Dehumidifiers / AprilAire
AprilAire E070 70-Pint Crawl Space / Whole-House Dehumidifier
Best warranty in the category, an 80°F pint rating, and an unheld ENERGY STAR badge.
Overall score 6.7/10
Pros
- + 5-year parts and sealed-system warranty on a US-built unit, against 1 year from every portable here
- + Publishes capacity at two conditions (70 ppd at 80°F, 53 ppd at 73°F) instead of only the flattering one
- + MERV 8 washable filter means it is doing air cleaning as well as drying, unlike the mesh screens on the portables
- + No tray to empty and corrosion-resistant coils designed for years of crawlspace duty
Cons
- − amgair.com sells it as "Most Efficient | Energy Star Rated" — the E070 is in neither ENERGY STAR list; the E080 above it is
- − "70 pint" is an 80°F/60% RH figure. Cross-shopped against a 50-pint portable it looks like 40% more machine; measured at the same conditions it is not
- − Coverage is published as 2,200 (AprilAire), 2,800 (Amazon) and 4,400 (dealer) sq ft for the same unit
- − Gravity drain only — no pump, so a crawlspace without a low drain needs a condensate pump on top of the $1,441
- − 50°F dehumidification floor is not low enough for the coldest crawlspaces, where the AlorAir's 33.8°F or a desiccant wins
AprilAire E070 70-Pint Crawl Space / Whole-House Dehumidifier review: what the specs say
Best warranty in the category, an 80°F pint rating, and an unheld ENERGY STAR badge. At $1,441, AprilAire's 2019 model sits at the premium end of the category — the dehumidifiers we compare run from $46.42 to $1,507. It scores 6.7/10 overall, calculated from published specifications across 8 categories rather than from a subjective impression.
Its strongest showing is Build & Warranty at 9.5/10 — coil and cabinet construction, filter grade, and above all the warranty on the sealed system — the compressor is the part that fails and the part most portables cover for only twelve months. The weakest is Running Cost at 4.5/10, which is the trade-off to weigh before buying: if that is the specification you care about most, one of the alternatives below will serve you better.
Worth knowing before you buy: amgair.com sells it as "Most Efficient | Energy Star Rated" — the E070 is in neither ENERGY STAR list; the E080 above it is; and "70 pint" is an 80°F/60% RH figure. Cross-shopped against a 50-pint portable it looks like 40% more machine; measured at the same conditions it is not. Every specification on this page comes from AprilAire's own documentation or a verified retail listing — where a figure is not published, the table says so rather than estimating it.
Specifications and price last verified . Report an error
Full Specifications
| Rated Capacity (and Which Standard) | 70 pints/day at 80°F/60% RH, and 53 pints/day at 73°F/60% RH — AprilAire publishes both. The headline 70 is on the AHAM/pre-2019 condition, so this is NOT comparable to a modern 50-pint portable's DOE rating, and it is not 40% more machine than one either |
| ENERGY STAR / DOE Verified Capacity | None — the E070 does not appear in the ENERGY STAR Certified Dehumidifiers database. Only the E080, E100 and E130 are certified. For reference, ENERGY STAR rates the E080 at 65.00 pints/day under Appendix X1 against AprilAire's own 80-pint headline, and whole-home units are tested at 73°F/60% RH rather than the 65°F/60% RH used for portables — a third rating point in the same category pints/day |
| Technology & Refrigerant | Compressor (refrigerant), R32, 5.4 amps at 120V, 200 CFM at 0.0 in external static pressure, energy factor 2.1 L/kWh at 80°F/60% RH and 1.8 L/kWh at 73°F/60% RH |
| Low-Temperature Operation & Defrost | 50°F to 104°F for dehumidification (40°F to 140°F in ventilation-only mode). That 50°F floor is better than a 41°F-rated portable in practice but worse than the AlorAir's 33.8°F — for a genuinely cold crawlspace the AlorAir or a desiccant is the safer choice |
| Claimed Coverage | Sources conflict by a factor of two: AprilAire's own shop page says "whole houses up to 2,200 sq. ft.", the Amazon listing says "up to 2,800 sq. ft", and amgair.com's spec table for the same model says 4,400 sq. ft |
| Tank Capacity & Refill Interval | None — there is no water tray. This is a plumbed appliance |
| Continuous Drainage (Hose, Gravity, Pump Lift) | Gravity drain only, with a barbed fitting and 10 ft of tubing included. There is no pump, so the unit must be sited above a drain or paired with a separate condensate pump. That is the practical difference between this and the pump-equipped AlorAir |
| ENERGY STAR Status | NOT certified. amgair.com markets this model as "Most Efficient | Energy Star Rated"; the E070 is absent from both the ENERGY STAR Certified Dehumidifiers list and the ENERGY STAR Most Efficient list. The E080, E100 and E130 above it are certified and are Most Efficient |
| Annual Running Cost | Not published as an annual figure, because there is no ENERGY STAR entry. At 5.4 A / 120V (about 648W) and crawlspace duty cycles, budget for something in the region of the E080's certified 632 kWh/yr — roughly $107/yr at $0.17/kWh |
| Noise | 53 dBA ducted (AprilAire) |
| Warranty (incl. Sealed System) | 5 years on parts and the sealed system, per AprilAire and its dealers. This is the single strongest warranty position in the comparison alongside the AlorAir, and it is the reason the price is what it is |
| Recall History | No CPSC recall found for AprilAire dehumidifiers |
| Connectivity | None on the E070 — the E070W variant adds Wi-Fi |
| Material | Steel cabinet with corrosion-resistant aluminium coils; made in the USA (AprilAire) |
| Warranty | 60 months |
Compare AprilAire E070 70-Pint Crawl Space / Whole-House Dehumidifier With
Cheaper Alternative
AlorAir Sentinel HDi90 Crawl Space Dehumidifier (built-in pump) — $1147.11
Premium Alternative
AprilAire E080 80-Pint Whole-House Dehumidifier — $1507.00