A mid-range compressor-driven dehumidifier that’s a little larger, more powerful and more expensive than the Inofia, the defining feature of this appliance is that it connects to your cellphone via an app. This allows you to monitor the humidity level in your home or a storage space even when you’re away, making it an excellent choice for someone with a large, expensive collection of books or artwork. You can also program it to turn on automatically when you’re not home, and it will inform you when it stops working due to the water tank being full.
You can set your desired humidity level as a numerical value, though only down to 40% RH. Many people will, however, choose to use the three automatic operation modes. Like the “Comfort” setting on the hOmeLabs and Vremi (reviewed here), these take the guesswork out of keeping your home comfortable and smelling fresh.
A Pleasure to Use
In some cases, you’ll always want to keep the relative humidity within a few percentage points of some value. The wood in antique furniture and musical instruments, for instance, often cracks if the moisture level is allowed to see-saw from day to day and season to season.
For more commonplace household tasks, though, the three additional smart settings come in very handy. “Drying” lets it run continuously at full capacity to remove water from the air quickly, which is often just what you want in a bathroom or laundry room. “Rain mode” is designed to keep wet weather outdoors, while “Sleep” keeps the noise level to a near-inaudible 36 dB.
Another nice touch is that the control panel features a light-up graphic which changes color depending on ambient humidity, allowing you to see the room’s condition at a glance.
Good for the Home
Apart from giving you a chance to show off to visitors by changing this humidifier’s settings remotely (or, at least in theory, using voice commands through Google Home or Echo), this appliance also looks better and takes up less space than something like the Frigidaire. With a two-tone black and white case and a grille with circular holes at the rear, it makes a bit more of a statement than the average dehumidifier, but still won’t look out of place in most rooms. A smaller model, with about ⅔ the performance, is also for sale.
In addition, though it has some smallish caster wheels underneath and a discreet handle, at 24 pounds it’s no trouble to pick up and place on a shelf or windowsill, or even inside a closet. This is made easy by Vacplus’ slim profile.
Unfortunately, this is partly due to it having a 6½ pint water catchment bucket, which is only about a third the size of those typically found on 70-pint models like the Tosot. However, this machine’s rated water-gathering ability of 50 pints per day really is a little optimistic, as this was measured at 90% RH and 86 °F rather than the AHAM standard of 60% RH and 80 °F. Though we’d much prefer to compare apples with apples in this case, it does seem that this compact machine is pretty efficient, especially at temperatures over 60 degrees.
Children will probably struggle to lift a full-sized tank weighing 17 pounds from the floor anyway, and this one has a snap-on lid that helps to keep splashes inside. You can also use the press-on, gravity-fed water elimination hose; the one that’s included is only about 3 feet long. The only other regular maintenance it should need is to give the mesh filter a quick rinse every now and again. The standard warranty covers repairs or replacement during 2 years.
- Remote control via app
- Can use drain hose
- 3 special-purpose modes
- Smallish water tank
- Caster wheels are fiddly, but easy to pick up whole unit
- Much less useful if drain hose can't be used
