The Frigidaire FHDD2234W1 is the quietest dehumidifier for an apartment that we can verify. Frigidaire's spec sheet lists it at 43 dBA on its low fan speed, 46 on medium and 49 on high, the lowest A-weighted low-speed figure we found on a compressor dehumidifier still on sale. It is a 22-pint unit, which ENERGY STAR lists at 22.57 pints a day, and its bucket holds 1.7 gallons. Frigidaire states no measuring distance, so the figure sorts Frigidaire's own models against each other rather than predicting what your living room will read.
An apartment adds three questions to the decibel figure. There is usually no floor drain, so the water goes to the sink either in the bucket or up a hose with a pump. The bucket has to be carried, so its size decides how heavy each trip is and how often you make it. And in a studio the dehumidifier runs in the room with the bed, so its display and its beeps count. We read each maker's spec sheet, manual and product page for those answers, and checked every capacity we could against ENERGY STAR.
Our picks are listed above, with full specifications for each.
Where the water goes when the apartment has no drain
Every unit here can collect its water in a bucket, and ENERGY STAR notes that portable dehumidifiers typically switch off by themselves when the bucket is full, so the first option is simply carrying it. The second is a hose, and a hose only works downhill. Frigidaire's guides ask for a garden hose and a drain nearby, with no kinks or elevations in the hose. Danby says the hose must run straight down from the back of the unit, no more than 6 feet long, and that any bends or upward motion will stop the water. Midea's Cube manual wants the drain below the unit, with the end of the hose about 4 inches lower than the connection.
If the only drain within reach is in the bathroom, read the manual before you set the unit beside the shower. Danby's manuals say not to install its units in a wet room such as a bathroom or laundry room, because too much exposure to water can short-circuit the electrical components. Midea's Cube manual says not to place the unit in a sink or shower, or anywhere water may splash onto it. Frigidaire's guides do not mention bathrooms either way, and hOmeLabs lists bathrooms among the rooms its 8-pint unit suits.
The third option is a built-in pump, which pushes the water up. Frigidaire's product page says the FHDP5033Y1's pump discharges in an upward direction, into a sink or out of a window, and its guide gives 16.4 feet as the maximum distance and rise. Levoit supplies a 10-foot hose for the detachable pump on its LDH-H251S-WUS, hOmeLabs a 16.4-foot hose for its 40-pint pump model, and Hisense rates its 50-pint pump unit to 16 vertical feet. Frigidaire's pump does not run all the time: its guide says the unit will not pump until the bucket reaches its full point, and the pump stops once the bucket is empty.
What a full bucket weighs on the way to the sink
Water weighs about 8.3 pounds a gallon at room temperature, going by the U.S. Geological Survey's density table, so the bucket size on each spec sheet is also a lifting weight:
- Frigidaire FHDD2233Y1: 0.85 gallons, about 7 pounds of water.
- Frigidaire FHDD2234W1, FHDD3534Y1 and Gallery GHDD3535W1: 1.7 gallons, about 14 pounds.
- Frigidaire FHDP5033Y1: 1.9 gallons, about 16 pounds, though its pump can empty it for you.
- Midea Cube MAD20S1QWT: Midea prints the weight itself, about 17 pounds at its 1.5-gallon fill level and 29.5 pounds at 3 gallons, and tells you to pick the level that is most comfortable to empty.
- Danby DDR022BSWDB, Hisense, Levoit and the hOmeLabs 8-pint unit: their pages give no bucket size.
The bucket also sets how often you walk. At the rate ENERGY STAR lists, the FHDD2233Y1 would fill its bucket in about 7 hours of nonstop running, the 35-pint FHDD3534Y1 in about 9, and the FHDD2234W1 in about 14. An apartment that is only a little damp will give up less water than that, so read those as the shortest gaps between trips, not the usual ones.
