inch clear plastic tubing instead of a garden hose, so I bought a brass adapter which connects to the plastic drainage adapter on one end, and to a clear plastic tube on the other end. Don't forget the plumbers tape.
Feature Product
- 30 pints per day dehumidifier uses standard 115V electrical outlet
- Protects your home from mold and mildew caused by excess moisture
- Helps eliminate bacteria in the air that can make breathing difficult
- Low temperature operation saves energy and money (41°). Container Capacity - 7.6 Pints
- Ready-Select electronic controls with digital humidity readout, 24-hour on/off timer and control lock
- Certifications & Approvals: ENERGY STAR Certified: Yes|Safety Certification: UL/CUL|CSA Listed: No|NSF Certified: No|UL Listed: Yes|ETL Listed: No
- General Specs: Refrigerant: R410a|Warranty: 1 Year Full/5 Year Sealed System|Shipping Weight (lbs): 34|Product Weight (lbs): 31|Reconditioned: No|ProductLaunch: NA|Power Type: Electric|Size: N/A|Installation Type: Free-Standing|Collection: Frigidaire
Description
The Frigidaire 30-pint dehumidifier protects your home from mold and mildew caused by excess moisture. It also helps eliminate bacteria in the air that can make breathing difficult. Frigidaire’s 30 pints-per-day dehumidifier is capable of continuous operation when the unit is located near a suitable drain. Ready-Select electronic controls include a digital humidity readout, 24-hour on/off timer and control lock. Effortless Humidity Control allows you to control the exact percentage of humidity in your room. The SpaceWise portable design includes a top handle, integrated side handles and caster wheels making it easy to move your unit from room to room.
Bought this as a second unit for our house. Having bought a 50 pint GE unit, which is running in the basement, we needed another one for the house. Since the 50 pint was struggling in the open plan house,went with the 70 pint this time. Read some good reviews and they do seem to be true for this unit.
As reviewed the hydrometer reading is quite a ways out. The review mentioned a 5% low reading. My unit is 10% low based on a separate hygrometer in the room. So 40% on the dehumidifier is actually 50% in the room!
We have about 60% humidity in our 1900's home. The bucket fills up in about 7 hours when running on the HIGH fan setting. So it won't manage a full night without beeping and turning off. Not tried it at the lower settings yet. This is about the same time to full as the 50 pint unit we have.
The noise level was reviewed as being one of the quietest 70 pint units available. Unfortunately it's still too noisy even on the LOW setting and you wouldn't want it in your bedroom unless you like to go to sleep with white noise! On HIGH, I can here it running from our front of the house 2nd floor bedroom at night with the dehumidifier on the first floor in the middle on the house. It's a similar noise to our GE 50 pint unit. Seems to be the nature of the beast. With a closed room, this unit does the job well. In an open plan home, not so much.
This Frigidaire seems to be sturdy in design with a nice strong handle on top. It's better than our more flimsy GE unit.
The inlet is into the back and the outlet on the right side. We turn it sideways to blow the dry air into the room and keep the inlet away from the wall.
Overall, thus dehumidifier works well, if a little noisy. It's better value than the GE which cost $199. It won't last the night if run on HIGH in a humid house, but is probably OK on a LOW fan setting for duration between emptying the bucket.
UPDATE:
Running constantly on a LOW fan setting, filled the bucket in 11 hours, compared with a HIGH fan and about 7 hours.
I also observed the on-off operation. The unit was set to 35% humidity and ran constantly. The kitchen's hygrometer meter, 4 ft away, was reading 55%. (Note that we have downstairs "rooms", but no doors, and a set of narrow stairs off the kitchen and a larger open stairway off the living room at the other end of the house - ie we are essentially dehumidifying the whole house!) I bumped up the desired setting on the dehumidifier to 40% and the unit thought the room was at that level (see above comments about the built-in hygrometer accuracy). The refrigeration system shut down with a slight shudder of the unit, the fan continued to run for about 2 mins. The dehumidifier then shut down completely. After 5 mins, the humidity display rose to 45%. Another 5 mins and the unit displayed 50% and started up. All the time, the room hygrometer read 55%. It's 81% humidity outside at a 45F temp. Inside it's about 72F and 55%.
