Shinco 120 Pint Energy Star Dehumidifier

I purchased the 30 Pint / 1500 Sq.Ft. Dehumidifier. I had some concerns at first, but am using it full-time now for the past couple months, it is working sufficiently, and I would like to share what I learned. My basement is just over 1000 Sq.Ft. First thing, it was delivered in a box that said "Reconditioned" despite me purchasing a "New" unit. There were absolutely no signs that this wasn't a New unit though, everything had no signs of use, and all the packing / protection tape and plastic was still on the device. I was surprised at how small this is compared to my old one (which is rated for a larger area) (see photo). First issue I had was trying to run the drain line a long distance with 3/8 vinyl tubing. You cannot do this, even with a proper slope downward to your drain. Having too-long of a run of tubing will cause it to get air-locked, and the unit will end up filling up the bucket. My solution was to use a short piece of tubing (approx 4ft long) going straight into a condensate pump, which then pumps the condensate the rest of the distance to my sump (see photo). The next issue I had was with the unit freezing up. Even though the unit calculates defrost cycles based on the temperature in the room, it was not enough for my basement. During the early spring time, my basement was at around 62F with 50% humidity. The coil would freeze up after a couple days. I found out that the button labeled "Inside Drying" is actually just like a Defrost button! It will shut the compressor off but allow the fan to keep running to defrost the coil quicker. Normally this button is used to dry the unit out before you put the dehumidifier away for storage, as to prevent mold growth from moisture inside the unit... but it works perfect as a Defrost button! Once the temperature in my basement got above 65F or so, the unit stopped freezing up and is now able to run constantly without monitoring. I have it set for 40%... it is not able to maintain that, however it is keeping all the musty smell away. It seems to be able to maintain between 50-60% humidity. It will climb higher after getting a lot of rain, but it will then stabilize after a few days. Overall I am happy with the unit, but I think it should be rated for 1000 Sq.Ft. rather than 1500. I would be interested to see how a Name-brand unit rated for 1500 Sq.Ft. compares to this one for the amount of power used. Also I would like to add that I don't use the additional supplied carbon filter, just the main single-layer mesh one.

I dont know what the people who rated this low are talking about. I'm going to chalk it up to one of two things: either they unfortunately got a lemon, or it's operator error and they are not using it correctly. First of all, it says it can handle 1500sq ft, but realistically it's about half that. And that is what you should keep in mind for ALL dehumidifiers except for those name brand, cost you your whole paycheck ones. Those DO work for the space they say. Keep that in mind and you won't be disappointed. Anyway, I have it set up in my bedroom, where I get a lot of condensation on the windows and it starts to cause problems with mold and mildew. I turned this baby on, set the fan to High, set the unit to run continuously ( the manual says to do so for the first day upon initial use), set the desired RH to 60% and let it go. Within 7 hours, the humidity had gone down to 61% ( and you could totally tell the difference in the air feel) and the reservoir was FULL, the unit shut off and indicated that it needs to be emptied. Emptied it, it kicked back on, I went to bed, woke up, and it was full again! And......and......not a DROP of condensation on my bedroom windows!! And like I said, you could feel it in the air, it was noticeablely drier and more comfortable and fresh. This dehumidifier works like a beast!! Quality overall is excellent. The unit isn't that large, you can see that in the product dimensions, but man is it heavy! It just feels solid and very well made. It also is SUPER easy to use and could even be figured out if you didn't have a manual! Just a word of advice though, if you set up the automatic drain hose people, you need to have whatever your draining it into LOWER than the drain port on the unit, because after all, it relies on gravity to drain, not a pump, and last time I checked, correct me if I'm wrong, gravity pulls things down, not push them up!! Great unit and I will actually be buying a second unit to use for my other bedroom!