My basement feels dry!

PURCHASE DECISION
I bought this unit after I discovered some signs of mold growing on a wooden door slab in my basement. The numerous reviews online really helped in my decision as it is highly rated from many reviewers.

INSTALLATION
Installation was a breeze. I took it out of the box and had it running in about 2 minutes.

PERFORMANCE
In the first 20 hours, it removed about 8 liters of water from the air in my basement. In one day, it felt noticeably drier down there and I could finally close the door again without slamming it shut.

This winter, we had a warm snap for about a week. This normally results in a small in our basement which is similar to cat pee. I have read that this smell is commonly given off by certain types of mold. With the dehumidifier running, there was no smell at all.

Best off all, this unit is super quiet. Friends I have showed it to have asked me to turn it on when it is running!

DURABILITY
I bought this back in August 2007 and it has been running since without a glitch.

ENVIRONMENT
The unit is not overpackaged. There is a single plastic bag covering the unit and four small styrofoam corner supports. Amazon ships this dehumidifier in its factory box, so there is only one cardboard box to recycle.

I was a little disappointed that the unit is not Energy Star rated. In fact, there is no mention at all of it on the Energy Star product list. However, after some further research I think this unit would qualify for Energy Star status. Per this link: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=dehumid.pr_proc_dehumidifiers, you can see that a 40 pint dehumidifier should have an energy factor of at least 1.5 L/kWh. The Soleus consumes 330W of energy and removes 40 pints per day. 40 pints = 18.9 liters per day or 0.79 liters per hour. So the energy factor is 0.79 L/0.33kWh = 2.39 L/kWh--much higher than the Energy Star rating of 1.5 L/kWh.