I did hang the room hygrometer directly off the outlet vent on the dehumidifier, in the dried airstream while it was running on CONTINUOUS, and the reading was about 37%. So, the unit can actually get a closed roomy down to the 35% or so it is designed to do.
UPDATE:
After running this unit all over the house and with the general humidity down to 50 to 55% per my separate hygrometer (possibly due to the colder weather and the dehumidifer) it seems like the unit thinks the humidity in the area is always about 35%, even with my room hygrometer reading 52%. If I turn off the dehumidifer when it's reading 35%, then turn it back on after say a couple minutes, the display now reads 60%. Start it up again and it will display back down to 35% within another couple minutes. jumping from 60% to 50% then to 45% then to 40 then to 35%. All the while, the separate hygrometer on top of the dehumidifier reads around 50% the whole time.
The dehumidifier works well, but you might as well ignore its humidity display!
Pros:
Simply put the Frigidaire FFAD7033R1A is the best dehumidifier I have ever owned. For many years I've been running three dehumidifiers in various locations consistently from April through September each year. I've gone through several different makes/models over the years. The two most important features for me are keeping the moisture level below 40% and because of their locations it must be quiet.
Base on my research this model had top billing, was said to be most effective at removing moisture and claimed to be so quiet you wouldn't know it was running. Once put into service what I discovered is that this unit is awesome, the humidity went from 60% to 30% so fast I thought my hygrometer must be defective. It removes humidity so effectively that it doesn’t need to run all the time, it actually shuts itself off and waits for the humidity level to rise back up, that has never happened in the 40 years I’ve been using dehumidifiers.
As for quiet, without a doubt the most quietest unit I've ever experienced, unlike all the other brands this one has three settings for the fan which is the only sound coming out of the unit, the compressor makes zero noise, it's amazing. The control panel is very nicely laid out and with all its other features I've rated this unit so high that I actually purchased another one. When the time comes for me to replace my third unit the Frigidaire FFAD7033R1A will be the one I buy, I can’t tell you how great it is to buy something that really works.
Cons:
First thing is... although the fill bucket is solid and very well constructed it is cumbersome to remove, on the other hand the more I do it the easier it gets.
Second thing... if you want to empty the bucket before it automatically shuts off when filled you will need to wait about 60 seconds after manually turning it off before removing the bucket to allow any residual water in the unit to drain into the bucket... if you don't wait it'll drain without the bucket in place on to your floor, that’s a little goofy. So, when manually turning it off, wait 60 seconds before removing the bucket.
Neither of these issues are a deal breaker for me, the positive far-far-far exceeds these two minor opportunities for improvement.
Amazed!
This bad boy has pulled 5 full buckets out of the air in 3 days. We had some condensation building up on our ductwork... and leaving the dreaded ceiling water marks. (Sigh) we recently installed an Ecobee thermostat so I thought maybe a setting was off, tried setting the fans to run 40 min ever hour... blah blah blah.
Can't figure out the exact issue... so bought this to save us from having a mold issue start while I figure it out.
Our home has crappy exhaust fans and poor insulation, it's a 3 story 1700 Sq ft row home with 167 yr old brick exterior walls and half hardi board siding. With humidity levels being 90% plus outside day in and day out for the past 2 1/2 months our homes overall level reached 67%!
...(○_○) ... The furnace room was 80-90%!(wild guess where the exterior air is seeping in).
This has dropped the homes humidity level to 50% and to 30% in the furnace room In 3 days! (We will be running a tube to allow a continuous drip.) This comes with a hose attachment to run the hose... to my understanding I do not need to add a pump.
