The Quietest Dehumidifiers That Actually Work in 2026

Every dehumidifier I have ever owned has been the loudest thing in the room. So when a box promises 33 dB, I want to know who measured it and from how far away.

Usually the answer is nobody, and the number is the sound it makes on the lowest fan speed with the compressor off. Which is a bit like quoting a car’s fuel economy while it is parked.

I dug through the testing that actually exists: lab measurements from Wirecutter, RTINGS, HouseFresh and Consumer Reports, plus our own hands-on runs. Below are the seven quietest models you can buy today, with the real numbers, and an honest note about which ones are still just marketing claims.

The Short Answer

If you do not want to read 3,000 words about compressors, here are the three that matter.

Quiet Dehumidifier Comparison

Two noise columns, on purpose. One is what a testing lab measured, the other is what the brand printed on the box. Where they disagree, trust the lab.

Model	Tested noise	Claimed	Pints/day	Best for	Price
Midea Cube 35	Not published (CR: whisper quiet, top score)	48 dB	35	Most homes	$249.95
Waykar PD160B	47.3 dBA (RTINGS)	33 dB	34 rated, ~9 real	Bedrooms	$175.99
hOmeLabs 50 + pump	53 dB, full power (HouseFresh, earlier version)	None published	50	Basements	$309.99
Midea 22 Pint	Not measured	47 dBA	22	Small rooms	$194.99
Frigidaire 35 Pint	Not measured	48 dB quiet mode	35	Cube alternative	$229.00
Frigidaire 22 Pint	44.6 dB @ 10 ft (previous model)	Not published	22	Slightly damp rooms	$179.99
Midea EasyDry 50	Not measured	49 dBA on low (Amazon listing)	50	Value 50 pint	$219.99

Prices checked 14 October 2026 and they move around, so treat them as a guide rather than a promise.

Why Almost Every Quiet Dehumidifier Claim Is Nonsense

This is the part I wish someone had told me before I bought a dehumidifier that sounded like a light aircraft.

The same machine can be 55 dB or 74 dB

Decibel readings depend entirely on where you hold the meter, and almost nobody says.

DehumidifierBuyersGuide measured one Danby unit at 73.6 dB directly above the control panel and 54.8 dB from 10 feet away. Same machine, same fan speed, 18.8 dB apart.

That is why the table above names the tester and the distance. A number without a distance is decoration.

Waykar’s 33 dB is real, and also meaningless

Waykar’s own product page describes 33 dB as the minimum noise level, which means lowest fan, compressor idle.

Three independent testers put the same machine at 47.3 dBA (RTINGS), around 49 dB (Tom’s Guide) and 59.1 dB above the control panel (DehumidifierBuyersGuide).

None of those are lies. They are just answering different questions than the one you are asking.

No dehumidifier is quiet enough for a bedroom by WHO standards

The World Health Organization’s Europe guidance recommends below 30 dB(A) in bedrooms overnight for good quality sleep.

Nothing on this page hits that. Not one model. Not even the tiny silent ones.

For scale, the NIH puts a whisper at 30 dBA and normal conversation at 60 to 70 dBA. So a good dehumidifier lands somewhere between a whisper and a conversation, and the honest goal is a steady sound you stop noticing, not silence.

The 7 Quietest Dehumidifiers

1. Midea Cube 35 Pint: Best Overall

• Tested noise: Not published as a number. Consumer Reports rated it whisper quiet
• Manufacturer claim: 48 dB
• Capacity: 35 pints per day
• Coverage: 3,500 sq ft
• Pump: No
• Price: $259.95 at Sylvane

Consumer Reports gave the Cube 35 the highest overall score of any dehumidifier across all three of their size classes, and called it whisper quiet. RTINGS picked it as their large bedroom recommendation.

The Cube design is the reason. The compressor unit lifts off and twists to sit inside its own bucket, so the heavy vibrating part is nested in a big plastic box instead of sitting on bare floor.

Who it is for: most people. If you want one dehumidifier for a house and you do not want to think about it again, this is the one.

Skip it if: you need a pump. This model does not have one, whatever Consumer Reports and Home Depot’s listing say. Both have it wrong.

RTINGS does note it runs bulkier, louder and warmer than the Waykar below, so for a small bedroom specifically it is not the top choice.

