Frigidaire 70 Pint Dehumidifier with Wi-Fi Controls Review 2024

Do you have a problem with excess moisture anywhere in your home, boat, or RV? Are you an indoor grower looking for a way to keep the humidity levels in your grow room or grow tent? If you answered yes to either of those questions, you’re going to like what you read in this review.

Although we can’t tell you that this is the absolute best dehumidifier in its class on the market today, it is a very good, well-rounded, highly convenient model to own, and it’s offered by one of the most respected names in the American home appliance market. Those facts alone make this model well worth putting on your shortlist of options to consider.

In the sections that follow, we’ll tell you everything the Frigidaire 70 pint dehumidifier with wi-fi controls gets right and point out a few shortcomings we discovered along the way so you’ll be able to decide for yourself if this is the model you’ve been looking for. If that sounds good to you, read on, and let’s take a closer look.

An Overview of the Frigidaire FGAC7044U1 Dehumidifier

The first thing we should draw your attention to about the 70-pint dehumidifier with wi-fi controls is that it’s an upgrade (and in some ways, a downgrade) of an older model.

The older model had a gravity-driven pumping system, which is, in our view, decidedly inferior to having a dedicated pump, but it did do something that the newer model doesn’t. It was a “smart” dehumidifier that interfaced with the company’s Smart Appliance app, allowing you to control it from your phone, or via Google Home or Amazon Alexa.

We completely understand the motivation for adding a dedicated pump in preference for the simple gravity-drain, but we can’t fathom why the company would have left off the dehumidifier’s “smart” capabilities, which made the older model incredibly convenient and gave its users so much in the way of flexibility. It feels like a move in the wrong direction to us.

In any case, regarding this new, upgraded model, it’s a nondescript piece of hardware, neither especially attractive nor unattractive. In fact, unless you are already familiar with dehumidifiers, at first glance, you may not even recognize what the strange little white box’s function and purpose is.

We regard that as a good thing. Dehumidifiers don’t need to be pretty; they just need to work. Before we talk about the specific features that make this one work, let’s do a quick review of the basic stats that define the model:

There are a few things to mention where these numbers are concerned. First, although it’s not likely to come up often, check out the reservoir size compared to the extraction capacity. If, for some reason, you cannot, or simply don’t want to, make use of the built-in drain pump, you’re going to have to empty this unit manually 5-6 times a day. That’s not great. It’s not awful, but in our view, the reservoir could stand to be slightly bigger than it is.

Again, it’s not something that’s likely to come up often, since it’s rare that you’ll buy a dehumidifier with a dedicated pump and then not use it, but it is something to be mindful of.

For such a small white box, it does have some heft to it. It comes with a convenient carrying handle, but in our opinion, the company’s design of the handle isn’t all that it could be.

It’s not awful, but given the weight of the Frigidaire FGAC7044U1 dehumidifier, it would have been better if the handle had been built into the body of the machine, rather than being a “suitcase-style.” In any case, the presence of the handle does make moving it from one place to another a simple matter, but we wonder at how well it will hold up in the longer term.

The length of the power cord is also slightly problematic, given that you’ll probably want to locate the dehumidifier centrally in whatever space you put it in, and in a significant number of cases, a six-foot power cord simply isn’t going to allow that to happen.

It’s not a deal-breaker by any means, because you can simply use a heavy-duty extension cord to get around those limitations, but again, it’s a nit to keep in mind.

The last two stats on our list are solid wins for the unit. It sips power compared to other dehumidifiers in its class, and although it will add heat to whatever space you put it in, it won’t really matter unless you’re a grower and if you are, just plan to account for that, and you’ll be fine.

Lastly, we love the fact that Frigidaire saw fit to include a drainage hose with this model and that the hose they included is actually long enough to be useful. We’ve seen other models that have included drainage hoses as short as a foot and a half long, which is frankly ridiculous. Kudos to Frigidaire for going the extra mile here. It’s a small thing, but sometimes, those little details make all the difference!

Frigidaire FGAC7044U1 Dehumidifier Features

We almost have to start this section in our Frigidaire FGAC7044U1 review with another mention of the unit’s extraction capacity. Where dehumidifiers are concerned, it’s almost impossible to buy one that’s too big. Granted, there is a tradeoff for getting significantly more extraction capacity than you need, and that is that you’ll pay a premium for capacity you never actually use.

