This page sets out how the guides on DehumidifierTips.com are put together: where the numbers come from, what we will and will not publish, and how mistakes get corrected. It exists so you can check our work rather than take it on trust.
The rule behind everything else
Every quantitative claim on this site traces back to a primary source: a test standard, a manufacturer specification, a government or research publication, or arithmetic we show you. Where a figure is an estimate or a rule of thumb, we label it as one.
The reason for the rule is that the dehumidifier corner of the internet is largely a copy of itself. Numbers get repeated from article to article until nobody can say where they started, and errors persist for years because no one goes back to check. Most notoriously, capacity figures from before the 2019 DOE test change are still being reproduced today as though nothing happened.
Sources we use
- Test standards. US Department of Energy dehumidifier test procedures (including the 2019 change from 80°F to 65°F), AHAM standards, and ENERGY STAR criteria. These define what a pint rating and an efficiency figure actually mean.
- Manufacturer documentation. Specification sheets, installation instructions and service manuals — not marketing pages. Operating temperature ranges, defrost behaviour and airflow figures come from here.
- Government and public-health guidance. EPA guidance on indoor moisture and mold remediation, CDC material on damp buildings and health, and NIOSH and OSHA material where occupational exposure is relevant.
- Building science. Published work on vapour transport, dew point, condensation on cold surfaces, crawl space performance and the psychrometrics behind all of it. The Magnus formula underlies every dew point figure on the site.
- Retailer listings — for prices only. Never for specifications. Listing copy is frequently wrong about capacity and coverage.
How a guide gets written
- Establish the real question. We look at what people actually search for and what they are actually trying to solve, which is often narrower than the phrase suggests. “Dehumidifier not collecting water” is usually a room that is already dry, not a broken machine — so that is where the guide starts.
- Gather primary sources. Standards, specifications and research on the specific point, before any writing.
- Do the arithmetic in the open. Where a number is derived — sizing, running cost, dew point, moisture load — we show the inputs and the working so you can substitute your own figures.
- Lead with the most likely answer. Diagnostic guides are ordered by probability, not by severity. The boring cause comes first because it is usually the right one.
- State the limits. Every guide says what the advice does not cover and when to stop and call someone qualified.
- Draw the charts from the data. Diagrams and tables on this site are generated from the underlying figures, not reproduced from other sites.
What we will not publish
- Testing claims we cannot support. We do not operate a product testing lab, and we do not write as though we do. Where a figure comes from a specification rather than our own measurement, the text says so.
- “Best of” rankings. They age badly, they are the format most easily distorted by commission rates, and they answer the wrong question. We would rather explain how to read a spec sheet.
- Sponsored or manufacturer-supplied content. No payment for coverage, in any form.
- Medical advice. We cover what the published evidence says about humidity, mold and health, and we point you to a professional for anything beyond that.
- Numbers we cannot trace. If we cannot find a source for a widely repeated figure, we either leave it out or say plainly that it is unverified.
Units, rounding and precision
Capacity is given in current DOE pints per day unless a page explicitly says otherwise. Temperatures are given in Fahrenheit with Celsius alongside where it aids comparison. Dew point figures are calculated with the Magnus formula and rounded to the nearest degree, which is well within the accuracy of a normal household hygrometer.
Where a source gives a range rather than a single value, we give the range. False precision — a moisture load quoted to two decimal places when the input was a guess — makes advice look more reliable than it is.
Keeping guides current
Standards change, models are discontinued, and prices move. Guides are reviewed when a standard or a piece of official guidance changes, when a reader reports an error, and on a periodic sweep of the whole site. The last-updated date on each page reflects genuine review, not a cosmetic timestamp bump.
Corrections
We get things wrong. When we do, we would rather know.
If you believe a figure on this site is incorrect, send it to us through the contact page, ideally with the specification, standard or study that contradicts it. Substantive corrections are made promptly and noted on the page. If a correction changes the practical advice, we say what it was before and what it is now, rather than editing silently.
Independence and funding
Some pages carry affiliate links, and we may earn a commission if you buy through one. No manufacturer or retailer has any say in what appears here, sees pages before publication, or pays for coverage. The full terms are on the affiliate disclosure page, and there is more on who we are and why the site exists on the about page.