Featured this week
Four pages that show how we work: a number that means something different from what it looks like — and one that works the number out for you.
If you came here to size a unit rather than read a spec sheet, start with the published sizing table; the same table runs as a calculator if you would rather not read across a grid. The three methods behind it disagree by a factor of four on one room, and the pints on the label are a rate rather than a tank.
Your purifier’s filter light is counting hours, not sensing anything
The same 2,000-hour threshold is 83 days running continuously and over 16 months at four hours a day. Same filter, same counter, a sixfold spread — and the carbon stage has no indicator at all.
Dehumidifier calculator: the published table, not a formula
Enter the floor area and how damp the space is. You get the capacity band from the published ENERGY STAR sizing table, one suggested size, and the name of the cell it came from — so you can check the working.
Why your dehumidifier runs but collects nothing
The capacity label is measured at 65 °F and 60% humidity. In a cooler or drier room the machine is not broken — it is outside the condition the number describes.
Why your dehumidifier is leaking water
Where the water appears narrows it to one of four places. Two of them are not faults at all — a blocked drain path and a full bucket look identical from the outside.
Latest
Three kinds of page, and each one says which it is: a reference answer, a set of buying criteria, or a full pass through the published record.
Sizing a Dehumidifier for a Crawl Space
The three published capacity cells, four disagreements between the two sizing methods, and one input no named source publishes.
How long does a humidifier last? The number is in the warranty
No humidifier maker publishes an average lifespan. What two warranties do publish is a term: two years, reached either outright or by registering inside fourteen days. What the term excludes, what voids it, and the three records that decide whether it survives.
Humidifier not working: three states, not one fault
A humidifier that will not work is usually one of three states: it refuses to start, it runs without making mist, or water ends up outside it. The check that separates them, why cleaning is on the list of causes, and the half of leaks that are not leaks.
Air purifier smells: four places the smell can live
A purifier has four places a smell can come from and only two are fixed by cleaning. How to tell which state yours is in, what the CADR number cannot tell you, and why ozone is the wrong answer.
How to clean an air purifier filter
Only the outer pre-filter can be washed. Here is which layer you are holding, the published 2 to 4 week interval, and what water does to the layer that cannot take it.
Dehumidifier maintenance
Four colour bands with published boundaries, three functions behind one five-second gesture, and a full-tank warning that silences itself in sleep mode.
White dust from a humidifier
White dust is the minerals in your water, flung into the air by ultrasonic humidifiers. Here is which units make it, what water stops it, and how to suppress it.
How to clean a dehumidifier
One lid, two filters, opposite rules: the mesh washes, the particle filter is replaced. And the manual's three intervals all land in the same four-to-six-week window.
Three manuals, three vinegar recipes for the same humidifier
Three humidifier manuals give three different vinegar concentrations for the same job. Your manual wins. Here are the recipes side by side, what they share, and what vinegar never fixes.
Mold in a humidifier: the side you cannot reach
Mould in a humidifier keeps coming back from the side you cannot dismantle. Which parts come off, which ones do not, and what the maker says to do about the sealed path.
How much does it cost to run a dehumidifier
The federal standard sets litres per kilowatt-hour, not watts. Invert it and the three legal size bands give $76, $123 and $99 a year — the middle one costs most.
Dehumidifier not working
Six causes for "does not operate", five of them not faults. One defrost state that looks like a dead compressor. Five error codes, one of which keeps the unit running.
Best air purifier for cigarette smoke: what actually works
A HEPA clears the haze; only activated carbon touches the smell. Here is what actually decides whether a purifier helps with smoke.
Where should a dehumidifier be placed?
20 cm all round, 40 cm at the outlet, a 5–35 °C window, and a level floor that holds it full. The manual also names one room it will not allow — twice.
Browse Home Air
One area for now — dehumidifiers and air treatment — with its own buying criteria and its own set of traps in the spec sheet.
Home Air
Where running cost quietly overtakes the sticker price.
2,000 h → 83 d or 500 d- How long do air purifier filters last?
- How often to replace a humidifier filter
- Do you actually need a dehumidifier?
- What an air purifier filter costs per year
- What dissolves mineral scale in a humidifier
How we work
Three rules we hold to on every page.
Real owners first
The starting point is what people who paid their own money say after months of use — not a press release, and not a launch-day video.
Patterns, not scores
One angry review is noise. The same failure reported by hundreds of owners over two years is a design fault, and it goes in the guide. We do not print star ratings we cannot stand behind.
We show our working
Every conclusion names where it came from, so you can check the reasoning instead of trusting the tone.
What this is: a research and curation project, run by one person. We do not sell anything, and we are not affiliated with any brand we write about. A page here is built by reading a product's own documentation and then going through what its owners report — and telling you which of those each conclusion rests on.