Has anyone got a dehumidifier

[kevintheorangecarrot]

Sorry not a AIBU but just posting for traffic really! I have ordered a 20L dehumidifier for my house as it has bad condensation issue and has a musky smell too. Just wondering does the dehumidifier work for the whole house or only in each individual rooms? Where would you ideally put it for it to work for the entire house? I hope it does work as it cost me nearly £300!

I love my dehumidifier, we use it for drying washing in the winter mostly. Our old one died after approx 10 years so immediately bought a new one, didn't spend £300 on it though! My biggest requirement is a laundry setting and a large tank so it goes all day.

I don't think it would do the whole house, but you could move it from room to room. Maybe put in different bedrooms each morning to dry out the room, shut the door so that room really dries out. Which rooms are worst affected?

Yes, I love it. I mainly dry washing but we have a rather damp extension and I put it in there too. If I leave all the doors open it does do the whole house to a certain extent. It’s also brilliant on days like Christmas Day when there’s a ton of cooking going on and the place would otherwise steam up.

You paid a lot of money, though. I had one from Aldi for £140 which was great then gave that to DD as it was quite big and she has a bit of a damp issue in her flat (drying washing again). I bought a tiny ecoair on the advice of my sister and it is the most amazing thing ever, so small yet suitable for a 5 bed house (which we don’t have!). It was around £150.

We had 2 in our old house, which suffered badly with condensation (that in turn caused mould) - one upstairs and one downstairs. They do definitely work. Maybe start with one, try various positions in the house and see how you get on - as it will depend on house size and layout. Wiping windows each morning and having windows open for a bit also really helped us. Ours both cost around that price and I think you do pay more to get more powerful ones, which is better if you need it to do the whole house.

Ooh watching with interest.

For those who use it with drying washing - how much quicker does it dry the washing?

I’m wandering about getting a heated towel rail or dehumidifier, not sure which is best!

Can't you open windows? Dehumidifier is an option but airing the house is often just as efficient.

I have one upstairs and one downstairs, we have a rising damp problem, it's the only thing that keeps the house feeling fresh.

We have two, one upstairs and one downstairs. They work really well to stop mould and speed up clothes drying. Laundry dries in about half the time, in a small room with dehumidifier and the door closed.

I’ve had mine a couple of years and wouldn’t be without one now. I keep it in the bathroom on its ‘Smart’ setting so it dries out the towels over the day and we no longer get condensation on windows (all windows, not just bathroom) despite me drying washing indoors downstairs during the winter.

Opening windows is certainly not as effective at this time of year when the air outside is cold and damp.

I have a couple of dehumidifiers, but I use them in the garage to dry firewood, not in the house.

If you have a condensation problem you'd be better off resolving that problem rather than buying a dehumidifier, if you possibly can. Easier said than done, I know, but in the long run it's going to be better for the structure of your house, and for your belongings.

My dehumidifiers will only really work in the room they're in, and not for the whole house. It will have a knock-on effect, I guess, but not a huge one.

Do you know what is causing all the damp?

@SaltedCaramelEverything, if you need to dry washing indoors get a JML dry buddy. Dries a full load in around 30 minutes and costs about 30p.

We have a Meaco which theoretically does a 5 bed house. We place it in the area needing most at that time - eg drying laundry but as long as doors are open it does all.

Opening windows has never been that effective for us, maybe depends on where you live?

I would choose dehumidifier over heated rail as this leaves more moisture in air. If you close the door on a room with washing in it dries in a couple of hours.

I have had several over the years, due to old house/can't afford new windows/condensation.
The first couple cost £100 and were pretty good but still a problem.
Current one cost £200 and is fantastic. It keeps the small upstairs (hall, 3 beds, bathroom) condensation free which is amazing given the basic state of the place.

My old house had same problem, bought a medium size one for conservatory to dry the washing on the airer, in winter it would take 2days to dry, cut it down to one day. And couple of mini size ones for bedroom windowsills, as at night sleeping in bedroom really made condensation worse. No mould after that.

We have a Meaco too, it keeps the whole house dry, we’ve never had mould problems here. Just keep all the doors open for a good amount of time each day.

*internal doors

The specs should say what size room it can dehumidify.

We have one that is supposed to dehumidify a whole 3-bed house. We tend to use it for downstairs (with hall doors shut, but everything else open) or upstairs (on the landing with bedroom doors all open)

If we're drying washing I stand it next to the airer, with the doors closed. The only spot to do this is in the fairly large kitchen, so I don't think it's as effective as it would be if there were a smaller room I could use, but it still definitely speeds up the process.

We still open windows when cooking and after showering as this seems effective at keeping the excess humidity down (no effective extractor in either room...) and then gives the dehumidifier a head start when it goes back on again. In principle at this time of year certainly it is surely better to dehumidify the air you are paying to heat than to have a window open letting it escape.

We bought a window vac at the same time and this is far better than I ever imagined it would be for clearing the windows when it's really cold out and they are covered in condensation.

I don't think we have any kind of cause for our condensation other than normal living, but we very rarely manage to get the humidity lower than 60%...

We have 2 Meaco ones, both 25 litres capacity, which need emptying every day. One is outside a shower room where the extractor fan is inadequate (but listed building and we can’t easily make the structural changes to install something better). The other is in our downstairs hall where we get lots of condensation on the windows. We could
probably do with a third one upstairs too.

We do open windows but find this much more effective. Big house and the windows are quite small or don’t open in the places most affected. If we forget to empty it (and it fills up and stops working) there is much, much more condensation on the windows.

Haven’t used it to dry clothes or in areas where clothes are dried so can’t comment on that.

I have a meaco 20l one which is whole house (about a three bedroom size, you might need two if bigger).it's fab, done the job. The idea is to place it near the biggest sources of water/condensation (usually laundry, kitchen, shower - ours is below our ceiling mounted laundry rack). The condensation and damp always form on the coldest walls, so might be far away from the source. Remember to keep internal doors open at least some of the time. No more mould. Consider bathroom and kitchen extractors too if you don't have.

There's different humidity settings for winter and summer - ours is set between 45-55 from memory. It did overtime in the first few weeks, still fills up fairly quickly now. Think it's been running for four years now. Don't keep it running when you have windows open or you're just dehumidifying the world.

@Ponoka7 thanks for the idea. Just googled - it’s £70 at Argos. So do you mean 30p per use? Does it fit a full load on? And how long will it take?

Thank you everyone. I am currently using it. I don't have it on overnight as I am worried it'll dry the air too much and give me a banging headache! Not something I want to wake up to. I've currently kept it in the hallway. It is already extracting water (fingers crossed)!

When you get one for the first time it usually fills really quickly for about the first 2 or 3 days and then slows down. It's so satisfying!

@toomuchtooold it really is! The musty smell has gone! I'm so happy. I am waiting til it completely dries out then start cleaning and painting over the awful mould spots lurking in the corners. This is probably in my head but I've noticed my throat is a bit dry.. it feels very dry in the house already. The humidity is set at 55%. Is this too low or should I increase it? I read on the booklet that 50-55% is a comfortable level for domestic household.