2. Waykar PD160B: Best for a Bedroom

• Tested noise: 47.3 dBA (RTINGS), the lowest verified figure here
• Manufacturer claim: 33 dB, on the lowest fan setting
• Capacity: 34 pints rated, closer to 9 in testing
• Coverage: 2,000 sq ft claimed, treat as far less
• Pump: No, gravity drain only
• Price: $175.99 on Amazon

This is RTINGS’ number one bedroom pick, and it holds the lowest lab-measured decibel figure of anything on this page.

What makes it a bedroom unit is not just the noise. It also throws off very little heat, so the room does not go stuffy by morning. RTINGS scored it 8.0 for temperature stability against 7.0 for the Cube 35.

Now the honest part. That 34 pint rating is measured at 95°F and 90% humidity, which is a sauna, not a bedroom.

RTINGS’ own tested capacity was 8.5 pints a day. DehumidifierBuyersGuide got about 10 and called it poor value. Tom’s Guide found it had very little effect in a 600 to 700 sq ft space.

Who it is for: one bedroom, one nursery, one office. A room you sleep in where quiet matters more than raw water removal.

Skip it if: you have a damp basement or a whole floor to dry out. It will run constantly and lose. Get the hOmeLabs 50 pint instead.

3. hOmeLabs 50 Pint with Pump: Best for a Basement

• Tested noise: 53 dB at full power (HouseFresh, on the version sold as 4,000 sq ft)
• Manufacturer claim: None in the listing’s feature list
• Capacity: 50 pints per day at 80°F and 60% humidity
• Coverage: Listed at up to 7,500 sq ft
• Pump: Yes, built in
• Price: $309.99 on Amazon

HouseFresh put a sound meter on the hOmeLabs 50 pint with pump and recorded a maximum of 53 dB at full power. That is close to the 54.2 dBA they measured on the Midea Cube 50.

One caveat on that number. HouseFresh’s unit was sold as the 4,000 sq ft model and the current listing is labelled 7,500 sq ft, so treat it as a guide rather than a measurement of this exact box.

The pump is the reason to buy it. It pushes water up and out to a sink or window instead of relying on gravity, which matters in a basement where there is no drain below the unit.

Why not the Midea Cube 50 with pump? It was my pick here until October 2026. Wirecutter measured it at 51 dB from 6 feet and called it quieter than any other dehumidifier they have tried.

But Wirecutter also reports its pump is prone to failing, and Amazon buyers rate that version 3.5 stars across more than 1,000 ratings. The hOmeLabs sits at 4.6 across more than 15,000. If quiet matters more to you than the pump, the Cube 50 is still sold at Sylvane.

Who it is for: basements, and any big damp space where you cannot drain downhill. Also see our guide to the best dehumidifiers for basements if that is your main problem.

Skip it if: you can gravity drain to a floor drain. Save the money and get the EasyDry 50 further down.

4. Midea 22 Pint: Best for a Small Room

• Tested noise: No public lab figure
• Manufacturer claim: 47 dBA (Amazon listing)
• Capacity: 22 pints per day
• Coverage: Listed at 1,500 sq ft
• Pump: No
• Price: $194.99 on Amazon

Being straight with you: nobody has published a lab measurement of this one, so the 47 dBA is Midea’s own number, not a tested one.

It replaced the Midea Cube 20 here in October 2026. Consumer Reports called the Cube 20 the quietest dehumidifier in their tests, but Amazon buyers rate it 4.0 stars. This model sits at 4.4 across more than 7,000 ratings.

If you want the Cube 20 anyway, Sylvane still sells it.

This one is a conventional tower. You empty the tank when it is full, or connect a hose for continuous draining.

Who it is for: a bathroom, a laundry room, a small bedroom.

Skip it if: you need a verified noise figure. The Waykar above has one, and it is the safer bedroom buy.

5. Frigidaire 35 Pint: The Cube Alternative

• Tested noise: Not independently measured
• Manufacturer claim: Quiet mode down to 48 dB
• Capacity: 35 pints per day
• Pump: No
• Price: $249.99 at Sylvane, 2026 model

If you do not want a Cube, this is the mid-size unit I would look at. Frigidaire’s quiet mode is genuinely quiet and the controls are the least annoying of any brand here.

Being straight with you though: nobody has put a meter on this exact model, so the 48 dB is the brand’s own number, not a tested one.

