EdgeStar 50 Pint Portable Dehumidifier Review 2024

Do you have an area inside your home that’s plagued by persistently high moisture? Do you have an indoor growing space where precise humidity control is critical? Are you looking for a set and forget solution that you don’t have to babysit on a near-constant basis?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’re going to love our review of the EdgeStar 50 pint portable dehumidifier with pump. While it’s not a perfect machine, it comes pretty close and has a lot to offer.

EdgeStar is an American company that’s been serving the market for nearly two decades.  They design and engineer their products here, then outsource the manufacturing to China.  These, however, aren’t your typical Chinese imports.  EdgeStar’s products are a cut above, and although they’re not quite as good or robust as products manufactured in the West, they come pretty close.  The quality gap between manufacturing in China and the West is closing, and EdgeStar’s products are proof of that fact.

That’s good news for you as a prospective buyer because it allows you to get a more feature-rich machine for less than you’d otherwise pay without sacrificing a lot in terms of quality.

All that to say that this machine has a lot to offer, and in the sections that follow, we’ll go into the capabilities of this machine in detail, telling you everything it gets right and not shying away from pointing out its shortcomings. By the time you reach the end of this review, we think you’ll agree: Even if you opt to go in some other direction, this is a fantastic, highly capable model. Let’s take a closer look and see what it can do.

Edgestar 50 Pint Portable Dehumidifier With Pump Overview

EdgeStar’s design team didn’t put a lot of effort into making a sleek, elegant machine.  They chose to focus on function rather than form, and we agree with that decision.  Dehumidifiers don’t need to be pretty; they just need to work. 

This model isn’t ugly, it’s simply functional, and we’re totally fine with that. 

Specifications

Before we get into specific capabilities, though, let’s take a moment to review the core stats that define the model.  Here they are:

So, let’s take these from the top. This isn’t an especially large model, not quite two feet tall, so it can fit just about anywhere. While it’s not heavy, it is heavier than it first appears, owing to the presence of both a hefty compressor and a pump.

We’ll have more to say about the pump in the next section. For now, we’ll just mention that it exists, and that’s a very good thing.

Moisture Removal

It’s got a 50-pint per day extraction capacity, which is sufficient for a wide range of purposes. It can easily control moisture in small to medium-sized rooms, medium-sized grow tents, and smaller grow rooms, although this is largely a function of how many plants you’re growing, what you’re growing, and how much water you’re feeding your plants daily.

Reservoir

The reservoir is impressively sized and can hold up to 18 pints. If you opt not to take advantage of the built-in drainage system and pump, you’ll have to empty the reservoir up to three times a day manually, but with a built-in pump, we’re not sure why anyone wouldn’t take advantage of it. Still, it’s good to know in case you don’t want to or temporarily can’t take advantage of the drainage system.

Power Cord

The power cord is a bit on the stubby side at only six feet long, but employing a simple extension cord will neatly solve that issue, and it’s a limitation fairly common among dehumidifiers in general.

Drainage Hose

One thing we really like is that EdgeStar includes a sixteen-foot drainage hose, which is exactly the length that the built-in pump is rated for. We love it because while many companies include drainage hoses with the products they sell, they tend to include short ones that aren’t good for much of anything, meaning you’ll have to spring for a hose that’s long enough to be useful. It’s a small thing, but very convenient.

Power Usage

Finally, given that this unit has both a compressor and a drain pump, we were pleasantly surprised at how little power it actually draws. Granted, it’s still sufficient that it’s going to add heat to whatever room you’ve got it in, so if you’re a grower, you’ll need to take that into account, but we were pleasantly surprised at the relative efficiency of the unit.

EdgeStar 50 Pint Portable Dehumidifier Features

Now let’s walk through the features on offer here. We’ve already talked about its daily extraction capacity, so we won’t rehash that here except to say this: There’s really no such thing as buying a dehumidifier that’s too big except that you’re paying for capacity you’ll never use if you go too far in the extreme.

It is, however, entirely possible to buy one that’s too small for your needs. That’s the real risk here. Fifty pints per day is certainly respectable, but if you even suspect you’ll need more extraction capacity than that, your best bet is to go bigger.