How you carry it depends on the design. Frigidaire's guides say not to move the unit while its bucket is full, because water may spill on the floor; you unclip the bucket and carry it alone, and the FHDP5033Y1's guide says to lift it slowly and vertically to prevent spatter. Midea's Cube is built the other way round: the machine sits on top of the bucket, so you lift the unit off first, then carry the bucket with two hands.
Frigidaire publishes a figure for every fan speed, so its line is where carrying and pumping can be compared like with like:
- FHDD2234W1, 22 pints, no pump: 43 dBA on low, 49 on high.
- FHDD2233Y1, 22 pints, no pump: 47.5 dBA on low, 49 on high.
- FHDD3534Y1 and Gallery GHDD3535W1, 35 pints, no pump: 48 dBA on low, 51 on high.
- FHDP5033Y1, 50 pints, with pump: 49 dBA on low, 51.5 on high.
So the walk to the sink buys 6 dBA on low against the pump model. The pump itself does not show in the figures: Frigidaire's 50-pint FHDD5033Y1, which has no pump, lists the same 49 and 51.5 dBA. The extra comes with the 50-pint size, and none of Frigidaire's 22 or 35-pint models has a pump. A 6 dBA step is more than half of the 10 dBA that sounds about twice as loud, enough to notice in a quiet one-bedroom in the evening. The half decibel between the 35-pint models and the pump model on high, with no measuring distance stated, is a tie.
Levoit's pump unit cannot join that list. Its footnote gives 42 dB as Fan mode's minimum and 49 dB as Turbo mode's maximum, and names no dehumidifying fan speed. A minimum in one mode and a maximum in another do not line up with a figure at a fixed speed, and Levoit writes dB, not the A-weighted dBA that Frigidaire uses (what that A changes). For Frigidaire's larger models, see Frigidaire dehumidifier decibels.
Sizing for a studio, a one-bedroom and a drying rack
ENERGY STAR sizes a portable dehumidifier by how damp the space is, and a studio or a one-bedroom falls in its smaller size class, a space under 2,000 square feet:
- Slightly to moderately damp, where the space feels damp and smells musty at times: 20 to 30 pints a day. The FHDD2234W1 (22.57 pints under the DOE test) and the Levoit (24.54) sit here.
- Very damp, with damp spots on walls or floors: 25 to 40 pints. The Levoit (24.54) falls just short of this row, and the FHDD3534Y1 (35.85) sits in the middle of it.
- Wet, where walls or floors sweat or high loads such as laundry drying are present: 30 to 50 pints. The FHDD3534Y1 and the FHDP5033Y1 (49.95) fit.
The third row matters in an apartment where laundry dries indoors. ENERGY STAR names laundry drying as a high load, so a rack of clothes drying in the living room points past the 22-pint units to the 35-pint FHDD3534Y1, at 5 dBA more on low than the FHDD2234W1. ENERGY STAR also says it is better to oversize than undersize.
The square footage printed on these dehumidifiers does not help with this. Danby rates its 22-pint unit for spaces up to 1,500 square feet, Levoit its 25-pint unit for 4,500 and hOmeLabs its 40-pint pump model for 6,000, and none of them says how damp a space that assumes. The DOE capacities in ENERGY STAR's listings, measured at 65°F and 60% humidity, are the figures that line these units up.
Several makers print a lower or a simpler number than Frigidaire's, without the condition that would make it comparable:
- Levoit LDH-H251S-WUS: 42 dB as Fan mode's minimum and 49 dB as Turbo mode's maximum. Levoit describes Fan mode as a fan-only mode with three levels, and gives no figure for its Quiet mode.
- Danby DDR022BSWDB: quiet operation at 48 dB with no fan speed, and a Decibel Rating (High) of 56 dBs in the table on its spec sheet. Neither carries the A weighting.
- hOmeLabs: 38 dB for the 8-pint HME020091N, 47 dB for the 25-pint HME010088N and 49 dB for the 40-pint HME021005N with a pump, none with a fan speed.
