AprilAire E080 Pro 80-Pint Whole-House Dehumidifier + Model 76 Wall Mount Dehumidifier Control, Commercial-Grade Whole-Home Dehumidifier for Basement, Crawlspace, or Whole House…

3 reviews for AprilAire E080 Pro 80-Pint Whole-House Dehumidifier + Model 76 Wall Mount Dehumidifier Control, Commercial-Grade Whole-Home Dehumidifier for Basement, Crawlspace, or Whole House…

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Amazon Customer – August 17, 2024

   I bought this after my 6 year old Honeywell TruDry 90 developed a refrigerant leak and spewed oil into the condensate tray and drain. Shame on Honeywell. They should know better and be able to build something that lasts longer than 6 years for that kind of money. My house’s A/C system lasted 20 years! Since the reviews were even worse than I expected for a new similar replacement Honeywell unit, I did a hard pass and started looking at Aprilaire.

   The Aprilaire E080 I chose is a nicely built unit and kudos for being a USA manufacturer. They took the time to really insulate it with tons of Styrofoam panels inside with this particular model. Apparently, the E080 is their only really well insulated unit at this moment out of their product lineup. They also had a beast of a support shipping bracket for the compressor strapped to the backside, which saved my unit from damage since the people who load boxes onto the trucks at Amazon’s warehouses can’t seem to understand what those large “THIS END UP” warnings printed on the boxes mean. Mine was sitting in the truck on it’s backside, compressor on the bottom. I kept the box, support bracket and straps (even though they say to throw them out) if I ever have to ship this unit back for repairs/replacement in the future. A note to buyers. DO NOT THROW OUT those Styrofoam inserts that are placed inside the plastic duct collars for this unit. They are for noise reduction, not prevention of shipping damage, so keep them inside the collars when installing. I also moved the control panel to the front to keep it from getting dusty in my basement and thus scratching the clear display panel when being cleaned.

   Once the unit had sat for a couple of days, I put it up on my leveling pallet that keeps it off the basement floor, swapped the rear collar to the top of my unit and attached it to my overhead duct to distribute the exhaust away from the unit and out into the room and hooked it up to my drain. It fired right up when I turned it on. Soon it starting dumping water into the drain like crazy. This unit has an interesting method of operation. It doesn’t work like my old Honeywell unit did, although I suspect that if I had an external humidity controller like my Honeywell unit did, it would probably be similar. But since this unit has the controller/humidistat mounted on the front, what it does is first turn on the fan for 3 minutes to sample the air humidity. After that 3 minutes, if it detects that the humidity in the room is higher than the set point on the control panel, it then turns on the compressor to dehumidify. Even though my basement was already at 48% (according to my probably inaccurate little hygrometer), this was a test and it ran until it hit 3% below my set point of 53% and turned off. Since the room was already dry enough, it did not need to dehumidify again. What this unit does is sample the air every hour, so you’ll hear the fan turn on for 3 minutes during those times. If the humidity is below the set point, the fan then turns off and the compressor stays off until the next cycle. I’m hoping this run procedure works when my basement starts getting really humid in the spring and fall. Winter, it’s generally not needed and only sometimes in the summer. If once an hour doesn’t work out, I’ll purchase the add-on external Aprilaire controller, but I suspect it will work great as currently set up. Now if it lasts longer than 6 years, I’ll be a happy camper.

   Given that my local HVAC company does not know much about dehumidifiers in my area, I probably know more about them than they do at this point. They sold me the original Honeywell unit and weren’t even sure how to set it up. THEY had to read the manual just to figure it out. They certainly couldn’t fix it when the coils finally sprung a leak a few months ago. It’s now deemed non-repairable and has to be discarded or recycled. I’ve also repaired it on my own at least once, when the defrost thermostat failed, which was a known issue at the time. Research saved me a big call charge, even under warranty, and getting a repair person who probably knew nothing about the unit to even diagnose it in the first place.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Amazon Customer – August 24, 2024

   I ordered and installed one on these units in my house to complement my Aprilaire 700M humidifier. In the Chicago suburbs we get bone dry winters and hot humid summers. The undersized AC unit game only goes so far here and does not work for the cool humid late spring and early fall since it is too cool for an AC call. The only option is to run the AC until your house is frozen. Between AC calls in the summer, the humidity creeps back in while the temperature holds and the AC sits in the background waiting for the temperature to increase to turn on. Then you have to lower your thermostat just to dehumidify your house. I have had this unit for 2 days and already I notice a difference. The first floor is nearly as dry as the basement (which I have been using an oversized stand alone unit since I moved in) while the upstairs is comfortable, which is up from unbearable. Running a dehumidifier in the basement does help a lot, but it has been a losing battle on the first and especially the second floor.

   I selected the E080 because it was the most quiet and power efficient unit while having different ducting options as well as a filter access door on both sides. The E070 was more than enough for my 1364 sq ft townhome, but I have extremely limited space to work with in the basement and the filter access on both sides came handy. I had to duct this unit to the Aprilaire recommended return to return vs the more appropriate return to supply because the pressure differences while the HVAC fan is running causes air not to flow through the unit. I am using a Google Nest to control the unit via a relay. I am using a cam rotary switch to select between the humidifier and dehumidifier relays and reprogramming the thermostat for the device selected since the Nest supports only one device at a time. I am running this unit as a stand alone with the HVAC fan active in the Nest setup. I originally ran it return to supply with the HVAC fan not active but AC calls kicked on the fan regardless causing air not to flow through the dehumidifier, which was why I was forced to change it to return to return. It was a pretty difficult and tricky install that required a lot of planning ahead of time, along with a ducting change, but it was all well worth it in the end. The unit is extremely quite. The AC is running less and the house is very comfortable with the thermostat set higher. The temperature difference between the first and second floor is now half. I have never lived in a house this comfortable during this time of the year. I am looking forward to seeing how this unit performs when the summer gets hot and muggy. This is seriously like adding a dehumidifier in every room. Depending how this unit works out in the long run, I might just look to replacing my 50 pint standing unit with the E070 for my basement (there is no ducting in the basement so a separate unit is needed).

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Kim K. – September 28, 2024

   Got this when my old commercial grade dehumidifier, that was sold by the basement company, finally died.
   This Aprilaire is smaller, it’s mightier, it’s less expensive. I am attracted to the information that it is American made and it is repairable by the consumer with support from Aprilaire.
   My old one had to be serviced by the company who could not come to my house for over a month during the most humid New England summer on record to even just pronounce it dead.
   This dehumidifier went right to work and got the humidity levels down quickly. I don’t find it to be loud. It is quieter than my old one. It is set up better for my situation and I am hopeful it lasts a very long time.
   My only complaint is that i also ordered the remote display which did not come with wiring to set it up, so that’s a project for later.
   Right now my house has dried out and feels and smells so much better!