The canister method works well, it is sturdy and pulls straight out and pours out easily.
The LED circle indicates clearly when it's full, it also will shut off once full.
It makes a beep to alert you when full.
I do not hear it running, it's next to my furnace and even when that's not running the noise of it on its highest setting is minimal.
The swelling in some of my wood floors has gone down too! Worth every penny!
By day one this pulled the humidity level from 88% per my Guage down to 40%, after a bucket dump and 10 more hours it was down to 30%.
We bumped our thermostat up two degrees because it got that much cooler in the house. The amount of money that will save alone offsets this.
USE SITUATION: I am using this unit in a bedroom "half basement" (I live on a hill so one basement wall is firmly below grade and one wall is sliding doors to the outside. The room overall is about 12' by 20'. Long Island summers are very humid and some of the clothes in my closet were starting to develop tiny mold spots! PRIOR EXPERIENCE: My first dehumidifier in this space (before it was converted to a bedroom) was a Winix with built in pump. That was supposed to be quiet (Allergy Buyers Club said it was "the quietest available" when I bought it, haha) but it sounded like an industrial factory! I transferred that to a different location and bought a Stadler Form Albert for this area. That was nice and quiet, but the LED displays were obnoxious and it beeped when it went off and on, and then it quit just over one year after purchase. So the warranty was invalid, and Stadler Form Alberts were $500 so that was a serious financial hit. With that gone, I purchased this Frigidaire because they are supposed to be very reliable and it is supposed to be the one of the quietest compressor dehumidifiers on the market (except the Albert). EVALUATION SO FAR: The 30 pint Frigidaire arrived yesterday and I am very impressed with this little workhorse already. The small size and discreet, neutral aesthetics are nice. For people who want to understand the exact location of things, the air intake is on the back, the dry air output is on the right side, and the pop-out hose attachment (hose not included) is on the left side, about 6-8 inches above ground level. Controls are simple and intuitive - much more so than on the Albert or the Winix. Also, the Frigidaire does not have too many bright, constant LED lights that would be disruptive in the bedroom where I use it. You select your target humidity level, it shows that for a few seconds, and then the display flips back to the humidistat reading of the room at that time. It is nice to know how close you are to your target humidity. The fan seems to run continuously (which is its own issue as far as power draw) but at least there are no noisy beeps as it goes in and out of its cycles of operation. BUCKET: Getting it out was fairly easy. The top cover helped minimize the splash as I went to dump the water. Getting it back in was a little tricky/tight. HOSE: I have not had a chance to test this yet. GENERAL NOISE: This is kind of at the limit of what I would consider tolerable for a bedroom, and that is why I am giving it 4 stars rather than 5. On the LOW fan speed it is of a similar noise level to a window AC unit. You will not want this machine close to your bed. I placed it as far away from my bed as possible and still, last night I wound up turning it off because the noise was too noticeable (but I have trouble getting to sleep generally). This was the first try and maybe I will get used to it - or maybe I will operate the unit during the day and then switch it off at night. We will see. DOING ITS JOB: In 2 hours of operation yesterday evening it pulled several pints of water out, so its performance seems excellent in that aspect.
This thing works great! I am living in a camping trailer right now in California and with the winter upon us and running the gas heater all the time I was getting insan amounts of condensation. It was all over the walls, the window seals were filling up with water and running over it was crazy. I did some research and this came in as being the best of the best as far as how well it gets the water out of the air.
I have been running it for over a month now and on low it is pulling about 2 gallons of water out every day. When it's container gets full it turns off and the light flashes. The filter light has gone on once, I cleaned it and good to go. Everything about it has been simple and hassle free from taking the water container out to empty it to cleaning the air filter. It automatically resumes operation when you put the empty container back in. My condensation problems have been completely eliminated and I could jot be happier.
I run it 24/7 and it has done nothing but perform perfectly. This was a great investment and I would highly recommend it!
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