Dehumidifier

[noideabutstilltrying]

Hi, like every one at the moment I am holding off heating the house for as long as possible

My house is very old and single glazed rental. Been told they have no intention of ever replacing the windows.

The house is becoming damp.

Could I have recommendations on a lower running cost dehumidifier or other ways of keeping the house 'dry'

Look on Amazon. I got a Meaco energy saving dehumidifier from there. Cost about 120 quid but money well spent. Helps mop up condensation on the windows l, we put it in the hallway of small house with all internal doors closed for a couple of hours in the money. Windows open when not too cold helps too.

We have a similar situation, old Victorian property, probably not a wall in the place that isn't riddled with damp. We use the non electric dehumidifier blocks that we replace each month, they are roughly £5 per pack (pack of 6) and we use 2 packs a month throughout the house, usually 2 in each room, been using them since last autumn and so far has massively reduced the amount of damp we had been getting, especially in the laundry room and bathroom plus no increase in electricity cost.

Chickenpeppers do you mind me asking where you get these from please?

Be careful you don't waste your money. If the windows are letting in a lot of draughts, you might end up dehumidifying the outside too.

Another recommendation for the Meaco energy saving dehumidifier ✋️

We got the blyss from screwfix and it’s great, so much drier and warmer in the house and helps when the heated airer is on. It costs 5p an hour to run.

Before I got a moisture detecting fan fitted, I used Kontrol crystals in a refillable box in the bathroom. (Calcium chloride). Both the crystals and the refillable boxes are available online (Amazon etc), and I suspect that they compare pretty favourably right now with the costs of running a dehumidifier - especially if bought in bulk. A bit fiddly and potentially messy - refill the boxes in the bottom of the bath or the sink, and mind your fingers as the liquid residue and the crystals will dry your skin.

Do you have energy meters on your dehumidifiers?
I've had one on for three hours this morning and it's used 4 units.

I bought an ABC Meaco 12l low energy job direct from Meaco. It costs a few pennies per hour to run but DD desperately needed one in her uni flat, which was damp to start with, and then she needed to dry her washing. Working really well it had reduced the humidity from about 75% to 60% and removed litres and litres of water to start with.

We have one in each room they are full every 2 days

Sounds counter productive, but try and open all the windows in the house each day for 10mins to blast the damp air out. Normal to do this in Germany what ever the weather. Then switch on dehumidifier.
This is the one the whole family uses
EcoAir DD1 Classic Blue Desiccant Dehumidifier amzn.eu/d/d99CVc3

You’d have to spend the same amount a month on those little disable granules ones for the same amount to be sucked out that this does.

Oh, and every morning go around with a towel and wipe the condensation off every window or get one of those vacuum things. If you don’t the dehumidifier has to work to suck that out of the air too/when it goes it’s in the room atmosphere if you’ve not manually removed it.

That’s over 1kW - it’s either very old, broken or your energy monitor isn’t working.
My commercial grade unit only uses a third of that!

Brand new and using far in excess of the quoted power. Two different energy meters used to check it.
It's been sent back.
We've got another one that uses much less than that one so we've moved that one downstairs for now.

We have this one and it's great - don't cost much to run and it extracts up to 20L per day.

*doesn't.

Do you have any of the sachets from shoe boxes? They will soak some of it up.

I have a 12L meaco and I've just bought (for £30 from Gumtree) a prem-i-air desiccant one. The meaco costs 5p per hour. The prem-i-air costs 20p an hour but sucks up 2.5 times (I measured) the amount of water in the same time period. It also heats the room.

Honestly they’ll soak about a teaspoon if that, an electric one will pump out 1-2L a day easily if not more. I think up to 10L.

Hi @noideabutstilltrying thanks for posting! If you're still looking for a dehumidifier, we have a dedicated Swears By page for the best dehumidifiers based on Mumsnet users' recommendations as well as consumer reviews. There are plenty of options, including budget options, so hopefully it's helpful, please feel free to let us know if you've any feedback on the page.

I've got a Meaco, it's brilliant. There are two types, one warms the air up and one doesn't. I got the one that does and it takes the edge off the chill when I am working from home.

What is the name of the one you have please? Thinking if purchasing for son who is living in a cold damp flat.

We bought a Meaco for DD's sstudent flat. It solved her mould problem very quickly, she also uses it to dry her clothes. We bought this one:
https://www.meaco.com/products/meaco-meacodry-dehumidifier-abc-range-10l

Bought it direct from them.