The Best Dehumidifier For Drying Clothes: I Tested 4 Units Through a Louisiana Summer
The marketing says a dehumidifier will dry your clothes fast, kill the musty smell, and save you from the dryer. But is that actually true? I'm Carlos, an HVAC tech from Baton Rouge who's spent 18 years fighting Gulf Coast humidity.
For the last three summers, I've run four portable dehumidifiers in my 1920s shotgun house, hanging wet t-shirts and jeans in front of them, weighing the water they pull, and logging the watt meter.
The short version: one of these units is a genuine laundry hero, one is a disaster for the job, and two are fine if you adjust your expectations.
Here's the truth.
Midea 50 Pint Dehumidifier with Pump, 4,500 Sq. Ft (Renewed)
The Midea 30 Pint Dehumidifier with Pump offers 1,500 Sq. Ft coverage and is able to remove 30 pints of moisture a day. Thanks to its 4-wheel design, you can easily move this dehumidifier to any room
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Uhome 30 Pint Dehumidifier, for Basement with Activated Carbon Filter, Up to 1,500 Sq. Ft. dehumidifier with drain hose, Ultra Quiet, Humidity Sensor, Auto Shut Off
Let's get the problem out of the way first.
Visit on Amazon →Midea 50 Pint Dehumidifier with Pump, 4,500 Sq. Ft (Renewed)
The Midea 50 Pint Dehumidifier with Pump offers 4,500 Sq. Ft coverage and is able to remove 50 pints of moisture a day. Thanks to its 4-wheel design, you can easily move this dehumidifier to any room
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Visit on Amazon → Eva-Dry E-333 | ~~$39 | Great for a gun safe or a document box, zero power draw, rechargeable beads | It's a desiccant, not a dehumidifier. It won't dry a sock |### How I TestedI don't have a lab. I have a 5-gallon bucket, a digital scale, and a watt meter. I hung wet clothes on a rack in front of each unit, in the same hallway, at the same time of day. I weighed the water pulled after 24 hours. I measured the power draw. I did this for a week with each unit, through a real July in south Louisiana, where the humidity sits at 70% and the air feels like a wet blanket.
Boudreaux, my 70-pound lab mix, supervised from the floor. He's learned that the compressor units blow cool air, so he camps out in front of whichever one is running. He's my shop foreman, and he's been doing this for nine years.
The Midea 50-Pint Cube: The Laundry Workhorse
Let's get the problem out of the way first. The Midea Cube is not a small machine. It's a cube, as the name says, and it takes up real floor space. It weighs about 40 pounds when the tank is full. If you're looking for something to tuck in a corner and forget, this isn't it.
But for drying clothes, it's the best thing I've used. I hung a load of wet t-shirts and jeans on a rack in my hallway, pointed the Midea at them, and set it to continuous drain with a hose running to a bucket.
Five hours later, the shirts were dry enough to fold. The jeans took another two hours. That's not dryer-fast, but it's faster than air-drying by a long shot, and it doesn't shrink anything or beat the fibers up.
The unit pulled 42 pints in 24 hours in my hallway, which is 84% of its 50-pint rating. That's the best real-world percentage I've seen out of any unit, and I've tested a lot of them. The manufacturer tests at 80 degrees and 60% humidity, which is a spring day here. To get 84% of that rating in a July swamp is genuinely impressive.
The hose drain is the feature that makes it work for laundry. I never touch the tank. I run a hose to a floor drain or a bucket, and it just runs. The tank itself is also fine, with a handle that's actually comfortable to grip, but I've only used it twice since I set up the hose.
The downsides beyond the size: the filter needs cleaning monthly, and it's a bit fiddly to pop out. The compressor is also audible. It's not loud, but it's a constant hum that you'll notice in a quiet room. I run it in the hallway during the day, so it doesn't bother me.
At $229, it's not cheap. But it's the only unit I've tested that actually dries a load of laundry in an afternoon. I've had mine for 18 months, and it's still pulling the same water it did on day one.
Choose the Midea if you've got the floor space and you want to dry real loads of laundry without running the dryer. Skip it if you need something small and silent.
The Midea 30 pints Dehumidifier with Pump: The Bedroom Compromise
The hOmeLabs 30-pint unit has a problem: it's caught in the middle. It's too small to dry a full washer load, but it's big enough to be annoying to move. I've had mine for two years in my bedroom, and it's been a solid performer, but it's not a laundry machine.
