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I need to purchase a dehumidifier for my sons' uni rental. We are in discussions with the landlord about the damp & mould issues but need something quickly as he has some health anxiety and we need to take action into our own hands. Any recommendations for something reliable and easy to run and maintain? I realize he will have to empty it but preferably one that cuts out before it floods the gaff if he comes back for the weekend and doesn't shut it off!
preferably one that cuts out before it floods the gaff if he comes back for the weekend and doesn’t shut it off!
They all do that. We have a De’Longhi Tasciugo AriaDry which has been very reliable for several years.
They also have pipe outlets so if you add a pipe and place it where you can run the pipe into a sink/bath/drain it won't cut out. Given the latent heat recovered from condensing the water vapour they're more efficent than an electric radiator for heating. But they aren't a substitute for ventilation, you still need that for interior air quality.
You want a dessicant dehumidifier and I 100% recommend a meaco junior.
I have two and they are excellent. I believe others on here also have them. I bought direct from manufacturer and back up service has been superb
Dessicant dehumidifiers work at any temperature so you do not need to heat the room
They are really useful bits of kit.
I bought one of these last November - just works and alert is shown when full and it just stops. Not the cheapest but decent and has been run every day after we shower…
https://www.sealey.co.uk/product/5637198333/20l-dehumidifier
Probably more than you're looking to spend and its a bit bulky but we use a Fral SC14 to keep rooms dry for work (lots of electronic kit, lots of people walking in and out of the rain). It does remove vast amounts of moisture from the air.
Don't (unless someone has a really good recommendation for one that actually works well) get a desiccant one that works by cycling desiccant through hot/cold cycles. At best they seem to remove a bit of moisture from a sealed room over a few days, the kind of thing you'd want to keep a storage unit dry maybe. They won't keep up with a busy student house. Get a bigger refrigerant dehumidifier.
Most have an internal tank and a bung, you can either drain via the bung, some have a removable tank, or leave the bung off and put a hose into an external container/drain. Just don't leave it running into an external tank if he goes away because the trip won't work.
As Edukator said, in a humid house the heat they give off will be cheaper than heating the house with gas. But do still open windows occasionaly to get some fresh air!
But they aren’t a substitute for ventilation, you still need that for interior air quality.
Ventilation is the long term solution - but if you're trying to lower the humidity in the short term with a dehumidifier then you want to reduce ventilation - close the doors and windows in the room / space you want to dry out - otherwise you'll trying to dehumidify the whole postcode 🙂
If / when the ventilation is sorted then you won't need a dehumidifier any more. If you feel confident the landlord will take action promptly (or your son doesnt expect to stay in that partfular house for more than a year).... then good dehumidifiers are pretty expensive to buy - consider renting one - rental ones will be larger, better, higher capacity machines than you'd buy for sensible money so would probably work out cheaper and better over a matter of a few weeks or months. Maybe the landlord should be the one renting it 🙂
Keep in mind the the damp issues might be a problem with the flat, but might also be a problem with the way the flat is being used - so don't discount user error in terms of vents being used properly, attempts being made to air the flat - using whatever ventilation is available for cooking/ baths/ showers etc.
Here’s a £45 dehumidifier we use for one room when drying clothing indoors
Do be aware that even dessicant ones use up a fair amount of electricity to run.
We use ours in one room of the house that has a damp problem which basically needs rebuilding to solve.
I would also look very carefully at where damp is getting in/on/condensating. Where is washing and wet towels being dried? Internal source such as a shower? External source such as downpipe or gutter leak? Rising through the floor? Do they ventilate well when they can etc?
If / when the ventilation is sorted then you won’t need a dehumidifier any more.
Unless the outside air is warm and humid and the house is cooler. 🙂 There are days when if I open the windows condensation covers everything - only avoided with mecahnical heat recovery ventilation that we don't have (yet).
The mechanical dessicant dehumidifiers such as kormoran suggested work very well and aren't to be confused with the passive cycling ones thisisnotaspoon rightly criticises. Our next dehumidifier will be a dessicant but the old one just keeps soldiering on.
meaco work ours is ace when used.
We sorted the damp problems by kicking out the 2 main contributing protagonists.
Heating up the bathroom by blocking the extractor and leaving the shower on....
Or you know just the heating up in the bathroom
The mechanical dessicant dehumidifiers such as kormoran suggested work very well and aren’t to be confused with the passive cycling ones thisisnotaspoon rightly criticises. Our next dehumidifier will be a dessicant but the old one just keeps soldiering on.
No, I think we're talking about the same thing (not the ones that are just desiccant in a basket over a bucket).
IME they only extracted a small fraction of what the blub says they will do under ideal conditions. Whereas a refrigerant one will manage pretty much what it says on the tin.
Keep in mind the the damp issues might be a problem with the flat, but might also be a problem with the way the flat is being used – so don’t discount user error in terms of vents being used properly, attempts being made to air the flat – using whatever ventilation is available for cooking/ baths/ showers etc.
IMO this usually swings both ways though.
4 gownups in a flat, with 4 lots of laundry, coming back from 4 lectures in the rain, having 4 showers a day, cooking 4 seperate meals, 4 girlfriends, pre-drinks/parties, etc. Is a vastly different use case than the 2 adults + 2 kids that building regs would have assumed when specifying trickle vents and extractor fans. No amount of heating and ventilation will solve some problems, it's just landlords seeing 5 students, a 3 bed house with a converted living room and basement, and seeing £££.
Interesting, thisisnotaspoon, hopefully there will be more posts from mechanical-dessicant-with-condenser users contributing to the thread with their expereinces because I'd been convinced they're good and do what it says on the tin. That's why I didn't make a recommend-what-you've-got opening post because good as it is I regard my old refridgerant as old technology that will one day pollute the atmosphere.