Operation

As with most machines of this type, you’ve got two options where running it is concerned. You can either set it to run for a set number of hours before automatically shutting off, or set a desired target humidity level and let the machine run until it hits your target before shutting off.

Humidistat

The built-in humidistat is fairly accurate, and you’ll see readings that are +/-3% of what’s showing on your hygrometer if you’ve got one in the room with the unit (and if you’re a grower, then you almost certainly do).

While this fact isn’t critical if you’re just trying to dry out a basement or bathroom, that’s the kind of relatively fine-grained control growers need.

The control system is well designed and intuitive, and it’ll only take a few minutes to master it.

Additional Functions

The EdgeStar Dehumidifier 50 pint also comes with a few finishing touches and flourishes that add to its overall convenience. A built-in handle that makes it easier to move from place to place, rolling casters, an auto-defrost mode, and an auto-shutoff sensor if the reservoir gets full and the system isn’t draining properly, which spares you from the possibility of having a mess on your hands.

Filter

The EdgeStar DEP500WP 50 pint portable dehumidifier also comes with a washable polypropylene filter that will filter dust, pet dander, pollen, and other pollutants out of the room it is sitting in, returning air that’s fresher and cleaner.

We would love to have seen the addition of a HEPA filter here, but we understand why the company didn’t go that route. This is already a pricey unit, and adding an advanced filtration system would have made it even more expensive. Even so, any filter is better than none, and this one’s washable, so if you keep it clean, you can keep reusing it.

Pump

This section wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t say a few words about the dedicated pump.  Generally speaking, the higher the capacity of the unit, the more likely you are to see it designed with a built-in pump.  It’s generally not worth the extra cost in smaller units, and a 50-pint per day unit is something of a gray area.  A few have built-in pumps, but most don’t.

Personally, we love the inclusion because it makes using the dehumidifier a much more hands-free and hassle-free process.  If a unit doesn’t have a drainage system at all, you’re stuck having to babysit it and manually emptying the tank at regular intervals.

Gravity-driven systems work, but place hard constraints on where and how you can use the system and tend to be somewhat fickle and easily fouled.  A dedicated pump adds to the cost of the unit but solves all of those issues.

The pump on this unit can redirect the water from the reservoir up to sixteen feet away, giving you a fair amount of flexibility in terms of how you set it up and where you decide to redirect the water.  That’s very handy.

Pros and Cons of EdgeStar 50 Pint Portable Dehumidifier

We love this unit! It’s rugged, durable, and offered by a respected company in the industry with more than twenty years of experience. They’ve also got a good track record of providing post-sales customer service and support, so if you have any issues or problems, you won’t have any problems getting assistance.

In our view, the best feature of the EdgeStar 50 is the fact that it provides a “set and forget” solution to your humidity problems. With a drain pump built-in, there’s not much you have to do except check in on it now and then to make sure everything’s running smoothly and hit pause long enough to wash the filter every couple of weeks.

The only real downside is that it’s a bit on the pricey side compared to other units it competes with. The price difference is driven almost entirely by the drain pump, so you’re really paying for convenience here, but in our view, it’s worth the extra money to remove a few hassles from your life.

EdgeStar 50 pint Portable Dehumidifier Review Conclusion

The EdgeStar 50 pint portable dehumidifier with pump is a solid unit, offered by a respected company. Ultimately though, it’s fairly self-selecting. If you don’t mind having to empty the water reservoir manually or can live with a simple gravity-operated drainage system, then there’s no good reason to spend extra money on a unit like this with a dedicated drain pump.

On the other hand, if you’re interested in convenience and are looking for a moisture control solution that’s mostly hands-free, and 50 pints of extraction capacity is what you need, then this is the dehumidifier you want. We recommend it.

---

Official Manufacturer Support

References & Resources

• EdgeStar, Official Brand Website.
• EdgeStar DEP500WP User Manual.
• Effects of Humidity on Your Body, UPMC Health Beat.
• It’s Not Your Imagination, Humidity Really is Killing You, Popular Science.
• Understanding Relative Humidity and the Hygrometer, Science Company.