Best dehumidifiers for getting rid of damp in your home: We put 4 best selling dehumidifers to the test | The Sun

2022-11-22

When winter finally starts to bite in the UK mould and damp inevitably start to become more of a problem for many homeowners, so we reviewed the best dehumidifiers in the UK so you can keep your home damp, mould, and odour-free.

Whether it’s excess condensation on windows or creeping mould on the walls, it can give you an unsettling feeling that something is invading your home and you’re powerless to stop it.

However, you can often win the battle by installing a powerful dehumidifier in the room that’s being affected.

At a time we’re all hyper-conscious of household budgets, the last thing you need is another machine in your house draining power and pushing up energy bills.

Every dehumidifier comes with a headline extraction rate (in litres) detailing exactly how much water it can pull from the atmosphere in any 24-hour period, so we tested a cross-section, looking for appliances that worked quickly and efficiently, so they could be running for as little time as possible, but still have a big impact on the problem.

Ultimately, running costs are more important than the upfront cost of the machine itself because using an energy-hungry device can put a serious dent in your wallet and cheaper machines can end up costing hundreds more over time, which is why choosing the right machine from the get-go is so important.

With this in mind, we donned our lab coats and clipboards and like the work colleague who’s rarely found chatting in the break room but is always scoring employee of the month, we were looking for quiet efficiency.

How we tested

Most models will be fitted with an internal humidistat, which allows the unit to track moisture levels and fine-tune the operating performance accordingly, so we set each appliance running in a property suffering from damp to see just how quickly it could fill up the tank and get to a target humidity level of 55% and keep it there.

Our testing also included a room full of washing on an indoor airer, fresh from the machine. More and more people are using their dehumidifiers as a cheaper alternative to tumble drying these days and most models these days will come with an energy-saving Laundry mode, which will monitor the air and adjust the power based on the relative humidity.

This is just another way to test the efficiency of each appliance.

Also on our clipboard criteria list were the portability, usability and operating noise levels of each appliance, as these are machines that you have to live with comfortably.

Best dehumidifiers at a glance

Best overall: MeacoDry Arete One 12L Dehumidifier
Best for large rooms: Honeywell 24L TP
Best value: Black + Decker BXEH60004GB
Most stylish design: DUUX Bora Smart Dehumidifier

MeacoDry Arete One 12L

MeacoDry Arete One 12L, £178.95 from Airconcentre – Check stock here. This model is currently out of stock but you can take a look at similar models here.

Pros: Tailored for UK climate, energy efficient, very easy to use

Cons: Upfront cost, styling

The result of five years of research and development, including consultation with its customers about what they liked and didn’t like about the brand’s previous Dehumidifiers, the Arete One is a compact machine that looks like the love child between a shredder and a kitchen bin and not in a bad way.

It has been specifically designed to cope with British conditions, with relative humidity of 60% for temperatures between 10°C and 20°C and it really shows in operation.

It’s a powerful 12L compressor machine with an accurate, advanced humidistat (which we verified independently), which rather than constantly checking the humidity, takes its reading every 30 minutes and adjusts its output accordingly, shutting down in between to save energy.

Apart from its outstanding performance, we loved the straightforward interface of the Arete One.

You have a power button, a daily use button, a setting for drying clothes and a night mode. A couple of button pushes will put the machine in Smart Humidity Mode which will take the air down to 55% humidity and switch off, although you can adjust the levels according to your needs. If it detects levels have risen again, it will kick back into life with the fan speed and compressor automatically adjusting to moisture levels.

Night mode is quiet, there are no blinking lights, no obtrusive beeps and the speed of the fan powers down to its quietest mode.

Backing all this up is good portability with easy-rolling wheels and a retractable carry handle, so you can transport it quickly between rooms or get it upstairs without too much effort.

Dimensions: 47cm x 32cm x 24cm, Weight: 10.9kg, Extraction capacity: 12L (24hrs), Power consumption: 165W, Water tank: 2.5L

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