One of the big ebac units here as I liked the British made for British climate claims
We don’t have a damp problem but rather wanted it for drying clothes during winter and it can fair sook water out of a load of towels that’s for sure.
It’s got smart controls so apparently monitors humidity over time and reacts accordingly rather than just going full pelt to hit a value. Dunno how true that is but it seems pretty efficient in use
https://www.ebac.com/dehumidifiers/4850-dehumidifier
Blame the landlord for the action of a yoof who does not comprehend what dew point is.
Classy.
Do any students actually understand where the water in their clothes they dry on an airer or over a radiator actually goes.
Or the seemly complex action of opening a window wide open for hours after showering and leaving a towel with a litre of water in it hanging on the back of the door.
Must be the landlord, as he wants a damp property which blows it's plaster and rots the floor and is very difficult to decorate.
You want a dessicant dehumidifier and I 100% recommend a meaco junior.
We have two of these, they're great although the water reservoir is a little on the small side. Otherwise great.
"Do any students actually understand where the water in their clothes they dry on an airer"
If a landlord isn't providing a garden and guaranteed sun+windy weather + security/clothing insurance what other option do they have?
Cannabis farm. Lamps will dry it out, divert remaining condensation in to the hydroponics. Sorted.
If a landlord isn’t providing a garden and guaranteed sun+windy weather + security/clothing insurance what other option do they have?</span>
Clothing insurance ? For drying clothes outside ? ..... Is this a thing students expect ...... is it even a thing?
Meaco junior dessicant type.
Superb bit of kit, doesn't use much power relatively, super mega useful. Reccomended it to loads of people.
Keeps my garage dry when I put my Sunday car away wet. Dries my. Mtb shoes when they are gross. Can 'hot box' our tent after a soggy camping trip. Dries paint after decorating. So many uses, it's one of my favourite gadgets.
We have the heaper compressor versions, and they work fine. An old one in the garage that the buttons don't work, but it dehuidifies at default settings over winter, including when it get's cold - does 'warm' the air in the detatched garage.
The one in the kitchen is used for drying lothes on a rack, and it will fill the tank overnight.
Another +1 for meaco...we have 2 meaco dd8l dehumidifiers, one junior and they have been extremely reliable for the nearly 10 years we've had them
As already said, desiccant ones are expensive on electric (but work well in winter). If running continuously, I'd consider a refrigerant one that specifies that its economical and works well at lower temps.
Please please please buy an Ebac one.
Surely a dehumidifier is one of the few purchases of this type where it's possible for us all to put our money where our mouth is, and actually buy something that's 100% manufactured in Britain.
Please please please buy an Ebac one.
Surely a dehumidifier is one of the few purchases of this type where it’s possible for us all to put our money where our mouth is, and actually buy something that’s 100% manufactured in Britain.
2 reasons why not:
- For a student house, where presumably budget matters, why on earth would you spend more than double what you need to go get a decent functional dehumidifier? None of the ebac ones are well rated by Which either when I looked last year.
- Company owner is a Brexit Ultra. There's nothing patriotic about throwing your money at average yet expensive UK made goods. If a UK company can make a good product at a competitive price then great. Otherwise you're just subsidising mediocrity with a union jack on it.
As long as they're using the heating and taking basic measures to reduce humdity then either the desiccant or fridge type will work. We have a basic screwfix fridge type for when we get a wet / damp spell in winter and it does the job fine.
We bought a second hand Ecoair, it does 7.5L a day and will fill it's tank in less than 24 hours if left in a room with damp washing. It's desiccant so they definitely work!
https://aerify.co.uk/products/ecoair-dd1-classic-mk6-air-dehumidifier-desiccant-7-5l-day
We left it on for a couple of days this week after getting home from holiday and doing about 5 loads of washing without checking the weather for hanging out out (oops). I got home on day two and thought the heating was on, the whole house (bungalow) was pretty warm and that's just the dehumidifier.
One of the suggestions above does just 0.3l a day and that's probably not even going to counter the moisture you breath out.
The only downside with the one I mention is it doesn't have a schedule timer, although it does have a timer to turn it off. I did notice when you turn the wall switch on, it starts automatically if it was left on before, but it has an overrun if you turn it off via the controls so I assume it's bad just to turn off at the wall when it's still dehumidifying.
I've been running a Maeco Arete 25L dehumidifier constantly for over a year now - seems very good and I haven't noticed the running costs - they are dwarfed by the plasma TV and AV system costs 🙂
Certainly works - it is in the centre of the house and fighting a shower room, a bathroom and a tumble dryer - which causes some humidity even though it is a heat pump one.
We have two of these, they’re great although the water reservoir is a little on the small side. Otherwise great.
The reservoir is 2L. The Junior can extract (IIRC) 8L a day. If you're going to be running it hard, it needs to be externally drained.
I got around this by sticking it on a box and running a hose to a 75L tank. A Wi-Fi moisture detector is linked to a smart plug to cut off power when it's near-full rather than flooding the cellar.
Meaco and Ecoair dessicant ones both work great for me.
And at this time of year they will warm the room up a bit as well, saving putting the heating on.
We've had a Meaco Arete for 2 years, it works and is much nicer looking than most. When the LED display failed within warranty period they arranged collection, repair and return at no cost, excellent service would recommend.
"Blame the landlord for the action of a yoof who does not comprehend what dew point is.
Classy".
@singletrackmind literally where did I say it was the landlords fault? it is the start of the Academic year, the house my son moved into last week has significant mould problems. Caused very likely by the previous set of students who lived there last year. Of course we are discussing the issue with the landlord, perfectly amicably I may add. All I asked was for was a dehumidifier recommendation!