MeacoDry Arete® Two 12L Dehumidifier review: "it makes a huge difference to my household"

Price on writing: £200 | Buy now from Meaco

How we tested

Our reviewer Alison put the Meaco Arete® Two 12L Dehumidifier and Air Purifier to the test in her 5-bedroom home against full loads of laundry straight from her washing machine. Setting the dehumidifier up in a spare bedroom with two standard clothes airers, she cross-compared it with the older Meaco DD8L, taking detailed notes on user-friendliness, efficiency, effectiveness and noise levels.

Read next: The best dehumidifiers for drying clothes

Our verdict

"I couldn’t be without my dehumidifier now." Alison says. "Having to be energy conscious galvanises the mind to work smartly and this dehumidifier works really well."

An upgrade on the hugely popular Arete One Dehumidifier, the Meaco Arete Two is just as reliable and effective as its predecessor, with a few small but impactful tweaks. As a company, Meaco are really good at listening to customer feedback and improving their products in meaningful ways - they also have great customer service, as Mumsnetters who've ordered from their website can confirm.

The Arete Two is amazing at drying laundry, which is the main reason people buy dehumidifiers right now. With energy bills making even the best tumble dryers expensive to run, dehumidifiers offer a practical and cost-effective alternative.

Alison set the dehumidifier up in a spare bedroom with not one but two clothes airers laden with wet laundry. In the morning, they were pretty much dry. What's more, the smart humidity sensors mean the Arete Two will turn off once the target humidity level is reached, meaning even less waste.

The Arete Two also performed well for clearing condensation in a steamy bathroom, and the app allows you to control the dehumidifier and view humidity levels remotely.

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How effective is the Meaco Arete Two for drying clothes?

"With a good spin after washing, I can leave the dehumidifier on overnight (6 hours) and the washing is pretty well dry in the morning. We are a bit dubious about letting the cat stay while it is drying but she hasn’t dried out yet!

The dehumidifier makes a huge difference to the household and only costs a few pence to run compared to the tumble dryer, which doesn't always get all clothes completely dry and is much noisier.

I have up to 3 lodgers at any one time so being able to wash clothes and bedding and get it dry overnight is not only space saving but also time saving. Most importantly, I don’t end up with dripping windows in the winter."

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How does the Meaco Arete Two compare to the Arete One?

The differences between the Arete One and Two aren't immediately obvious. They're both effective, reliable dehumidifiers - here are the differences:

• The Arete Two has a premium LCD display

• The Arete Two has 3 fan speeds, compared with the Arete One's 2

• The Arete Two is cheaper to run at 3p/hour

• The Arete Two has an on/off timer

• The Arete Two is app-enabled

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Is the Meaco Arete Two noisy?

"This dehumidifier is amazingly quiet. I have a light sleeper above the room used to dry the laundry and he can't hear it."

The Arete Two and Arete One are both Quiet Mark Certified, with the lowest fan speed setting making just 35dB of noise.

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What's the Meaco Arete Two like to use day-to-day?

"The water tank is very easy to empty. It's much the same as my older model and has a useful slop-cover over the top which saves any going on to carpets and floors on the way to the sink.

The water tank indicator is a very good feature that would get me to come back to the room to empty it. The Meaco is very easy to move around and not too heavy to take up the stairs. The handle is neatly stowed away and is a very good design feature.

I'd like to see some instruction ideas on what normal humidity values to set. Unless I’ve missed something, it’s currently trial and error."

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Does the Meaco Arete Two offer good value for money?

At £200, the Arete Two is only £10 more than the older Arete One model. Considering the innovations and improvements Meaco have made to what was already a highly-recommended and trusted dehumidifier, this is a great price.

With more and more UK families looking for alternatives to tumble dryers for drying washing during the winter, this dehumidifier is a top-quality solution that'll get your washing dry overnight. With an upfront cost totalling around half that of a budget tumble dryer, and an hourly running cost of just 3p, it's a great option to use with either a heated clothes airer or a standard one. And if you're battling against damp, mould or condensation, it's invaluable.

While budget dehumidifiers are available, they're generally smaller and less effective. Meaco is by far and away the most often and highly-recommended dehumidifier brand on the Mumsnet Talk forums, and their latest model is packed with useful features as well as a reliable design that won't let you down.

What's more, at the time of writing, Meaco are struggling to keep the Arete Two in stock - so if you have the chance to invest in one, it's wise to snap it up while you can.

About the author

Poppy O'Neill is a Content Editor at Mumsnet and a mother of two. She researches and reviews the products Mumsnetters swear by, with a particular focus on home essentials, laundry and fans. From a highly-recommended retractable washing line to the best quiet fans money can buy, and Mumsnet's favourite dehumidifier to the steam generator iron that'll cut your ironing time in half, she loves to deep-dive into research and find the very best products on the market.

With an MA in Creative Writing and a PGCert in Lifestyle Journalism, Poppy's written about parenting topics for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Mirror and The Sun. She's a best-selling, award-winning author, and her books for children and parents have been translated into 12 languages.

About Mumsnet Reviews

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