We’ve tested a range of dehumidifiers to see whether their marketing claims stack up.
Overall score breakdown
Our dehumidifiers test includes:
Water removal
We measure dehumidifier water removal rates over 24 hours across a range of temperatures and humidity levels typical of New Zealand conditions. We use the average to produce a water removal score, giving slightly more weight to the most challenging (coldest) conditions and less weight to the least challenging conditions.
Low temperature performance
We use the dehumidifier's water removal rate measured at 8°C and 90% relative humidity to issue a low temperature performance score.
Energy efficiency
We measure how much energy is used per unit of water removed to provide the dehumidifier’s energy efficiency score.
Ease of use
We assess each dehumidifier for ease of tank emptying, layout and readability of controls, clarity of instructions, cleaning and ease of moving.
Other
We calculate dehumidifier running costs based on 8 hours’ use a day. We record how much noise each dehumidifier makes. And we make a note of each dehumidifier’s features and specifications.
Our survey data
In our annual reliability and satisfaction survey, consumers tell us about faults that have left an appliance they own unusable or mean they’ve had to change how they use it. We also ask them how satisfied they are with the appliance. We use their data to produce our predicted reliability and brand satisfaction scores.
We use a statistical test to rate the relative performance of each brand. Compared with the data we have for all products of the same type from the survey, we rate each brand as highest, high, average, low and lowest for its reliability and satisfaction.
You can compare the ratings for different brands of the same product type (for example, the reliability ratings for Mitsubishi Electric and Breville dehumidifiers), but you can’t compare the results for different product types (for example, satisfaction with LG dehumidifiers and Samsung phones).
We analyse brands that get at least 30 responses in our survey. That means there are some brands we can’t analyse because we don’t have enough data. For those brands, we assume they have average predicted reliability and brand satisfaction.
Our current ratings are based on data from responses about 502 dehumidifiers in our 2026 survey.
