Dehumidifiers

[Grizelda]

QVC's BA (Dorrington?) claims that dehumidifiers will not only stop mould forming in damp areas but will also dry your laundry. I have one and it collects water, but it doesn't do anything to help dry the laundry. Does anyone have any comments? I would be interested to know other people's experiences with dehumidifiers.

 

[llloyd]

I use mine in the downstairs bathroom with the clothes on the airer & on hangers too. I have to say I am impressed with how much water it collects & the washing dries quicker.

 

[Grizelda]

I use mine in the downstairs bathroom with the clothes on the airer & on hangers too. I have to say I am impressed with how much water it collects & the washing dries quicker.

Maybe I'm loading too much on the clothes horse. I don't have an airer.

 

[madaunty]

One of ours has a laundry mode setting, most stuff dries practically overnight.
Wouldn’t be without one.

 

[Anna]

I have one in our bedroom, it is quite old now, but still collects lots of water. Still get mould though.

 

[Craftalot]

Mine works very well with laundry, particularly if you give the washing an extra spin to get it as dry as possible before it comes out the machine. They work best in an enclosed space, hanging the washing out well-spaced on an airer next to the dehumidifier. The best combination I've found is a dehumidifier and a dry:soon heated drying rack from Lakeland, minus the cover of course. Even heavy washing like thick hoodies and jeans are dry within the day - we put the airer plus dehumidifier in a downstairs cloakroom. I only use the tumble dryer now for towels and bedding really.

 

[Noni]

I have the Ebac powerdri. A British company with excellent customer care. I had my original machine about 15+ years as my husband’s work clothes could not be tumbled dry. I cannot be without this absolutely wonderful machine and got a replacement just over a year ago.

It has the all important laundry mode but to make the best out of the machine heating is still needed to dry clothes.

It will not cure any damp as ventilation is still an essential part of damp control but it will not be as bad.

 

[Cashers]

I've had my Meaco for 18 months now and honestly wouldn't be without it, only use it from Autumn onwards when I can't get washing outside. I have a laundry mode and most of my washing on the tidy dry, and on hangers hanging in doorway dries in around 5 /6 hours. It's only my heavy stuff that takes 24 hours. And I do feel the house is a bit warmer. I use the water collected in my steam generator iron and to water plants.

 

[alter ego]

Does yours have a laundry mode?

We have an old Ecoair desicant type that we use in an unheated conservatory. It's quite expensive to use but, boy, is it effective! It blows warm air out so if I put the airer in front of it, the clothes are dry in a few hours.

We'd started noticing a bit of mould forming on our bedroom sill and had loads of condensation on that window on colder mornings despite airing the rooms daily. Fed up with wiping the windows every day, Mr. AE bought a new Meaco. While it hasn't completely stopped condensation, it has minimised it. The humidity has lowered to about 50-55% from 75% when we were getting up in the morning.

The Meaco is a condenser type so uses very little electricity compared to the Ecoair. It won't dry my washing as quickly but it does dry it a lot quicker than just leaving it on the airer. I'm home all day so can rotate the clothes on the airer. I think that helps dry them quicker, too.

I have asthma and sinus problems and cannot believe how much easier it is to breathe now the air isn't so damp. The air seems warmer, too. Now that the air is drier my clothes dry out quicker even if I don't use the dehumidifier.

Definitely one of our better purchases.

 

[Grizelda]

No such thing as a laundry mode on my dehumidifier. And I use an old fashioned clothes horse which doesn't have any heating elements. I'll have to go back to the tumble dryer, although that's not much cop. All my wet clothes and towels are cotton and heavy blighters. In the summer I can get them dry in the sunshine in a few hours. Sometimes I feel I'm living in the middle ages!

 

[Samki]

I have a meaco one and it is fantastic

 

[Kit10]

One of my best purchases from QVC, a Kalorik dehumidifier. It does have a laundry setting and dries everything from underwear to jeans to towels. I use a Lakeland airer, but never switch it on. Fantastic buy.

 

[loujareth]

I have a 12l Meaco with a laundry mode and we use hangers over a bath we don't use. Our clothes, (2 of us) dry with in 12 hours and it's an brilliant way to do it. The struggle is bedding and big bath towels which go on an airer and take a lot longer. I have another dehumidifier for a different room which doesn't have a laundry mode which doesn't seem to do much at all, it really needs that special setting. Or they get out in the dryer if it's really big stuff.

 

[Flying Pigs]

Only got ours a fortnight ago and it’s marvelous. Tidydry in the kitchen and do sheets, towels and clothes over the week. The towels used to take what seemed like forever and now they are drying overnight. It’s a Meaco ABC with the laundry feature which automatically shuts down after 6 hours and when doing the towels that’s collecting about 1& a half litres of water, less for the other stuff. There is no heating in our kitchen as the radiator was taken out for more cupboards about 20 years ago.