The reliability question. Wirecutter dropped Frigidaire as a pick because the brand draws more mechanical failure complaints than the Midea Cube. That is not a reason to never buy one, but it is a reason to buy it somewhere with a painless returns process.

Who it is for: anyone who wants Cube-class performance in a conventional tower shape.

Skip it if: you want the safest long-term bet. That is the Cube 35.

6. Frigidaire 22 Pint: Best for a Slightly Damp Room

• Tested noise: 44.6 dB from 10 ft on low fan, measured on the previous model
• Manufacturer claim: Not published
• Capacity: 22 pints per day
• Pump: No
• Price: $219.99 at Sylvane

Small compressor units are the sweet spot most people miss. You do not need 50 pints of capacity to take a room from clammy to comfortable, and a smaller machine runs at a lower fan speed to do the same job.

DehumidifierBuyersGuide measured the previous generation of this unit at 44.6 dB from 10 feet on its low setting, which is genuinely good.

Who it is for: a room that sits at 60 to 65% humidity and just needs nudging down, rather than a properly wet space.

Skip it if: you have visible damp or mold. Undersizing a dehumidifier means it runs flat out forever, which is both louder and more expensive than buying the right size.

7. Midea EasyDry 50 Pint: Best Value 50 Pint

• Tested noise: Not independently measured
• Manufacturer claim: None published
• Capacity: 50 pints per day
• Pump: Optional, both versions available
• Price: $219.99 on Amazon

Same brand and same compressor engineering as the Cube, in a conventional tower body, for about $30 less than the Cube 35.

I want to be clear that this one has not been measured by anyone, so I cannot tell you it matches the Cube’s 51 dB. The Cube’s shape is part of why it is quiet, and this does not have that shape.

What you are buying is Midea’s reliability record, which is the best in the category, at a lower price.

Who it is for: a big space where you want Midea’s build quality and the noise is a secondary concern.

Skip it if: quiet is the whole reason you are here. Pay the extra for the Cube.

What About Those Silent Mini Dehumidifiers?

You have seen them. Small, cheap, no compressor, advertised at 33 dB and genuinely almost silent.

They are silent because they barely do anything.

These use a Peltier plate rather than a compressor, and the capacity difference is not marginal. Here are the manufacturers’ own numbers.

Unit	Water removed per day
Pro Breeze PB-02 mini	0.45 pints
Pro Breeze PB-03 mini	0.9 pints
SPT SD-300ML mini	0.63 pints
Midea 22 Pint (compressor)	22 pints

That is somewhere between 24 and 49 times more water from the compressor unit.

Trotec, who make both types, are blunt about it: in the best case a Peltier dehumidifier manages around 300 ml a day under test conditions, and in a real room it is more likely 100 ml.

They also flag the con in the marketing. The headline milliliter figure on these boxes is usually just the tank size, not what the unit extracts.

Energy tells the same story. ENERGY STAR requires a compressor unit to hit at least 1.70 liters per kWh. Peer reviewed measurements of Peltier units, under ideal conditions, top out around 0.319.

When they do make sense: a closet, a gun safe, an RV locker, a small bathroom. Sealed spaces of a few cubic feet where 100 ml a day is genuinely enough.

When they do not: any actual room. If you have damp, condensation or mold, a mini will not fix it no matter how quiet it is.

How to Make Any Dehumidifier Quieter

Most of the noise complaints I see are fixable without buying anything.

Run the fan higher, not lower

This sounds backwards. It works because there are two noises coming out of the machine, and they are not equally annoying.

Wirecutter described the problem exactly on some LG units: a persistent mechanical hum from the compressor that they could easily hear over the fan’s white noise.

Fan noise is broadband and easy to tune out. Compressor drone is tonal and your brain locks onto it. Running the fan up masks the compressor, so the machine measures louder and feels quieter.

Get it off the bare floor

A compressor vibrates, and a hard floor turns your floorboards into a speaker. A rubber mat, carpet tile or anti-vibration pads under the feet kill most of it.

Level it too. A unit sitting on a slight lean rattles and is more likely to leak water as well.

Move it out of the room and leave the door open

Humidity evens out across a home surprisingly well. A dehumidifier on the landing with the bedroom door open will pull that room down overnight without being in it.

This is the single most effective trick and it costs nothing.

