Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier with Built-In Pump

Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier with Built-In Pump Review

In Dehumidifiers by Consumer FilesLeave a CommentLast Updated: April 15th, 2021

Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier with Built-In Pump

  • Value
  • Feature Set
  • Ease Of Use
  • Brand Reliability*

Summary

The Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier with Built-In Pump is a very good, high capacity dehumidifier offered by a smaller, respected brand. Recommended for anyone with major humidity issues. Growers with medium-sized or larger grow rooms.

4.4
White Color, Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier, Rightfront

Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier with Built-In Pump

*Brand Reliability is a measure of the strength and longevity of the brand, which by extension, is a measure of the level of support you can expect.

Do you have a serious moisture problem that encompasses a significant percentage of your home? Are you an indoor grower with a small to medium size grow space, looking for a cost-effective, convenient means of controlling the relative humidity level of your grow space? If you answered yes to either of those questions, then you’re going to like what you see in this review.

Keystone isn’t a huge player in the market, but they’ve been around for a while and have better customer service than most smaller brands. Granted, they don’t offer world-class post-sales support, and the service tends to be a bit on the slow side since they import their wares from China for resale here, but they are a cut above what you usually see in such brands.

Since they import their dehumidifiers from China, the quality of the equipment isn’t as good as you’ll find in high-end models, but it certainly gets the job done and saves you money to boot.

If you’re a grower, there is one potentially serious drawback to consider with the Keystone 95-pint dehumidifier with a built-in pump, but on the whole, it’s a delightfully robust model. In that follow, we’ll tell you about everything it can do, and we won’t shy away from talking about the potential drawbacks inherent with this model, so you’ll be able to decide for yourself if it’s the solution you’ve been looking for. If that sounds good to you, let’s dive in and take a closer look at what this machine has to offer.

An Overview of the Keystone 95 Pint Dehumidifier With Built-In Pump

As with most dehumidifiers, the design team here spent the greater bulk of their efforts on function rather than form. That’s fine. Dehumidifiers don’t need to be pretty to pull moisture out of the air, and the design ensures that this unit will fade into the background where it will set about its business. Granted, not quietly, but not annoying loudly, either.

Before we go any further, though, let’s take a quick look at the core stats that define the Keystone 95-pint dehumidifier with built-in pump:

White Color, Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier, Leftview
  • Overall Product Dimensions: 18.8” x 14.2” x 24.6”.
  • Product Weight (No Water In the Tank): 60.6 pounds.
  • Extraction Capacity: 95 Pints.
  • Reservoir Size: 2.6 gallons (20.8 pints).
  • Power Cord Length: 5".
  • Included Drain Hose Length: 16.4’ drain hose.
  • Power Supply:  680 Watt (max).

There’s a fair amount to say about these statistics, so we’ll just take it from the top. Despite its relatively small size, this is a fairly heavy piece of equipment. It’s still light enough to move about easily, but that’s thanks mostly to the rolling casters on the base of the unit. You’ll strain moderately to lift it and relocate it, but most people won’t have any particular issues on that front either.

The reservoir size is generous, but given the sheer amount of water, this unit can pull from the air daily, it’s good that it comes with a dedicated pump. If it didn’t, or if you find yourself in the unhappy situation of having to empty the fill bucket manually, you’ll have to do a fair amount of babysitting, and in cases of extremely high humidity, you’ll have to empty the bucket up to five times a day.

The length of the power cord is underwhelming, but that’s true of most dehumidifiers sold today, and it’s an easy issue to fix. Just deploy it with a heavy-duty extension cord, and you can pretty well set it where you want it.

One thing we like is the fact that this unit comes with a drainage hose that’s actually long enough to be useful. So often, companies that include drain hoses with their products include ones that are so short as to be virtually unusable. Kudos to Keystone for the addition. It’s a small detail, but it definitely adds to the convenience of owning the unit.

Even better, this unit absolutely sips power given the amount of water it can pull from the air daily and the presence of a dedicated pump. If you’re interested in minimizing your power consumption and limiting the amount of heat you’re adding to wherever you’re putting the unit, that’s a major factor.

Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier Features

With an extraction capacity of 95 pints per day, the Keystone 95 pt. dehumidifier with built-in pump is a good fit for most situations. It can be deployed as a whole-home solution for average-sized households, solve humidity problems in damp basements, RVs, boats, and the like.

It’s also a great choice for even the largest of grow tents and even modestly sized grow rooms. That, of course, depends on exactly what you’re growing, how many plants you’ve got, and how much water you’re feeding them daily.

The important thing to bear in mind about dehumidifiers is there’s really not much of a downside to buying one that’s too big. Worst case, you’ll find yourself paying for capacity you’re never going to use. On the other hand, if you buy one that’s too small for your purposes, your machine will run constantly and won’t move the needle where bringing down the humidity level in the area you’re using it. All of that to say, if you even think you might need more capacity than that listed on the unit you’re looking at, get the next size bigger.

White Color, Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier, Front View

The control system is not the best we’ve ever seen, but it is reasonably well-designed and intuitive. You won’t have any problems mastering the controls, which is a good thing because the Keystone 95 pint dehumidifier manual is decidedly subpar. It’s not awful, but it’s not terribly helpful, either, so it’s good that the control system is easy to figure out without having to rely on it.

Filter and Control Panel, Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier, White Color

As with most of the dehumidifiers sold today, it’s got two fan speeds, an auto-defrost mode, and an auto-restart function which activates when you manually empty the water tank and after a power outage, both of which are quite handy.

In addition to that, it boasts an auto-shutoff in the event that the reservoir reaches full capacity. That’s valuable because if the pump stops working or the drainage hose gets fouled in some way, it will keep you from having a soggy mess to clean up later.

You can also choose to either put the unit on a timer, which will cause it to run for X hours consecutively before shutting off or set the desired humidity level, in which case it will run until your desired level of humidity is met.

The on-board humidistat is accurate enough to be useful to growers, and you’ll find that the relative humidity reported on the dehumidifier tracks fairly close to the value reported by your hygrometer.

Finally, this model comes with a washable filter that will trap mold spores, dust, pet dander and the like, which will return the air to the room you’re using it in fresher and cleaner than when it entered the dehumidifier. You’ll want to remember to pause the unit to wash the filter about every two weeks, which is the main bit of regular maintenance you’ll need to perform.

Pros and Cons of Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier with Built-In Pump

The biggest pros associated with the Keystone dehumidifier KSTAD957pa are that it:

  • Is modestly priced given the amount of water it can extract on a daily basis.
  • Is highly convenient to use, given the presence of a reasonably powerful pump and a fairly accurate humidistat.
  • And given its capacity and the presence of a dedicated pump, it uses surprisingly little electricity.

These factors combine to allow you to set the unit up and largely forget about it, checking in from time to time to make sure it’s still working as advertised and pausing to clean the filter every couple of weeks.

The biggest drawbacks are a direct result of conscious design decisions made when creating the unit. Since the components used to manufacture the machine aren’t top-end, and it’s made in China, the overall production quality is somewhat inferior to many of its peers manufactured in the West.

That’s the trade. You get a full-featured, capable unit for a lot less than you’ll pay for high capacity dehumidifiers manufactured in the West, which saves you money, but it’s not going to last as long as those more expensive units.

The other problem comes in the form of water reclamation. You’re apt to see some leaching of copper and aluminum in the extracted water, which will make it virtually impossible to reuse it. If you’re not a grower, that’s not an issue at all, but if your water costs are high and you’re interested in reclaiming the extracted water to reuse on your plants, then you’re going to have to spend more time on maintenance and test the extracted water regularly, and that could wind up being a deal-breaker for you.

Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier With Built-in Pump Review Conclusion

On the whole, the Keystone 95-pint dehumidifier with built-in pump is a good unit, especially given its price, but it does have some potentially serious limitations to bear in mind, particularly if you’re using it in a grow room. We would caution growers to think carefully about the added maintenance required by this unit if your intention is to reclaim and recycle the extracted water before committing to purchasing this unit. On that basis, we provisionally recommend it.


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Keystone 95-Pint Dehumidifier with Built-In Pump Review was last modified: April 15th, 2021 by Consumer Files