- Hisense: 47 dB(A) for the single-speed DH2526K1W, in a spec table that gives the older DH2524K1W as the model number, and 45 dB(A) on high but 48 dB(A) on low for the DH5026KP1G pump unit, under the older DH5024KP1G's number.
- Pro Breeze PB-02RT-US: 33 dBA, but it is a thermoelectric mini that its manual rates at about 9 ounces of water a day in warm, humid air, a different class from every compressor unit here.
Levoit's, Danby's, hOmeLabs's and Hisense's numbers may well be accurate. Without a named setting, and for Levoit and Danby without the A weighting, there is no fair way to put them in order with Frigidaire's dBA by fan speed, so they sit in their own group. Hisense's single fan speed is worth knowing for a different reason: the DH2526K1W has no slower setting to drop to in the evening.
Displays and beeps when the bed is in the same room
In a studio the dehumidifier shares the room with the bed, so what each of these units lights and beeps matters as much as its figure:
- Frigidaire FHDD2234W1 and FHDD3534Y1: the display goes off in Quiet mode, which holds the low fan, and also in Auto and Fan modes. A full bucket shuts the unit off and lights Bucket Full; the guides describe no alarm.
- Frigidaire Gallery GHDD3535W1: Quiet mode turns the display off too, and in other modes the display and indicator lights dim after 15 seconds without a button press. It adds an air quality light that changes color, and its guide does not say whether Quiet mode puts that out.
- Frigidaire FHDD2233Y1 and FHDP5033Y1: no Quiet mode, and the display shows the room humidity in every mode. Pull the bucket while either is running and it beeps 8 times.
- Danby DDR022BSWDB: a full bucket shows P2 and beeps 8 times, at whatever hour it fills.
- Levoit LDH-H251S-WUS: a display lock and a full-tank indicator; its page describes no way to dim the display.
- Hisense DH5026KP1G: a dimmable LED display, according to its spec table.
- Midea Cube MAD20S1QWT: a beep each time you change modes, and P2 on the display when the bucket reaches the fill level you chose.
If the unit will run a few feet from your pillow every night, see the quietest dehumidifier for a bedroom.
Floors, closets and the flat downstairs
Hiding the unit in a closet is the obvious move in a small apartment, and Frigidaire's guides rule it out: the unit produces heat and should not run in an enclosed small space like a closet. They also ask for clearance all round, 12 inches for the FHDD2234W1, FHDD3534Y1 and Gallery and 15.75 inches for the FHDD2233Y1 and FHDP5033Y1, so in a small living room the unit claims more floor than its own footprint.
Every dBA and dB figure for these dehumidifiers describes sound in the air near the unit, and none of these makers publishes anything for vibration carried into a floor. Danby's manual says anything but a flat, sturdy surface could result in damage or excessive noise and vibration, and warns that carpet can block the air flow. Frigidaire asks for a level floor that will hold the unit with a full bucket, which for the FHDD2234W1 means the 33-pound unit plus about 14 pounds of water. A flat, level, sturdy floor is the one step these manuals give against vibration, the kind of noise that travels through a floor to the flat below.
How we chose
We started from the dehumidifiers in our catalog, added the current Levoit, Hisense, hOmeLabs pump and Frigidaire Gallery models, and read each maker's US product page, spec sheet and manual. We ranked only A-weighted figures tied to a named fan speed, which in practice means Frigidaire's, and listed every other figure in the maker's words, in its own group. For an apartment we then weighed capacity under the DOE test against ENERGY STAR's sizing table, how the water leaves the unit without a floor drain, the size and weight of a full bucket, the weight of the unit, and what each display and alarm does.
Every noise figure here is quoted as Frigidaire, Levoit, Danby, hOmeLabs, Hisense and Pro Breeze print it, every bucket weight except Midea's is our arithmetic from the maker's gallons, and prices and stock are as the makers' sites showed them on October 13, 2026. We did not measure any of these dehumidifiers ourselves.
