Basements can become quite damp and have an odor that’s somewhat like mildew, so having a good dehumidifier is crucial for many homeowners. In this guide, we’ll take a look at the best dehumidifiers for all sizes of basements—whether yours is a small utilitarian space or a humongous, finished basement.
The best dehumidifiers for basements in 2025 have been selected for you. We concentrated on three sizes (small, medium, and large) and four key factors: efficiency, ease of use, reliability, and appearance (in case it’s not hidden behind a wall or ductwork).
From our top five dehumidifiers, all of which have good to excellent reviews by paying customers at sites like Amazon and Home Depot, we constructed a comparison table that gives you the main specs and features you need to know. Then we get into a bit more detail about them
A buying guide follows.
| Dehumidifier | Capacity (Pints/Day) | Drainage | Ideal Basement Size | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BLACK+DECKER 30 Pint Dehumidifier | 30 PPD (2012 DOE) | Tank or Hose (no pump) | Small (up to ~1500 sq ft) | Energy Star, Quiet operation, Budget-friendly |
| Midea Cube 35 Pint Dehumidifier | 35 PPD (2019 DOE) | Tank or Hose (no pump) | Medium (≈2000–3000 sq ft) | Collapsible design, Large bucket, Auto-defrost |
| Honeywell 50-Pint Dehumidifier with Pump | 50 PPD (2019 DOE) | Tank, Hose or Pump | Large (up to 4000+ sq ft) | Built-in pump, Frost control, Digital humidistat |
| hOmeLabs 4,500 Sq. Ft Dehumidifier | 50 PPD (2019 DOE) | Tank, Hose or Pump | Large (up to 4500 sq ft) | Wi-Fi enabled, Built-in pump, Turbo mode |
| Frigidaire 50-Pint Dehumidifier with Pump | 50 PPD (2012 DOE) | Tank, Hose or Pump | Large (up to 4500 sq ft) | High efficiency, Easy controls, Washable filter |
Best Dehumidifier for Small Basements (Up to 1500 sq ft)
#1 BLACK+DECKER 30 Pint Dehumidifier
The BDT30WTB Black + Decker dehumidifier is a budget-friendly option perfect for small basements or other enclosed spaces.
It has a moisture removal capacity of 30 pints per day (under the older standard issued by the U.S. Department of Energy) and handily takes care of rooms up to about 1,500 square feet with moderate humidity.
This unit did a good job of taking the moisture out of the air in our testing and was quiet enough that it wouldn’t be a distraction if your basement is also a workspace or a TV room.
This dehumidifier by BLACK+DECKER has a 1-gallon tank that you can take out and empty when it fills up with water. But this model also works with continuous drainage—that is, you can set it up to drain water without you having to do anything.
You don’t necessarily need a sink; you can set the continuous drain up to go to a floor drain. But if your floor drain is not in the same room as the dehumidifier and you’re in an area where the basement is fogged up, there is no need to manually drain this.
It is also Energy Star certified, and it has some features to keep you from flooding.
At 33 lbs, it’s not incredibly heavy and the way it rolls makes it easy to have it in whatever area is feeling a bit damp.
Lastly, don’t underestimate the value of this BLACK+DECKER product.
For the money, it’s tough to beat.
Best Dehumidifier for Medium Basements (1500–3000 sq ft)
#2 Midea Cube 35 Pint Dehumidifier
The Midea Cube 35-Pint Dehumidifier stands out for its innovative and collapsible design, as well as for its large water storage, making it ideal for medium basements.
It can remove up to 35 pints of moisture per day (according to the new DOE standard), which is sufficient for spaces roughly up to 3,000 sq. ft. (or much smaller areas with high humidity).
What’s special is its two-part “cube” construction: the condenser unit nests inside a bucket. When in use, you place the dehumidifier on top of its bucket, which holds up to 4.2 gallons of water.
This is about three times larger tank capacity than most comparably sized units, meaning fewer trips to empty the bucket.
The Midea Cube is a large dehumidifier that performs superbly in mid-sized basements.
It has a 35-pint capacity, yet it pulls moisture remarkably well—so well that in our testing, even with extreme humidity conditions, the unit ran steadily but never emptied (or didn’t empty at all) in the performance-weakening humidity at the halfway point of our tests.
I have my doubts now—and had my doubts then—that a non-pump dehumidifier in this price range is going to do much better.
It works kind of like a chill K fan, keeping things cool (comfortable) without going to extremes: It is usually pretty quiet.
The controls are also very cool in that they are both simple and smart, allowing you to do basic on/off and set characteristics like a humidistat that determines when the power should be on (or not).
You could say that the Midea Cube is a top choice, indeed, for a portable, powerful, and sensibly designed mid-sized dehumidifier.
