Dehumidifier hack is useless?

[PlinkPlonkFizz]

There have been lots of money saving tips being discussed. One that sounded good was using a dehumidifier to dry clothes rather than the tumbler.

I tried it out yesterday using the box room. The clothes were on a clothes horse, dehumidifier pointing at th and the door kept shut all day.

8 hours later I checked them....not dry but damp. Too damp to iron.

So the 350kw dehumidifier running for 10 hours (guessing it would need another 2 hours to dry them) surely amounts to roughly the same cost as 1 hour in the tumble dryer?

@CovertImage are you a teacher?

You sounds similar to us, and a dessicated works fabulously for us.

We have an Ecoair one that is fab

I haven't got the room or the energy for damp clothes hanging around and faffing about with dehumidifiers. I've got an energy efficient washing machine, and an efficient tumble dryer.

There's only two of us, so the washing machine goes on, then clothes straight into the tumble dryer for an hour, and then dry enough to iron.

I leave a window slightly open when the dryer is on, which stops any mould forming - and it keeps the place warm when it's on..

Doesn't seem to cost that much to run, and I've not had the outlay for more equipment cluttering up the place.

I have a Blyss and I love it. I tend to still hang my washing up outside for the day if it's not raining and then I'll bring it in and pop the dehumidifier in front of the airer for 1-2 hours and it's dry. I usually leave the clothes on the airer for the rest of the night and put them away in the morning. No issues with damp or mould.

I mostly got the dehumidifier as one of our rooms was getting quite a lot of condensation on the windows and I thought it always felt a bit damp there. I now air out the room most mornings and have the dehumidifier running for an hour or two a week and it's fine now.

Not sure what the 'hack' is.

My samsung heat pump dryer uses an average of 2.2kWh per day, about 80p, for 4-5 full loads of drying, generally two mixed loads, one delicates, one towels and bedding maybe 3 times per week.....

Seems cheaper than many of the energy saving alternatives people are proposing.

I have a Meaco it's great. I leave it on overnight, no damp or condensation on the windows as a result.

How did anyone ever manage to dry a thick woollen jumper (wool wash, no spin, gentle squeeze in a towel, dry flat) in winter before humidifiers were invented?

I washed a thick woollen dress last week, spread it carefully on top of a mesh topped drier, left it overnight and it was still sopping wet the next morning. So I trundled the electriQ 25 litre Low Energy dehumidifier into the bathroom, left it overnight and when I switched it off the dress was still slightly damp, but no longer heavy with water, so it could be hung on a hanger without pulling out of shape, and left to dry in the bathroom.

It's also very useful just on the fan setting, for cleaning pollen particles out of the air during the pollen season, and for cleaning the air if you are clinically extremely vulnerable but need to have different carers coming in and out of your home during a pandemic, thanks to the excellent HEPA filtering capacity.

Don't understand how running a dehumidifier for 24 hours is any better than what I do: put the washed items, could be clothes, bedding or towels, on a regular clotheshorse and leaving them in the spare bedroom overnight, which is less than 24 hours and generally more like 12-18 hours.

They are always dry by the morning and my heating is off all night.

Where do you think the moisture is going from the clothes?

How did anyone ever manage to dry a thick woollen jumper (wool wash, no spin, gentle squeeze in a towel, dry flat) in winter before humidifiers were invented?

By not washing it in the winter. I still wouldn’t.

I have been looking at dehumidifiers this weekend. We have a very cold house and I struggle to dry the amount of washing we have. 2 x teens who do lots of sport.

Happy to buy the Meaco Zambezi if it's worth it. Just looked and I can get for £175

At the moment the only way we can dry washing is in the lounge next to the wood burner but I do worry that we are making the house damp.

Never lived in any housing with an airing cupboard. And that includes my parents houses. Housing has been from 1700s to modern.

Reason being is that people have different heating and hot water systems.

My current place would have had an airing cupboard but a few years before I moved in the boiler had been changed to a combi boiler and the old water tank taken out. So while there is a cupboard left, it is cold and can't be used to dry anything in it.

Here’s MN at its finest, jumping on the bandwagon again. Don’t believe a word of it OP. I’ll continue to use my tumbler, there’s no way that I’m ever going back to hanging wet washing up around the home. Tumbling saves on ironing too, unless you go around wearing polyester or similar your stuff will be creased.

By both wearing and washing them irregularly. I use to dry such jumpers over the bath/in the shower.

Do you open the window?

And what do you do when the weather goes below freezing?

In other words where do you think the water vapour goes?

I have family and friends who live in draughty homes and don't block all their draughts. There as my home isn't draughty - some of them have commented on the difference - so have to find a way to get rid of excess moisture unless I want condensation and then mould developing.

I haven't had a tumble dryer for several years and I've dried clothes this way in the winter for a number of years.

The heating is on in the room and I've never had a problem with condensation or damp/mold.

Presumably you either have many many wool items that you mix up wearing
or
you hardly ever wear wool

She probably sleeps in a layer of (more frequently washed) clothing.
She might even wash before she puts that layer on. :)

Most of us accept living in a world of dust and dirt... even when very particular about some parts of it (like sheets).
How often do you wash your mattress?
How often do you wash your sofa?

Most of my clothes would be absolutely trashed by being tumble-dried. Silk, wool, knitted cottons etc etc. I use the tumble dryer for sheets, towels, socks, jeans, etc etc, but most of my actual day-to-day wear needs hanging to dry.

In the past heavy wool items were not washed regularly. They were worn over base layers (so not next to the skin), and just spot cleaned or aired.

They were probably only washed in the Spring and in latter years taken to the dry cleaners.

So treated like heavy winter coats.

Well “in the past” quite a lot was different when it came to laundry.

and indeed… most things 😂 (I say this watching my robovac!)

And dry cleaning wool… really?

Not recommended fine wools, so we try to avoid it as much as possible.” Dry cleaning certain delicate fabrics may also shorten their lifespan, causing them to lose their luster and contributing to wear and tear.

Not all wool clothes are delicate. I was thinking things like tweed trousers and skirts or wool jackets.

This is exactly why I always wonder how can people throw all their laundry in a tumble dryer 🤷‍♀️