Model references, not test reports

Why a reference beats a review here

Dehumidifiers are unusually well suited to being assessed on paper. They are commodity refrigeration: a compressor, a coil, a fan and a humidistat, built by a handful of factories and sold under many labels. In the ENERGY STAR certified list, four brands - Waykar, KESNOS, YAUFEY and Fehom - appear as a single joint entry for the same model numbers, because they are the same machines.

What actually differentiates them is documented, not felt: certified capacity, efficiency, drainage options, pump reach, tank volume, minimum operating temperature, and whether the manufacturer publishes a wattage. A reviewer with a chamber can measure noise and real-world extraction, which is genuinely valuable and which we cannot do. Nobody, as far as we can find, is compiling the paper trail. So that is what these pages are.

What is on every page

• Certified DOE capacity, and where it differs from the headline on the box, both numbers with the gap stated.
• Average power draw, computed from the model's ENERGY STAR IEF and capacity, with the exact certified model number named - including where the retail suffix does not match the certified one.
• Where the water can go - bucket, gravity, or pump - because that is the constraint that rules machines in or out.
• A reason to skip it. Every model page has one. A recommendation with no counter-case is an advertisement.
• Sources, linked, for every figure.

Where the wattage is missing

Of the 21 units in our registry, seven map to a named entry in the ENERGY STAR certified list and carry a computed wattage. The other fourteen do not, and those pages say so rather than borrowing a sibling model's figure. In those cases we give the certified class band instead - for a 50-pint unit that is 443 to 490 W across 164 certified models, which is a narrow enough range to plan around.

This is the rule that costs us the most and matters the most: a number without a source does not go on the page. Data unavailable is an acceptable sentence here. An invented number is not.