Give it space to breathe

Shoved against a wall or in a corner, the unit works harder and gets louder for the same result. Most makers want 6 to 12 inches of clearance around the intake and exhaust.

Our guide on how to use a dehumidifier properly covers placement and target humidity in more detail.

How We Picked

Every model here had to clear four things.

A traceable noise figure. Either an independent lab measurement, or a manufacturer claim clearly labelled as one. No repeating numbers from other blogs.

Actually buyable today. I checked stock and price on every single link on 14 October 2026. The previous version of this article recommended six units, four of which had quietly become unbuyable.

Enough capacity to matter. A quiet machine that cannot dry the room is not a quiet dehumidifier, it is an ornament.

A brand that answers the phone. Wirecutter’s line on this category is worth repeating: dehumidifiers have long suffered from a shocking rate of mechanical failure across multiple brands and years of testing. Warranty support is part of the product.

We also run our own units. Our hands-on Vellgoo DryTank test measured 45 dB in a 1,000 sq ft garage, taking it from 63% to 53% humidity in two hours, which is the kind of real-world number that never appears on a spec sheet.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the quietest dehumidifier?

By verified measurement, the Waykar PD160B at 47.3 dBA (RTINGS) is the quietest unit with a published lab figure.

For a bigger room, the Midea Cube 50 measured 51 dB from 6 feet in Wirecutter’s testing, which is remarkable for a 50 pint machine.

Our basement pick, the hOmeLabs 50 pint with pump, reached 53 dB at full power in HouseFresh’s test.

Ignore any product advertising 33 dB or lower unless it names the fan speed and the distance.

How many decibels is a quiet dehumidifier?

Realistically, 45 to 55 dB is the quiet end of the market.

Consumer Reports found the quietest models in their testing sit around 50 dB and the loudest around 70 dB.

For context, the NIH puts a whisper at 30 dBA and normal conversation at 60 to 70 dBA. A 10 dB increase sounds roughly twice as loud to your ears.

Are all dehumidifiers noisy?

Every dehumidifier with a compressor makes noise, yes. The compressor and the fan both have to run.

The genuinely silent ones are Peltier minis, and they remove under a pint of water a day, so they are not really an alternative.

The realistic goal is a machine whose noise is steady and broadband enough to disappear into the background, not one that is actually silent.

Is there a way to make a dehumidifier quieter?

Yes, and the most effective one is free: put it in the next room and leave the door open.

After that, sit it on a rubber mat to stop vibration transferring into the floor, make sure it is level, and give it 6 to 12 inches of clearance.

Counter-intuitively, turning the fan up often helps, because fan noise masks the more irritating compressor hum.

What is the quietest dehumidifier for a bedroom?

The Waykar PD160B, on measured noise and on heat output. RTINGS rate it their top bedroom pick because it does not make the room stuffy overnight.

Be realistic about capacity though. It removes closer to 9 pints a day in normal conditions, so it suits one room rather than a floor.

Worth saying plainly: the WHO recommends below 30 dB(A) in bedrooms overnight, and no dehumidifier on the market meets that. If you are a very light sleeper, the next room really is the best answer.

Do I need a dehumidifier with a pump?

Only if you cannot drain downhill. A pump pushes water up to a sink or out a window, which matters in basements.

If there is a floor drain below the unit, gravity drainage does the same job with one fewer thing to break. Wirecutter specifically flags pump failures on the Cube 50.

Why is my dehumidifier getting louder?

Usually ice. If the coils frost up the machine works harder and rattles, which our guide on why dehumidifiers freeze up walks through.

A rattle that started suddenly is normally the unit sitting off level, or the bucket not seated properly. Both are 30 second fixes.

The Verdict

For most people, the Midea Cube 35 is the one to buy. Best tested performance in the category, whisper quiet by Consumer Reports’ reckoning, and no pump to fail.

If it is specifically a bedroom, the Waykar PD160B is quieter and cooler running, as long as you accept that it is a one-room machine.

And if it is a basement, the hOmeLabs 50 Pint with pump is the only pick here that solves the drainage problem too.

Whatever you buy, put it in the next room with the door open. It is still the best noise reduction trick there is.

If your damp problem is the whole house rather than one room, a whole home dehumidifier is worth pricing up before you buy three portables. And if you are still deciding whether you need one at all, here is how a dehumidifier actually works.