On the other hand, if you buy a machine that’s smaller than you need, it’ll run constantly but won’t actually move the needle much on the relative humidity level. All that to say if you’re going to err, err on the side of more capacity.

If you think 70 pints a day is more than you’ll ever need, but not excessive, then this unit belongs on your shortlist. If you think there’s even a chance that you’ll find yourself needing more capacity than this, then bump up to a 90 pint per day model (or higher).

For most household purposes, unless you’re living in the hottest and most humid part of Florida, this should be fine. It’s also fine for growers with medium to large grow tents or small to medium-sized grow rooms, although bear in mind that where growers are concerned, ultimately it comes down to what you’re growing, how many plants you’ve got in your growing space and how much water you’re feeding them daily.

Nonetheless, a 70 pint per day dehumidifier will work well and be a good fit for a significant percentage of the market.

The control system is simple, effective, and intuitive, allowing you to set the fan speed to your choice of three different speeds (significant because many of its peers’ only offer two fan speeds), and either set a timer, so the unit runs for a specified number of hours, or allowing you to set a target humidity level and running until that target is reached. In practice, most people use this latter option, but we like that the former option is present.

Note that on the highest setting, the fan is a bit noisy. It’s not obnoxious, and it’s not so loud; it will keep you up at night, but it is louder than many of its peers.

If you’re a grower, you’ll find that the readout on the FGAC7044U1 dehumidifier’s display panel tracks pretty closely (within a few percentage points) of the value your hygrometer is giving you, so it does allow you to fine-tune your humidity levels fairly precisely. Some machines are bad for this, but this is one of the better ones.

In addition to that, the unit has an auto-defrost mode and an auto-restart, so you won’t have to worry about it not running after a power outage or if/when you pause operations to empty the water reservoir. In both cases, it should start back up automatically afterward.

The unit also has a washable filter in place, so the air it gives back to you will be cleaner and fresher than the air it takes in, with many of the dust, pollen, and pet dander particles trapped in the filter.

The filter is then the center of the most frequent piece of maintenance on the machine. Every couple of weeks, you’re going to want to briefly power the unit down to give the filter a bath before returning it to service.

One final point to bring to your attention in this section is this: although this unit has a user manual online (and we linked to it above), we can’t say we’re impressed with it. It’s one of the least helpful user manuals we’ve ever seen, and that’s a genuine disappointment from a company like Frigidaire.

Again, they’ve been in the household appliance business for a long time. They know this stuff. Reading the manual, though, you wouldn’t think so. This is something that should have been incredibly easy for the company to get right. We’re mystified as to how and why they didn’t. Not a deal-breaker, but frustrating and disappointing.

Pros and Cons of Frigidaire 70 Pint Dehumidifier

We like almost everything about the Frigidaire 70 pint dehumidifier FGAC7044U1, although we did call your attention to a few very minor negative points about its design. We’re really not meaning to be nitpicky here, it’s just that a) there’s not a lot wrong with this unit, and b) since Frigidaire is such a respected player in the industry, we do hold them to a higher standard and expect them to get the details right. When they don’t, those failings stand out.

All that to say that while it’s not a deal-breaker that the handle design is weak or that it’s a little noisy, and that the user manual is fairly awful, those are the kinds of details we’d have expected Frigidaire to nail. The fact that they didn’t doesn’t detract hugely from the final score of this unit, but they did have some impact.

Even so, this is an incredibly strong design and definitely worth being on your shortlist.

Frigidaire 70 Pint Dehumidifier With Wi-Fi Controls Review Conclusion

Despite our handful of very minor complaints, the Frigidaire 70 pint dehumidifier with wi-fi controls is a super strong design that will serve just about anyone very well. It’s robust, versatile, and, most importantly, convenient to own and operate. We don’t quite love it, but we do like it very much, and we recommend it.

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Official Manufacturer Support

References & Resources

• Frigidaire, Official Brand Website.
• Install Your Dehumidifier the Right Way, Cnet.
• Will a Dehumidifier Help My Allergies?, WebMD.
• Save Time With a DIY Self-Draining Dehumidifier, Family Handyman.
• How to Repair a Dehumidifier With Coils That Are Icing Up, PartSelect.