The Ultimate Buying Guide For The Best Commercial Dehumidifier in 2024

Want the best dehumidifier for commercial spaces? Read this before buying.

Are you noticing rust or a musty smell in your commercial property? Do you have structural damage or pest infestations in your commercial space? Is there a problem with excess moisture?

If so, you must read this article. We will help you get your commercial space back in order. The most effective way to deal with excess moisture in commercial space is to use an industrial dehumidifier. Dehumidifiers designed specifically for commercial spaces prevent mold growth and maintain humidity. Yet, there are hundreds of commercial dehumidifiers available. The process of reading each review and choosing the right one will be exhausting. We analyzed 30 of the best-selling heavy-duty dehumidifiers on the market and compiled a list of the best commercial dehumidifiers. We highly recommend the following four:

• Best Overall Dehumidifier For Commercial/Industrial Spaces: Waykar 150 Pints Commercial Dehumidifier
• Most Powerful Commercial Dehumidifier: Quest Hi-E Dry 195 Dehumidifier
• Most Affordable Industrial Dehumidifier: Moiswell 140 Pints Commercial Dehumidifier
• Best Eco-friendly Commercial Dehumidifier: ALORAIR LGR Compact Dehumidifier

Harmful Effects Of High Humidity In Industries

High humidity is a severe threat to industries. It negatively impacts production efficiency and product quality. When the air’s moisture exceeds ideal levels, it damages raw materials, machinery, and finished goods. These issues result in production downtime, wasted workforce effort, and is quite expensive to repair and rectify. Sometimes the harm becomes irreparable, resulting in PERMANENT defacement.

Commercial warehouses, manufacturing, distribution, and service industries face several issues due to high humidity levels. Let’s look at the most relevant problems here.

🗜️ Corrosion: A destructive yet unintentional degradation of a material or substance due to its environmental condition is corrosion. Humidity plays an essential role in corroding metallic products and machinery in manufacturing environments.

When materials react to moisture and air, it results in rusting and other forms of corrosion that affect the machine’s integrity and performance. For metals such as steel, the corrosion starts at just 40% RH and rises rapidly, damaging the entire unit.

🎍 Mold and hygiene problems: High humidity environments are the perfect breeding ground for bacteria, mold, and mildew. This can be quite hazardous to consumer and employee health and safety. The RH levels need to be kept between 30-50% to contain the growth of bacteria, mold, and mildew.

🏛️ Structural damage: Increased moisture damages concrete, pipelines, flooring, and storage spaces in factories and warehouses. Fluctuating humidity levels cause wooden structures to expand, contract, and even rot.

🦟 Pest Infestation: Some several insects and bugs thrive in moist conditions. If cockroaches, silverfish, centipedes, earwigs, and mosquitoes infest your work environment, it negatively impacts employee health and productivity.

⚙️ Damage to machinery: Equipment damage happens due to several factors. The most important of them are high moisture levels. High RH can cause electrical and electronic machinery to saturate quickly, creating safety and quality risks.

✔️ Quality control: High humidity level dramatically impacts the quality of the end products, absorbing the air’s excessive moisture. For example, in the food or pharmaceutical industry, excess humidity can reduce the potency and taste of food items and medicines, sometimes even creating toxicity. The product’s toxicity is attributed to the viruses, bacteria, mold, fungi, and mites that thrive in humid conditions.

🔒 Safety issues: Condensation can occur on factory floors due to high humidity levels. This causes the floors to become slippery and result in injury to employees. In electric machinery, increased moisture can reduce insulation resistance leading to short circuit and electric shock issues.

Dehumidification is the savior

The only way to resolve these issues is to invest in the best commercial dehumidifier. Optimal industrial dehumidification creates ideal humidity levels by balancing moisture extraction, heat transfer, and relative humidity, with room temperature in mind.

Controlling room temperature and maintaining optimal moisture positively impact energy consumption and sustainability.

Don’t know what the best commercial dehumidifiers in the market are?

Sit back and relax. There is no need to worry.

We will help you out by reviewing the best industrial dehumidifiers in the market. Keep reading to know which commercial dehumidifier will suit you the best.

13 Rugged & reliable commercial dehumidifiers you must have in April 2024

Important factors to keep in mind while purchasing a commercial dehumidifier

Investing in the dehumidifiers’ commercial model is the best decision you can make to protect your business space from humidity issues. Commercial grade dehumidifiers face larger humidity extraction challenges when compared with household ones. They need to be rugged, reliable, bigger in size, durable, and portable, with the capability to operate optimally at a broader range of temperatures.

