• steve
• December 17, 2023
• 2 Comments

Usually when I do my research, I can find ONE brand listed on Consumer Reports or Wirecutter that’s not made in China. But with dehumidifiers it seems that the entire industry is completely lost.

• Midea – Made in China
• Frigidaire – Made in China
• GE – Made in China
• Honeywell – Made in China
• TCL – Made in China
• Homelabs – Made in China
• Whirlpool – Made in China
• Emerson – Made in China
• Danby – Made in China
• Black and Decker – Made in China
• Soleus Air – Made in China
• Amazon Basics – Made in China
• Haier – Made in China
• Amana – Made in China
• Kesnos – Made in China
• Friedrich Air – Made in China
• Toshiba – Made in China

Frankly, it’s downright depressing. What you see here follows the model of how an industry is destroyed. It’s the same pattern we’ve seen over and over again. 1) Executives at all these brands shift manufacturing to China to boost their short-term profits, 2) China manufacturers steal their IP, 3) China manufacturers start producing under their own fake brands, 4) Consumers realize that there’s no benefit to buying a brand name, 5) Brands are destroyed, but not before the executives in Step 1 have enriched themselves.

LG is the only manufacturer who seems to have avoided China. As usual, when consumer brands abandon its customers, sometimes you can find good options among industrial suppliers. I’ve added some options below.

Best Dehumidifiers Not Made in China

1. LG PuriCare 50-Pint Dehumidifier

This is the ONLY consumer model dehumidifier I could find that wasn’t made in China. It’s made in South Korea. I confirmed this with LG customer service, as well as with Home Depot itself.

It’s a rare example of a consumer brand making this product outside of China. Reviews for it are great. People praise it for its durability, as well as its ability to maintain consistent levels of humidity without constantly adjusting it.

Unfortunately at the time of this writing it seems to be out of stock on both LG’s site and Home Depot. It looks like it is available on Amazon and on Bed Bath and Beyond (formerly Overstock), but beware of third party sellers doing price gouging.

2. Santa Fe Compact70

As we’ve seen in many other industries where brands have abandoned manufacturing for the consumer market to China, your only recourse may be to turn to the industrial market.

Santa Fe makes dehumidifier and air filtration solutions for businesses, but at the “lower end” of their line they do make this model. At over $1,300 it’s not cheap. but when you consider that the average life span of a consumer dehumidifier is 2-3 years, the additional investment starts to make sense.

These are engineered AND assembled in the United States

Even their industrial competitors have started to oursource to China, including Alorair, B-Air, Dri-Eaz. In a demonstration of “how dumb do you think your customers are?” here’s what Alorair writes on their Web site.

What’s especially sleazy about industrial companies outsourcing to China is that they don’t reduce their price as a result of having their production costs slashed by cheap labor, but pocket the difference.

Santa Fe still makes thing in the USA, and so if you’re looking for an industrial solution, they’re the ones to go with. You can buy their products on Amazon or Sylvane.

3. AprilAire 70 Pint Dehumidifier

AprilAire is another industrial producer of dehumidifiers that continues to manufacture in the United States from their factories in Wisconsin. Unlike consumer models made in China, it’s built to last.

Conclusion

I’m afraid those are the best options I’ve found for now. There was a Winix dehumidifier on the market for a while that was made in Thailand, but it looks like that’s been discontinued. Several people on the Web mentioned that dehumidifiers from Mitsubishi Electric were excellent, but it looks like those are only available in the Asia Pacific region.

Do you know of other dehumidifiers that are not made in China? Let us know in the comments!