Dehumidifiers

[Indith]

Anyone used these before?

Reviews are good.

Mostly sorted any damp in the house but dd's room (in the loft) has a little alcove with a fire escape and that alcove gets soaking with condensation. I open windows daily and it has a moisture trap in it but mould is growing on the wall in there and the blind on that velux is growing mould too.

Obviously I need to solve the root cause but in the meantime any suggestions on controlling it would be good.

----

This thread is a bit old now, but if you've landed here looking for recommendations, we've recently updated our best dehumidifiers round-up, full of products tried, tested and recommended by Mumsnet users.
We hope you will find this useful.
MNHQ

[Indith]

.

[Indith]

.

[Snardvark]

Yes and for the level of mould you're describing it won't be enough. You really need a plug in, sucks 2 litres a day £100 proper dehumidifier.

[Snardvark]

Sorry, level of moisture. Not level of mould.

[Indith]

Not a place I can have a plug in one running all the time though.

Do plug in ones run all the time or do they come on when humidity over a certain level?

It isnt' all day that it collects, first thing on a morning I wipe the windows and bit of wall down, open windows for 20 mins and it stays dry the rest of the day.

Gah. It is a little recess, a step down from floor level where the fire escape is. Just enough space for a person to curl up. No plug or anything.

[Snardvark]

They come n when the moisture is above a certain level.

The whole room will have high humidity levels, it just migrates to that alcove as its possibly the coldest point in the room. Lower the moisture in the room and that will help, so it doesn't need to actually be sited in the alcove. Just close.

I've had one of those little ones before and it was useless.

[Indith]

Ok, may try getting a decent one and putting it in the room adjoining hers.

[Indith]

If I get a proper one, is there somewhere in the house you place them to ensure the moisture just doesn't make it up to the loft or do I put it in the loft? eg if I put it downstairs where kitchen and bathroom are will it solve the loft problem? Or in my room on the floor below dd's add I get condensation on the window? oddly ds1 and 2 share a room on the same for add me and hardly get any condensation.

[Snardvark]

I'd put it in the loft.

We have one which according to the blurb will sort a whole three bed house which ours is. But it really only seems to affect whichever floor its put on.

[Indith]

Cheers.

[Paleodad]

we have a similar problem with damp and condensation in our bedroom. in addition to opening the window daily (which we have always done), i have placed a large plastic tray under the bed filled with a couple of bags of standard lump-wood bbq charcoal. unbelievably the condensation has reduced markedly and, after cleaning, the black mold has not returned.

[notasausage]

A folded towel or some other means of stopping the air hitting a cold surface is more effective than a dehumidifier. Can you fit the plasterboard with insulation on the other side to the walls in that alcove? We lived in a damp house with 2 alcoves where there used to be fireplaces and we significantly reduced the problem with folded towels on the tiles.

[GirlWithTheDirtyShirt]

Just wanted to say that we've had a top notch dehumidifier for a week now and it's staggering. It's drying up a couple of damp patches on our wall and if we dry washing in the room it's in it dries much faster and sucks around 1 litre per load out of the air!

[Indith]

I've thought about insulation, we added insulation to the rest of the loft but I can't really there as it would constrict the space to the fire escape.

[Snardvark]

We had condensation in a wardrobe which was built into an alcove and didnt have a back as such, the wall was the back. Dh attached polystyrene sheets to the wall and then put another plasterboard over the polystyrene to try and insulate the walls better. It did help but a dehumidifer has still made the biggest difference.

[ouryve]

They're fine for hanging in a damp cupboard - though you'll need 2 because they'll need recharging quite frequently.

You'll need a proper plug in, active one for whole rooms, though.

[Indith]

So do I want this one or do I want this one?

Dd's room gets cold. The central heating doesn't go up there so it just has a small electric radiator in her room so I'm concerned about the compressor ones not working well in colder temperatures. But then the other type are not supposed to be as quiet and it is her bedroom that need to be sorted and it will need to be on overnight since night/early hours is when the condensation happens.

[Indith]

.

[chemenger]

The adsorbent dehumidifiers give out heat as they work so if the room is cold as well as damp you will get a double benefit. We had a damp room (because I dried clothes in there without enough ventilation) and when we first started using the dehumidifier we would get at least a litre a day out as the walls and furniture dried out. It was toasty warm in there as well. Ours is about as noisy as a fan heater.

[Indith]

which one is that? The compressor or the other? totally clueless

[ouryve]

The second one seems to be similar to this one which we have in our room, upstairs. It does a lovely job of taking the chill off the room. I just switch it on for 2 or 4 hours, when i get up in the morning, depending on the weather and again, if I have a bath and need to dry my towel off. The only downside is that the tray that catches the water is pretty much a tray, so I can't carry it downstairs to pour down the sink, so have to chuck it out of the window!

To answer your earlier question, we did start off with a dehumidifier in the kitchen, to deal with the condensation created from cooking, baths (terrace with downstairs bathroom) etc. It improved downstairs, no end, but had no effect on the condensation and mould upstairs. So, we have the two, now.

[ouryve]

I thikn chemenger is referring to the one without the compressor. The one we have in the kitchen uses a compressor and doesn't give off as much heat as the one upstairs. It also sounds like a tractor on a wonky bit of floor!

[Indith]

So the compressor free ones are the ones that give out heat?

And are they quiet enough to have coming on overnight?

Sorry for all the questions, just want to get it absolutely roght before I spend over £100 on something.

[Amiable]

I agree that you should get the best one you can or it's a false economy. I had a mini one for my wardrobe, but it wasn't up to the job. Now I have this one
ECoairDD122FW-MK5
and rate it very highly. we have serious condensation/damp in a couple of rooms, as well as my wardrobe. This keeps it all manageable. I tend to use it where it's needed most, so move it between the rooms. it really make a difference and is very very easy to use. you can direct the airflow so if you want to target a specific area, like an alcove you can. Alternatively it has a wide-flow setting which works better for a whole room. Their customer service is excellent too!

[Amiable]

Oh, wanted to add we don't tend to have it on overnight, but (at most) a couple of hours in the evening and an hour in the morning does the trick. however, the Ecoair one has an economy setting which is very quiet, and I'd be happy to sleep with it on (DH thinks it dries out the room too much!)