Owning a top dehumidifier allows you to tackle damp and excessive humidity levels - both of which can have a negative effect on your home and health.
If you’re struggling to dry clothes inside, want to prevent mould spores from appearing on walls or generally want to bring down the humidity levels around the house, a dedicated dehumidifier is what you need.
Typically, there are two ways that these units will treat the air:
Refrigerant dehumidifiers work by sucking warm air currents out of the air into refrigerated internal coils, forcing these particles to contract, and leaving condensation behind to collect inside the tank. Drier air is then fed back out of the machine.
Desiccant dehumidifiers, meanwhile, pass air over to an absorbent material before a heater raises the temperature of this material, which then causes water to collect in the tank below.
Both methods provide the same end result, and the only input required from the user is turning on the unit and emptying it when the tank is full.
Size and price can vary quite dramatically in the world of dehumidifiers, so it’s essential to consider the space you’re trying to control and just how much you’re willing to spend.
With all that in mind, you’re ready to discover some of the top options right here.
Our Top Pick:
For
- Fairly attractive design Runs quietly Easy to move
Against
- Expensive The LED display is a little confusing
Meaco’s latest top-of-the-range dehumidifier is the absolute best we’ve tested, featuring a design that both runs quietly in operation and can operate effectively when up against a wall.
This means there’s no need to have it sit in the middle of your room, but, even if you did have to have it more on show, that wouldn’t be the end of the world - we think this model is about as attractive-looking as dehumidifiers get.
Thanks to wheels on the base and an extendable handle, it’s also very easy to move between different rooms. With the cable tidy section at the rear, it’s easy to avoid having the wire trailing behind and acting as a trip hazard, as well.
Performance is always relative to conditions - as every home will have different room sizes and levels of humidity - but, as an example, our home was too damp for clothes to dry indoors before we began testing the Arete One. With this model locked in a room with a hung-up wash, clothes are dry within a few hours, while the tank is big enough to mean you’re not emptying it every day.
It is expensive, and the LED screen and controls on the top panel require a bit of learning, but almost everything about this Meaco dehumidifier is outstanding.
Dehumidifiers we also recommend
While the Meaco Arete One is our top recommendation to those who need help with reducing humidity in their home, it’s certainly not the only unit to consider. That’s why we’ve also detailed the four other models below.
Not too noisy in operation Comes in a number of colours
Expensive for the tank size Tank size is best for small and medium spaces
Meaco’s Arete One sits atop our list, but it’s not the only model from the British company that’s both powerful and efficient.
The MeacoDry ABC has got a nice, clean design - similar to that of the Arete One - that means it isn’t an eyesore in the home, and the tank is able to hold a good deal of litres.
This capacity, at least in our experience, is better for smaller and medium homes (or those with only a relatively mild humidity problem), but the benefit is that the machine’s overall footprint isn’t too large.
It’s also, importantly, one of the quietest models on this list, with plenty of different settings and timers to make it easy to run during day or night.
The humidity indicator is helpful Runs quietly in operation
May not be enough capacity for bigger homes The cable could be longer
We like the futuristic design of this model from Electriq, which also brings solid performance to the table to match its looks.
Like the Meaco models on this list, it’s impressively quiet in use, meaning that it’s able to run during the day or night without disturbing too much. This is aided by a few features, such as the lights shutting off and noise being reduced in Night Mode, with the front indicator giving you a quick glance at humidity levels in regular use.
There are also timer functions and a filtering system to trap airborne particles, giving it a few extra tricks up its sleeve, too.
We think this will be an adequate size tank for most users with a humidity problem in their homes, but, as ever, it really is case by case. Just keep in mind that a smaller tank obviously means more frequent emptying.
Great for small spaces Intuitive controls
Will fill up quickly in very humid rooms
Dehumidifying a small space like a bathroom or kitchen can be essential to maintaining a hygienic space, and Gocheer’s 2L capacity device is another smaller unit that’s ideal for tackling this issue.
We wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for medium or large rooms, but this is a quiet-running machine - operating at a max of 40dB - that can cleverly run until automatically shutting off when the tank is full.
That ensures you can not only have it extracting moisture out of the air during the day, but at night, too.
Easy to move Can utilise continuous draining
Not the quietest model
Another large dehumidifier here, and one that’s able to remove around 12L of moisture from the air.
Like other offerings on this list, it’s an ideal choice for those who need to contend with high humidity in medium or larger spaces.
The design, as is typical of units this size, can also be wheeled around different rooms of your house, while the automatic shut-off means you can continuously run the device until the tank is full.
Plus, if you don’t want to empty it out every day, you also have the option of hooking it up to an external hose for continuous draining.
How to choose a dehumidifier
Dehumidifiers may be an essential item to own if you live in an environment with too much moisture, but that doesn’t mean you know what to look for in one. That’s why we’ve included a few things to consider before you choose.
What does a dehumidifier do?
In very basic terms, dehumidifiers pull in the air close by, remove the moisture into a tank and pump the air back into the room.
As we detailed in our introduction, though, dehumidifiers are either refrigerant or desiccant.
Refrigerant vs. desiccant dehumidifiers - which are best?
To recap, refrigerant dehumidifiers work by extracting currents out of the air into refrigerated internal coils, which then results in these particles contracting and leaving behind condensation.
The resulting drier air is then fed back out of the unit. Desiccant dehumidifiers, on the other hand, pull in air, pass it over to an absorbent material. A heater then raises the temperature of this material, which then causes water to collect in the tank.
Will a dehumidifier solve your problem?
Before you invest in a dehumidifier, it’s important to know whether they’ll actually solve your issue.
So, if your home is humid and it’s preventing your clothes from drying quickly when they’re hung up, conditioning the air with a unit (with the door and windows closed) is an ideal solution.
Similarly, if you’re noticing condensation on the glass windows or mould spores appearing on silicon, a dehumidifier should be able to prevent this from getting worse.
What a dehumidifier won’t really do is eliminate this problem entirely - or, of course, reverse the effects of too much moisture in your environment.
What size tank is best for a dehumidifier?
This really depends on two things: how often you can be bothered to empty the tank down the drain, and how much of a humidity problem you have.
If you’ll need to keep your unit running throughout the day, we’d suggest opting for a larger tank - something in the region of 20L.
If you’re just going to turn it on periodically to make sure your clothes get dry, though - or, perhaps, after you’ve run the shower - you can probably get away with something closer to 10L.
If you live in a home with more than 50% - 60% humidity, you’ll have to empty it fairly often, regardless. Keep in mind that, for some dehumidifers, you can also attach a drainpipe and avoid manually emptying the tank.
