Drying clothes with a dehumidifer

[Townmouseandcountrymouse]

I have a new Meaco dehumidifier and I love it. Currently have it in my bedroom.

I want to use it to help dry clothes but I don't have a utility room. The smallest room.innthe house is a bedroom and that is in use and there's now changing.

Currently I have AA clothes rack in the hall for air-drying. Putting a picture to show you. I live the rack I have because it holds so much clothes. It takes laundry loads. I did place the dehumidifier beside it over the weekend but my understanding is that it has to be an enclosed room.

I am brain storming for ideas in how to dry laundry. I am thinking about changing the clothes rails I have and getting a wrapper. Like this. Pictures provided and using a dehumidifier under it.

Would that work and would it help to dry clothes quicker?

I put my Meaco on in small spare bedroom
clothes on clothes horse
and dries in unbelievable time

and that’s all I do

I have a dehumidifier in the bathroom and it keeps moisture from baths and showers at a minimum as well as drying the clothes (there's a plug just outside the door and the flex goes underneath the door). Full load of clothes dries overnight normally.

I bought quite a large dehumidifier but all I do is have it in the same room as the two airers (not heated airers). It’s a double room and I leave the door open and it still dries very quickly.

Our dehumidifier says it needs a certain amount of space around it to work well, so not sure it would be advised to put it under a cover like this. BUT, so does our microwave and we mostly ignore that.

Basically it will work in a larger hallway, but much less effectively.

I did placed the dehumidifier close to the laundry over the weekend and it did work. I had it on for about 4 hours. It did t really fully dry the load of laundry. It's not my home and I live with a parent and she was anxious of having it on so I had to turn it off. Otherwise I would have had it running overnight to dry the laundry.

I am just trying to brainstorm if there's a way to dry laundry quicker instead of having laundry sit around for a few days. Saturday was dry outside so I did get some loads of laundry outside but not fully dry. It's just raining and cold so much lately.

Theres a socket across from the bathroom door in my home but I am anxious about putting anything electrical in there and running a cord under the door and across the hall. It could work but I don't think I want to dry it that way.

Yes, it will, the dehumidifier works best in a smaller enclosed space. Even just popping the rack in a hallway corner and throwing a big bedsheet over it to make a “tent” works really well with the dehumidifier running underneath. Clothes dry noticeably quicker.

I don’t think it would dry in 4 hours anyway. Maybe shirts hanging up might do. But I always leave ours on overnight in the small bedroom/office/laundry drying room. In the morning I empty it, then leave it running again. This is for T-shirts, trousers, shorts, pjs, hoodies etc.

Just checking your expectations of how much difference it makes. We mostly got ours to prevent humidity and condensation in the room where we dry stuff - it does speed it up a lot too, but it’s more like 12 hours vs 24-36, rather than 4 hours vs days.

Obviously you need to factor in cost but I’ve started doing a double spin in the washing machine; when it’s finished the cycle I then put it on a separate short spin - it seems to help when drying with the dehumidifier.

Whenever the weather is wet, I do a double spin in the washing machine and then I usually put my clothes in the dryer for about 15 or 20 minutes and then hang them to air dry. Followed by another 20 minutes or so the next day. Because I don't want wet clothes hanging around for too long.

I don't haa e a smart meter or plug so I don't know how much the tumble dryer is costing on the electricity and if a dehumidifer is cheaper. I did calculate my dehumidifer costs and it comes up to approx 84p for about 4 hours which isn't bad at all.

Getting a DryBuddy type thing would be better.

4 hours works perfectly well for us. That's in a bedroom that's unused during the day, with door and vents closed. The dehumidifier is on the maximum laundry setting.

Probably depends on the dehumidifier and how much washing is crammed in the room. Ours isn’t huge, it doesn’t have a special laundry setting. Ours definitely wouldn’t dry a load of hoodies and T-shirts that fast for me, but if I have less stuff on the driers and space it out a bit more, it might.

Ah, laundry mode makes a huge difference.

Mine is in a fairly large room. I effectively have an airer attached to the wall, so the dehumidifier blows warm air in an arc at those clothes, plus I have a hanging rail above, so it also blows those items from below.

It has a laundry mode and could mostly dry items in 4 hours. I use my heat pump tumble dryer too. Both cost a similar amount to dry a load; the dehumidifier takes longer, but is gentler for certain fabrics and I like how it helps warm up the room when on laundry mode. I have a large family, so often have both methods going at the same time, in winter anyway.