Last Updated on 25 August 2025 by Dan Wilderness
Hello everyone! Living in a flat, one challenge in the winter months is humidity causing a few signs of damp and mould. This isn’t great for your building or for your health, so I looked into a dehumidifier to combat this and am sharing my thoughts below.
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Why did I buy a dehumidifier?
Most of the time my flat is fine, but as I don’t have outside space to put out my washing I’ve noticed the flat can spike in humidity when I put some up. (Normally my flat would be at about 55% humidity, but if I’ve just unloaded the washing machine I see this jump up to about 80% in the room that it’s in).
Whilst I counter this by opening the windows, it’s not a fix all solution, especially on days when it’s raining or particularly cold.
The other issue is that on such days washing can take a long time to dry. I already manage this to some degree with a heated airer. I have separately written about my thoughts on if a heated airer is worth it here.
A (good!) dehumidifier helps with both issues – it speeds drying time of the clothes whilst also stopping too much moisture escaping into the air.
How does a dehumidifer work?
A dehumidifier combines using the principles of refrigeration and hot air rising to draw in the naturally colder moist air to it’s surface, and then allow it to drip down into a collection bucket.
Ideally, you actually want to keep doors and windows closed whilst the dehumidifier is running (as this means it only dries the air in the room, as opposed to new air coming in from the outside).
What should I look for in a dehumidifier?
Size and Coverage
One of the key questions you need to answer is how much do you need your dehumidifier to cover. Is it an area of a room that’s particularly problematic, a full room or a full flat?
The bigger the area the larger you’ll need your dehumidifier to be (and the more expensive with it). There’s really no way around this – if you’re looking to dehumidify a large space, you’ll need something capable of doing that.
Humidity Measurement
An ideal humidity is between 50%/60% – more and you’re potentially looking at mould growth, less and you’re in an extremely dry environment which also has issues. A good dehumidifier will be able to read the level of humidity in the room, amend things to that level and then stop of slow down.
This is helpful as it’ll stop over-correcting the problem the other way, but also save you money via an automatic stop
Tank Capacity
One thing that’s amazed me in respect of my dehumidifier is the amount of water it takes in – genuinely surprising when you pour it away.
The bigger the tank, the longer your dehumidifier will run without you needing to empty it – as soon as they hit full otherwise, they’ll automatically shut off.
They’re usually measured in litres
- 7-12 is a small dehumidifier suitable for a single person washing or a small room.
- 12-16 is a medium dehumidifier that should get you through a batch of washing without taking up lots of space.
- 17l+ is a relatively large, but can handle either spills/floods as well as large volumes of washing without changing it.
Laundry Mode
If like me your primary purpose in using a dehumidifier is to avoid damp and dry laundry, some dehumidifier will have a special laundry mode, which effectively turns up the fan to maximise recovering additional moisture.
This isn’t essential by any means, but is a nice to have.
How much does a dehumidifier cost to run?
This will greatly depend on the size of your dehumidier, but the key number you’re looking for is wattage – the more the number the more power is being used and this it will cost to run.
As an approximation, a fairly large dehumidifier capable of extracting 20 litres of water a day with a wattage of 480w should cost about 14-17p an hour depending on your energy plan, at time of writing.
It can be worth considering investing more in an energy efficient one – mine costs about 6p per hour in practice.
If I’ve done a fresh batch of washing on a particularly cold day, I’ll usually run my dehumidifier for 2-3 hours.
Do non-powered dehumidifiers work?
If you search dehumidifiers you’re likely to get some manual options, or little brick type things to place around.
I’m afraid these are largely ineffective – they can work in a very small area where you have a small crack, but they really won’t do anything for a room and will waste your money with any larger scale problem.
Unfortunately, whilst the cost of larger dehumidifier might make you wince a little bit, it’s not really something you can save money on easily. In this case, quality and performance matters.
What dehumidifier should I get?
We’d also recommend doing your own research to make sure your dehumidifer meets your need, but here are a few suggestions of well rated ones.
Meaco Arete
This is the one I have – having extremely impressed with Meaco’s range of fans to cool me down in the summer, I made a point of seeking them out for a dehumidifier.
It works speedily and effectively and is pretty quiet, more of a hum in the background. I’ve been extremely pleased with the purchase and been using it consistently for 2 years without issues.
Prices range from £160 to £330 (based on size of model) at Meaco or you can find it here at Amazon.
If you’re after a cheaper Meaco, the ABC is also very good as well – you can also find that at Meaco or here at Amazon.
Avalla X-125
Avalla also get a fantastic name for their dehumidifiers, also being extremely cheap to run and covering a wider area than would be expected from the size of the unit.
The 12 litre model of the X-125 is £129.99 at time of writing at B and Q or you can find it here at Amazon.
VonHaus 12L Dehumidifier
If you live in a small flat or need a slightly smaller option, this VonHaus dehumifider is worth a look – it’s fairly compact whilst maintaining most of the functionality of it’s bigger rivals.
The 12 litre model was available at £149 at time of writing from VonHaus or you can get it here from Amazon.
So is a dehumidifier worth it?
From a couple of years of use I’d say absolutely. You won’t need to use it a lot during the summer months but the effect in winter is noticeable, and we’ve seen that where before we were seeing early warnings signs of damp, these have no longer occurred since using the dehumidier.
Beyond this, in combination with our heated airer it’s mean we’ve been able to turn around our laundry much quicker – whilst having the dehumidifier trades off a little floor place, it’s meant we’re able to take down driers quicker which is an overall save.
Whilst it’s a little more expensive, I would really recommend Meaco products – they are well built and highly effective, although all the makes on our list have excellent reviews.
Do I need to maintain a dehumidifer?
Not significantly, but you’ll need to keep the filters clean in order to maximise it’s effectiveness and life.
This is pretty easy on most models, as nearly all of them have detachable filters and in terms of cleaning, it’s usually sufficient to run the vacuum cleaner over these every couple of weeks.
You’ll also want to make sure water doesn’t sit in the tank long term after use to avoid mould growth.
What is the best way to use a dehumidifier?
We’ve tried various things to make our make our dehumidifying as effective as possible, and we’ve found the following approaches seem to work best for drying clothes.
Put the dehumidifier in the middle of the room
It’s best place the humidifier in the middle of the room rather than to the sides if you can. This will ensure the airflow for the device to draw moisture out of isn’t blocked, and it’s extracting from the full area around it.
Pick a smallish room
Whilst a large room will reduce the overall humidity via more airflow, this isn’t helpful for the purposes of getting your clothes dry. If you pick a smallish room, this will enable the dehumidifier to best extract the moisture from your clothes.
Close the door
A similar point to the one above is that whilst containing the room temporarily increases the humidity within it, it also will help your dehumidifier extract more efficiency and reduce the drying time of your clothes.
Keep it clean
Blocked filters is the most common reason for dehumidifiers not working as expected accorded to manufacturers, so make sure you do give these an occasional clean and consider getting a replacement filter if it’s really blocked.
Any questions?
If you have any questions on using a dehumidifier we’d love to hear from you! Just drop us a note in the comments below.
And that’s it!
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