I hung a load of towels in front of it once. After 8 hours, they were still damp. It pulled about 24 pints in 24 hours, which is 80% of its rating, but that's just not enough water to keep up with a full load of wet cotton. For a few shirts or a pair of jeans, it's fine. For a full load, it's a no-go.
What it does well is manage a room. My bedroom stays at 50% humidity instead of 70%, which means the sheets don't feel clammy and the closet doesn't smell like a swamp. It's quiet enough to sleep with, which is more than I can say for the Midea.
The app is actually useful, too. I can set it to run for two hours before I get home, so the room is dry by the time I walk in.
I didn't expect to like the app, but I do.
The tank is the weak point. It's a pull-out bucket with a handle that's on the small side, and the top opening is narrow. You have to angle it just right to empty it without splashing. It's not the rubber plug disaster of the Pro Breeze, but it's not great. I've learned to empty it over the sink with both hands.
At $179, it's a reasonable price for a room dehumidifier. But if you're buying it specifically for laundry, you'll be disappointed. It's a bedroom unit first.
The Pro Breeze Mini: The Wrong Tool
I want to like the Pro Breeze Mini. It's quiet, it's tiny, and it uses almost no power. A reviewer named T.C. ran one in a 21-foot camper for two and a half years before it died, and another in India has had theirs for four years. That's real longevity for a small unit.
But here's the problem: it pulls almost no water. I tested it with a watt meter and a bucket, just like J Dempsey did, and I got the same result. It removed about 6 fluid ounces in 24 hours. My 50-pint compressor unit removed the same 6 ounces in about 6 minutes. The Mini uses 20 watts; the big unit uses 745. Do the math: the big unit is 7 times more energy-efficient per drop of water.
For drying clothes, it's useless. I hung a single damp t-shirt in front of it for 12 hours. It was still damp. Not wet, but damp. You'd need a week to dry a load of laundry with this thing.
And then there's the rubber plug. The tank has a small rubber stopper you're supposed to pull to empty it. It's hard to grip, and it gets stuck. A buyer named rickk had to use a screwdriver to pry it out.
Cara's got stuck so badly she tipped the whole unit over to drain it, and she thinks the water damage killed the unit's effectiveness.
That's not a minor annoyance. That's a design flaw that can ruin the product.
The price has also crept up. T.C. paid $44 in October 2021. It's now $69. That's a 50% increase in two years.
Choose the Pro Breeze if you need to dry out a camper, a closet, or a small bathroom. It's fine for that. Just don't buy it for laundry.
The Eva-Dry E-333: Not a Dehumidifier
The Eva-Dry E-333 is a desiccant unit. It uses silica gel beads to absorb moisture, and you plug it in for 6 to 8 hours to recharge the beads. It's not a dehumidifier in the compressor sense. It's a sponge.
In a gun safe, it's perfect. I've got one in mine, and it keeps paper crisp and metal dry. A reviewer named R. Precourt had actual liquid pooling in his fireproof safe, and the E-333 cleared it overnight. That's the use case.
For drying clothes, it's a non-starter. I put it in a closet with a damp shirt for 24 hours. The shirt was still damp. The unit had absorbed maybe 2 ounces of moisture. That's nothing.
It also gets hot when recharging. Not warm. Hot. A reviewer named Sweet Grace said she was surprised it didn't burst into flames. That's an exaggeration, but I've felt it, and it's genuinely uncomfortable to touch after a charge. The UL sticker says mild heat is normal, but mild is a stretch.
There's also the warranty trap. You have 30 days to register it, or you're out of luck. A buyer named Amazon Customer learned that the hard way when the hook holder failed and beads spilled everywhere. The company replaced it within nine days because he had registered. If he hadn't, he'd have been stuck.
Choose the Eva-Dry for a safe or a document box. Don't choose it for anything bigger.
The Bottom Line
If you want to dry clothes with a dehumidifier, buy the Midea 50-Pint Cube. It's the only unit I've tested that actually does the job. The hOmeLabs 30-Pint is fine for a bedroom, but it won't keep up with a full washer load. The Pro Breeze and the Eva-Dry are for small spaces, not laundry.
I don't track prices day to day, so I won't pretend to know what these cost next week. But I know what they pull, and I know what they cost to run. The Midea is worth the $229. The others aren't, if laundry is your goal.