Dehumidifier commercial units must be carefully inspected, and evaluated, for two primary parameters, viz., energy efficiency and optimal performance. The following are significant factors to keep in mind while purchasing a commercial grade dehumidifier.

Square feet area– The commercial area to be dehumidified must be measured before looking for an industrial dehumidifier. As each model caters to a different area specification, you must ensure you choose the right unit.

Pint capacity – The moisture removal capacity of a dehumidifier is known as the pint capacity. When the pint capacity is 250 PPD, it means that the unit can remove 250 pints of water per day from the atmosphere. The larger the pint capacity, the better it is for industries.

Humidity level – The humidity range in the environment must be considered while buying commercial dehumidifiers. As temperature and seasons play a vital role in humidity levels, the dehumidifier must withstand tough conditions and reduce high humidity levels.

Drainage facility – Dehumidifiers with continuous drainage facility and an attached drain hose offer utmost convenience to industrial operators. They need not keep checking if the water tank is full or to empty the tank. This feature helps avoid water spillage, puddle, and safety issues.

Indoor temperature – The indoor temperature plays a significant role in humidity level fluctuations. Warmer temperatures are heavier on humidity compared to colder dry temperatures. The commercial dehumidifier must be able to operate efficiently in both conditions.

Noise level – High noise levels cause auditory problems to industrial workers. However, since commercial dehumidifiers are robust and high capacity, the noise levels are also relatively high. Special care must be taken to choose the model with the lowest possible decibel levels.

Housing material- Dehumidifier material plays a critical role in the durability of the unit. While buying the dehumidifying system, industries must inspect if the housing material is made up of good quality steel and molded polyethylene material.

Frost sensor – Detecting frost buildup in coils, the frost sensor turns off the dehumidifier and lets the ice-covered coils warm and defrost. Once the defrost process is done, the machine automatically restarts. So look out for a commercial variant with a suitable frost sensor and hot gas bypass system.

Humidistat – Inbuilt humidistats not only monitor the moisture levels in the air, but it also helps restore and maintain optimum humidity levels. Hence ensure your commercial dehumidifier comes with a humidistat.

Timers – Operating and maintaining the humidity range without much workforce interaction is possible with a timer. If your industrial grade dehumidifier comes with a timer, it will surely optimize your effort and time.

Washable filters – Saving the cost involved in buying and replacing the air filters, the washable filter helps get rid of the microbes, mold, and mildew cost-effectively.

Apart from all the factors mentioned above, industries need to check for automatic reset and automatic restart feature, caster and semi pneumatic wheels, and digital controls, to ensure convenience, and to save cost, time, and effort. Make sure you compare and contrast the features of different commercial models before settling for your best buy.

Features of an industrial dehumidifier that you don’t find in a household dehumidifier

If you live or work in a humid environment, then you need a dehumidifier to lower and optimize the relative humidity. Considering the size of your space, the purpose of utilization, humidity level, risk factor, water seepage and chemical level, you must decide between choosing a residential or industrial dehumidifier.

⚈ Household dehumidifiers are usually more compact, with low capacity, light load, and volume, compared to industrial dehumidifiers.
⚈ They are visually appealing and ideal for confined spaces such as the basement, crawl space, attic, etc.
⚈ Made of low duty components, the household dehumidifiers are easily portable and less noisy than their commercial counterparts.
⚈ They also easily blend in with your home decor, adding a sense of coziness and style to your living space.

✔️ On the other hand, industrial dehumidifiers are of larger capacities with a more robust and more durable design. They are rugged and are built to last in larger areas with extreme conditions.
✔️ They offer greater installation flexibility as they work in highly demanding environments.
✔️ Built to last longer than residential dehumidifiers, the industrial variants are made for heavy-duty use.
✔️ They are ideal for industrial environments that operate on a wide temperature range, non-stop usage, corrosion, resistance, and higher airflow.

However, there are certainly exceptional cases where commercial dehumidifiers can be used in residential settings. Indoor pool, spas, and laundry rooms are examples where commercial dehumidifiers can help, as there are large water bodies and too much water usage.
Based on your need, space size, and pint capacity, you can choose between a residential or an industrial dehumidifier.

Remove excess moisture in commercial spaces using these 3 tricks

Manufacturers, production houses, assembly units, warehouses, dry food packing plants, poultry farms, and several other industrial units struggle with excess moisture on a day to day basis. Steam and humidity are often byproducts of some industrial processes.