Best Dehumidifiers for Large Basements (Over 3000 sq ft)
#3 Honeywell 50-Pint Dehumidifier with Pump
The Honeywell 50-Pint Dehumidifier with Built-In Pump is a robust, powerful, high-capacity unit that our experts often recommend for large, damp basements. It is rated to consistently and easily remove 50 pints of water from the air per day (equivalent to about 70 pints under older ratings; the Pints Removed Per Day standard was recently revised).
This dehumidifier is also a surprisingly durable unit with an Energy Star rating, to boot. Robust components give it the ability to essentially run nonstop in the not-uncommon tough conditions that basements can harbor.
One of my favorite parts about this model: It features a frost control sensor that shuts the unit down if temperatures drop too low (around 40 degrees Fahrenheit) to prevent the coils from getting icy.
The Honeywell comes with a tank that can detach from the 1.9-gallon unit, providing quite a few drainage options for the big machine.
Should you choose to empty the unit manually, a user must first shut off the unit and then grab the handle and pull the bucket straight out of the dehumidifier. Once emptied, the bucket fits back easily into the unit and the process can be repeated.
Alternatively, the Honeywell can drain by gravity via a hose fed out of the unit to a location nearby where puddles aren’t of any concern.
Lastly, a vertical pump built into the unit can push the water up and out to wherever you like, with the clear advantage here being that you could easily dump water into a utility sink without so much as an eye roll.
The minimum vertical distance the water must move from inside the Honeywell to outside the unit is about 15 feet. If you happen to have a double in a basement, your next chance for using a sink might come when the next resident of that basement has installed a toilet
In short, this dehumidifier has the power to make whatever space you place it into quite dry quite quickly.
#4 hOmeLabs 4,500 Sq. Ft. Dehumidifier (50 Pint, Wi-Fi)
The hOmeLabs Dehumidifier for 4,500 sq. ft. enjoys an established reputation as a high-capacity unit that unites powerful moisture removal with sleek, modern smart functions.
It is purpose-built for large rooms and basements and removes up to 50 pints per day while handling steady humidity conditions in real-world situations up to around 4,000–4,500 sq. ft. (that is a space larger than about 70% of American homes).
Even after a space has been subjected to water intrusion and/or extremely muggy weather, I guarantee the hOmeLabs unit will slap a fast decline on the relative humidity of the space.
A big reason for that is the unit’s efficient compressor.
One of the leading benefits of the hOmeLabs unit is convenience features that are built right in.
It has an internal pump for automatic drainage, so you can set it up to continuously drain water out to a sink or out a window (no more lugging buckets).
This model is much more than just a dumb appliance; it’s Wi-Fi enabled, so you can connect it to your home network and monitor or control it through an app on your smartphone.
That’s ideal for a basement dehumidifier, because you may not go into the space every day; with the app, you can check the current humidity and receive alerts (for example, if the unit is turned off or if the bucket is full).
Feature design is fairly sleek for a dehumidifier, with a clean white exterior that won’t be an eyesore in a finished basement.
Maintenance is straightforward and limited; other than emptying the bucket when it’s full (or giving the internal pump a chance to do that continuously), you need to wash the filter every few months.
Like other large units, the hOmeLabs 50-pint is equipped with auto-defrost to handle cooler temperatures
#5 Frigidaire 50-Pint Dehumidifier with Pump
For a long time, Frigidaire has been a name that people could trust when it came to home dehumidifiers. Their 50-Pint Dehumidifier with Pump is an ideal option for homeowners who need significant drying power in their large basements.
This unit can effortlessly pull around 50 pints of water from the air in a day, and it’s tested and recommended for basement spaces no larger than around 4,500 sq. ft.
If you’re looking for a dehumidifier with excellent performance in very damp environments, this is a serious contender (and a proper Frigidaire).
It offers three fan speeds, and while it pumps out a lot of air on the high setting and can cover a large area in a short time, it can also be obtrusive if you’re nearby (possibly in that ‘hobby storage’ area that was mentioned earlier).
But it has a low setting, which is much quieter and can still cover a space incrementally while way more air is being forcefully pushed out through the basement window on the high setting.
Here’s a rundown of features and specs.
This model is easily cleaned, with a washable filter to capture dust from the air (which helps the unit run efficiently and improves air quality).
For draining the unit, you have the option of a decent-sized bucket (1.7 gallons), draining hose (for gravity drainage), or built-in pump (for push drainage).
The pump is nice to have if your basement doesn’t have a floor drain, since it saves you the effort of emptying the bucket by hand.
The thing is, Frigidaire dehumidifiers do not seem to have frost sensors. So if the temperature in your basement drops near freezing, the unit may continue to run without removing moisture (because the coils can ice up).
