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?

Yep the whole dehumidifier to dry washing thing is a "hack" for people WITHOUT tumble driers, as hanging wet washing on radiators causes damp and condensation. There are a lot of us without tumble driers, usually because we have tiny kitchens and no utility room. Or renters whose landlords have not provided one.

I have a washer/drier but the drying function takes hours and is useless.

We also have Maeco, but our tumble dryer isn't very old and is pretty energy efficient, we've found that it is more effective at drying clothes for pretty much the same cost. The dehumidifier is more to keep our old house drier and warmer. I think some people have panicked at the published cost of running tumble driers that you often see and which very often seem to be completely wrong.

We used to have both a tumble dryer and a dehumidifier. The latter was used to dry things that couldn’t be tumble dried. Now we don’t have anywhere to put a dryer so everything gets dried with the dehumidifier. We do have a washer dryer but it takes an eternity to dry.

I've just sent my Lakeland heated airer back as it was useless, I just put the heating on now as it was taking days for stuff to dry.

Yes as I thought

The Zambezi does seem to have some great features but I am trying to work out whether it is worth the extra. There's an EcoAir that looks decent too.

I got 20l abc

bloody love love love it (and I say that with a kick ass Miele tumble dryer)

I think it depends if you want to have your laundry dry ASAP? If yes, then I agree, use tumble dryer. If you prefer air drying, dehumidifier prevents moisture sitting in your walls, which is good. But in no way it'll dry your washing as fast as dryer.

I need a dessicant model like the Zambezi or DDL due to the temperatures it needs to operate in. I have a compressor one already and it is struggling now it is colder.

I can't decide if you think the dehumidifier is adding extra moisture, or the laundry. The laundry is going to add extra moisture whether you tumble it or hang it up indoors - thats unavoidable in temps like we currently have in the UK...

Why would I think a DE humidifier is adding moisture?! I know what a bloody dehumidifier is - I have one!

A tumble dryer that either condenses or vents to the outside is not going to fill your house with moisture.

If you have a tumble dryer but instead of using it you think you'll save money and benefit your home by purchasing a dehumidifer (as well as your tumble dryer) and then using that to then air dry your clothes and then extract the water out of the air whilst your tumble dryer sits idle then you're a fool. Up to you though.

If you don't have a tumble dryer and have no choice but to air dry your laundry then a dehumidifier is better than nothing.

When I got a tumble dryer I was pretty shocked by the amount of water that is produced by drying a load. Certainly explains all the mould we used to get when we dried it on an airer.

Ours dries our washing and makes the room warmer. Dry air is warmer than moist air

We have an ebac dehumidifier and have been using one since 2009. Our house at the time was an old stone built terrace with a crappy extension at the back - part of which had a (to be fair double wall, but still...) plastic roof, and there would be so much condensation on it in the morning it would be like it was raining in there. Washing took up to a week to dry.

Dehumidifier changed that, reduced the condensation, reduced mould in the bathroom, clothes would dry in a day, two at the most. It's a compressor, but does blow out slightly warm air, as making things cold produces some heat (feel the back of your fridge), and the reduction in moisture in the air makes the house easier to heat and it will feel warmer.

They can't work miracles, in our current house with old aluminium framed double glazing, the coldness of the frames attracts a lot of condensation even with the dehumidifier, so ymmv. I'm still happier to have it than not, but if I didn't already have one I probably wouldn't buy one in my current circumstances.

Washing bedsheets once every 3 months is utterly grim 🤢🤢

They would be really yellow by then and also dirtying the pillow more than necessary

My advice would be to pair the dehumidifier with a fan blowing over the drying racks.

I took a load of washing out of the machine (mainly toddler and baby clothes), spread it over two racks (placed next to a barely warm radiator) with the dehumidifier set to 'washing' mode and a fan blowing over the racks. The vast majority was fully dry within 3 hours - there's a bath towel that will take a bit longer.

My house is currently heated to 20°C.