Amazon Basics 35-Pint Dehumidifier review

The Amazon Basics 35-Pint Dehumidifier is a big unit, both in terms of physical dimensions and capabilities. But if you're on the market for one of the best dehumidifiers, it does a brilliant job. This 35-Pint dehumidifier can remove a lot of moisture quickly, and it’s well-suited to very damp spaces up to 2,500 square feet.

It’s also a very simple, straightforward unit. There’s no app to control it remotely, and the buttons on top of the unit are few, making it easy to understand and operate. It’s ideal for big, damp spaces that you need to dry out quickly, and it comes at a friendly price for the capabilities.

However, it’s overkill for spaces under 600 square feet. The unit also throws off a lot of heat during operation, so it can have an outsized impact on the comfort in smaller rooms. It’s also the noisiest unit I’ve tested so far.

Invest if you need to dry out a space where you and the family aren’t likely to hang out often. And skip it if you need to dehumidify a smaller space or need quiet operation.

Amazon Basics 35 Pint Dehumidifier review: Price and availability

The Amazon Basics 35-Pint Dehumidifier is available now on Amazon for $179. You can also purchase a larger, 50-pint version that costs just $20 more .

Amazon Basics 35 Pint Dehumidifier review: Design

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The Amazon Basics 35-Pint Dehumidifier is a large, straightforward unit. It looks like a big white box, and that lends itself to fitting into the design of just about any room in the house.

Given its size, this unit is best suited to larger rooms with plenty of damp. Bear in mind that it will take up a lot of space in small rooms, and is probably overkill for any space under 600 square feet or so.

Buttons on the top of the unit allow you to power it on and make all the adjustments you’ll need. There’s a Timer button, which allows you to set the on/off time anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours.

The Auto function turns the unit on and off to maintain an ideal humidity level in a room. That usually falls between 45 and 55% humidity. There’s also a Turbo button that fires up the unit to reduce humidity very quickly.

The Basics 35-Pint Dehumidifier is mounted on casters, which makes it easy to move the unit around on the floor. There are also handles on either side, though they’re fairly shallow, so if you’ll be lifting the 39-pound unit frequently, you may want to keep that in mind.

The six-liter bucket slides out easily from the front of the unit and includes a handle to make it easy to empty. A small, vertical window on the front of the bucket reveals a red float that gives you an indication of the water level.

Amazon Basics 35 Pint Dehumidifier review: Performance

Smart controls

The control panel features a defrost indicator, a full bucket indicator, and timer indicator. And there’s also a continuity mode button; this enables you to run the unit continuously using a drain hose, but the drain hose is not included with the purchase of the unit.

Another thing that is notable is the absence of an app control, which I usually find handy. However, if you're keen on having a dehumidifier with app connectivity, the Midea 20 pint cube dehumidifier is a great option. Not only did it come with handy features but gave an impressive performance.

I tested the Amazon Basics Dehumidifier in my basement bathroom, which measures about 100 square feet. During my first use, the room measured 90% humidity both on the Amazon unit itself and on my Alexa air quality monitor.

The large Amazon basics unit made short work of the humidity in this small room. It dropped the humidity level to 41% in just 45 minutes, which is super fast. It’s also not too surprising given the size of the unit compared to the size of the room.

The unit also throws off a lot of heat. The average room temperature in the bathroom on the day of the bathroom testing was 66 degrees. During the 45 minutes the Amazon Basics unit operated, the room reached nearly 80 degrees.

Efficiency

I repeated this test a couple more times and the results were consistent with the first test. It was clear that this unit was too large and powerful for the small bathroom.

So I then moved the Amazon Basics Dehumidifier out to the rest of the basement, which measures about 900 square feet. During the spring, the basement gets damp as the sump pump gets overwhelmed, but in the late summer and early fall, it’s fairly dry at around 60% humidity at worst.

Once again, the Amazon Basics Dehumidifier worked quickly and efficiently, dropping the humidity in the basement to 40% in about an hour. And once again, the unit threw off a lot of heat. The temperature in the room didn’t change as drastically as it had in the much smaller bathroom, but the unit did manage to raise the ambient temperature in the basement a couple of degrees.

If you did have a smaller room however, or don't mind a basic spec, the GE 35 Pint Dehumidifier would be more suitable. During our tests, this worked quickly in small spaces, and gave a decent performance. The only thing it lacked was an app, however, it did well to get the job done.

Noise levels

I checked the noise level of the unit when it was operating in the lowest setting in the open basement. At an average of about 70 decibels, the Amazon Basics 35-Pint Dehumidifier is the loudest unit I’ve tested so far, by about 5 to 10 decibels. It’s not a unit you’d want running in your home office, or while you’re watching TV in the living room.

However, if you did run a large household and didn't want to disturb the peace, you could opt for the HomeLabs 22 Pint Dehumidifier. Not only did this perform well in our tests, but I was impressed with its quiet operation, around 55 decibels.

Amazon Basics 35 Pint Dehumidifier review: Verdict

If you’ve got a large and damp basement or other space that requires you to move a lot of moisture, the Amazon Basics 35-Pint Dehumidifier is more than up to the task. It works quickly and efficiently to control humidity, but it’s overkill for any space under 600 feet or so.

It’s also loud, and it throws off a lot of heat. So if you’re looking for a humidifier you can run while the family is watching TV, or while you’re working in the home office, this may not be the best unit for you.

Consider this unit if you’ve got a large space prone to high humidity, and noise from the unit isn’t a concern. Avoid it for smaller spaces or rooms in which the unit can affect overall comfort.