Another 'should I get a dehumidifier' thread...

[BeyondTheLetterOfTheLawTheLetter]

I hang my washing in the living room, then you need to go through the kitchen, into the hall and up the stairs to reach the bedrooms - it's not quite as direct as it could be. We get mould on the walls in the north facing bedrooms, none in the living room (its a long room, south facing patio doors and north facing front window)

There is an old back boiler in the living room fireplace, and a vent on the south facing wall for it. So the room I hang damp washing in has permanent ventilation. Hence any time I have thought about whether to get a dehumidifier to help dry the washing quicker/and prevent the mould in the bedrooms, I decided there was no point - as it would be constantly fighting the outside air. The large south facing window also helps the washing to dry off as quickly as possible.

Does that make sense, or do I need to rethink my washing setup at all? I don't want to dry washing upstairs as it would (imo) definitely contribute more to the already damp walls in the north facing rooms...

BTW I do tumble the washing too when it needs it, but I air it first to minimise the power spent. I'm also using my heating as of last week, and so far the mould hasn't taken hold yet. But it does every year, so I want to keep ahead of it, and if a dehumidifier would help, then I'll order one.

@BeyondTheLetterOfTheLawTheLetter

You can actually move them around 😊- they are heavy but not impossible to move - check the weight because the big ones can be a bit of a job to shift and come on wheels.

Maybe the best place to put it would be downstairs helping to dry the washing, which would in turn reduce the dampness upstairs. Or if you found mould upstairs you could move it up there to try to directly address that problem.

It will almost certainly help reduce mould on the walls, I am pretty sure of that unless your house is very leaky.

But where the most cost effective place to put it to both dry the washing quicker and prevent mould while optimising your drying costs is a more difficult question, probably best found out with experiment. Certainly they are more efficient in dehumidifying a small, high humidity space which is why most people recommend you stick them in with your washing in a small room to dehumidify.

Although they are cheap to run per hour, you do tend to run them for many hours, so the costs do mount up.

Like heating, putting them in a room which has a lot of ventilation to the outside world is just like trying to dehumidify/heat the entire world. You are not going to win that one.

I suspect that many people will be disappointed in dehumidifiers because they cannot work miracles, but once you have removed mould, it's a good way of keeping it at bay. My daughter bought one when she noticed mould and it's taken three weeks for it to get humidity down to a reasonable level, so it takes time.

Yes I used to have a dehumidifier on loan from a friend and I didn’t want to give it back! Used to fill up twice a day with water during the winter.

We purchased one last year and have just purchased another. The small one goes in upstairs and the larger one down where our washing is drying. I would not be without one now. The amount of moisture that comes out the air is unreal (even without washing) and as a result make the room warmer. Now that the heating is coming on, it is more efficient as it's not having to heat the wet air. I would definitely recommend.

I can’t remember the name of the company, sadly, but they are online, they made buying our dehumidifier easy, as you could choose from a selection based on the number of bedrooms in your home, it helped us, as we were clueless about what size we needed.