 

[Loveinamist]

My dehumidifier is 40 years old so no laundry feature but still draws a large container of water from the atmosphere and clothes do dry quicker. Air is warmer too. It is very heavy, a rectangular cuboid shape that blends in with the decor and never had a problem with it, we’ve let friends use it when they’ve had floods to dry out floorboards and have been impressed. I water my outside plant tubs. We bought my daughter two from Screwfix, white as I think most are now, very compact and easily transportable that do the job. They have one upstairs and one down whereas my oldy does my whole large house.

 

[stratobuddy]

I have a large heavy one from possibly 30 years ago, I do use it if I have to dry clothes indoors or have a very occasional long, hot, deep bath.

 

[alter ego]

No such thing as a laundry mode on my dehumidifier. And I use an old fashioned clothes horse which doesn't have any heating elements. I'll have to go back to the tumble dryer, although that's not much cop. All my wet clothes and towels are cotton and heavy blighters. In the summer I can get them dry in the sunshine in a few hours. Sometimes I feel I'm living in the middle ages!

I line dry whenever I can. I use the Rain Alarm app so I can get out and bring in and take back out between showers.

I use my heavy towels in the summer but game changer for me was using a lightweight Turkish-type shower in the winter. They dry so quickly compared to a normal towel. I also use a face cloth to dry off most of the water before using a towel. They dry quicker and take less room on the airer.

I have a heated airer but tbh I don't use it that often. Only for my sheet as that covers the whole thing and I can dry stuff under it. Just hanging on the bars isn't much different to using my normal airer in drying time.

Mr. AE inherited a Miele heat pump dryer. Don't get me started! His aunt passed away several years ago and the siblings were tasked with clearing the house. He ended up with this abomination. I honestly wish I'd kept my 25 year old vented and flogged the posh Miele. It takes forever to dry and the washing stinks coming out of it. It simply does not get hot enough and even though my washing is bone dry coming out, I think the insides must still be damp so is fostering bacteria growth inside the machine. I take the laundry out of it and it's barely warm even on the "warm express" setting. My vented had the clothes dry in no time and toasty warm coming out.

The Miele is supposed to use less electricity but it takes forever to dry so uses electricity for longer. I noticed no difference in my electricity bill between passing on the vented to using the heat pump. It makes me so annoyed I fell for it! Having said that, he also inherited the matching washing machine and that's been fab. My old Candy was costing a fortune in replacement parts (Mr. AE is a bit of a fiddler so did the repairs himself) but the Miele has run like clockwork. It'll probably break down now

I'm not a huge fan of this "new" eco energy crap. Anything heat pump seems to be an ad man's dream. Four friends have been conned into getting heat pump heating installed and they've all regretted it. It does not work in older houses that haven't been insulated to the max. It doesn't work with radiators. The friends that have it don't have underfloor heating and have 1970-90 built houses with moderate insulation. They say it has to be run all day and night and their houses don't get past 19 degrees. With it running the electricity all day, it costs a fortune in electric. It's worked out for all of them to be far more costly and inefficient than their old gas boilers. I can understand why after having a heat pump dryer.

Hopefully, that'll be my rant for the day!

 

[stratobuddy]

I also use a face cloth to dry off most of the water before using a towel. They dry quicker and take less room on the airer.

I do this too, a Koch Blune (spelling?) so it's very absorbent and gets me almost dry. It is small to wash and then dry on a radiator. This means that my big bath sheet needs washing much less often.

 

[Peppermint Patti]

No such thing as a laundry mode on my dehumidifier. And I use an old fashioned clothes horse which doesn't have any heating elements. I'll have to go back to the tumble dryer, although that's not much cop. All my wet clothes and towels are cotton and heavy blighters. In the summer I can get them dry in the sunshine in a few hours. Sometimes I feel I'm living in the middle ages!

We've got an ebac and it dries clothes well. I have a collapsible airer and space clothes out evenly over the airer, thicker stuff goes nearer the dehumidifier. I also have an airing cupboard which airs out any that are slightly damp.
I look forward to breezy days for hanging washing out.
I don't know about anyone else but I seem to wash nearly every other day,undies,bedding, towels and then jeans t shirts etc and there's only 2 of us.

 

[Peppermint Patti]

I have the Ebac powerdri. A British company with excellent customer care. I had my original machine about 15+ years as my husband’s work clothes could not be tumbled dry. I cannot be without this absolutely wonderful machine and got a replacement just over a year ago.

It has the all important laundry mode but to make the best out of the machine heating is still needed to dry clothes.

It will not cure any damp as ventilation is still an essential part of damp control but it will not be as bad.

We have a vent on the bathroom window which is usually partly open in winter and fully open from about March to December. We always have the bedroom window partially open unless it's particularly windy. We can't have the windows wide open as we live in a bungalow.