It is wise to protect your commercial spaces from moisture issues before causing hazards and damages to life, machinery, and products. Moisture in industries causes structural deterioration in buildings, mold and mildew growth, pest infestation, allergic infections, life-threatening conditions, and much more.

Removing excess moisture is critical for performance, safety, and QUALITY in a commercial environment. If you experience condensation on windows, musty smells, slippery floor, puddles in confined spaces, stains or discoloration on surfaces, higher utility bills, rusting machinery, and decaying wood, then you must be on high alert. All these are symtoms that your commercial space is in dire need of moisture removal.

Here are 3 simple ways that will help in removing excess moisture from commercial spaces.

Ventilate the unit – A natural ventilator lets out moist air by facilitating air movement. It improves indoor air quality and lowers humidity levels.
Check for leaky pipes – Dripping faucets and leaky pipes add to the moisture levels in any environment. Ensure that they are fixed and tightly closed to avoid excess humidity.
Invest in commercial dehumidifiers – Dehumidifiers are time tested, proven ways to remove humidity from commercial environments. Depending on your need and budget, you can choose between heavy duty compressor and desiccant dehumidifiers for commercial purposes.

5 Expert tips to increase the durability of an industrial-grade dehumidifier

A typical dehumidifier lasts up to 10 years. If you want to increase the durability and longevity of the commercial dehumidifier, you must take care of the unit properly. Here are 5 simple tips from experts to boost the durability of your commercial grade dehumidifier.

🌡️ Mind the temperature:
Humidity levels tend to fluctuate throughout the year with temperature and seasonal variations. During colder climates, the air is relatively drier with lesser humidity. But in warm or hot temperatures, the air is super humid. The efficiency of the dehumidifier increases and decreases in warm and cold climates respectively. Hence you must operate the dehumidifier based on the temperature and RH requirements.

To increase the lifespan of the industrial dehumidifier, it must not be operated below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. As the water removed from the air can freeze while condensing on the cooling coils, it can damage the unit badly.

The best way to manage durability is to invest in a commercial dehumidifier with a built-in humidistat and auto-defrost capability. Automatic on and off feature also helps commercial dehumidifiers to save energy by automatically switching off the unit when the temperature falls below recommended levels.

🧼 Clean regularly:
A thorough cleaning at least once a month is imperative to keep the dehumidifier in optimal running condition. While dehumidifying the commercial space, these units gather mold, mildew, bacteria, germs, and other particles.

Before getting into the cleaning process, ensure your safety by turning off and unplugging the system. Mind you, as industrial power ranges can be FATAL. Then wipe the outer housing using a damp cloth without spraying water or cleaning solvents on the unit. Remember to gently scrub and rinse the reservoir, air filter, hose drain, and the bucket filter.

📆 Replace air filters and power cord:
The air filters in the dehumidifier helps remove dust particles from the incoming air before it passes through the coils. These filters must be washed frequently and replaced at scheduled timing to avoid clogs and facilitate better air circulation. They are not very expensive and can be purchased from sellers who sell HVAC filters.

Inspect your power cord regularly. Never use a damaged cord as it will result in fire hazards, electric shocks, and safety risks. If you find your cord battered, immediately replace it with a cable of the same type and amperage. Therefore periodic replacement of air filters and power cord play a significant role in the longevity of the dehumidifier unit.

🔍 Check for wear and tear:
As part of the weekly maintenance, commercial dehumidifiers must be checked for corrosion, rusts, and other wear and tear. Inefficiencies in operation, accidents, ageing, and other environmental factors contribute to the deterioration of the dehumidifier units. Regular checking and repairing will help increase the lifespan of the commercial dehumidifier.

🧑‍🏭 Train employees:
If the operators are not trained properly, they will not be able to run the dehumidifier optimally. They will cause equipment wear and tear, performance failures, and injuries. Industry regulators stipulate that only well trained and certified employees should handle and manage heavy duty dehumidifiers.

Once you follow all the 5 expert tips delved upon above, the durability of the commercial dehumidifier will definitely increase.

Our Verdict

Now that you have read our reviews on the best commercial dehumidifiers, you must surely be in a position to choose your best buy. Here are our top 3 picks from commercial dehumidifiers available for the American Industries and commercial spaces.

Here is our verdict!

The rest of the commercial dehumidifiers reviewed above are no less than the ones we’ve selected. They are experts in the art and science of dehumidification with amazing pints per day (PPD) capability, energy efficiency, hot gas bypass defrosting, condensate pumping ability, and much more.