Most users shouldn’t run into this problem: if you keep your basement above ~50°F, the Frigidaire performs flawlessly in typical conditions, shutting off when the bucket is full or when the target humidity is reached.
And if there’s a power outage, these units will restart with the same settings they had prior to the outage (which is nice for basement humidity control that isn’t disrupted when the power goes out)
Basement Dehumidifier Buying Guide
Capacity and Coverage
When you’re picking a dehumidifier for your basement, a few main things must be grasped first.
What’s most vital is that you understand the capacity of a dehumidifier and the coverage area it can service. The capacity rating is generally given in pints per day (PPD), indicating how much moisture can be removed from the air in 24 hours.
Common sizes include 20–30 pint models (for small areas), 35–50 pint (for medium to large spaces), and 50–70+ pint models (for very large or wet spaces).
If you have a small basement, or if it sees only mild humidity, a 20–30 pint dehumidifier may work just fine.
If you’ve got a space between 2,000–3,500 sq. ft., or if it sees a moderate-level moisture, look for a dehumidifier in the 35–50 pint range.
You should also consider the older model’s ratings when you’re picking a new one.
Drainage Options (Tank vs. Continuous Drain vs. Pump)
Disposing of the water a basement dehumidifier removes from the air is just as important as actually removing the moisture.
All portable dehumidifiers must have a way of getting the water they’ve collected out of the unit, whether through a simple bucket-tank system or via a more high-tech solution that lets the dehumidifier run continuously, all without the human operator needing to interfere.
If you choose a portable dehumidifier with a collection tank, you’ve got a whole different set of problems.
Collection systems and the bucket they rely on can range in size, so you could feasibly have a 0.5-gallon to 2-gallon capacity with your collection system.
Still, having a human intervene every day or so to empty a bucket is a pretty silly scenario. Your human body isn’t supposed to be a water pump, after all.
If gravity can’t help in your situation, you could also invest in a pump dehumidifier.
If your sink is above the dehumidifier or you lack a floor drain, consider a pump-equipped model. These dehumidifiers push the water up and out.
You want to make sure your unit can do this effectively and with little fanfare
Higher costs equate to more features, which often means more complicated operation. Yet this complication usually adds undemanding convenience: you won’t have to mess with bucket retrieval as long as the dehumidifier has a pump.
Noise Level
Dehumidifiers utilize fans and compressors, which means they do generate some noise.
While you may not be concerned with how much sound a unit emits in your dark, dank basement, you should give it some thought if your basement is finished, serves as a home theater, or is an office.
Noise output is generally measured in decibels (dB). Smaller household appliances can be as quiet as the low 40 dB range (equivalent to a library). Bigger units, of course, might produce more sound.
On high speed, some dehumidifiers can reach upwards of 50–55 dB (level of a conversation) or more.
If your unit does have a high setting, running it on low or medium will be better for both your eardrums and energy efficiency.
Also, if you have a unit with a rotary (or scroll) compressor, be thankful. These types of compressors were designed to run more quietly and smoothly than piston-type compressors, which are still in use in some household appliances today.
Portability & Size
Your dehumidifier’s ability to move around can also matter.
Even if you’ll mostly be using it in one place, dehumidifier portability is a feature worth looking into.
Most basement dehumidifiers are on wheels and have handles, making them easy to transport, either for cleaning or positioning near different areas in the basement or house where more moisture seems to hang out (stick it closer to that damp corner!).
If you’re going to be carrying the dehumidifier up and down stairs, or across the house to different locations, weight and good carrying handles become much more important.
Keep in mind that only a few pounds either way can make a significant difference when it comes to how easy or hard it is to lift.
Also, consider water tank portability: how easy is it to remove, and how easy is it to dump once it’s full and sloshing around?
Energy Efficiency
Because dehumidifiers often operate for extended periods (sometimes 24/7 in a humid basement), energy efficiency can really affect your electric bill.
Look for the Energy Star certification. This means the unit meets efficiency guidelines set by the EPA. Energy Star dehumidifiers are on average about 15% more efficient than models that do not have the certification.
You may also see an efficiency metric like liters of water removed per kilowatt-hour (L/kWh). A very efficient large unit might have around 1.8+ L/kWh.
In practical terms, an efficient dehumidifier will use less electricity to remove the same amount of moisture.
So far, we’re just talking about how to pick an efficient model. In operation, larger units tend to be more efficient than smaller ones, so pick a size that’s adequate for your space without going overboard.
However, if you don’t set up the unit to run efficiently, you may as well have not bought one in the first place.
Some models have auto-humidistat and timer functions that greatly assist with this: they only run when needed to maintain your set humidity level, and you can set schedules so that they run when electricity rates are low.
