Pohl Schmitt Electric Dehumidifiers for Home, 2200 Cubic Feet (225 sq ft) Portable Compact 17 oz Capacity Mini Quiet Dehumidifier for Bedroom, Bathroom, RV, Laundry Room or Closet White

We have four of this model dehumidifier and they work great at pulling water out of the air in our closets. Because they work great at what they are supposed to do, the tanks are often full. Not to worry, there is an overflow switch that cuts off the unit when the little float inside the tank is pushed up by the water level to press up on the little black roller lever above the tank. That lever is part of a snap switch that turns off the dehumidifier and turns on the yellow warning light.Because the water level comes up slowly, the snap switch (which isn't very snappy) opens the electrical contacts very slowly causing an arc that burns the contacts. I have replaced the snap switches on all our units and they are back working great again. The switches are very inexpensive and commonly available. You do have to do some simple soldering to make the replacement.The real trick to this repair is getting the case apart. There are six screws, two under the base, two in the tack compartment and two hidden under the vent at the very top. It takes a sharp flat blade screwdriver or two and some wedging to pry that vent straight up. Once you get the vent off the rest is easy to figure out and do. I cut the toes off the feet of the vent before I put it back on just in case I have to replace the switch again.

**Title: A Total Waste of Money – Lasted Less Than 3 Months!**I purchased the Pohl Schmitt Mini Dehumidifier, model MD500, on July 18th, and by September 30th, it was completely dead. For the short time it worked, it was mediocre at best. It barely removed moisture from the air, and now it won't even power on! No warning, no issues leading up to it—just completely unresponsive out of nowhere. I've tried different outlets, checked the plug, and nothing.For a product that only lasted two and a half months, this is beyond unacceptable. I've had cheap dehumidifiers in the past that lasted for years, but this one couldn’t even make it through a season. Pohl Schmitt should be embarrassed by the poor quality of this unit. It’s essentially disposable after less than 90 days of use. I expected way more durability for the price.Save yourself the headache and look elsewhere. This is a waste of money. One star is generous—if I could give zero, I would.

Update to post as of 6/3/23:I have to apologize to Pohl Schmitt Electric Dehumidifiers and give major kudos to them and I've changed my "Overall rating" to 5 stars. The problem we thought we were having with the unit turned out to be an electrical problem with one of the outlets in our closet, so that's not their product's fault. In fact, they reached out to us to give us a refund, but we'll take responsibility for the faulty outlet and we'll have to get that fixed! Thanks, Pohl Schmitt, for a great product, and we can see why you've got so many 5-star reviews.Original post on May 15, 2023:We put this in our walk-in closet and the product worked exactly as advertised from Nov 5, 2022 to April 5, 2023 and then it just stopped. It was great, but we only got about five months of operation out of it in total. We got it in a Lightning sale, so it was a little more expensive than a box of those giant Damp Rid hangars. With the dehumidifier, we were able to just dump the water out every couple weeks or so. (Emptying those giant things of Damp Rid is gross, but emptying the dehumidifier was much cleaner.)

As another reviewer mentioned, when the overflow protection switch burns out, the unit will stop working. This is a little micro switch that detects when the tank is full. The yellow light turns on, you remove the tank, empty it, then stick the tank back in, but the unit will not turn back on. You know this is the problem because the yellow light will come on when the tank is full, but the unit will not turn back on again when you reinsert the tank. A very simple fix for this is to dismantle the unit, solder in a new micro switch which are readily available and fairly inexpensive, but you have to have some basics soldering skills. If you always turn the power switch off, remove the tank before it is full and empty it, put the tank back in and turn the power switch back on, this thing will last for years. I have one that is probably five years old now. If you always turn the power switch off when you remove the full tank, empty it, reinsert the empty tank, then turn the power switch on as the instructions say, it will last a lot longer than if you simply pull the tank out, empty it, and re-insert it without turning the power off first which is probably what most people do. It’s a simple design flaw that could’ve been solved either by using a heavier micro switch, or putting a capacitor across the switch terminals. I give it four stars for this issue. Otherwise I really like them. I have seven of them, and they are good for cabinets and closets, and very small places. I have one in my gun safe and I only have to empty it every month or so. I’ve repaired a couple of them. I check them preemptively and do the routine. I talked about above, turning them off before emptying them, and then turning them back on once the tank has been re-inserted.